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FWC Makes Major Changes To Deer Hunting In Northwest Florida
April 21, 2014
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has passed changes that divide the state’s Hunting Zone D (from Pensacola to Tallahassee) into two deer management units (DMUs), each with a unique set of antler-point requirements and antlerless deer harvest days.
These changes take effect during the 2014-15 hunting season and are part of a larger, statewide project aimed at managing deer on a more local level and providing stakeholders with a greater say in deer management.
The FWC conducted a public outreach and input process in northwest Florida beginning in early 2013. Since then, the Commission has received substantial input and comments from hunters, farmers and the general public regarding how they would like to see deer managed in the newly proposed DMUs.
As a result of this outreach process, the FWC passed rules for both public and private lands in both of the DMUs in Zone D, with Interstate 10 being the dividing line between the two DMUs. South of I-10 will be called DMU-D1, and north of I-10 is DMU-D2.
Now bucks harvested south of I-10 in DMU-D1 must have antlers with at least 2 points (each point having to be at least 1 inch long) on one side and at least one antler 5 inches or more in length.
North of I-10 in DMU-D2, the minimum antler requirement is now 3 points (each point having to be at least 1 inch long) on one side and have at least one antler 5 inches or more in length, or have an antler with a main beam length of 10 inches or more.
The rule includes an exception for youth to the increased antler requirements in both DMUs whereby hunters 15 years old and younger may continue to harvest bucks that have at least one antler 5 inches or more in length.
The Commission’s action also changes the antlerless deer season (“doe days”) on private lands within Zone D. During antlerless deer season, does may be harvested as well as bucks with less than 5-inch antlers. But it is illegal to take spotted fawns.
In DMU-D1 (south of I-10), the antlerless season was reduced to four days consisting of two popular holiday weekends (the weekends after Thanksgiving and Christmas).
In DMU-D2 (north of I-10), antlerless deer season was lengthened to eight days distributed across four weekends (Saturday-Sunday after Thanksgiving, first weekend of muzzleloading gun season, third weekend of general gun season and the weekend after Christmas).
The purpose of modifying the antlerless deer season was to spread out the hunting opportunity, so that more hunters could participate without reducing deer populations. These changes will be monitored to measure any impacts they may have on deer harvest and hunter satisfaction within each DMU.
Comments
12 Responses to “FWC Makes Major Changes To Deer Hunting In Northwest Florida”
To ME – From an eating perspective, I’ll take a fat doe over an older, larger (and tougher) buck any day of the week. More than once in my life I have passed up a shot at a larger buck to take a smaller (legal) doe from his harem because of meat quality. A friend of mine took a 12 point buck on the eastern shore of Maryland (215 lbs after hanging for five days) – even the backstraps were shoe leather and only good for sausage.
Those of you who say “you cant eat bone” do understand that if you let the bucks get another year on them to grow that they will have more meat the next year right? Why would you want to shoot a spike anyway if all you want is the meat? You can harvest a doe a day during archery and doe season, shoot a doe if all you want is meat.
To jake, it’s not to hard to measure horns, when they’re standing around eating corn, when your on management land in Florida, where you can’t bait, it makes measuring more difficult, & some people can’t afford a club, & some people do try to hunt legal w/ out spreading corn, although there are some that don’t care, they just think, huh, I’ll just get a lawyer to fight it, instead of trying to be honest.
If Florida would go with a 8 point minium then they might have some deer. And if you got to measure the hone to be sure if hes legal then u need to go back to learning school.
Good steps to improve buck quality in Northwest Florida. Just like Alabama, the Buck quality will improve. Give it time. I agree with the one buck / doe per day but I trust FWC is doing the research on herd population to set the correct daily limits.
The thing I see that might be difficult is getting the deer to come up to you before you shoot him so you can measure that horn….. Just Saying……….
@Southerner
FWC has been practically begging for input from local hunters lately. I am signed up to receive FWC Update/Hot Sheet emails and have had at least 5-6 emails in the past several months from FWC asking for input about deer management in our area. I suggest that those who concerned by the new rules sign up yourselves and become active in managing our resources rather than complaining after the fact.
You can sign up for the FWC Updates at the MYFWC com website.
If they want to change the number of point on a buck you can shoot that’s fine with me, they did that in Alabama no big deal… But i don’t just hunt horns I have a big family to provide for and the price of beef and hamburger these days,,,, deer is the way I get that… They need to at least do one buck and one doe a day…. That’s just my opinion…..
I don’t eat antlers. This can complicate things for a responsible hunter that is trying to be legal. If people want to limit themselves to bigger older bucks, let them join a club. Why doesn’t the government simply tighten the controls on the land they own and control? If you do not like the change contact FWC.
None of this does any good to control the exploding deer population. Why not just give each hunter two doe permits or at least one each. That way each hunter can harvest at least one deer each season. Believe me, there is no shortage of deer, ask any insurance company paying for the damage done to cars alone, much less the crop damage to farmers. :-/
I see there where no changes in the taking of deer at night by those deer depradation permits,so unfortunately the new change will do absolutely nothing for quality of bucks in my part of the state. Way to go FWC
Good job FWC. This is a step in the right direction. Hopefully everyone will see the quality of bucks increase and we can continue to slowly increase the minimum requirements. Also am glad to see that the working class person can now utilize all of doe days instead of having to take off during the week.