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New Florida Deer Hunting Rules Approved: Statewide Bag Limit, Harvest Reporting Required
April 5, 2019
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has approved news deer hunting rules that are in effect this year.
Annual statewide bag limit
One of the rules establishes a new annual statewide bag limit of five deer per hunter, of which no more than two may be antlerless (any deer, except a spotted fawn, without antlers or whose antlers are less than 5 inches in length). However, antlerless deer may still only be harvested during seasons when they are legal to take, such as during archery season and on antlerless deer days.
“The annual statewide bag limit was developed through extensive collaboration with FWC staff and stakeholders, and aligns with the goals and objectives outlined in the Commission-approved strategic plan for deer management,” said Cory Morea, deer management program coordinator.
Florida was the only state in the Southeast without a specified annual bag limit for deer.
“This adaptive approach to deer management is intended to improve hunting opportunities by encouraging harvest among more hunters as well as greater selectivity, while helping maintain a healthy and reasonably balanced deer herd,”Morea said.
Deer harvested under permits issued to landowners of the following programs are excluded from annual statewide bag, daily bag and possession limits – antlerless deer permit program, deer depredation program and private lands deer management program. Deer harvested on licensed game farms and licensed hunting preserves are also excluded from annual statewide bag, daily bag and possession limits.
Harvest reporting system
New rules require all hunters – including youth under 16 years of age, resident hunters 65 years and older, those with a disability license, military personnel, and those hunting on their homestead in their county of residence – to report deer they harvest. However, deer taken with a deer depredation permit or from a game farm or licensed hunting preserve do not have to be logged and reported through the harvest report system.
“Before moving a deer from the point of harvest, hunters who harvest deer are required to record in their harvest log information such as their name, date of harvest, sex of the deer, and county or wildlife management area where harvested,” Morea said.
Before the start of the deer season, hunters can access harvest logs online at MyFWC.com. Hunters should keep their harvest log nearby when hunting deer.
Furthermore, this and possibly some additional information must be reported to the FWC’s harvest reporting system within 24 hours of harvest and prior to final processing of the deer, any parts of the deer being transferred to any meat processor or taxidermist, and the deer leaving the state.
“A harvest reporting system will foster bag limit compliance and give the FWC another source of deer harvest data,” Morea said.
Changes to private lands antlerless deer permit program
All antlerless deer taken on lands enrolled in the antlerless deer permit program must be tagged with an issued antlerless deer tag, even if they are harvested on a day when the take of antlerless deer is otherwise allowed (such as archery season) within the zone in which the enrolled lands are located. In addition, the deer must be recorded on the harvest log of and reported to the FWC’s harvest reporting system by the hunter who harvested the deer.
After the season ends, permittees must report the total number of antlerless deer taken on his or her enrolled properties by April 1.
“The antlerless deer permit program is intended to provide flexibility in managing deer populations. Tag issuance rates will be set by deer management unit and are designed to allow sustainable harvests while minimizing overharvest of antlerless deer, particularly females, on permitted lands,” Morea said. “Additionally, harvest information provided by antlerless deer permittees will help improve the FWC’s science-based deer management decisions.”
Because of this new tagging requirement for properties enrolled in the antlerless deer permit program, the application period for these permits and associated tags is earlier. May 15 is the earliest you may apply for all hunting zones, but deadlines vary by zone – July 14 for Zone A, Aug. 11 for Zone C and Sept. 29 for zones B and D.
Youth deer hunt weekend
Beginning with the 2019-2020 hunting season, youth 15 years old and younger who are supervised by an adult (18 years or older) may participate in a new youth deer hunt weekend. This new Saturday-Sunday youth deer hunt coincides with the muzzleloading gun season in all four hunting zones and is not available on wildlife management areas.
Youth may harvest one antlered or antlerless deer (except spotted fawn) and the deer counts toward their annual bag limit. Youth are allowed to use any method of take legal for deer and may even use dogs to pursue deer on deer-dog registered properties.
The dates for next season’s youth deer hunt weekend are December 7-8 in Northwest Florida’s Zone D.
No license or permit is required of youth hunters (15 years old and younger) or accompanying adults (18 years or older) who only supervise. Since the youth hunt coincides with muzzleloading gun seasons, supervising adults and other non-youth also may hunt but must use either a muzzleloader, bow or crossbow, and possess a hunting license, deer permit and muzzleloading gun permit, unless exempt.
If youth use dogs to pursue deer (only allowed on deer-dog registered properties), any person (16 years of age or older) participating in the hunt may not shoot or shoot at deer.
Comments
33 Responses to “New Florida Deer Hunting Rules Approved: Statewide Bag Limit, Harvest Reporting Required”
FWC has this all wrong . At least for the northwest Florida area. This seems to be a push of a state government agenda to not manage a deer heard but to discourage deer hunting all together. I don’t believe for one second that this plan was devised to help manage a population of deer. It was devised to manage a population of deer hunters.
You can see that this is quite there narrative. I.e. micro managing deer season . What’s next ? Fishing? Will I need to call in every time I catch a fish now ? No the state cares nothing a bought managing our deer heard the bag limits in its self tells you all that you need to know. This is a bought discouraging hunting all together. Hunting is expensive and time consuming. If you add up all your expense for a season
Then divide by 5 . ” five being your bag limit for the year” you can see that those deer are going to cost you a lot of money. So now is it really worth the time and money to plant food plots to buy clothes to hunt in, and equipment to use. This really is an attack on the whole industry it’s self. I never thought I would see the day when hunting died. But it’s bleeding out slowley..
Florida farmer, and I quote ” THE PERMITS DO ALLOW YOU TO KILL AS MANY AS YOU WANT ” !!!!!!
I know you do not make the rules , I get it , but this is the part that gets me, and I am sure I am not the only one.
I really do believe that someone with FWC has lost there mind
I am done ranting now.
Happy hunting to everyone.
I AM OUTTA HERE.
Ken I’m glad that I do not have hundred of deer to deal with and if that’s going on you should turn them in. The permits do allow you to kill as many as you want, and the tags are so you can remove them from the property. If that’s going on you and the other land owners should get together and go to Tallahassee with all your evidence. They are going way overboard with the permit and are abusing it . The doe population is way out of control and I wish that they would open it to everyone. The laws will only change when enough like minded people come together and get them to change. I would rather not have to get the permits, but I need to be able to try and protect what’s planted. As I said before the state is not being realistic with the law.
Florida Farmer, I personally know people that use depredation permits and YOU may only shoot does during the day, but I know farmers that hire shooters with $5,000 scopes that shoot hundreds of deer a year at night. This is one thing I dao know for a fact.
Now the FWC is going to allow a license buying hunter to kill no more than 2 does a year. Where in any quality deer management does it say that you should kill more does than bucks?? What kind of logic would tell them to throw the buck/doe ratio further out of balance than it already is? Hunters are going to cut back further on their doe harvest so they can hold out for their 4th or 5th buck. Again the FWC screwed this one up about as bad as they possibly could have.
MAC not sure why your so mad farmers are following the law set forth in front of them. If you’re only killing 2 does I’m sorry the law gives you 4 weekends to kill at least 1 per day . Your rant about farmers is wrong all the way around, we would rather the law be like Alabama 1 doe per day per hunter per season. If you’re mad about the law channel you’re frustration to Tallahassee not to the farmer following the laws set forth by the state. I should tell you to google your answers but I’m not that way or say it’s none of your business after reading your rant that is so wrong it’s not even funny. We can harvest deer and remove the animal with a tag. If it’s a buck we can leave it lay or remove the head and take the body. On 1 plot that I have that’s 100 acres I got 10 tags for the year. We can shoot them and leave them lay and then our fields stink attract all kinds of other unwanted things. I would rather have Alabama law and everyone shoot them don’t hattme for laws I didn’t make that’s what I meant about ignorance of the law you got on here and ran law abiding citizens down the road . You can not have a feeder and a crop in the field and be in the program or you will get in trouble. They chec I’ve been checked multiple times every year until my crop is harvested.
Mr.Florida Farmer, I suppose I do show some ignorance sometimes, but one thing I can assure you is, I know how the depredation works and I also know how the crop insurance works !!!
I am in no means trying to point a finger at any farmer ( maybe 1 or 2 ) but something is not right with our system that we are given and We know this.We hunters are allowed 5 deer this year, I think that is suffice. Mr. Florida Farmer, will you please if you will, tell us how many tags you will be getting this year for your crops ?
Just for us people with the ignorance you are referring too will know.
Amen Florida farmer! Florida will never have decent deer unless they allow more does to be harvested. We also target does and work together with
hunters to get them doe tags to fill during hunting season. If they would allow more does to be harvested depredation hunting would go basically go away. The farmers don’t want to be out protecting their crop at night but are forced to if they don’t want acres to be eaten off!!
I hear everyone complaining about the depredation permits and it just shows your ignorance to how this works. After a few evenings of shooting them or at them they move on. They stay away for a few days or sometimes a week. You think it’s like shooting fish in a barrel it’s not . I’ve been doing it for 15 years and now with the law showing up at night because the outlaws hear me shoot and use it as a deverasion so they can hunt illegally I don’t hunt at night. I use it during daylight hours to kill does. The problem I have is our unrealistic does season which does not allow hunters to help regulate the population of the deer herd in a positive way. We need to loosen the doe restrictions on all lands and everyone would benefit all the way around. The deer are a real problem for farmers especially the does. Our deer herd is out of wave with the buck to doe ratio and our legislative people are out of touch with reality.
FOR FLORIDAHUNTER LAST TIME I CHECK THE FWC DONT OWN ANY OF IT THEY MAY TRY TO MAKE TO RULES FOR T BUT MOST OF THE TIME THE PPL DONT LISTEN THEY JUST MAKIN THE PPL WONT TO EVEN GO OUT AND DO IT MORE BECAUSE YOU ARE TRYIN TO TELL USE WHAT TO DO OWN OUR LAND USE LAND RENTER AINT GONNA HAVE IT BUT I PERTY SURE GOD OWNS ALL OF IT DEER LAND AND ALL SO M HERE TO TELL YOU NOW IM NOT REPORTING NOTHNG I KILL IN Y OWN LAND AND I HOPE ALL OF YOU LAND OWNRS OUT THERE IS WTH ME ON THIS BECAUSE F YOU DONT START STANDNG UP FOR WHATS RIGHT THE NSXTTHS YOU KNOW THEY ARE GONNA START TELLING USE HOW MANY FISH WE CAN KEEP OUT OF OUR OWN PONDS AND LAKES SO NOW IS THE TIME TO SATNAD UP WHOS WTH ME
Fwc could be more constructive by busting up a lot of the drug dealers and theifs and stay around the management areas they heavily patrol gulf power land could they be hiding something like Area 51 it just odd over there and who gives them the right to trespass on someone private land and talk bad about how the person home looks poor professionalism what I’m trying say instead of being so serious on things like trying catch hunters that ain’t breaking laws catch some illegal immigrants
The State claims they won the deer even if it’s on your own property. Now think about this, If you are driving down the road and hit a deer and tear up your vehicle, don’t wait on The State to pay for damages. Think about it.
Avid hunter – Good with all the changes except loose restrictions on “deprivation hunting” which needs better oversight in the field.
In alabama and mississippi the deer population is more than humans and same in florida panhandle.
Here is my beef with all of this. Like others have said…farmers with depredation tags can kill an unlimited number of deer, but the license buying hunter is limited to 5??? Plus, you are going to limit us to the maximum of 2 does per year when our deer population is already through the roof in Northwest Florida?? With all of the development going on the deer are already running out of habitat. I feel and hope the state loses a pile of money over this because why would I pay thousands of dollars in Florida when I can go an hour north, kill better deer, and a doe a day for the same money in Alabama. I personally give many deer away to friends and family that do not hunt but love venison. This is taking game from the people that truly work at the sport of hunting and “spreading the harvest” to the occasional weekend warrior that doesn’t put in the effort to earn a deer. I guess its the “Liberal Philosophy” of game management. I have no problem with a buck limit, or even the reporting of harvested deer. My main problem is the ridiculous limit of does. I’m sure the auto insurance companies will appreciate the increase in vehicle/deer claims over the next few years. Thank you FWC for screwing up an opportunity at actually improving Florida’s deer herd and hunting. Look out Alabama…here I come!!
If you can comment on here, you can probably handle an online reporting system. It’s not that difficult. Florida has been way behind the times on this. And unfortunately for everyone whining about what they’ll do on their land, you might own the dirt, but you don’t own the wildlife on it…
after I moved here 5 yrs ago and thought it was going to be easy to figure out how to hunt Fl., boy was that an understatement. I think it is a good thing to now know what and when deer are harvested and where. Other states have been doing for many yrs and deer mgmt works…look at the deer I left in Mo. compared to the lil things that I have seen here in panhandle. The season dates are so messed up I could not make heads or tails of it until I found a local(in-law) who helped me and he said he still isn’t certain EVERY TIME HE GOES OUT THAT IT IS OPEN SEASON, WHAT WEAPON ETC..I asked how does FWC even know how many deer are killed and if there are any in our area? He shrugged not knowing….we should know in order to better improve our deer numbers, esp the bucks when all I ever see are does! Yes I have seen some unusually large deer, mostly taken off Eglin, not in the local BWriver area. I say this is good thing and hope to see more bucks in the future, esp those that look bigger than lame goats!
Apparently some of you don’t realize that these comments WILL be read by FWC who in turn has a right to subpoena the records to determine who made these comments about illegal activity. The guy who admitted to breaking the law by exceeding his depredation tag limit will definitely be getting a visit in the near future. Hope you are using a VPN sport.
Just a friendly message to one of our commenters.. My tree farm was located in TN and I own a yank-a-billy T-shirt!
“Randy” u gotta be a game warden or one the rich kids who got beat up in school.and for your info I do hunt out of state but the quality of deer are a lot better . Missouri makes Florida deer look like stunted goats . And no body goin take any ones rights away maybe on files written in ink but truly no sir
@Randy At least these comments are readable and make a point about the farmers. An article about a year ago on limiting dog hunters didn’t produce a single legible comment.
I have no skin in the game either way, but if you’re patient enough to stalk an animal and wait for that perfect shot, a little paperwork shouldn’t scare you off. Fishermen have to jump through similar hoops.
Blah, blah, blah…..cry me a river. These comments go to show why everyone always makes fun of people in the south. “I ain’t going to do this and I ain’t going to do that”, “government ain’t going to tell me what to do”, “screw the State I’m going to do what I want”. Do you people hear yourself? Most states have been doing this for years, some more than 15 years and they have proven wildlife management works. However, it only works when people are responsible. Yes, some of you may be responsible, but by judging your comments I’d have to disagree. Rules are rules and laws are laws. You can’t pick and chose what you will and will not obey. I guess you can, but you better be ready to pay the price when you get caught. It’s not a matter of if you’ll get caught, but when you’ll get caught. If you think it’s more important to break the law instead of proper game management, then go right ahead. Just be prepared to lose your license, maybe your gun and pay the fine. I hope you people aren’t raising your kids to disrespect authority or disobey laws because they’ll be the ones to pay the price too. The purpose of this is to bring Florida up to the standards of other states that have been doing this for years. I can tell none of you have ever hunted outside of Florida. You should visit other states and you’ll be thankful you hunt in Florida.
A lot of us would rather run dogs again would u want someone sneaking up and shoot u while u was at the dinner table enjoying a nice meal with family or would u want them to call u and let you know they coming but fwc sissy’s and our faithful government don’t like dog hunting it my opinion but would love Ted nuggent to run for office
And also, if the farmers shoot the deer ( a lot of deer ) for eating there crops, Why do they put a deer feeder up in the field when hunting season starts ?
Don’t believe me, I have pictures !!!!!
Not saying every farmer is like this, because they are not, but I can tell you this much, the deer this specific farmer is shooting, comes off of MY LAND, and I DO NOT LIKE IT AT ALL !!!!
But, they allow me to shoot 2 does a year !!!
Guess I just don’t have the pull they do.
I am done now.
Farmers own their land and have the right to hunt as they please. Other hunters do not know where homes, sheds and barns are located on hte properties and put the family members in danger. They also shoot at anything that moves. Having been there and done that, I also wish the gov’t luck on their reporting scheme. The gov’t needs to handle real business and leave citizens alone! They do not own these properties. They are not above the laws they create either.
MAC, you are so right. I have killed hundreds “legally” at night even though I had only approx. thirty tags. And, yes, it showed in reducing the amount of crop damage. But it also showed come hunting season. Hardly any deer to be seen. Night permits are just a license to “night hunt”. No more do I participate in this activity. FWC needs to find a better way, and what ever it is, it should only be allowed during daylight hours!
What really gets me, these people are putting ALL these dang regulations on us Florida paying residents, but these farmers can shoot ANYTHING ( except spotted fawn ) that they want to, DAY OR NIGHT, and they have no limitation on how many they can kill and let lay for the buzzards to eat..What the hell do they have crop insurance for ?I totally get the depredation to an certain degree, but we are getting the RAW END OF THE DEAL !!!!!!!!!
This is just BULL CRAP.
I also hunt legally as I possibly can buying licenses and taken the right deer for my own management reasons but seriously Florida is ridiculous on every thing not just hunting. What was wrong was gulf power came in made people sell there homes and land saying they building a plant but just leased the land to rich government officials to hunt . But yea the rules of documentation of what animal is harvested is crazy I know I’m not phone smart or computer savvy to download or print off something to fill out
What a JOKE !! Nobody in their right mind will tell them anything. I definitely will not be reporting anything I kill. None of their business as to what I kill as long as it is legal
I will not be reporting anything to them. They will need to ride around and find me to see what I kill. I hunt legally and never ever do anything that is against the law BUT I can tell you this, Nobody in their right mind will be riding around to find a Game Warden to let him know that a buck was killed. None of their business as long as the deer is legal to take. Good luck on hunters reporting HA HA HA HA
That bout stupid we already over populated with deer .now some rich government people wannamess with hunting regulations the price of licenses is already outrageously expensive now they add junk saying 5 is all you can have and must be recorded we’ll fwc good luck with that some of us hunt and take deer to feed family and don’t go by government rules like that stupid plain and simple
This is just completely stupid! I wonder how many people will actually do any of this crap!
I’m from the government and I”m here to help. This takes and enjoyable event and turns it into a complicated paper work nightmare.
If FWC really wants to do something then how about you guys stop letting farmers slaughter our deer with depredation tags!!