Deer Hunting in Volusia County, Florida
My first deer, a rare 7-point Florida swamp buck.
When most people think of hunting, they think of deer or hogs. The first time I went hunting was actually for the latter because it was mid-summer here in Florida and deer season had not yet opened.
After spending two days in a tree stand over a feeder, sweating my ass off, and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes the size of my thumb waiting for a hungry pig to come by and give me a shot, I began to think that hunting was really overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I love just sitting calmly in the outdoors and enjoying the scenery, but when I’m hunting, I want some action.
It took a while, but the action did eventually come, just before sunset.
Out of nowhere, a family of deer, one of which was a sizeable buck, came out of the woods toward my stand. My heart began to beat incessantly, and I got a full dose of adrenaline as this magnificent creature walked directly toward me. As I sat there with my bow on my lap, in my mind I ran through how this situation would have played out differently if that buck were there in-season. Being only about 35 yards away, and me knowing my ability to accurately nail targets out to 45 yards, he was well within range.
I watched him for about 20 minutes before he decided something wasn’t right and walked back into the thick of the woods. Lucky for him, it was the wrong time of year.
While the first boar hunt didn’t go at all as planned, seeing that buck up close and personal lit a fire of desire in me to get my first deer.
Living in Palm Beach at the time, I was somewhat close to J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area (WMA). So when season came around, I did some scouting, got myself a treestand, and made it a regular outing on weekend during the season to go post up and try my luck.
Suffice to say, after about 50 times over the course of two years, scouting miles of terrain online and in person, I never saw anything. Not even a doe.
I spoke with some of the local boys who had hunted there their whole lives, and when I began pressing them for tips for a relatively new hunter they just laughed. They laughed because the chances of a new hunter getting a buck on public land was a fools errand. Sure I could get lucky, but many of them told me they had hunted their whole lives, almost every day, and still only managed to bag a buck every year or two if they were lucky. So me trying to do so on opening week and sporadically throughout the season was simply not going to pay off.
Realizing that I was effectively wasting my time on public land, I decided it was time to find some private land to hunt. I didn’t want to get a lease, and I certainly didn’t want some guide following me around and doing everything but taking the shot for me on a caged hunt. So I did some research and called up the guys at West Shore Outfitters in Volusia County Florida explaining my situation. I said I wanted to come out for opening deer season to do some archery hunting, and just wanted to be left alone in the woods with little/no oversight where there have been some deer sighted. They obliged and said they could certainly do that.
So I put a date on the books for mid-week of season opener for 2020. I had tried to go that weekend, but they were already booked up. As it turned out, that happened to be a good call because that weekend there was torrential rain and wind, and everyone who came out ended up getting nothing but soaking wet. They all got completely skunked!
When I finally got to camp late in the afternoon the day before my hunt, I was shown my room in a mobile home on the property. I knew what I was getting into. I dont need fancy accommodations on hunting or fishing trips, I like to rough it and this certainly fit the bill. I got all my gear unpacked, checked everything for function, had a good night beer, and was in bed by 9pm to wake up at 5am and get out in the woods.
I jumped in the side by side with my guide Dakota, who did just as I had asked. He dropped me in the middle of the woods over a cypress swamp right next to a rickety old treestand that had clearly been there for a while. He wished me luck, and said he’d be back to pick me up at 10am. He also warned me that there was a 4 point junior buck walking around the area and that he was NOT legal to shoot so don’t do it. I noted that and agreed that I wouldn’t have shot one that small anyway. So I climbed up the stand, got situated, and sat there all morning.
As the sun began to come up, I didn’t see much other than some racoons and the usual birds and squirrels. After a few hours around 8am, I heard some branches and leaves being ruffled just off to my right. I picked up my bow, took a deep breath to offset the adrenaline rush and pounding heartbeat that had overtaken me. As the sound got closer, I nocked my arrow and began to draw in anticipation of the deer or hog that was just about to appear.
Sure enough, it was the 4-point buck that Dakota had told me about. I drew down my bow, and just watched this juvenile walk practically right under my treestand. Even though he was small, it was still really cool to see him walking and to observe such a magnificent creature. After all, it was the first actual deer I had seen since that first-day hog hunting years before. Suffice it to say I knew I was in the right spot finally. Where there was one deer, there was likely more.
The 4-point baby buck. Still beautiful to watch!
The rest of the day wasn’t very exciting either. I saw a family of turkeys go walking by which was also cool to see, but there wasn’t much else. I sat in the stand until about 4pm and by that point had decided to call it a day. I headed back to the trailer, had a quick rinse to get the sweat and bug repellant off, got a sandwich from the local gas station for dinner, and hit the sack for another early morning.
Can you spot the turkeys?
The second day was much like the first, only we decided to hit a different spot. Dakota had said that he had seen some big bucks around this new spot that was backed right up to someone else’s land. It was a unique setup, with my back to some thick vegetation, some thick vegetation directly across from me, but with an opening directly to my left and a nice path that went right under my treestand toward the feeder about 30 yards at about 45 degrees to my right. Then there was another path that hooked around the feeder toward the right and ran along the fence of the other property that we were adjacent to.
I guess the strategy, if all went well, was that any deer would come from behind the thick vegetation from my left or right toward the feeder. I had my doubts because it was pretty tight quarters for a bowhunter, considering I’d have to nock, draw, and shoot in complete silence super close to the deer who are known for having EXCELLENT hearing and smelling abilities. The slightest movement or sound would likely scare the deer off, so stealth was absolutely critical in this position and setup.
After about an hour of sitting in complete darkness, the sun began to come up. I hadn’t seen much life yet but another hour after sunrise, I saw some movement in the distance. It was far enough out where I could see that it was a deer but I couldn’t see how big. I unzipped my binoculars to get a glimpse of what was now heading right towards me. To my complete shock, it was the biggest freaking deer I had ever seen in my life. It was about 70 yards out, but it was an incredibly bulky 6 point with a rack that had to stand about 2 feet above its head. Clearly a trophy deer, maybe one of a lifetime. Words cannot explain the feeling of trying to contain my excitement at seeing such an amazing animal, let alone one that may soon present a once-in-a-lifetime shot for me. I turned on my GoPro to capture the action shot, waited, calmed my breathing, and held completely still for about 5 minutes, hoping this deer would come a little closer so I could get a shot.
Unfortunately, it never happened. Deer don’t get that big by being stupid, and even though I did my part to stay completely still and quiet, this deer clearly came to scout the area and didn’t like the feel of it. He slowly turned around, looked both ways, and walked back into the bush where he first came out from.
My heart sunk knowing that he certainly wasn’t coming back and that clearly a trophy deer was now outside my grasp. The thought crossed my mind to shimmy down from the treestand and pursue on foot, but then I realized that wasn’t on our land and that idea would not have been worth it even if it were on our land.
As I sat back in my treestand, I turned off my Gopro, and took another deep breath to try and calm my heart rate down. But then all of sudden I heard a sound of leaves breaking behind me and about 15 feet to my left. Before I could even turn my head, another deer rounded the corner at a somewhat rapid pace. I held dead still but I could see out of my peripheral vision that this was certainly not the same size buck I just saw, but he was definitely a legal 6-point deer. From the time I first heard and saw him, within seconds he was literally walking directly below my treestand. He was so close, that the slightest movement or sound would have surely alerted him to my presence and he would have ran off. Judging by his rapid pace, I knew this deer was hungry going for the feeder, so I decided to wait for him to be distracted before I made any movement to ready for the shot. Turning on the GoPro was now completely out mind so I’d have to miss getting the action shot. Worse things could have happened, all I cared about was getting an actual shot, not a camera shot.
As he got to the feeder, he had his tail to me with his head down and began eating the corn on the ground. Knowing that he was finally distracted, I lifted my bow with my arrow already nocked. However, being right-handed and due to the angle of my treestand, I was at a really awkward angle that prevented me from positioning myself with my left foot forward for a proper shot sitting down. I would have to stand up, draw, aim, and shoot in complete silence or risk spooking the deer, and the situation wasn’t looking too promising for that. But if I were to get a shot on this deer or any deer, this was the only way and opportunity to do it. To further complicate the matter, his back was toward me, leaving without a shot. Things were not looking good, and now my adrenaline was in full swing, so I was practically shaking I was so excited and nervous.
I felt that impatient pressure that it was now or never. So I waited for him to dip his head and start chewing, hoping that the sound in his mouth would mask the sound of me standing up to draw. So I stood up as quietly as possible, and did so perfectly. Not a sound.
“Ok, that went well, now I need to turn. So as I began to pivot my body to my right to draw, my rubber boot let out a loud squeak against the metal treestandas I did so, making the deer instantly lift his head to look right at me from his right with his ears spread wide. I froze, standing completely still, hoping that he had not seen me. In a staredown for what seemed for like 5 hours but was actually 5 seconds, the deer was now alerted to something else in the vicinity and began walking away from the stand to continue on his way. I waited for his next step to draw my bow and even though he was now facing away from me, he was about to turn to his right, giving me a less-than-ideal 45 degree shot opportunity from the rear. But it was now or never. So I lined up my sights, took a deep breath, and let the arrow fly.
The deer jumped and ran about 15 feet to my right now about 36-40 yards out, stopping at the corner of the other path along the fence of the other property, directly between two trees in a V formation
“Did I even hit him? Did I miss? Why didn’t he go down?” I thought to myself.
I can’t really explain in detail what happened next because it was all really a blur that happened in what felt like a second. I’m guessing my reflexes took over because subconsciously I grabbed another arrow, knocked it, turned almost completely back around, aimed, and let another arrow fly.
With this shot, I had a lot more confidence in my placement because the deer’s front right leg gave out for a moment, just before he took off running again. I knew I had hit him this time, but I didn’t know how well.
I quickly got on the phone to call Dakota, who had instructed me to not pursue anything if I got a shot on, lest I mess up the blood trail that would help the dogs find a downed animal.
A minute later, there was Dakota and his dog Mojo riding shotgun in the side by side, coming to pick me up and follow the blood trail.
My heart was pounding even harder than before, wondering if I had finally got my first deer or if I had completely blown not one but two shots at an easy 30-40 yards out.
Once I climbed in the I tried to explain to Dakota what had happened and where I had shot him, but my voice was cracking from all the adrenaline. I pointed to where I had my second shot about 15 feet away, so we sent Mojo off in pursuit of the blood trail.
The second we rounded the corner, we didn’t have to go far. The deer fell about 3 feet in front of where I had shot him on the second time.
A bunch of yells and high-fives were exchanged, and clearly the excitement had taken over Dakota and I for a successful hunt. Despite all the excitement, I felt a heavy heart for the animal. I had killed countless fish at this point in my life, but this was my first kill of a mammal this size. Not knowing what to do, I just walked up to the deer, I put my hand on his heart, paid my respects saying thank you to him for giving his life for me and my family, and thanked God for His provision. I felt a lot better after that, but I think the emotional rollercoaster I was on had something to do with the outflow of emotions. I didn’t cry, but I easily could have if I were alone.
On the ride back to the tree stand, I explained to Dakota in detail what had happened once again. I looked over my shoulder again and saw not one but two holes in the deer. Apparently I had hit the deer the first time so I let Dakota know that I had taken two shots and I needed to look for my other arrow. The second one was easy, it was right behind the deer sticking straight up in the mud. But the first one, had submerged a little more, but we were still able to recover it.
As we pulled the second arrow, Dakota whipped around with a slightly aggressive tone.
“Wait, so you got two shots on this thing?
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said, not knowing if I wasn’t supposed to do that.
“Hold up, this first shot looked like you got him pretty good, how and why did you take a second shot? He asked.
“I thought I missed him the first time and he stopped between those two trees so I figured I’d take a second shot just in case,” I said.
“Man I’ve seen some s*** but that’s pretty impressive getting a second shot, let alone between two trees at that distance and directly behind you. That second shot went right through his heart.” He said.
I’m not trying to toot my own horn here, but that made me feel pretty damn good about myself. Not only had I got my first deer, but it was good sized and incredibly rare 7 point, that I had taken with an “impressive” shot according to someone who has probably guided hundreds of hunts in his life. To say I was walking on the clouds was an understatement.
After a short ride back to the camp, we unloaded the deer from the side by side and once again I stopped to marvel at this beautiful animal. I still felt a bit of a heavy heart, but again the excitement counteracted the negative emotions.
We took some pictures, and immediately began quartering the deer for the butcher, and of course preparing the head for taxidermy.
The ride back to Vero Beach was only two hours, but it felt like a few minutes because my mind was still racing. I kept reliving the entire experience over and over, from seeing the monster buck at first, to seeing the 7-pointer come right under me shortly thereafter, and then taking the shot and the second hail mary shot.
It was truly and amazing experience, and the feeling of finally bagging my first deer after 50+ times on public land with nary a sight of a deer, really made me feel like all those hours sweating my ass off and getting eaten by mosquitoes were not in vain.
Key Takeaways
There is no substitute for experience. Hiring a guide increases your chances of a successful hunt dramatically.
Private land > public land in terms of hunting quality.
Deer meat is hands down one of the tastiest and leanest red meats out there.
Persistence pays off. Put in your time and eventually, you will get rewarded even if it takes 50 times trying.