Florida folks, anyone know about this hunt?

St. Vincent's Island whitetail and/or Sambar quota draw hunts - anyone ever done one of these? Been on the island? What's the scoop?

tough hunt, long odds on a sambar, lots of rattlesnakes, acess by boat, draw hunt, etc, etc....

Ive heard of it, never been...bout everthang fred said

I've been on the island but not for the hunt. It's strictly primitive and lots of bugs. I think they usually kills 3 or 4 sambar which is a pretty low success rate. It's really a neat place.

When I think about Florida, deer hunting just doesn't come to mind.

Had never heard about it until this year. The chance to kill an elk sized animal in Florida is intriguing. I've been thinking about applying.

I know some folks that have hunted St. Vincent's. That hunt has been going on for at least 45 years. A member of my old club killed a Sambar a few years back.

I had a concrete sub a couple years ago on a big govt job on Eglin that was telling me about it and he's drawn for it several times. Has killed hogs but never killed a sambar. If I remember right, he said the herd on the island is like 75-100 animals and they issue around 100 permits. Hunt is for population control only. Normally like 4 or 6 total killed on the 3 day hunt. Like Troy said above, Charlie told me there are a ton of rattlesnakes and lots of hogs, decent numbers of whitetails (but you cant shoot them on the Sambar hunt dates or at least not when he hunted it) . Said the Sambar typically stayed in the wet marshy areas and the whitetails stayed on the higher ground. They hunted from climbers and got around on mountain bikes with pull carts. Almost positive that it is bow and muzzleloader only. Access is by boat only. He also said something was funny about the legal shooting hours, like you could only hunt until 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoons, or something like that. I remember that specifically because he said that if you could hunt til dark he felt your chances of killing a sambar would be excellent/better but you couldn't sit til dark for some reason. It's a hard hunt due to limited access. Other thing he said was to anchor your boat way offshore and wade in. First year they went they anchored just off the beach and the tide was out and had an unfavorable wind and when it came time to leave, their boat was high and dry 100 yds from the water.

It is a heck of an adventure. I had a buddy get drawn a couple times. He got on the Sambar but got busted... Believe its all bowhunting. Would be cool to play Survivor on.

I know a guy from Bullock County that got drawn for a whitetail bow hunt in the 80s or 90s. His brother saw a Sambar, but that was before Sambar tags were available (I believe). They hired an oyster man to take them over and pick them back up.

Grew up fishing out of Bay City Lodge down there...my parents with my aunt and uncle owned a trailer down there. That bay is like Mobile bay, you better know the tide or you spend the night stuck on a sandbar. That might be why they did not want the poster above hunting until dark. Never have done that hunt though.

I've been on the Island. My son calls it Death Trap Island.
I've never drawn the hunt. In for it again this year, we'll see.

I believe FWC offers a draw bowhunt and a draw gun hunt for whitetails and Sambar. Can't remember exactly.

Sounds like it would be challenging and fun, other than the snakes. Dammitman.

Interesting info about the Sambar's original range: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambar_deer

I’ve been on it. The gist is, muzzle loader or bow. Can’t shoot white tails, but you can shoot hogs while on the sambar hunt. Take your own boat or pay a oyster boat to run you over. Primitive camp on the island. They will run you around on wagons and drop you off the main road, which is why most people aren’t hunting early or late. The wagon schedule was kind of crappy if I remember correctly. Very few sambar. Cool experience though. Lots of gators, snakes, and mosquitoes.

I have never hunted there, but a friend of mine from Florida wrote the following pieces about his hunt:

https://eastwesthunt.com/2018/05/16/st-vincent-island-sambar-hunt-part-1-with-chad-rischar/

https://eastwesthunt.com/2018/05/30/st-vincent-island-sambar-hunting-part-2-with-chad-rischar/

Been there, done that. Sand up to your ankles. Lots of really big snakes. Saw a lot of hogs. Whitetail are really small. No one saw a Sanbar. Tough to use a climber it was mostly scrub oak and palmettos. Never went back. Access by boat only. Primitive tent camping. Bring lots of water. You will sweat your butt off if no cold front. Best to get a beach style bike.

I’ve looked into it and everyone always talks about miles of biking. Could you not hop on the boat and be on the opposite side of the island in minutes. It seems like it would be way too crowded on the Sambar Hunt. I’d love the camping on the beach. Id prob have just as much fun fishing and throwing out crab traps when not hunting. I’d be all in if I could use my boat to hop around the island

Done both bow and muzzleloader several times in the early 90’s for Whitetail . You can take a bass boat across the pass to the small side of island. That’s where those hunt are. The Sambar is at the big end of the island. You need a fair sized boat or charter for that. The island is 8 miles long and 4 miles wide. Roads are every mile in each direction for a good grid layout. We took bikes one year but the beach sand is a mile in and you end up pushing the bike. Our group always killed a few deer or hogs. The meat truck comes around and gives you and game a ride. Raccoon is legal to so someone always shot a coon so they’d get a ride too. Total primative camping. You have to take everything you need, even fire wood. You can pick up down stuff but no mechanical means of cutting other than axe or hand saw. Saw a couple Sambar and they tend to like the swampy areas. On the Sambar hunts you could kill them, hogs or raccoons.

I always wandered that myself.? Maybe someone will chime in.