I have 18 months in Maine and then on to Florida for 18 months.

How do hunting leases work in Florida and does anyone know of any good links?

Hey Seth,

Where in Fl are you headed? P/Cola or Jax? I'm in P/Cola and will be here until 2010 and then I'm hanging the old khakis up.

I don't know much about "leases" in Fl, but there are quite a few "hunting clubs" around. I don't belong to any of them, because where I'm at, most of them hunt land that belongs to International Paper and it is scaling way back on it's operations and is selling a lot of land. A lot of the hunting clubs are loosing their properties.

There is a butt load of public land that you can hunt n Fl. Something like a haf million acres is in Wildlife Management Areas alone. These are scattered all over the place. Some are better than others and some require a boat to hunt effectively, but not all of them. I have one of them less than 4 miles from my house and is covers a little over 20,000 acres. There is another one about 20 miles north of me that is bigger.

Another option is hunting military bases. I've got a permit for Eglin Air Force Base and it has over 200,000 acres open for hunting. If you are active duty, a base permit costs all of 20 bucks. Also, if you are active duty, you can get what they call a Military Gold Sportsman License. It has your hunting permit, big game license, small game license, fresh water fishing license, salt water fishing license, tarpon tag, snook tag and a bunch of other permits. It also costs 20 bucks.

We can hunt deer here from Oct until the end of Feb with an annual bag limit of 6. Pigs on public ground have no limit and can be hunted during any open season. Pigs on private ground are classed as varmints and can be taken year round.

Another option, is to find someone that will let you on their property. I found a fellow in Okaloosa County which is about an hr from P/Cola and he let me on his place for a small tresspass fee. I took a pretty nice whitetail buck off his place during the muzzle loader season. I'm going back later this month to try and take one with a rifle.

The deer here are nowhere near as big as you are used to in Wy, but there are quite a few of them. If you get one over 120 lbs live weight, then you got yorself a monster. But 3 or 4 of them in the freezer helps on the food bill.

PM me if you want any specific info.

Good luck on the CPO test next week.

Chief Mac

Mac,

I have been studying, but I am also moving so not studying as much as I need to. Evals count more this year so I am pretty much golden as long as I can make a 40 myself.

They only made 14 PR1s so that's the bad news. Means bad numbers up top too.

I'll be in Maine for 18 months, and then I will be in Jax.

Eglin sounds awesome!

We'll get together once I am stateside and kill some stuff!

Seth,

We don't have to wait til you're down his way to shoot something. Lots of bears to chase in Maine. My wife is from New Hampshire and I get up that way a couple times a year.

Get settled into Maine and PM me. We'll get together someday, tell sea stories, dazzle each other with bullshit and pop a bear or 2.

Cheers

Chief Mac

Sounds good, let me get moved in and we can do that.