Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has added something new this year
October 15th, 2006 by Administrator
Archery season, which started in September, ends Oct. 22.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has added something new this year: crossbow season.
“A crossbow season has been established for private lands,” states Tony Young, media relations coordinator with the FWC, “created for any hunter who’d like to use a crossbow or continue using a bow.”
“The most common game to take during crossbow season will be deer and wild hog,” says Young, who adds that crossbow season does not apply to wildlife management areas, only private land.
Immediately following the five-day crossbow season is muzzleloading gun season, formerly known as primitive weapons. In the Central Zone, which includes Clay County, muzzleloading season is Oct. 28 to Nov. 5.
Many hunters find muzzleloaders a challenging way to hunt deer. According to Young, for deer-hunting muzzleloaders firing single bullets must be at least .40 caliber and you may not use muzzleloaders with self-contained cartridge ammunition capabilities or possess modern firearms during muzzleloading gun season.
The general gun season here in Clay County opens Nov. 11 and closes Jan. 21.
Avid turkey hunters have until Tuesday to apply for a FWC “special opportunity” spring turkey hunt for the sought-after Osceola turkey. In this program, large tracts of land with healthy turkey populations are made available to a limited number of hunters. Hunters apply for specific hunts and are selected by random drawing. You can apply multiple times to increase your chances, although each application submitted will cost $5. Details are available at www.myfwc.com/hunting. The Osceola turkey is a subspecies of turkey found only in Florida, normally in the lower two-thirds of the state. Clay County is on the northern border of the Osceola’s range. Although none of the special-opportunity hunts are in Clay, there is a number of locations in the Lake George area.
What we do have here in Clay County are three significant wildlife management areas: Camp Blanding, Jennings Forest and Bayard. Each area has different regulations, requirements and bag limits, all available on the MyFWC Web site noted above. If you don’t have the opportunity to hunt on private land, these WMAs offer hunters excellent access.