Deer Season Ends In Ohio

Article taken from the Zanesville Signal December 19, 1943.

Portsmouth , O. Dec. 18-(AP)-Ohio's first legal deer hunt in 60 years closed to day with what state division of conservation officials said was a national record for safety in game stalking - not a single accident.

Furthermore, said Hayden Olds, assistant chief of the game management section, there was not even a case of a hunter being lost overnight.

Olds attributed the safety record to careful planning and adequate supervision.

The 12 day season brought thousands of hunters to the 6,000 acre Roosevelt game preserve and Shawnee State forest.

As the season officially ended at 5 p.m., Olds estimated the total bag at around 100 bucks - twice what state conservation department had predicted.

No records were available on the number killed in Scioto, Adams, and Pike countys outside the two reserves. Predictions were made that the total kill might total more than 200.

An estimated 75-80 bucks were shot during the first three days after hunting opened Dec. 6. Olds said 20 does had been killed though mistakes. Female deer are protected under the law.

Olds commended hunters highly for their carefulness.

The number of deers killed tapered off toward the close of the season as the animals shied from the hunting preserve and kept under cover. Olds said.

Plans for a possible hunt next fall will be laid later in the year after snowfall will be laid later in the year after snowfalls blanket the territory and conservation officals can study deer tracks in an effort to find what happend to the several thousand deer believed to roam the vast forest.

Final figures on the exact number of deer killed will not be available until all hunters have sent cards to conservation headquaters here, listing their kills.

Meanwhile, Dr. R. H. Markwith, state health director, said only 17 cases of tularemia - rabbit fever - had been reported in Ohio this yearm compared with 24 last year.

He attributed the decrease, among other factors, to the lateness of the rabbit hunting season.