Eglin AFB here in NW Flah-Dah is a great hunting opportunity for the residents of this area. >> The +'s --- Huge area.Would guesstamate,well over 400sq. miles. Only cost $40 per year. With your permit,you are given a fairly well detailed map 'bout the size of a car hood. Seasons are fairly liberal. Miles of well maintained dirt roads---hundreds. 99% are accessable with 2WD P/U. Your never more than about a mile from the nearest road. Mixed landscape.High ridges. Pine barrens. Wet,thick bottoms. Old Pine and blackjack growth. Open fields. Game... turkey's galore,deer(Fla. sized),hogs(huge),dove,quail,and varmints. The -'s ---(IMO) too short of season. hogs not considered small game as they are in the rest of Fla. some area's in Eglin your allowed to use dogs.Which is the spot and stalk hunters worst adversary.Dogs,tear a$$in' through a area will absolutely frig up the hog/deer hunting. Some of the area's(16 total) are ML and bow only. A hellova allot of Eglin is restricted. Eglin is where they test allot of the new weapons that are being developed.(MOAB,FAE weapons,etc.) The hunting area's that are in close proxsimity to the weapons testing area's will be shut down during the testing phase. You have to call the night before planning a hunt. Understandable,they need allot of room to airburst a MOAB. The area's that are permantely RESTRICTED are patroled. All the services special operations forces do some ammount of training at Eglin. I know for a fact that part of their training is patroling the restricted area's. If your caught where your not supposed to be, they consider you a "threat to national security". And believe me,you never want to be considered that by a bunch of pissed off Rangers or NSW types. I understand this and can live with it. There is way too much huntable area to try to encroach on the Restricted area's. You can also hunt Eglin from a boat. The Yellow and Shoal Rivers are the northern boundries of Eglin. You can drift these rivers and can legally have a loaded weapon in and shoot from your boat. The most important thing to understand about hunting Eglin is you gotta know where your at,at all times. I have a mapping GPS and with uploading the Magellan MapSend software I have all the Eglin AFB roads and TOPO info laid out for me. This makes it much easier to be where your supposed to be. If anybody needs more info(telephone #'s,hunting dates,maps,etc.) please let me know and I will try to steer you in the right direction. If your in the area,give Eglin AFB a try. After you get familiar with the area's, you'll be in for some interesting hunting. -------pruhdlr

Let me add to my above post that in addition to the $40 for the Eglin permit you will need a Fla.hunting license. Nonresidents can hunt Eglin. You do not have to be military or retired military to obtain a Eglin permit. To contact Eglin in ref. to hunting the phone # is (850)882-4164 or(850)882-4165.For info as to weather part(s) of the range is closed due to mission assignments you can call (850)882-0007 (recording). Also just a word of caution;you could come accross unexploded ordnance in some of the area's that are open to the plublic for hunting. Also you will hear very loud booms.After all this IS a weapons test range. Hey,at least we know that it's us that is bombing our country. ------ pruhdlr