Wildlife biologist Justin Johnson works out of Eglin's Jackson Guard Natural Resource Office and oversees the base's hunting program. It's his job to provide different kinds of hunting for all the sportsmen who visit Eglin. Year in and year out, the base sells about 4,000 hunting permits at their Niceville office.

Hunting is allowed on 15 management units on the base. About 60 percent of the area is open to deer-dog running, and it's heavily utilized. A special permit is required to hunt some of the dog-hunt areas. Johnson said these permits sell out every year.

There are check stations on some management units. Other areas do not require check-in, or check-out.

One of the most interesting units on the base is the 8,000-acre archery-only unit next to Duke Field. This area is just over the line in Okaloosa County, but has some extraordinary opportunities for serious archers. Fort Walton Beach resident Kenneth Dwanne Davis arrowed a big 10-pointer on Feb. 18, 2002, the last day of the season. His deer scored 126 2/8 Pope and Young Club points and is one of only a handful of deer from Florida to ever make the P&Y All-Time Record book.

David Brooks of Niceville almost matched Davis when he killed a 9-point with his bow on Feb. 13, 2005. His deer scored 124 3/8, falling just a smidgen below the P&Y minimum of 125 points.

Justin Johnson and his fellow natural-resources staffers go beyond what is expected in their jobs. In addition to their standard season, they hold a special hunt for 50 disabled hunters and 50 kids. The hunts are closely supervised and held after the close of the regular hunting sessions in closed areas, where deer numbers tend to be high. To say the hunts are popular is a huge understatement.

"When we started out, we could just about find a spot for everybody that applied. But that's not the case any longer," Johnson admitted. "For instance, we got over 200 applications last year for the youth hunt."

This season, Eglin's remaining hunting days are Dec. 9 through Jan. 1, Jan. 20-28 and Feb. 15-25, which straddles the late-season rut. On Eglin, the rut is generally in high gear during the end-of-the-season disability and youth hunts.

Johnson added that the harvest on Eglin has been down a little the last two seasons, having peaked during the 2003-04 season.

"I don't know why the harvest has been off some. But track counts show the herd is healthy, and I believe the harvest will be back up this season," he said.