Photo by Mark Werner

If you took a map of the northern tier of Panhandle counties, you'd be hard pressed to find a place where more big deer are killed each hunting season than Walton County.

The reasons for its big-deer reputation aren't rich soils, or some introduced genetically superior deer, but good management on the part of private and public landowners.

The county sits almost midway between Pensacola and Tallahassee, stretching from the Alabama line down to the Gulf of Mexico. It is home to roughly half of Eglin Air Force Base, one of our nation's most important development and testing bases. Interstate 10 also bisects Walton on an east-west axis.

Deer season in the Panhandle is later than in the rest of the state, so hunters can target the rut. This year, the general gun season on private lands in the northwest Florida is Nov. 23-26 and Dec. 9 through Feb. 14. It's followed by an 11-day archery/muzzleoader season, Feb. 15-25.

Wildlife biologist Arlo Kane has worked in Walton and surrounding Panhandle counties for more than 15 years and knows it as well as anyone. Generally speaking, he said the land south of I-10 tends to be sandy and extremely poor in nutrient quality, particularly the closer you travel to the Gulf of Mexico.

North of the interstate, soil quality is much better. That's where you find a fair amount of agriculture, such as soybeans, peanuts and cotton. It's also where hunting clubs or leases occupy every available acre of decent deer habitat.

Early in his work as a state biologist, Kane was responsible for the antlerless deer permit program for private landowners. The number of clubs applying for permits grew steadily in Walton County, which he saw as an indication the owners were interested in good deer management.

Also, most landowners or clubs understand that a huge part of having bigger deer is letting the younger deer walk.

"I can tell you, 20 to 30 years ago, there wasn't as much interest or understanding about letting bucks grow older and mature," Kane said. "Then, if it had antlers, it was a dead deer.

"Now though, just about every hunting club has rules in place that allow them to shoot only the biggest. That's why so many big deer are killed there."

Another change that's come to Walton County -- and the rest of the Panhandle, for that matter -- is fewer hunters are using deer dogs these days. Complaints about deer hounds getting onto lands where they're not wanted, changing land-use patterns and development have resulted in less land being open to dog-running. The bottom line is, many former dog-hunters have switched to still-hunting.