The possibility of of moving there exists so talk to me!

What type of hunting exists there? Species and # of same one can take? Public land? etc.

Thinking about Tampa area (hunting will not be limited to there only) for many different and complicated reasons.

Hogs, , quail, Osceola turkey and deer. Tons of hogs, turkeys are expensive and deer are small. Public land is terrible, but if you can find a good hunt club, you can hunt a lot if you like pigs. 2 turkeys in spring and 2 in fall...TH

Thank you sir. how does one get into a club and what does that inlvolve?

In fact, turkey season starts in a couple of weeks.......I've hunted extensively near Lake Okeechobee and there are plenty of hogs. There's deer as well.

POP...not sure. I don't live in FL, but have huntred there for 15 years in spring. The ckubs are just group leases. You would have to find clubs with openings and then find a good fit for you. Sorry I can't be of more help.

TH

Well thanx buddy. I guess I better start doing some in depth reasearch if this is to materialize.

I have a friend,life long florida resident.He has been here 3years and he told me there is not enough money to get him to go back.Reasons not to live in Florida.
1.To many people
2.Heat
3.Humidity
4.Insects
5.Hurricanes
6.Tornadoes
7.Floods
8.Crime
9.No mountains
10.Traffic
I could go on but what the hell,it your call.w/regards

I live in South Georgia on the Florida line and elk hunt out there about every two years on the average...That being said I can't believe you are even considering moving to FL!

Unless you have a life-long dream of shooting an aligator, for heavens sake stay put with all the elk, bear, sheep, etc.

Pop,
You asked about getting into a club...well, BRING CASH...lotts of it.
One hunting club I inquired about told me $6,000.00 per yr. Sorry....not for me thanks.
When I moved here, I asked around a good bit to see "where we hunt"...the universal response: "GEORGIA".
Good luck...
Cheers,
Don

You ought to see the Florida hunters that pour into SW Georgia each weekend during deer season. Almost every one drives a big 4wd pickup and is pulling a utility trailer loaded with two 4-wheelers, a couple of deer stands, and a couple of coolers squeezed in. The taxidermist I use just north of Dawson says that 70% of his deer processing and taxidermy is from Florida hunters. The small town grocery stores and restaurants get a big business boost from them and feel it directly when hurricanes keep Floridians repairing things at home.
On Fridays they pour in and Sundays they pour out from September through mid January. They are a big part of our rural economies, and in return, they get some of the best hunting in the southeastern USA.

I just moved from south FL in December and there isn't enough money in the world to get me to move back down there!!! To give you an idea of the hunting, I hunted 29 days in the Oklahoma and 0 days in Florida.

The only thing I can say positive about south FL is the temperature was always the same regardless of season.

Thanx guys.

Hey POP, just curious, is your employer sending you down? Job change? Is this choice?

I grew up in the south and have frequented Florida many times. While you can certainly hunt and kill some game, I wouldn't go there with any high expectations. You couldn't pay me to live there.

I hope you are not doing this by choice. You will have a terrible wake up call compared to what you are used to.

POP,
I live just North of St Augustine & will be happy to trade with you, you can have this living in FL mess & I'm born & raised here.
It's just the crowds, crime, lack of hunting that after a couple of trips out West has got me thinking about moving.
If you like fishing your in luck, but that is about where it ends.

I found a bargan of a hunt club in South Carolina at $2500 a year, the drive is not bad but forget about hunting down the road from where you live unless it's for gators.

Continuing the Florida bashing, we lived there for more than 3 years, the family liked it, I was happy to move back to small, crowded and overregulated Germany, basically because 1. mountains, 2. change of seasons and 3. nearly year-long hunting.

The fishing I do admit was much better and easier available, black bass on lake Okeechobee and peacock bass in Miami were a lot of fun. OTOH I can fish trout about 1 hr. from here so that is not so bad, either.

The alternative to Germany was Sao Paulo in Brazil, 20 Million people on one spot and hunting is ILLEGAL in most of the country! YUCK!

I'd hav to say it depends on where in Fl you are talking about. I'm stationed in Pensacola and there is a huge amount of public land around here. Lots of deer, but they sure are smaller than the mulies in my native Colorado. I currently live less than miles from the Alabama state line.

That being said, I personally don't hunt here. I did take a big gator awhile back, but havent done any deer, pig or turkey here. It's not for a lack of opportunity or game, it's just that I only get to take one big hunting trip a year and I always go back west to hunt elk with the family. But the guys I know that hunt here take a lot of game and in this particular area, we don't have much crime or excessive heat.
Mac

quote:

Originally posted by MAC:
I'd hav to say it depends on where in Fl you are talking about.

Absolutely. I was referring to S. Florida.

I did like Salsa and Vaca Frita, though....

Come to think of it, I lived there a year (Tampa) and I wouldn't live there again.........but to say that there's not much hunting there again depends on where you are in the state. I hunted nearly monthly for hogs around Lake Okeechobee and there's no shortage (no shortage of deer or turkey either)........ But to live there.......no thanks!

Here's another Florida hunt.

Very nice Fairchase! How long was he?

quote:

How long was he?

11 ft. 9 1/2 in.

I posted a full report a couple of weeks ago. It's a couple of pages back.

Really though, I just wanted to show that not all the animals in Florida are small or too expensive.

Here in Georgia we are getting lots of "half backs", which is what developers affectionately call the retirees that leave the north with plans to settle in Florida, then after some time of enduring the heat, lack of seasons, taxes, hurricanes, and crowded conditions, move back "north" into parts of Georgia. Three counties around Valdosta are heavily marketing to them, along with spots along the Georgia coast and the cooler areas near the Georgia mountains. Last night on our local TV station there was a report about the building boom in Lee County, GA as they interviewed former Florida residents discussing their reasons for moving our way, many of which sell their FL homes for big profits, move into nicer and more affordable homes in Georgia, and pocket big chunks of leftover cash.
As for hunting property, $10,000-$20,000/acre for rural land in Florida doesn’t buy a very large tract. There has been almost a feeding frenzy in South Georgia over the past couple of years as Florida landowners have been taking huge real estate profits and subsequently doing tax-free exchanges of their proceeds into Georgia farms, timber, and hunting properties which have been considered “a steal†relative to Florida land prices. Almost every major land purchase around here in recent years has been with Florida money.

quote:

Originally posted by fairchase:

quote:

How long was he?

11 ft. 9 1/2 in.

I posted a full report a couple of weeks ago. It's a couple of pages back.

Really though, I just wanted to show that not all the animals in Florida are small or too expensive.

Nice gator, but we don't know how expensive it was because you didn't tell us.

im from south ga and have a place in north fl. the deer are very small, we usually refer to them as dog deer for obvious reasons. the great thing is, at least the last time i hunted there, you can kill one a day and public land is easy to find. tons and tons of damn pigs and gators by the dozen. hunting in north florida is not that terrible, but living there is. imo there are far too many people.

I live here in the Sunshine state. I moved here from CT 14 years ago. This is how it is..before I moved here I hunted every season in the North east you name it I hunted it. Hunting truly blows down here, in the last 14 years I travel to the Northeast to do my deer hunting and the rest of the seasons have fallen by the wayside. Don't move to Florida if you like to hunt. Unless you can afford to go to other states for hunting. I'm sure there are some loyal Florida faithful but ..guys down here hunt with swamp buggys's drive through the woods and shoot what runs out of the palmettos. Pretty lame to me. Kinda like rabbit hunting up north except for deer and hog. If you like Hogs this is paradise though. Then you got the real "rednecks" that like to kill hog indian style jump out of the tree with a bowie knife and wrestle them while cutting the throat. It's a whole new world over here. North florida is not as bad but I'm in good old south florida. Heat, bugs, thick swamps, snakes, lack of any good game other than hog or gator but gator is expensive and to me boring. Oh yea ..when you shoot something you gotta get outta there quck before it spoils. Now if you like to fish Florida is THE state to live in. I'm looking into getting into a hunt club in Georgia, much better hunting there but can be quite a ride especially if you are a weekend hunter...If hunting is your passion Florida ain't your state.

To those of you who have hunted gators in Florida, can you take a nice gator without a local guide? I know it must be possible, but if a non-resident came down for a few days, could he get a nice one? Also, can't you get 2 tags?

I've looked into it, but still don't know much about the hunting.

I like living in Florida and I've lived in 11 states but our hunting sucks. We have the worst game management in the country and are probably the worst state to hunt in, in the country.

Great place to live, lousy place to hunt.

$bob$

Some things I learned about Florida when I was fighting forest fires there....

Lots of the vegetation there grows spines...I guess a defense against herbivory? I didn't want to eat that crap, just walk through it.

The plants without spines are generally poisonous or give you a rash.

The bugs there will either bite, sting, spray, blind, paralize, bruise, infect, induce fever, kill, poison, blister, or chew on you....maybe do all of the above. If nothing else annoy you to death by making constant orbits around your head.

It seems that every water hole was filled with poisonous snakes or gators. Most had both.

When it rains, it freaking rains....I've gotten less soaked taking a shower.

There is no soil, only a fine sand. You sit in the sand, your ass will itch for months, years...

The only place I've seen fire race through a forest on a day with 45% humidity.

I forgot about humidity.....nothing like waking up at 5AM to it being 95 degrees with 80-90%humidity.

Did see lots of critters....feral hogs, a bear, turkeys, deer, gators.....

I vowed never to return...no matter how good the hunting!

MG

quote:

Originally posted by LDHunter:

Great place to live, lousy place to hunt.

$bob$

North FL might be alright but South FL just downright sucks!!! The longest 16 months of my life.

Yes... You're right there. North Florida is a different world than South Florida. Here in the panhandle our weather is more like Georgia and Alabama rather than Florida.

I'm surrounded by a 550,000 acre national forest and a few hundred yards from a great lake for fishing.

It's the best that Florida offers for a hunter and it won't hold a candle to Georgia or any other state for that matter for hunting.

$bob$

Geez, I vacationed there and HATED it!!!