James,

You are still welcome to hunt on my 24 acres of wooded hillside in Tuscarawas County. New Philadelphia is the county seat and I am about 20 miles south of there.

There also is a commercial outfitter a few miles from my property. They are called Buck'eye Outfitters of Ohio. Phone number is 330-260-7742. The owner is Jody Gardner.

Amen!

There's new crossbows make it a lot easier... some come with a draw system that anyone who can operate a fishing reel can set the bow.

wicked ridge outfitters with ben rising

brushyfork outfitters with brian

Thanks again for the offer, CH. But aren't you going to be hunting your property during gun season?

My Googling turned up Brushyfork, but not Wicked Ridge. Have you heard anything good or bad, Skippyturtle?

Is crossbow season the same as bow season?

Jim

Crossbow is considered archery, season goes from usually the end of September to end of January

been does a heck of a job and is fairly well known in the whitetail community. was party of the drury outdoors stuff for a while. like any outfitter there are people that like and people that hate. i do not know him and base my opinion on what i have seen him do on tv and on his web site. he knows how to kill big deer.

brian came from kentucky and started outfitting. he is a good buisness man it seems because he has expanded and his buisness has exploded. i dont know him but i do know soneone who hunted there as well as a friend/guide of his. my opinion is he dont know deer as well as Ben but he has great property that is set up good and they kill big deer.

I dont think you could go wring with either place.


stay away from southern ohio outfitters(SOO) they do some crappy things to clients right down to allowing guides hunt leased property even when paying hunters are in camp. guess where the guides will hunt if a big one is showing up. i had friends who hunted there. mid way through their hunt i got a call and had to do the outfitters job. outfitter had them on fields but the deer had switched food and were mostly on acorns. i told them to tell the outfitter to put them on acorns and bam they started seeing deer and killed one. both could have killed but he was holding out for a giant.

I don't deer hunt any longer.

Crossbow season is the same as bow season.

Thanks, Sniper and Skippy.

Some of these outfitters charge penalties if you shoot deer that score under a certain Boone and Crockett number, say 150 points. How the heck am I supposed to figure that out in the field where maybe there's only a glimpse or two? All right, so I do the same thing for antler size on moose to make sure they're the 50-inch minimum; but I know moose better than whitetails. And yes, I do know better than to shoot at something I've only caught a glimpse of, but sometimes you have a clear shot of the body when you can't see much of the antlers. I know a big deer from a little one (antler-wise), but couldn't tell you if they scored 150, 200, or 100 points.

Jim

....James, don’t waste your time with an Ohio trophy deer hunt... ride on down and I’ll take you on an all expense paid, luxury, deep east Texas scrub buck hunt ...guaranteed kill ...and post hunt therapy provided lol

That sounds like the best option for all!

That's a very kind offer, Savell. If you're serious, I'll see if my friend wants to go to Texas.

I offered him an AK North Slope caribou hunt, but he wanted to stay closer to home. That would have been a pretty rugged hunt, especially if the weather was bad.

Jim

P.S. - At a minimum, I'd want to pay all expenses.

Jim

never hunted Ohio-yet-but have some buddies that do and must say they bring back some impressive animals.i believe Ohio deer is a great secret out there still.

I didn't plan anything this year but I can tell you of a campground that puts you right in the middle of a lot of public hunting ground if you are interested. If you guys got a driver they could just dump you out on some logging road and you could setup shop for the day. Probably not the best option for a trophy but a great option for an easy way to spend some time together outdoors that wouldn't be too rugged on your friend getting out. There are probably hotels in the area as well. Last time I went I barely saw another hunter and killed my best buck to date. Let me know if you are interested and I can figure out the details in a PM.

Sorry don't know any outfitters. Thats not a thing over here. FYI Ohio deer hunting has changed alot in the last 25 years or whenever the last time you were here.

I wish it was a secret,lol!

Yeah...all the Tennessee guys and North Carolina guys are already up here on public land hunting deer.

James, those outfitters that charge for shooting a lesser deer will probably comply with your wants. If you call them and send them the money and tell them you and your buddy will
shoot a 125" animal if presented I'd almost guarantee they'll take your money! I worked for one that is no longer in Ohio and we bent the rules all the time and never charged the client
more, never. When we got guys coming down from NewYork, New Jersey, Michigan, etc. a 120" deer is big to them. Just my 2 cents

I don't understand how guys are selling deer hunts on small acreage plots, unless you border a thousand acres of no access I just don't see it. My friend hunts NC, hunts over bait, he's happy with that but I'd be embarrassed to be involved in it.

Yes, I wish it were a secret … but someone let the cat out of the bag, I am afraid. All you see around here during gun season are out of states plates. Ohio does have some really nice deer and they are not all rack, but have huge bodies too. Many of them push 300 and some over. That is on the hoof weight. I know when I was GW here, we still had to pick up any deer that was killed on the highway, load them in the trunk and dispose of them. I gave all that I got to the local sheriff and he used them to feed the prisoners. He butchered them himself. The largest one I remember getting weighed right at 285 lbs. by the scale he had. I remember that deer well, because I had to load it by my self in the trunk of my car and I ruptured myself doing it. A couple weeks later I had to have hernia surgery to repair the damage.

Garry-