The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has changed the hunting rules and regulations for the 2015-2016 deer hunting season. The purpose of the changes is to manage deer on a more local scale, tailored to habitat quality, characteristics of the local deer herd and preferences of local hunters and other stakeholders. Last year the FWC, created two Deer Management Units (DMU) in northwest Florida’s Hunting Zone D. This season, the FWC had added 10 DMUs for a total of 12 within Zone A, B, C and D for the 2015-2016 hunting season in Florida. Each DMU has its own rules and regulations regarding antlered and antlerless deer. Six of these DMUs make up Zone C in northeast and much of central Florida.
In five of the six units in Zone C (C1, C2, C4, C5 and C6), which includes Madison County and part of Jefferson County, antlered deer must now have at least three antler points (each point at least an inch long) on one side or have a main antler beam length of at least 10 inches to be legal to take. In DMU-C3 within the Big Bend region, which includes the southern part of Jefferson County, antlered deer must now have at least two antler points (each point at least an inch long) on one side to be legal to take.
According to the FWC, these new antler regulations will protect most 1.5-year-old bucks and apply to all lands (private property, public land, wildlife management areas) within each DMU. To help encourage youth participation, a special exemption was included. Youth hunters (15 years old and younger) in all DMUs are exempt from these greater antler regulations and may harvest antlered deer with at least a five-inch antler. Among these changes, antlerless deer season during general gun season on private lands has been modified.
For Madison County and the northern part of Jefferson County, antlerless deer season on private lands only is Nov. 7-8 and 21-22.
For more details on these new rule changes and to learn more about deer management units, go to www.MyFWC.com/Deer.