By Carolee Boyles

When the general gun season opened last November, it had been a long time since I had killed a deer. For the past several years, the pressures of work had kept me from spending as much time at my hunting lease as I would like. Then last year, a malfunction in my scope caused me to miss a deer at 25 yards.

"If I don't kill a deer next year, I'm going to quit hunting," I told my cousin Chris Dekle.

Chris decided he was going to be sure I got a whitetail. Without telling me, he got an old porta-potty, scrubbed it spotlessly clean, put a seat in it, cut shooting ports in it, and parked it where its occupant could see deer trails in three directions.

Early on the morning of last year's first antlerless-deer day, he dropped me off where a grassy road disappeared into the darkness.

"Go there," he said, pointing up the road. "Walk in a hundred yards, turn right on the road you find, and walk another hundred yards. You'll find a shooting house that I fixed just for you. Sit in it and you'll get a deer."

I laughed out loud when I saw Chris' "shooting house," but he was right about me getting a deer. At sunup, two does strolled out of the bushes. I chose the larger of the two deer, slipped the safety off my rifle, and got my first venison in five years.

Photo by Dan Bogue

Biologists estimate that the total number of deer killed last year on private land in the Sunshine State was somewhere around 93,400, based on a statewide hunter survey. Add to that a reported number of deer killed on Florida's public lands that hovers around 3,600 or so each year, and you are looking at close to 100,000 whitetails killed in the state.

So where are those deer being killed? And where can you go to find the deer you want to take home with you? As we do each year, we have gone to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to find the answers to those questions.

For the wildlife management areas, we looked at harvest data for the 2003-2004 season. We took the number of deer harvested on each WMA and divided that into the number of man-days hunters spent on that WMA. That gave us the number of man-days per deer for each tract. A lower number means better hunter success on the given area.

One thing to remember is that these data do have limitations. On some WMAs where hunters must check in and out through manned check stations, information on the number of deer killed and the number of hunters on the area is quite reliable. On areas with self-check stations or no check stations at all, the numbers we are working with are best estimates.

One other note about public land deer hunts: we excluded those WMAs that are part of the Special Opportunity Hunt system or that have only quota hunts. Some of them have better hunting opportunities than the ones listed here, but they require an application process that is long past for this year. Here we have focused on areas where you still have the opportunity to hunt at least part of this season without a special permit.

For information about private land, we looked at the 2002-2003 FWCC Statewide Private Lands Hunter Survey, which provides estimates for the total deer harvest, total number of hunter-days, and bag per hunter on private lands across Florida. We performed the same calculation, dividing the number of reported hunter-days in each county by the number of deer killed to get the average number of man-days per deer in each county. Then we factored in comments from biologists and the relative amount of urban and rural land in each county to come up with a list that offers good hunting opportunity on private land.

Hunters are fairly successful on the 11,039 acres of this WMA - the success ratio is 13.7 man-days per deer - and deer are of a decent size.

One thing to note about Joe Budd is that the first hunt is the busiest. The opening weekend of archery season is generally the only time the quota of hunters fills up and biologists have had to turn people away. The rest of the time, you may not necessarily get the zone you want, but you most likely are able to get in.

The habitat on Joe Budd is quite diverse, with a mixture of pine flatwoods, pine-oak uplands, hardwood bottoms and creek drains. The Little River runs through the area, and there is good bottomland habitat there. There is also a good bit of relief in the area, which is unusual for Florida. The lowest point is about 70 feet above sea level along the edge of Lake Talquin, and the highest elevation is around 160 feet.

At 3,000 acres, Talquin is one of the smallest public tracts in the state. Its habitat is similar to that at Joe Budd. But despite its size, Talquin WMA is a productive area. That's one reason the FWCC is so restrictive about when it's open - it is tiny, and it is close to Tallahassee, so it gets a lot of pressure.

Talquin WMA borders the Ochlockonee River right where the waterway broadens to become Lake Talquin, so you find a lot of flooded timber along the north edge of the property. There is also a residence on the property where Division of Forestry personnel live and have an office. That area is closed to hunting.

Right along the Suwannee River, the habitat is swampland. In the upland areas, there has been a lot of prescribed burning going on. One unique thing about the area is that it's near a power plant, and biologists sometimes plant food plots along parts of the power line rights of way through a cooperative effort with the power company. Some of those rights of way are 200 feet wide, offering a lot of room in which to plant forage.

Ordinarily, general gun season on Apalachee WMA is open over Thanksgiving weekend and then from the middle of December until early February. A quota permit is required in Zone A for the first week of the hunt period. Following the quota period, you need only a zone tag, which is available at the check station, to hunt in Zone A. Zone tags aren't required for Zone B or Zone C.

Much of your success here depends on the water level at the time of the hunt. Holey Land's habitat is very swampy, with lots of Everglades sawgrass interspersed with tree hammocks. You can walk in to the tree islands or use an ATV. If you walk in, expect to get wet and expect the going to be difficult. The muck soil tends to cling, making the walk tiring.

Conservation Area 3A North and Conservation Area 2 are open for a week at the end of October, and Conservation Area 3A North is also open from the early December until early January. Both of these sessions are part of the general gun-walk hunt. There is a forked-antler rule on this WMA.

Located in the FWCC's Northwest Region, Jackson is an excellent county in which to hunt, if you can get access to private land. The Upper Chipola River and Apalachee WMAs are located within its boundaries.

The soil in these northern counties tends to be heavier and more clay-based than in the rest of the state, which means the soil holds more minerals. Thus, crops and natural forage have better fertility and the deer get better nutrition. What it amounts to is that these counties support more deer, making them good places to hunt.

Escambia County contains the Blue Water Creek and Escambia River WMAs, while Santa Rosa has portions of the Blackwater and Eglin Air Force Base WMAs in it.

There is also still a lot of agricultural activity in Madison County, with a lot of annual row crops such as corn. The combination of good soils and farming produces lots of deer.

Madison County contains the San Pedro WMA, as well as portions of the Middle Aucilla and Twin Rivers WMAs.

The problem for the average hunter, of course, is getting onto those private lands. Most of the private-land areas are simply unavailable or are tied up in very expensive leases. However, there are a number of outfitters and guides who have access to private land in the county. If you live in the southern part of the state and seriously want to hunt deer there, it may be less expensive and more productive to pay a guide to take you than to try to get into a lease in the area.

One public tract, Fisheating Creek WMA, is located in the central portion of Glades County.

Glades is far enough north to be out of the main Everglades ecosystem and has some dry land that's suitable for deer. These lands offer a mosaic of habitats that the deer like. The northern part of the county has a mix of pine flatwoods, oak hammocks and cattle pastures. Farther south, the habitat transitions into sawgrass and tree islands.