All About Pocket Knives

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I hear y'all eat them things on the half-shell.

treefarmer wrote:Scott, just read your post concerning the lands available for hunting and would ask you to check out the Florida Wildlife Commission web site, under WMA (wildlife management areas). It states there are 5 million acres available to the public for outdoor activities in the Sunshine State. Some of those areas are very close to your home and at times they would be great areas for your "missions" with the grandsons.
50 years ago we hunted WMA's when we lived in central Florida, all it took was a valid hunting license and a WMA stamp. Lots of the areas have year round camping and fishing that you might enjoy. Check it out, you might be surprised .
Treefarmer

5 million acres? Heck, Florida doesn't have 5 million acres total!!!
ANd I bet not all of those WMA areas allow hunting.
Unfortunately I can not process any animal here in my condo development....

Scott is correct. The land mass of Florida is 65,755 sq mi. Multiply that times 640 acres per square mile and it comes out to 4,208,320 acres total for the entire state.

Edit: Sent a message to Florida Fish and Wild Life asking how they managed to get so much FWC land out of so little square mileage.

I'm sorry if I made a mistake but my info said there is 37.5 million acres in the State of Florida

Larry

Jerry - I think you multiplied the square miles by 64 instead of 640.

Scott - the issue you have of not having a place to process a big animal may have a lot to do with why some folks do not hunt. As well as not having a place to hunt. I guess everything about hunting was simpler when folks lived in the country close to the area they hunted. A lot of men that I have known who were deer hunters drove fifty to a hundred miles to the land their hunting club leased.

Didn't mean to cause a problem by reporting on FWC's WMA's. Their site says 5 million acres and as Scott mentioned they are not all open to hunting, some are fishing only as Florida is known for its' great fishing waters. Check a little closer, Florida is around 37.5 million acres, depending on what source you use. .
Treefarmer

You're right of course Mel. Not sure how my brain jumped the track but jump it did.

No excuse sir. Time to leave all the ciphering to Jethro Bodine.

I understand your plight Scott. Disposing of game remains is the "dirty secret" of wildlife management. There are many, many rules as to what you cannot do, very few concerning what to do. Here the states guidance is "dispose of properly" - no places to do such, etc. Some counties will not allow you to landfill game carcasses, some will. You can bury in town where I live, but you must dig deep enough to be a minimum of three feet above the top of the remains to the surface - not too easy in clay. I choose to drag the remains into a section of woods we don't use for a stand and let nature take it's course. Usually all you will find in two weeks is bone and hide - from the bears and coyotes, to the buzzards and crows, to the ants and amoeba's - they all get their share. Some hunting clubs use a "gut pit" (which I consider a disease breeder) - I look at what would nature do if the animal dropped dead - do that. Having a place to dispose of the remains of a big game animal is something you better have before you knock one down. OH

Sunday past, I took my grands to the local State Park.....same as we've been doing, and you all have been readin' about.

There were advances made in my boys Sunday...

The 7 yr old used my MORA Companion for the first time and got the hang of whittling some shavings. He was calling my name every stroke so he could show me each piece he cut!

The 6 yr old led us out of the woods. I like to let the boys lead the way back when we go off the beaten path so they'll learn how to not get lost. He took a light detour but did just fine.
Oh, he is of the age to not use a car seat.....It's happening fast, they're advancing right before my eyes.

I made a fatwood fire to fend off the skeeters.

You can barely see the 7 yr old in the left and the 6 yr old on the right (he was cutting an apple with his Imperial Scout knife )

Just reading through these few posts, I am reminded how blessed I am. I can go out my back door and head straight west for 20 miles without seeing a house or road. Granted I have to figure out how to cross a few floating bogs which is scary even, or especially in, the winter if you fall through so nobody actually does that, at least not twice. We have a ton of undeveloped open hunting land around our home which is great most of the year but less so during deer season when some people show up who really shouldn't be out in anywhere beyond a 2 acre park. That doesn't happen that often, and nature has a way to let them know that all on it's own that they shouldn't be there. When we were kids, my 3 brothers and I hunted with my Dad in a huge balsam swamp on state property that was blocked off by private land. Getting lost out there was a dangerous thing to do for seasoned hunters but I wouldn't have traded those memories for anything. I never got lost, but my cousin from the city hunted with Dad one year when I was too young to hunt, and he spent most of a night going the wrong direction and an old farmer that lived about ten miles out in what we called "the sticks", drove my cousin back to my our house. My cousin never hunted with us again. He even gave me his deer rifle, a long barrel Winchester 30/30, which he had inherited from my Grandfather. It's probably my most treasured possession. ___Dave

Colonel, I agree with you. Nature takes care of those who die a natural death and it will take care of your contribution to the eco-system. I would never even think of throwing a candy wrapper out the car window but it doesn't bother me in the least to give an apple core a fling to the side of the road. It's all as natural as breathing.

Scott, looks like another successful "mission". Those little fellers probably are the envy of there classmates when they report on their outdoor activities with Granddad! Just my opinion, but way too many of our children today know absolutely nothing about life outside the 4 walls of their homes .

Bruce, disposing of offal from game is interesting when you check out the different methods used. Some of the bigger hunting leases have big bins and they "compost" the remains of the critters. When maintained properly it must be a full time job to cover, mix and maintain sanitary conditions, but somehow they do it . Here on our little farm, we've always had a "bone Yard" way over in the woods to handle the remains of dead farm animals. Coyotes and buzzards have to eat too. Same thing happens to the deer bones and guts, they are usually gone in a day or so.

Dave, everything about your place sounds wonderful, except the frigid weather and all the snow . Our place is the larger part of 2 small farms that have been divided up over the years and around the perimeter are small parcels where homes have been built next to the county roads. Best I can tell, there are 10 different property owners that share common boundaries around our 80 acres. It would be wonderful to walk across the road and not encounter anything but God's creation for 20 miles!

Jerry, I with you 100% on your illustration, ain't that where the word biodegradable come into play?

I really enjoy the Outdoor Thread and all the different ways we find to enjoy the outdoors!
Treefarmer

I really enjoy this thread! I don't get out and hunt anymore due to physical limitations
but i do enjoy getting out and getting a few photos now and then. I hope you enjoy...

Tim, terrific photo's - glad you posted them. OH

Great pictures, Tim. I really enjoyed looking at them.
What kind of camera do you use?
How long have you been taking pictures?

Amazing pictures! Thank you for sharing those.

Yes sir... ..thank you Tim!

Great pictures Tim thanks for sharing!


Donald

Tim, did you get those pictures over on the Mississippi? Great pics.

Tim your photographs always amaze me. You have a real talent.

Thought you guys might enjoy seeing the view I had over the weekend from my most recently placed tree stand. No deer passed while I was there.

Last picture shows the tree stand and my brothers idea of a joke. (Note handicap parking sign)

Now that's funny. I think I might like your brother.

Sure is a picturesque spot to hunt Phil - and I think your brother would be my kind of buddy! OH