My son is putting Eglin as one of his first duty assignment picks.  He is currently in Air Force BMT.  How is the area around Eglin?  Pros and cons. He loves the out doors, hunting and fishing.
Thanks!

It's fine, mostly good area, Eglin is a pretty nice base.

Lots of fishing, he can hunt on Eglin and the State Forest. Bunch of good ranges in the area.

Cons, it's FL and hot AF, traffic around the area can be pretty bad.

Nice, safe,  conservative area.  Good hunting on post.  I have gotten a decent deer for the last 5 years.  Plenty of on base, fresh water fishing.  Outstanding salt water fishing.  Good commissary, BX, medical care.

I live down 98 across from Hurlburt Field. Been here since 2015 and never regretted it.

Cons: people bitch about the traffic on 98,  it stil beats the traffic in D.C., STL, ATL, CHI, etc.
It takes a few years to get aclimated to the humidity.

As stated above, it’s a decent area.  Been here since 1990.  The fishing is great and lots of areas to fish. Both fresh and salt.  Obviously lots more salt water areas.  
The traffic is bad, not as bad as some areas.  The problem is that 98 is the only East/West corridor to Hurlburt. So traffic coming and going from Hurlburt sucks. Tons of military live in Navarre and then add in the tourist traffic and school traffic and it gets frustrating. One decent wreck on 98 will put a halt on getting anywhere in a decent time.
Areas in Ft Walton, Shalimar, etc are pretty safe. Crestview is the same.
As mentioned above, hunting is allowed on Eglin range with permit.  Open areas change frequently during hunting season due to AF and Army missions.  Plenty of other areas in the region though.
Shooting ranges near Eglin include Element and Altus.  I’m at Element and have no complaints. Never been to Altus, but it looks pretty awesome as well.

It was beautiful when I was there.


Field 6  camp rudder

Aren't the gun laws a bit weird in Eglin? Does Hurlburt have a different set of rules too?

short version.  No privately owned weapons allowed on Eglin cantonment.  Hurlburt Commander let's assigned military, civil service,  contractor and retirees to bring weapons on post.  They must stay in your car, unless you are at the Rifle and Pistol club.  There is a trap range in noncantonment Eglin and hunting is allowed on vast areas of noncantonment Eglin.

I have a buddy that shoots some at Altus. He competes in some bigger regional LR stuff. Says Altus is really nice and they trying to expand to do more training/classes with overnight stuff.