Eglin Air Force Base WMA sprawls over 464,000 acres near Niceville in the Northwest Region and is home to a host of weapons system testing programs for the Air Force. The military does not use all of the base for testing, though. They allow hunting on 280,000 acres and it is hard to imagine a more productive area.

Wildlife biologist Justin Johnson has worked on Eglin since the early 1990s and said their deer harvest is excellent. Eglin sells about 4,000 hunting permits annually and the deer harvest may run as high as 1,000 animals a year.

"We have pretty tight controls on about 100,000 acres with locked gates and check stations," Johnson explained.

Johnson added that about 60 percent of the base is open to dog running, which is still a popular way to hunt in the Panhandle. Most of the area's hunters are drawn from a two-or three-county area around the base. One dog hunt zone, Unit 16, has a quota this season of 375 hunters, but there are 56,000 acres in the section open to run on.

Of the base's 15 management units, some like Unit 9 are reserved just for bow hunters. That Unit has 8,000 acres and has been aside for archers for the last four years. Johnson said the quality of deer on the unit has improved each year. The year after it became a bow hunt area Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Kenneth Davis, who lives in neighboring Fort Walton Beach, arrowed an exceptional 10-pointer that scored 126 2/8 Pope and Young Club points to qualify for that organization's all-time record book.

This past season archer David Brooks of Niceville spotted a nice buck in a dog-hunt section on the base and bided his time until he could hunt the area after the dog season closed. As a result he downed a really fine typical 9-point that later scored 124 3/8.

Department of Defense employees and military personnel can hunt on a 2,000-acre parcel on the main base next to the runways. Last season Johnson was driving by the area and found the largest buck, weight-wise, he had ever seen on the base. The 8-pointer weighed 190 pounds and had just been killed by a vehicle.

Most of Eglin's habitat is classified by biologists as "sandhills," which means longleaf pine/turkey oak woodlands trailing into titi creek bottoms.

Both a mobility-impaired and youth hunt are offered on the WMA at the end of each hunting season. These events are held in areas ordinarily closed to hunting. Both hunts accommodate 50 hunters and since these coincide with the February rut on Eglin, they generally yield some true trophies.

Just a short drive to the east is Tyndall Air Force Base WMA near Panama City. Tyndall covers about 21,000 acres, with 14,000 open to hunting. Like Eglin, Tyndall simply requires a hunting permit. For the last several seasons Tyndall hunters have killed roughly 250 deer. Last season, which was affected by a fairly warm winter, saw the harvest drop under 200 animals.

On Tyndall, when you purchase a hunting permit, you are allowed to take one doe until a pre-determined number of unantler deer are taken. According to Jack Mobley, the biologist on Tyndall, they have a 3-point on a side antler rule for bucks.

"Anything less than that must be allowed to walk," he said.