Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Relocating to western Florida

I’m retired after 35 years as an engineer. I have a beautiful ranch in eastern wa. But a bit too much to handle in retirement

I’m looking for locals input on the communities or areas. Florida was always in my retirement picture although open to suggestion as to where.

I wanna have access to public hunting lands especially for hogs. Also to be close ( 1 hour ish) to the ocean. A house on a lake would work nicely.

I’ll pay cash for what I buy so I’m not too concerned about little details of the housing. Just the areas hunting landscape flooding and game

Any insight from locals or knowledgeable folks welcome. I have several very good friends in Florida but not in western Florida.

You can PM me as well if you prefer.

Nice to see you back.

Well along 30 A there are a metric S**t ton of spring breakers and their families during that time of the year causing rediculous traffic jams, wailing and nashing of teeth for a fisherman/hunter type. Not so much the rest of the year. I'd prolly look north of Rt 10. Marianna, FL is nice but there's a prison nearby. Might also want to look at Alabama, and South Georgia around Bainbridge. Not sure about AL, but both GA and FL are easy taxwise on retirement income.

North of I-10 on the Alabama line

Navarre comes to mind. IIRC Florida has no state income tax. Wife and I are strongly considering the Jacksonville area. Selling out in Mooresville, NC soon as we finish a few improvements. Way too crowded after 22 years.

edit: meant Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, but a little inland.

Baldwin County, Alabama

Stockton area.
About an hour from Gulf Shores, close to tons of public land for hogs and it’s good hog hunting, close enough to Mobile, Daphne, and Pensacola, Florida.


If it must be Florida, Pace seems to be a nice area that will meet your needs as well.

Niceville, Florida will put you next to the base land that you can hunt. Really good schools, high property values, and close to beaches too.

Marrianna west to the Alabama line. The best hunting available in Florida imo. Easy to hunt Alabama and Georgia also. Most beautiful beaches in Florida. Great fishing both fresh and salt. A little north or south of I-10 would be my choice. I wouldn’t let the prison be an issue. It actually helps support the area so there’s more amenities. North of I-10 and west of Marrianna gets pretty rural. If you’re used to driving over a half hour to shop or have a choice of restaurants then that’s not a problem.

Thanks folks great feedback

Driving to get anything is normal here so that would not be a change for us. Living on the ranch is far from town.

Keep the info coming I wanna make wise decisions going forward as it will be my last move hopefully

You'd find a lot to like just north of Navarre, towards Alabama. My brother lives in Navarre and we have a small ranch near Red Level, Al. It takes a bit over an hour to get from the beaches of the gulf to some really nice areas in Southern Alabama.

I can't live in that area cause I hate heat and humidity, but if it doesn't bother you it's hard to beat the area.

Anywhere around or on lake Seminole would be my preference.

I was stationed in Pensacola for 5 years with the USN. I really liked that area. Never tried to hunt hogs there but I took a couple of bucks off public hunting land every year.

I am a Florida Native, born and raised. Born down south, raised in JAX (No one local calls it Jacksonville......)
My son is about to relocate to Palm Coast/Daytona area.

Traffic in JAX is a nightmare, though not as bad as ATL.

Mexico beach was mostly leveled in a hurricane (forget which one??) but the is a great place on the Gulf. I'd look further south, say around Steinhatchee, or Cypress Key area.

LOTS of retirement communities popping up down there, but I'm in Savannah, GA and love it. Would move back to Florida to be closer to grand kids but will keep my little slice of heaven in central Georgia to totally unplug.

JJ, good to see you back. What is your appx. budget? Do you need acreage or a lot? What size lake, like big enough to run motorboats in? You have to be very careful with some Florida lakes. Many are very prone to going nearly or completely dry during droughts. Oh, and by western FL do you mean the Panhandle?

I was thinking Tallahassee west or maybe steinhatchee or Perry area.

JJ nice to see you back on the Fire.
Hey, wishing you all the best on your move. In July me and my wife made our first trip to Florida. We flew into Tampa. We were visiting some friends there. They live in a small community to the North East of Tampa. Tampa was way too busy for me. Where my friends live it was mostly small little ranch type places. We had a nice visit. I could see why a Lot of people like it down there. I did get to see one of those crazy rain storms that put down a lot of water in a short bit of time.
Anyway, wish you all the best on the sale of your place.

I'm sure you'll be blessed in your move.

Subscribed.

At this point in my life I’ve been blessed with having experienced extraordinary hunting adventures as some here probably know about.

I really enjoy hog hunting and saltwater inshore fishing. I also still teach both commercial and recreational diving.

This trio of interests puts the panhandle on the top of my relocation interests.

Most of these replies match my feelings of the geography and opportunities. If South Georgia or East Alabama ends up being a better option I’m okay with that too.

I’ll be flying out once I narrow down a handful of properties to look at.

All well and good now, but not so much later in life when it could be a problem. As we age what was easy today becomes a PIA down the road.

[quote=JJHACK]At this point in my life I’ve been blessed with having experienced extraordinary hunting adventures as some here probably know about.

I really enjoy hog hunting and saltwater inshore fishing. I also still teach both commercial and recreational diving.

This trio of interests puts the panhandle on the top of my relocation interests.

Most of these replies match my feelings of the geography and opportunities. If South Georgia or East Alabama ends up being a better option I’m okay with that too.

I’ll be flying out once I narrow down a handful of properties to look at. [/quoteIf you're thinking cave diving in the Springs, then around the Gainesville Area. Florida has over 1000 named springs, not all caves are dive-able. For hunting, most anywhere you can find land and/or permission or hunt the WMAs there.

Hogs are pretty nomadic and need water,