Southeast Ohio Deer Herds Still Reeling as Gun Season Nears With New Limits

Southeast Ohio’s deer herd is heading into the heart of the 2026 season still carrying the damage from the worst disease outbreak the state has ever recorded, and hunters in Athens, Meigs and Washington counties will hunt under a two-deer bag limit this year — up from the emergency one-deer limit imposed last December, but still below the three-deer limit those counties carried before the outbreak, under Ohio Administrative Code rule 1501:31-15-11, effective July 6, 2026.

The rule sets the framework plainly. In Athens, Meigs and Washington counties, a hunter may take two deer this license year, with no more than one of them antlerless, the Ohio Capitol Connection’s Hannah Report summary of the Ohio Wildlife Council’s action explained. Morgan County, the fourth county hit hardest last year, is also in the two-deer group this season, along with Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence and Vinton counties.

The background is the 2025 outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease — EHD — a virus spread by biting midges that kills deer through internal bleeding. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources received 9,281 reports of sick or dead deer in 2025, by far the most ever reported, and about 55 percent of those reports came from Athens, Washington and Meigs counties alone, the Athens County Independent reported from ODNR data.

The harvest numbers show what that meant in the field. In Washington County, hunters took just 783 deer in the 2025-26 season, against a previous three-year average of 4,087, the Independent reported. Athens County’s harvest fell to 917 deer against an average of 3,306, and Meigs County’s to 1,060 against 3,338.

The disease’s rhythm explains the timing of the damage. EHD spreads through midges that thrive in late summer; the Athens County Independent, reporting ODNR’s account, noted the most recent major outbreak began in late summer and slowed in October, when the midges began dying back after the first frost. By then, the archery-season harvest was already tracking far below normal — the Division of Wildlife’s deer biologist Clint McCoy told the National Deer Association the 2025 harvest ran around 75 percent below normal both before and after last year’s emergency limit change.

There is a measure of recovery in the science. The National Deer Association, summarizing ODNR’s work, reported that 54 percent of deer tested from the four hardest-hit counties carried EHD antibodies, showing they had survived infection — a sign that surviving deer are building immunity even as overall numbers remain far below normal.

The contrast with the state’s other disease front is deliberate. While limits tightened in the southeast, the Ohio Wildlife Council raised opportunities in the chronic wasting disease surveillance area in northwest and central Ohio — including parts of Wyandot, Marion, Hardin, Allen and Crawford counties — where managers want more deer taken, not fewer, Hannah News reported. Ohio is managing two opposite problems at once: too few deer where EHD struck, and disease surveillance that depends on hunters submitting more deer where CWD is the concern.

What we know — and what we’re still waiting on

What is settled is this season’s rulebook: archery season runs September 26, 2026 through February 7, 2027; youth gun weekend is November 21-22; the statewide deer gun season runs November 30 through December 6, with a bonus weekend December 19-20; and muzzleloader season is January 2-5, 2027, according to the Ohio Wildlife Council dates summarized by Hannah News. Only one antlered deer may be taken statewide, regardless of method.

What is not yet known is how the herd responds. Whether the two-deer limit, combined with last year’s sharply reduced harvest, produces a visible rebound will only show up in this season’s harvest reports and ODNR’s next round of population work — the numbers hunters in counties like Hocking County will be watching alongside their neighbors across the region.

The region knows the pattern of a hard year followed by a careful one. Communities across southeast Ohio, from Nelsonville in Athens County outward, run on small margins, and deer season is both a tradition and an economic season for the area’s processors, sporting-goods shops and rural households filling freezers.

What happens next is the youth gun weekend, November 21-22, followed by the opening of gun season on Monday, November 30. Hunters in the EHD counties should check their county’s limit before they hunt — the two-deer cap and the one-antlerless rule apply all season, not just in gun week — and report sick or dead deer to the Division of Wildlife as the state continues tracking the outbreak’s aftermath.

Photo: James St. John, CC BY