FL-NC
Member
Yep, read that right. I moved here 6 months ago, and it has been a season of learning. I got the permission to hunt a small parcel of land across the highway from my house. I have been baiting, and photographing these deer with trail cameras since mid Sep. I get pics more often than I don't, and I must have gone through 600 pounds of corn/ rice bran (our deer don't like apples, peanut butter, molasses, or peppermint) and at least. 90%+ of the photos I have gotten have been at night. I have been hunting about 3 days a week since Oct (bow season, ML season- when I continued to use a x bow). I have scarcely seen anything- if it wasn't for the cameras and the tracks, I wouldn't even believe there were any deer in the area. Our rut JUST STARTED. It peaks about the third week in FEB- depending on what map you look at. Growing up in a different part of Fl., the rut in the areas we hunted was in Oct or Nov- along with NC and Tn, more or less. There are areas in Fl that rut in JULY. Some biologists claim we don't even have one. Want to see something crazy? Google Fl white tail rut map. In my area (Okaloosa County) , the season runs until Feb 18. After living in Tn and NC, I'm used to it being over and having several deer harvested by new years. So today, after hunting more and harder in my life than ever before, I finally got lucky and dropped a decent 6 pointer at first light with my AR15. Seriously, that is the hardest I have ever worked just to get a shootable deer. The taxidermist in town told me he gets almost nothing during bow season, and doesn't start getting steady orders for deer mounts until Jan. He told me that if it wasn't for fish and feral hog mounts, he would starve or need a second job. Anyhow, its been a heck of a learning curve with much more yet to be learned. You know, the locals told me that everything I experienced is normal. They told me that before the season even started, but I thought that by spending more time in the woods, the odds would stack up in my favor. lesson learned! Moral of the story? Learn from the natives I guess.
