I may be moving to the Jacksonville, FL area in the future and am getting a jump start on scouting public lands.

Can anyone pitch in on what WMAs are worth looking at and which aren't? I'm mostly concerned about access. I like the idea of Osceola and Santa Fe Swamp because they don't require quota permits and have more liberal seasons. But that makes me think that the terrain might severely restrict access.

I lived in Orlando for a few years and that place was horrific for finding public lands. The local WMAs either had severely restricted seasons and too much pressure or required an air boat to get anywhere worth hunting.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This may not be very encouraging but south and middle Georgia is full of Florida hunters during deer season.

Like Boliep said,
A LOT of the good FL hunters go to South GA. I lived there 15 years and recently. Try and get a good spot on paper company land up there. They own vast amounts of land up in North FL and they are Hq'd in Jax.
Regardless, the better hunting is just a bit North unless you want to brave Ocala National Forest there.

Go to the FLW website. They have a spot that clearly shows the WMAs and has all the pertinent info on them. There are some that are really good. I lived in Pensacola for several years and had several WMAs within an hr of my house. I took deer every year off them.

Deer leases in North Florida are pretty cheap, I have seen them for $1000 per family per year. Can't say anything toward quality.

I had access to the NAS JAX hunting area south of town.

If you are retired or active duty military this might be an option for you.

Gun clubs are ok. Best gun shop in town is at JAX beach. There are two Gander Mountains, Green Acres has a lot of guns but very expensive.

Best rifle range is in St Augustine.

Not sure on names, it has been 4 years since I left.

Thanks for the input. I will have access to NAS JAX, but I didn't realize you could hunt parts of it.

BWW,

PM sent.

Chances are the inexpensive leases are going to suck. Lots of people and they may run deer with dogs. Quality leases are extremely expensive in FL. They are cheaper in north FL than the more southern areas.

There used to be an area south of Jacksonville that was a killer place for ducks. I am trying to remember the name.

It has been over 20 years since I lived in Gainesville. I typically hunted local WMA's, Lochloosa. There use to be a hunt every year at Cedar Key Scrub where we would usually see deer and/or hogs every time. That was a bow hunt. I also had very good results doing bow hunts at St. Vincent's Island NWR.

Tom

Thank you to all for the suggestions.

I'm leaning towards a south Georgia timber company lease at this point. The WMAs from central Florida left a bad impression on me so I'm a bit gun shy about going back to public land in any part of the state.

I also don't like the fact that the season may be damn near 4 months long, but a WMA may only offer 8-12 three day weekend hunts that you have to draw a permit for. And if you do you are tied into that weekend. It definitely makes a case against public land hunting, at least for me.

Do any of you all know what a north Florida lease would cost per acre?