I am new to this forum. I found it by accident a week ago. But the information on topo's is amazing. I only hunt in Florida and yes this information does work here. I have not harvested that many deer but when I did , they did fall on the topo symbols Gri22ly demonstrates. It is amazing how it all comes together. All the shoe leather time I put in, plus using the topo's on a gps really helps you see the travel patterns. I have realized all the buck beds I found in years past actually relate to the knowledge presented on topo maps and what I have read. The only hunting books I have read was by Dr James kroll. Art and Science of Patterning Whitetails and harvesting whitetails. That taught me alot. You all just helped put more pieces together. You guys need to write a book. It will sell. thank you for posting it.
hunter, welcome! There are some great guys on here. I wish you the best and I would love to hear about your hunting in Florida. It seems like an interesting and unique place to hunt whitetail.
Hunting in Florida is definitely unique. The rut in Florida is all over the place. Some northern sections start in Nov while some central Florida places kick in Nov and others late Jan. South florida begins sometime around Sept. Go figure. Hunting swamps you run into everything. Gators, snakes, mosquitoes If you do not have a thermacell & a bug suit during Sept / Oct archery down here you need to seriously invest in one. I have had the most luck in Sandhills away from the swamps because I am not a fan of mosquitoes. There is a good mix of terrain and vegetation. The deer are smaller but every now and then like a couple of weeks ago someone in central florida harvested a 175 lb deer out of Greenswamp. There is alot of pressure in that area. For central Florida that is a good size deer where the avg for does is 100lb and bucks around 125.
Cool. Where I hunt the average doe size is around 75-85 lbs field dressed and bucks right around 100 pounds field dressed. Not real sure why the deer I hunt are generally so small other than most of them do not have access to any crop fields, only to acorns and browse. Good luck man.
A "mature" (3.5+) buck around here might average about 120-130 lbs, dressed. My buddy arrowed a 3.5/4.5 year old buck where I hunt and that buck might have weighed 110-115 lbs dressed. Josh, I am not sure what subspecies I hunt. I saw a couple older (4.5+) bucks that were killed this year on the place I hunt and they were right around 130-135 lbs, regardless of age once they got past 3.5 years old. I will look into the subspecies thing.
I hunt mostly in Florida also (northeast FL) and I have to say its some of the hardest hunting I've done (I'm originally from Indiana). The targets are smaller and spook insanely easy probably due to all the dog hunting. Its a challenge for sure, especially in bow season when its 90 degress and its impossible to get in the woods without sweating your boys off. Lots of critters and reptiles and a mosquito population that is unrivaled due to all the swamps. I've been hunting down here for 10 years and i'm still forcing myself to like it. The good thing is I get back to Indiana around Thanksgiving every year to remind me what its like to actually be able to see through the woods lol
