FWC approves draft changes to quota hunt rules

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission this week approved a draft rule that would expand hunting opportunities on private lands and on nearly 6 million acres of its public-hunting wildlife management areas.

Some of the proposed changes, which will get final approval in February, include allowing the use of air guns to take rabbits and gray squirrels, and making a slight modification to the boundary line between hunting zones C and D, south of Tallahassee.

Approved draft changes to the quota system would also adjust the bag limit on deer and spring turkey quota hunts on 39 wildlife management areas, to better accommodate guest hunters and would allow a quota permit holder the flexibility to take a different guest each day of a quota hunt.

Currently, the rule allows for only one guest permit during a quota hunt.

Another proposed change to the quota system is that hunters would receive reinstatement of their preference points only if they electronically returned their unused quota permit 10 days or more prior to the first day of their quota hunt.

This would allow such returned permits to be reissued to other hunters on a weekly basis, instead of once a month allowing that more hunters are able to participate in the hunts.

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