Unusually warm weather interrupted by an unseasonable cold snap made for an interesting bow season, and a warmer-than-normal Thanksgiving had hunters swatting at mosquitoes during the four-day gun season. Hunters who found a mixed bag of results over that time are now gearing up for the opening of general gun next Saturday with hopes of cooler weather and better results.
“The weather has been warmer and that’s kind of been a little downer for people because for whatever reason, whether it’s true or not, people perceive that deer don’t move as much when it’s warmer,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Lt. Stan Kirkland said. “But I think a lot of hunters have been doing this long enough that they know it’ll pick up with the cooler weather, particularly when we get into the rut.”
Bow season opened in mid-October and ran up to Thanksgiving Day, which marked the beginning of a four-day gun season. We’re not in black powder with bow hunting allowed, and general gun season opens Saturday and runs through Feb. 22.
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During bow season, more than one hunter stripped down to the most basic — and thinnest — of camouflage apparel trying not to break out in sweat. But that also means braving the mosquitoes, which are thickest near the wet areas that tend to attract deer.
The saving grace for hunters like that are mosquito repellents, with portable devices like the Bug Band Portable Insect Repellent Diffuser providing an invisible wall of safety from swarming pests. Nothing will ruin a bow hunt faster than the movement associated with swatting at mosquitoes. For the $20 it costs to pick one up — I found one at Half-Hitch Tackle, 2206 Thomas Drive — a hunter saves himself a lot of grief.
For those who managed to sit still and be at the right place at the right time, however, the beginning of the 2014 hunting season, even with the introduction of new regulations, has been fruitful.
Cody Berens at The Deer Shack, 2229 N. East Ave., said they are running “above average” on the number of deer brought in for butchering so far this year.
“There have been a lot of larger bucks,” he said. “It seems like they’re shooting bigger-bodied deer, giving the younger ones another birthday so they can get some size to them.”
And the most popular request this year?
“Maple brown sausage,” he said without hesitation. “It’s a good one and we’re also doing well with the new Hawaiian sausage.
“But a lot of people are going to the hamburger,” he continued. “I guess people are more particular about eating healthy and they are looking for meat that doesn’t have a bunch of additives and that is real lean, so more are converting to hamburger instead of just sausage.”
When the general gun season does kick back in Saturday, Kirkland said there are several things people need to be mindful of and to calculate when they decide what they’re going to shoot and when.
The Deer Management Unit covering the Panhandle was divided into two regions this year; Interstate 10 provides the dividing line. The main differences involve what constitutes a legal buck, and they have different dates for antlerless deer days.
North of I-10, a buck has to have 3 points or more on one side to be legal, or have a main beam 10 inches or longer in length. South of I-10, a buck has to have at least 2 points on one side or a 10-inch main beam.
Kirkland said the idea is to improve antler quality and protect the younger deer, particularly bucks, for the health of the herd.
“What that does is protect those younger bucks, those 1½-year-olds that are typically going to have 5-inch antlers or small racks and gives them another year to grow, at least,” he said. “This is not, as some have tried to say, a ‘trophy deer’ regulation. It’s an effort to protect some of our deer and let them get a little older.”
The same idea applied to the antlerless deer dates, when hunters are allowed to shoot doe without having a state-issued tag. In the past it generally ran for a week after Christmas across the entire region.
This year, south of I-10, antlerless deer days were reduced to four: Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 27-28.
North of I-10, there are six antlerless deer days during general gun and two during muzzle loading season. The four days left for antlerless deer in that region during general gun are Dec. 20-21 and Dec. 27-28.
Kirkland said there has been some confusion about the new rules, despite how widely they were publicized, but the information is still available at the FWC’s website.
Also, private landowners with more than 640 acres, or have adjoining landowners willing to participate, can apply for antlerless deer tags that allow doe to be taken during legal hunting hours.
“I haven’t heard about a lot of doe being taken yet; I just think it’s early and a lot of people are just not amped up yet about hunting,” Kirkland said. “A lot of people like to wait to use that tag, but we really recommend that if you get those tags, you use them earlier rather than later.
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“Some people want to wait and save it for the end, but then they’ve got a couple of tags left and not much hunting time left and by then every doe has learned that hunters mean, ‘I may go home in their truck,’ so they’re not coming out.”
Two important notes on the antlerless deer tags is that they have to be used on the land for which they were assigned, and they have to be placed on the deer and locked before that deer is moved from the ground.
“We’ve had a few unscrupulous hunters where officers pull up and either there’s no tag — they have the tag in their pocket but not on the doe — or they’ve got the tag through the leg but they don’t have it secured. That tag is required and if you’re riding around with that doe in the truck and it’s not tagged, that’s a violation.”