I believe Florida has a population of 750,000-800,000. Or at least I think I remember seeing that at one time. I hunt private property and almost always see deer.
We're going on year two or three of new rules. The rules differ throughout the state. The part of the state I hunt allows a harvest of five deer, of which, only two can be antlerless.
An antlerless deer is a deer with no antlers or antlers less than 5" and can only be taken during specific dates based on location. Legal bucks in the area I hunt are defined as a buck having at least 3 points on one side (a point is considered 1" or longer) or at least one main beam of 10".
Prior to the new rules, a person could kill two anterlered deer a day with no season limit. The antlers used to be defined as one or more antler 3" above the hairline... commonly referred to as spikes.
I've lived in Florida all my life, Florida has always enjoyed a strong deer population, I have no idea what generated the new rules.