I am trying to figure out where I wanna go bow huntin.
My choices so far are Chassahowitzka, or Camp Blanding. I am coming from Sarasota, so Camp blanding is a 200+ mile drive. While Chazz is closer.
Havin not hunted either area, where might I have the best opportunity to see some deer?
Thanks
g
If you come to Blinding, the deer are MOVING!! Been seeing a lot over in S10. Bout creamed 3 fat does and a couple yearlings yesterday leaving the office at the end of Ave B.
S10 is the area south of Sr 16 and North of West gate road. It part of the archery WMA....
I've heard very good thing about ft blanding. chazz is near me and I don't really care for it. not that it doesn't have game, but there are alot of other hunters and tons of weekend warriors. it is a large area and varied terrain. you will need to walk deep to get away from others and water is pretty deep there now. it has a decent rd system and lots of trails. I pass by the check in on the way to my gun club and the first 4-5 days of bow season they only had 2 deer on 40,000+ acres. some succesful hunters I've seen there wore waders to get around and that was in drier seasons.
I have been in chass since the 15th and have only seen two deer total. My son got one of the pigs on the board and one 4 point buck. the only other deer taken was a button and spike and a 5pnt which were taken on the outside of chass near the gulf. They also got 4 does. So total for 13 days 4bucks 4 does and 3 pigs. Probably total of 5oo hunters for the 13 days so you figure the odds. Just nothing moving during the day.
There's lots of deer in that one little bit of Blanding. If you go on Google maps and bring up the area of Blanding, look directly south and a little SW of Kingsley lake and you'll see the area I'm talking about. SR 230 is on the west and Duval Rd (on the base itself) is on the east. The Rd they are calling Kingsley Rd that runs into SR 230 is actually West Gate Rd. The area north of that is S10.
I ALWAYS see deer up near where that little trail (Sapp Rd) crosses the creek that flows SW to NE is in there. I run there a few days a week and it's uncommon not to see deer in that area. To the north of that creek is predominantly oaks with pines mixed in, to the south is mainly pines with some oaks. Generally speaking.
Also, the big clearings you see, those are LZ's and it's not uncommon to see deer there as well, especially in the area where the one the looks like a backwards "C" meets the other one.
There's two walk in gates to this area. One is on the west side of West Gate Rd and the other is on west side of that little unamed RD to the north (we call it Holder Rd). This whole area is Archery only, that's why I don't hunt it (hence why I'm sharing the info :cheers ).
Just to the east of Duval is Camp Blanding Rod and Gun Club land and there's deer all over that place going back and forth between the WMA and the R&GC land. It's pretty cool driing in to work because I get to see the same deer year after year and there young 'uns, and etc...
There was two GOOD bucks a couple years back that would hang out on those LZ's. I'd be running in the mornings and they'd just watch me. For months I watched 'em and then they were gone. I found them after a while. Somebody had poached them both one night and dumped them to the south a ways. What a shame. But that place can produce some real nice bucks. About the same time, a guy I know in the club killed a NICE big 'ol buck a couple blocks east right across from the camp ground.
Blanding is worth the drive....
