Hunting with dogs is prohibited. Camping is allowed in designated areas by permit only. For more information about camping, contact the Southwest Florida Water Management District at 1-800-423-1476.

Eglin Air Force Base WMA
Eglin Air Force Base weighs in at No. 2 on our list of top public areas. The Natural Resources Division of the Environmental Management Directorate Division of Eglin AFB runs hunting on the base. The area is located in the Northwest Region.

Eglin Air Force Base is an active Air Force armament and training center that sprawls across Walton and Okaloosa counties. More than half the base's 464,000 acres are open for hunting. Hunting areas are provided for dog-hunting, still-hunting, and archery-only.

At Eglin AFB, it's possible to hunt the rut after some other areas have closed. Here, the rut generally occurs in late January and early February, so hunters on the base have a late shot at a big deer.

Richloam WMA
Number 3 on our list is Richloam WMA, located in the Northeast Region. At more than 56,000 acres, Richloam sprawls across Hernando, Pasco, Sumter and Lake counties.

Regulations for general gun season on Richloam are similar to those at Green Swamp WMA. A regular quota hunt permit is required for the first part of the general gun season, with 900 permits available.

After the first nine days, the WMA is open for hunters to walk in without a permit. During archery season, no quota permit is required.

Camping is allowed at designated sites only. For more information about camping, contact the Division of Forestry, Withlacoochee Forestry Center, at (352) 754-6896.

Half Moon WMA
Half Moon WMA, No. 4 on our list, is much smaller than the first three tracts we discussed. At only 9,480 acres, Half Moon is entirely in Sumter County, which lies in the Northeast Region. The Withlacoochee River forms the tract's western boundary -- which means, of course, that there's an associated river swamp on the area.

Deer hunting is allowed on the area during archery, muzzleloader and general gun seasons, but quota permits are required for each season. There are 75 permits available for each of two archery hunts, muzzleloading gun season, and each of two general gun hunts.

Half Moon WMA is one of those areas that have a three-point antler rule. A legal buck must have at least one antler with three or more points that are one inch or more in length.

On Half Moon, "antlerless" deer are does, and any bucks with antlers less than 5 inches in length.

In other words, all bucks with antlers more than 5 inches in length, but without at least one three-tined antler, are protected.

Blackwater WMA
Blackwater WMA is located in the Northwest Zone in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties. It's a huge area, comprising more than 191,000 acres. A number of creeks run through the area, all of them eventually connecting with the Blackwater River, which also traverses the WMA.

There are 75 management-area permits available for both the archery and muzzleloading gun seasons.

General gun season gets a little more complicated. You must have a quota permit if you're hunting during the first thirteen days or the last seventeen days of general gun season; there are 1,800 permits available.

Also, there are 400 quota permits available for each of two dog-hunting sessions.

PRIVATE LAND
Alachua County
Home of the University of Florida, Alachua County doesn't seem like a likely place to find big deer. Yet it's No. 1 when it comes to the number of deer on the Florida Buck Registry in the last 10 years.