Want to Hunt Private Land for Free? This Ohio Map Shows Where, and Which Properties Allow Deer Guns

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Deer hunting is a way of life in south-central Ohio, and the hardest part is often finding a place to hunt. The Ohio Division of Wildlife is reminding hunters this week about a state map that opens up private land for free, and explains which of those properties allow deer hunting with a gun.

The map belongs to the Ohio Landowner-Hunter Access Partnership, called OLHAP. Landowners enroll their property with the state, the state pays them for public hunting access, and hunters get in with a free daily permit reserved through the interactive map. There are 172 enrolled properties in 46 counties on the map right now.

What the orange and brown dots mean

The Division of Wildlife walked through the map colors in a post this week:

• Orange properties allow deer hunting with a firearm during Ohio’s deer gun seasons. There are 98 of them.
• Brown properties do not allow deer gun hunting, but archery hunting and every other regulated hunting season are allowed. There are 74 of them.
• To reserve a daily permit, zoom in on a property on the map until you see a green dot, click it, and complete the short survey. Your one-day permit comes by email.

That deer gun rule is the one to remember. On most OLHAP properties, a daily permit does not let you hunt deer with a firearm during the gun seasons. Only the orange properties allow it, and the daily permit will say so. Archery hunting for deer during the gun seasons is allowed on every property.

What is enrolled around here

Our corner of Ohio has a dozen enrolled properties: three in Vinton County, two each in Pike, Gallia, Jackson and Franklin counties, and one in Ross County. There are no enrolled properties yet in Pickaway, Scioto, Highland or Adams counties. The biggest cluster on the map is in southeast Ohio around Athens County, and there is another heavy cluster in the northwest.

How to get a permit

1. Have a valid Ohio hunting license. You have to wait at least 48 hours after buying your license before the next step.
2. Get your free annual OLHAP endorsement for the season. You will need your Ohio Wildlife Licensing customer ID, or you can work through the free HuntFish OH app.
3. Open the OLHAP interactive map, find a property, and reserve your daily permit.
4. Print the permit that arrives by email and carry it with you on the property.

Permits for the next day open at 8 p.m. the night before, they are first come, first served, and each one is good from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on the date listed. You can hunt the same property on no more than 10 days in a month, and everybody on the property needs their own permit in their own name, even if they are not hunting. Daily permits run from September 1 to June 1.

Rules worth knowing

Private land regulations apply on OLHAP properties, even though the public hunts them. County bag limits apply, deer management permits can be used, and deer taken on OLHAP land are checked the same as deer taken on private land. A few things are flatly not allowed on these properties: no trapping, no trail cameras, no bait or mineral licks, no camping, and no permanent tree stands. Boundaries are marked with orange flagging, orange paint, or OLHAP signs.

Landowners are paid through the program with federal Farm Bill money, from $2 an acre for farm ground up to $32.50 an acre for wetlands, grassland, brush and woods. Enrollment contracts run two years.

2026-27 deer season dates

• Archery: September 26, 2026 to February 7, 2027
• Youth deer gun: November 21 and 22, 2026
• Deer gun: November 30 to December 6, 2026, and December 19 and 20, 2026
• Muzzleloader: January 2 to 5, 2027

County bag limits for 2026-27: Ross, Pickaway, Pike, Scioto, Gallia, Highland and Adams counties are three-deer counties. Vinton and Jackson counties are two-deer counties. Franklin County is a four-deer county. No hunter may take more than six deer statewide, and only one may be antlered. None of our counties sit in the state’s chronic wasting disease surveillance area, which is in north-central Ohio and carries its own earlier seasons and a six-deer limit.

Send us your deer pictures

Now it is your turn. We want to see your deer season. Send us your harvest photos, your best trail cam shots, and your pictures of the big buck that keeps walking past everybody else’s stand. Email them to info@heritageheadlines.com with your name, your town, and one line about the photo. We will run our reader favorites as the season goes on.

Send a tip or correction to info@heritageheadlines.com.

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