I used to be in a lease over around Jasper and the locals said the same of it. At night down a 10 or 15 mile stretch the guy said he could count over 100 deer on his way home. 4 yrs ago he said the highest he could get to was around 20.
I checked the Tate's Hell map and there some areas of it we used to hunt (SJ), but mostly we hunted in the corner of 98 and 319 back toward the Ocklocknee and behind the fire tower (if its still there!).
Well that's good to hear doghunter - "Back in the day" there was St Joe land and Buckeye land. No body hunted the SJ land until it was doe weekend (Thanksgiving). Being used to running dogs down here in the Ocala Nat Forest it was like going to a candy store whenever we travelled up there. Thousands and thousands of acres all to ourselves and some big bucks to boot. Back then we even saw panther tracks from time to time and they were always in close company with some hogs.
I hunt on what use to be referred to as buckeye land except now they are all private leases from Foley lands and timber. As you are probably aware, $25 permit and you could hunt 400,000 acres of buckeye land. Now, you couldn't hunt it for less than 5 grand per year and would need to be a member of 5-6 clubs. Locals are saying that there were more bucks back in the 90s than there are today but we pay alot more to hunt a small portion.
Stand hunting, doe tags, and the overuse of herbicides has really dwindled the population of our deer in the past 3 years BUT I'll be the first to admit that if i couldn't run my dogs year around or stand hunt that I wouldn't join a lease at all...
BAck in the 80's when I hunted Buckeye and other type 2's you could drive all weekend and never find a track.My friends hunted it during the early 70's and it was worse.
Well that's good to hear doghunter - "Back in the day" there was St Joe land and Buckeye land. No body hunted the SJ land until it was doe weekend (Thanksgiving). Being used to running dogs down here in the Ocala Nat Forest it was like going to a candy store whenever we travelled up there. Thousands and thousands of acres all to ourselves and some big bucks to boot. Back then we even saw panther tracks from time to time and they were always in close company with some hogs.
I hunt on what use to be referred to as buckeye land except now they are all private leases from Foley lands and timber. As you are probably aware, $25 permit and you could hunt 400,000 acres of buckeye land. Now, you couldn't hunt it for less than 5 grand per year and would need to be a member of 5-6 clubs. Locals are saying that there were more bucks back in the 90s than there are today but we pay alot more to hunt a small portion.
Stand hunting, doe tags, and the overuse of herbicides has really dwindled the population of our deer in the past 3 years BUT I'll be the first to admit that if i couldn't run my dogs year around or stand hunt that I wouldn't join a lease at all...
BAck in the 80's when I hunted Buckeye and other type 2's you could drive all weekend and never find a track.My friends hunted it during the early 70's and it was worse.
The real turning point was around the early 90s. Then in the mid 90s they split it up and leased it. When the population boomed, it really boomed. I still have one stand where I see 20+ deer in an afternoon but it's 50 yds away from private land where does are never shot. The whole club (along with 3 rivers) use to be like that.
I used to be a member of camp misery(foley property) If your dogs cant get one jumped in there within 10 min. then its time to cull. There were so many deer, but the horns were poor and 80% of the time it was 5 does. It takes longer to get one up in the forest and you got to have some tough trail dogs. The st. joe property in the corner of 98 and 319 is all leased out and some was used to start a new neighborhood that never took off
I used to be a member of camp misery(foley property) If your dogs cant get one jumped in there within 10 min. then its time to cull. There were so many deer, but the horns were poor and 80% of the time it was 5 does. It takes longer to get one up in the forest and you got to have some tough trail dogs. The st. joe property in the corner of 98 and 319 is all leased out and some was used to start a new neighborhood that never took off
You got that right, a lot of deer and 90% are does. A lot of culls pass for deer dogs in the club for members other than me. I don't keep one anymore that won't take a cold track but I've seen some sure enough culls being ran. Once the deer population boomed the standards of dogs went down terribly. The times are changing though and the deer population is dwindling. Some will have to reconsider what they are feeding soon. I hunt closer to perry where they population isn't as dense and we can still use trail dogs and jump the deer we put on easier.
