I've lived and hunted through the thick and thin, or to say no deer and plenty deer. Seen my 1st deer in NW Ohio in 1961 and the sighting was wrote up in the newspaper.
Took my 1st Ohio deer in 1972 and less than 6,000 deer taken in Ohio the entire year.
Fast forward to the early year 2000's and 200,000 plus deer are taken each year.
Then today and only 180,000 or so are taken and cry goes up the sky is falling down.
I really don't think so!
Do I want to go back to the days of no deer or less than today's number of course not.
Over all what I'm saying deer hunting today is damn good in Ohio. Yes there or areas of few deer and areas of many deer. But everyone can't expect to walk out their back door and bump into a nice big buck. If you want that to happen then move to a area that has those big buck.
Been there and lived through it in my life time. The main problem is the younger you are haven't seen the truly lean years in deer hunting or sightings.
Like I said overall Ohio has good deer hunting for the masses.
I seen no harm in a minor $3 increase in hunting tags. If that little $3 stops someone from hunting they were ready to stop anyway. Poor excuse in my mind.
But NR tag increases should be in line with what the state the hunter lives in for NR tag amounts. If the hunter's state charges say $2-400 for a NR deer tag then that same amount should be charged to NR hunter hunting in Ohio. Fair is fair.