March 1, 2023 |Timber 2 Table Wild Game Recipes, February 24, 2023 |Timber 2 Table Wild Game Recipes. Brian Torrence, 53, of nearby Shreve has hunted the Killbuck area for years. All of the thick, nasty branches and brambles left over from selectively harvested timber leaves a lot of room for deer to find shelter. GET IN TOUCH Customer Service 1-800-WILDLIFE (945-3543) wildinfo@dnr.ohio.gov Monday - Friday 8AM - 5PM EST State Headquarters 2045 Morse Road Building G Columbus, OH, 43229 1-800-WILDLIFE (945-3543) Deer need secure bedding cover. 1. Sometimes you can make a stalk. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources working with Ducks Unlimited has done a lot of work to create a premier wildlife area. endstream endobj 66 0 obj <>stream The same is true at Alum Creek Wildlife Area. On Monday morning, he settled for a fat doe, and let his son, Justin, 22, do the hard work of hauling the deer to their truck. 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Upland game species are well distributed throughout the wildlife area because of the uniform distribution of cropfields, shrubby coverts, grasslands, and woods. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The area is popular with birders and features nests of sandhill cranes and bald eagles. Interesting way to name the swans. The group of three swans appears to be a family (two adult parents and one gray juvenile). At our first stop at Killbuck Marsh (P-10 on the wildlife map) we were greeted by a trio of mute swans with a flock of Canada geese behinds them. You just have to work hard during the offseason to find where those bedding areas are. The property was acquired using multiple state funds and donations. They can smell the does from above and below and are cruising near where they bed. The new 7mm Precision Rifle Cartridge from Hornady is available in three loads (160 gr. Hunted a private property next to Woodbury last year. Create walls and barriers to block deer from going one direction while steering them in another. Several ponds offer fair to good fishing for most panfish species. The 1,498-acre wildlife area is in portions of Wayne and Ashland counties. Edge terrain is where they find most of their food, water, and cover. Terrain Tip: Use Google Earth and hydro maps to locate lowland areas that could be marshy. A variety of museums and festivals celebrate the county's rich history in agriculture and industry. Wild Ohio Harvest Community Find information and opportunities to learn to safely and responsibly hunt, fish, and harvest your own local food. Be ready when it does. State Routes 67 and 294 border the area on the west and north. Many of my biggest public land bucks were shot a stones throw from the road. The property is in Holmes and Wayne counties. They shot around 10 does but no bucks. BBBC records indicated that southwest Ohio's Butler County has been a "big buck" producer in recent seasons. i have been hunting Killbuck Marsh for the last two years, and its got some pretty good hardwoods. In recent weeks, six captive deer with ear tags had been harvested by hunters outside of fenced deer farms in Holmes County, two that were traced back to World Class Whitetails. Just as with marshes, the key is to locate dry land within these swamps. Search, rescue, wildfire, and enforcement matters: 911- or - 1-833-NYS-RANGERS (1-833-697-7264) A local Forest Ranger is a valuable . `cH`AvS=Bc0OaF%oz0QR,_G wAcyx#ap`hjd1kyQi"rMq.MZ*.|{]fO/Mbt&)Aa6MzF*1 I*'YZz:;0%\kGiz For as long as anyone could remember, a spring coming from the side of a hill spewed water into a marshy area just north of the Wayne-Holmes county line, creating a huge pool that wouldnt freeze even on the coldest winter days. Gun hunters are limited in most suburban areas. And they love cattails. If I can, I love to choose a nice, flat area inside of the cedars to plant a food plot. Trim a cedar and tuck a stand in, and youre ready to go. They have one dry entry predators can enter on. rc/v:&;Is Solon, who started working at Killbuck in 1980, is thrilled that waterfowl and other species are once again making Big Spring their year-round home and breeding grounds. The black ducks are back. When you look out over the cattails or swamp, look for small groups of trees or lone trees where there may be some hard ground to support buck bedding underneath. Finally we stopped at a pull-off near the bridge across Killbuck Creek on Centerville Road (west of P-22 on wildlife area map). Killbuck Creek used to snake back and forth in a serpentine pattern until the 1920s, when steam dredges turned it into a straight line. Out west, with fewer whitetail hunters, they'll often do just that. Featuring Specialty Antique Auctions, Stores and Shows, Hundreds of Classifieds, Autos & Real Estate Listings. Area Campgrounds. You still may find the best bedding areas a half mile or more away, but its the best place to start. The action can be outstanding for does, and more productive than most think for mature bucks and the occasional trophy that slips out of the sanctuary for a chance at a meal. Once the shooting stops at the end of gun season, these deer relax a bit, leave the thick cover to feed, and put themselves in range of archery and, next month, primitive arms hunters. Theyre able to bed down, watch the ridge with their eyes and allow the thermals to bring word of any threats straight up to their nose. LaRue's Ethan Alexander talks about the Siete's features with Game & Fish's Adam Heggenstaller at SHOT Show 2023 in Las Vegas. None of the deer tested positive for CWD, said Geoff Westerfield, the ODOW assistant wildlife manager supervisor in northeast Ohio. Upon finding the shed, Billy immediately went to find his hunting partner, Paul Junior. Once level with the bedding area, then you can work into position with less fear of bumping deer. Find that and youll likely find a rub-infested area where a big deer or two depending on the size of the area spends daylight hours. His best buck was a nice 7-point three years ago, and Torrence tagged a smaller 5-point buck last gun season. Its hard to get around this. Just be careful to not spook the deer. The Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area is more than 5,700 acres with land in both Wayne and Holmes counties. And when conditions became dry, the channel sucked water from the wetland into Killbuck Creek. So, never get directly above or below a bedding area. Just put out a few trail cams and see what roams through at night. The silt and sediment soon filled the marsh area, turning the wetland into something that resembled the surface of the moon. Hundreds of Auction Advertisements for Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Below is a list of the best overlooked hotspots that produced my best public land bucks. Use milkweed to see what the wind is really doing. The species originates from Europe, Asia and North Africa. ELD-X Precision Hunter). Bucks feel safe feeding in daylight because they could smell danger (if any) at the oaks. Fee: Free. Its very difficult to hunt these deer, but it isnt impossible. Dont Miss:5 Advanced Trail Camera Tactics. Its the same concept. Crown City Wildlife Area's interior can be accessed by many township and county roads, with the most popular access to the area being from State Route 790 and State Route 218. Mature bucks (4 or older) reside all over the public areas we hunt, but rarely get shot. Our deer blog is one of the longest-running and most popular ones out there. Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Areais a5,703-acrestate wildlife arealocated2mileseastofShreve. 07 Trees being cut on adjoining property and crossing property line. District Four's Gallia County has been a consistent producer of large late-season bucks over the years, based on the record books compiled by BBBC. The amish came packed in 3 vans on first three days of gun and did drive after drive on Woodbury shooting anything they saw. But there are a few places the public can go; county wildlife officer Aaron Ireland pointed out one: 192-acre Pater Wildlife Area. Hunt the downwind sides of these and wait for deer to ease out of them during daylight. First one sings and the other one has a knob over the beak. Brown suggested contacting the landowner in a bid to try to retrieve the deer. Terrain Tip: Use topo maps to determine where those dry spots might be. Later, we stopped at a parking spot by an entrance to the wildlife area on Force Road (at or near P-21 on wildlife area map). I hunt some heavily pressured marshes in southeastern Wisconsin. At the other end of the size spectrum, Killbuck WLA covers 5,671 acres in portions of Wayne and Holmes counties, extending north from Holmesville to three miles south of Wooster between state Route 83 on the east and state Route 226 on the west. Killbuck Marsh was probsbly viewed as an obstacle to early settlers and farmers who turned the rest of the region into a thriving agricutural area. You still need bedding cover, but when the ingredients are there, this can be one of the hottest areas to concentrate on. Utica Marsh Wildlife Management Area. It can be very difficult to pinpoint where deer are laid up in this type of bedding cover. Wayne County Wildlife Officer Aaron Brown checks the licenses and deer tags of a couple of young Amish hunters while the youngsters are taking a break after a morning of deer hunting at the Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area. The second, more distant grouping contained at least a dozen swans. Terrain Tip: Scout ridges during the off-season. Don't be afraid to walk and look. When theres a logjam, the river finds a weak spot and creates a channel, said Dennis Solon, manager of the wildlife area.