Sometime in August, Donaway goes to the WMA again, this time to select the spots where he is going to hunt.

"At that time, they're already putting down rubs," he advises regarding the area's bucks. "That gives me an indication that there are bucks in the area. A lot of times I'll sight bucks then."

Donaway generally does not return to the WMA until the opening of archery season, which is around the middle of November. He hunts as much as he can during that season, because there are portions of the archery season that do not require a quota hunt permit.

"Then I always put in for quota permits for muzzleloading and general gun seasons to get whatever I can," Donaway explains.

After hunting the area for so many years, Donaway was getting discouraged with the idea of ever getting a really nice buck.

"I was just about to give up on the Citrus WMA," he muses. "I was thinking I was never going to get a trophy out of there. I don't know if it was endurance or stupidity, but it paid off."

CITRUS WMA
Take a look at the Florida Buck Registry, and you see a number of decent deer from the Citrus Wildlife Management Area. The biggest deer on the registry from the WMA is a typical that scored an outstanding 152 5/8 Boone and Crockett points, killed by Melvin Arline in 1980. Arline's buck is the biggest ever taken on public land in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's North-Central Region and ranks No. 9 among all bucks from public or private land killed in the region.

The next-largest buck from the WMA scored 128 2/8 B&C points and was killed by Jerald Reid back in 1965. When you look into the 100- to 125-point class of deer, you find another 18 Citrus WMA bucks on the registry. The earliest date any of these bucks was killed was 1957; the most recent date was 2003. Clearly, this area has been producing a few quality bucks for a long period of time.

According to Rick Spratt, the wildlife biologist who oversees the Citrus WMA, the area is good for deer because of the genetics of the herd on the property and because Citrus deer are able to reach older ages.

"The area is mainly sandhill/long-leaf pine/wiregrass habitat," Spratt says. "It's not really fine deer habitat, but age and genetics will get you good deer, and there are good genetics in the area."

Why are the genetics of the deer herd better here than in other places? That is something of a mystery.

"Nobody knows the answer to that," the biologist says. "There are certain pockets nationally that come to be known as having genetics for higher quality deer. This area just has better genetics for some reason."

The hunting season on the area is set up to allow deer to get some age on them. Although the antler rule is the same as the rest of Florida -- one antler must be 5 inches long or longer -- both general and muzzleloading gun seasons are very short and quite restrictive.

CITRUS WMA BUCKS ON THE FLORIDA BUCK REGISTRY
HUNTER	YEAR TAKEN	B&C SCORE
Melvin Arline	1980	152 5/8
Jerald Reid	1965	126 2/8
P.B. Flowers	1960	125 7/8
John Bailey	1957	120 2/8
Bobby Denton	1965	118 3/8
Johnnie Rector	2000	116 7/8
Russell Bailey	1988	115
Joe Ossmann	2000	115
Greg Prior	2003	114 4/8
Michael Norris	1989	114
Tony Macri	1986	110 7/8
Ray Layton	1997	109 7/8
Charles Goodwin	1998	106
Tony Macri	1987	107 2/8
Melvin Arline	1980	152 5/8
Jessi Williams	1998	107 2/8
William Allen Jr.	1987	105 4/8
Jeff Gores	1995	102 6/8
Ralph Giordano	1997	102 2/8
Jeff Hahr	1977	101 6/8
Randy Johnson Jr.	1978	100 1/8
According to the Florida Buck Registry as of Jan. 15, 2005

"Overall, it's a very conservative hunting regime," Spratt notes. "There are four days of general gun season and four days of muzzleloading annually. There is an extended archery season, but archery is less efficient for harvesting deer. All of that allows more bucks to get to an older age."

During 2004-05, archery season ran from Nov. 13 to Dec. 5, which is slightly over three weeks. To participate, hunters had to have a special quota hunt permit for the first nine days, but after that the WMA was open for walk-in hunting.

Citrus WMA, which is located in Citrus and Hernando counties, has grown some over the past couple of years. Two years ago, it covered just 41,294 acres.