Blackpowder and bowhunters have likely put away their primitive weapons and by now, the early season flood into the woods for general gun season has slowed. But there is still plenty of hunting available for deer hunters in north-central Florida, thanks to non-quota hunts on select wildlife management areas.

In seven public tracts in the region, you can quench the urge to bag some last-minute venison.

"A lot of hunters might not realize it, but there's still plenty of hunting opportunities after the quota hunts are over," says Scott Johns, a regional biologist in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Olustee office. "These WMAs are prime examples. That means if you wake up one morning and you want to go hunting, you don't need a quota hunt permit to go and hunt.

"A classic example is Osceola. A few years ago, a bunch of Navy boys were docked over in Jacksonville and they wanted to go hunting, but had nowhere to go because it was a quota hunt. So we started evaluating the quota permit use in Osceola and found that it was not being utilized to its fullest extent. So we eliminated the quota hunts for the still-hunt areas on Osceola; and now people can just get up and just go to Osceola if they want to."

Here's a detailed look at the seven public hunting areas in the region that offer quota-free hunting in December.

OSCEOLA WMA
At 266,270 acres, this public tract located in Baker and Columbia counties is one of Florida's largest WMAs. It has three primary landowners: The U.S. Forest Service controls most of the acreage, while the Florida Division of Forestry and Suwannee River Water Management District manage smaller portions.

Most of the habitat is what we call pine flatwoods dominated by palmetto and longleaf pine. Normally, the soil is relatively moist, but this year, a dry summer impacted that.

Underneath the pine trees, this WMA has an abundance of herbaceous growth (fleshy plants that wither after each growing season, as opposed to persistent plants such as trees that grow woody stems).

There are also a lot of scattered wetlands, as well as a couple of river drainages composed of several big creeks that run into the St. Marys and Suwannee rivers.

Additionally, there are a couple of large swamps, including Big Gum on the south side and Sand Island Bay in the northwestern corner.

About a third of the acreage in Osceola is set aside for dog hunting. Johns estimates it at about 80,000 acres. The rest is devoted to still-hunting.

"Osceola has fairly low productivity as far as deer are concerned," Johns says. "The deer population is low to moderate -- not as high as we see on some of our other areas.

"On Osceola, though, on the lower end there's not a whole lot of deer out there, relatively speaking. But there is a good opportunity for folks who know where to hunt. The best places on Osceola to hunt are where a wetland habitat exists. That is where a wetland, maybe a mature pine forest and an immature pine forest, would come together -- where three habitat types merge together. But it's always associated with a wetland.