Florida buck

[nicholasjohn]

Nice buck, good that it's a day time photo. Not trying to hijack, but here a couple from my property

NICE brow tines.

 

[yobuck]

Buddy of mine retires to Florida 6 months per year. He's near Ocala. He has lots of buddies that are resident hunters in his area. They have food plots and great management areas for deer. Some have killed nice southern bucks while others are just average bucks for Florida. The common denominator is definitely food source and age. Sure genetics helps but southern deer typically do not have excellent genetics for growing huge antlers. It's food and age that matter. Not too far from Florida north offers bigger body/antler deer. Those deer being derived from the northern strain of whitetail, not the Florida Key deer. I've heard there are a strain or mixed version of the northern whitetail in Florida also. Not being from there I do not know but the buck in the OPs pics look like he could be a candidate.

I moved from Pa to the Florida Keys where i lived full time for 10 years. The key deer are only found on Big Pine key which is below Marathon. The reason being there really isnt any source of fresh water other than what is produced by rain on the other islands in the Keys. Their numbers are very small in total, and their size resembles that of a decent size German Sheppard dog. So there is a major difference between them and the typical Florida Whitetail as for size.
Ive been hunting in the mountainous region of NC Pa every year for more than 70 years. By and large that region of the state was known to have smaller deer and smaller rack bucks than the other areas of the state having better quality food due to more farms. However, over the last 20 or so years that has changed considerably. Part of the answer is no doubt less hunting pressure due to less hunters staying for shorter periods of time, allowing the bucks to grow bigger. Ive never seen in my lifetime the type and number of big bucks as ive seen in recent years.
But by and large i see little difference between the size of the average deer here in Florida compared to those where our camp is located in NC PA.

 

[VLD Pilot]

The NC 8 pointer I killed was very small. Killed two bucks in Texas, both small deer, large antlers (3.5 years old). Texas has large bodied deer but it's not the rule rather the exception. Same with NC. I have no knowledge of FL deer other than what I hear. Your info as well on FL helps. Did not know there were only areas the Key deer live in FL.

 

[nicholasjohn]

I moved from Pa to the Florida Keys where i lived full time for 10 years. The key deer are only found on Big Pine key which is below Marathon. The reason being there really isnt any source of fresh water other than what is produced by rain on the other islands in the Keys. Their numbers are very small in total, and their size resembles that of a decent size German Sheppard dog. So there is a major difference between them and the typical Florida Whitetail as for size.
Ive been hunting in the mountainous region of NC Pa every year for more than 70 years. By and large that region of the state was known to have smaller deer and smaller rack bucks than the other areas of the state having better quality food due to more farms. However, over the last 20 or so years that has changed considerably. Part of the answer is no doubt less hunting pressure due to less hunters staying for shorter periods of time, allowing the bucks to grow bigger. Ive never seen in my lifetime the type and number of big bucks as ive seen in recent years.
But by and large i see little difference between the size of the average deer here in Florida compared to those where our camp is located in NC PA.

I grew up in western PA, and we hunted Erie & Warren counties. The deer in Erie county were a full size bigger, due to more farm land and not as much snow in winter. I moved away in 1980, and didn't hunt there for about a dozen years, and when I went back to hunt, my buddies were all going nuts because they started a point restriction on bucks, as well as heavy doe harvest. I told them that they would finally be seeing some trophy bucks after a few years of this type of deer management, and they didn't want to hear it. Just because they have point restrictions in Montana doesn't mean it's going to work here, they said. Well, all these years later, they are shooting trophy bucks pretty regularly, and liking it. Letting them grow up instead of killing the spikes & fork-horned bucks made all the difference. That may be part of the reason your area further east is producing better bucks now than you've ever seen there before. I'm sure there are other factors, like the brushy areas that grow up in the clear-cuts where they can go hide from the army of hunters. Back in the day, as they say, it was all mature timber. That's not the best cover for whitetails. Current forestry management practices are making a difference, too.

 

[joseph singleton]

Heck yeah! I tell people all the time that we got good bucks in Florida. When we go out of state to hunt people always ask about hunting in Florida and some are quick to judge because the vast majority of what's killed is less than 100" deer. But what they don't understand is that killing a 100"+ deer here is way harder than they think. We don't have the agriculture and they're just a smaller deer in general and I personally believe they are the hardest in the country to hunt and kill. From my experiences, they're smarter and more pressured than anything I've seen in the Midwest where I go annually.

ADD TO that buddy you being hunted by 10,000 pesty bugs PER hour and carrying in a 5gal bucket of water to replace the 8gal u sweated out..LOLHUNT ON BRO...& GALS....

 

[FlGunner]

ADD TO that buddy you being hunted by 10,000 pesty bugs PER hour and carrying in a 5gal bucket of water to replace the 8gal u sweated out..LOLHUNT ON BRO...& GALS....

With all the rain so far this year, we got a good crop of them. But to hunt, I'll go up against them anytime. Themocell is a big help too.

 

[wwbrown]

That is almost the best thing I have ever seen in Florida, eclipsed only by some young ladies on a Florida beach in bikinis. Nice racks on both, maybe a connection??