Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Whats your style hunting?

This is a great thread with a ton of great info. Next season I want to get off the beaten path and loose myself in the Adirondacks and I was just wondering how you guys hunt? Do you still hunt, scout and set up blinds, or pack in a climber. How much preseason scouting do you do? thanks

Great choice of venue... Many folks don't know about New York's 6 million acre park, virtually all open to hunting. I have had best success stand hunting. Very thick, and far more remote, than the south where I do most of my hunting now. My favorite hunt is to put in my canoe at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River at Cranberry lake, and paddle up into the 6 ponds wilderness.
I walk some, but sit where I can see 50 yards or so. I feel that a tree stand is too much bother. You need a stout pack for after boning out deer (Kelty Redwing 2650).Close to NYC, not many realize the great backpack / remote camping hunting, with huge game in the Adirondacks. You wouldn't run into other hunters, except paddling!

Great choice of venue... Many folks don't know about New York's 6 million acre park, virtually all open to hunting. I have had best success stand hunting. Very thick, and far more remote, than the south where I do most of my hunting now. My favorite hunt is to put in my canoe at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River at Cranberry lake, and paddle up into the 6 ponds wilderness.
I walk some, but sit where I can see 50 yards or so. I feel that a tree stand is too much bother. You need a stout pack for after boning out deer (Kelty Redwing 2650).Close to NYC, not many realize the great backpack / remote camping hunting, with huge game in the Adirondacks. You wouldn't run into other hunters, except paddling!

In the early bow and muzzleloader seasons, I hunt from a tree stand around either apple trees or mast producing trees (if there are any where I hunt and not every tree is producing)

During the regular season my preferred technique is tracking in the snow, if it snows.

A lot of the Adirondacks is fairly old growth forest with very low deer numbers. Finding areas that have better populations is fairly important. The deer move around in the big woods and yearly changes, particulary as relate to Beech and oak mast crops are very important. If there are cut over areas regrowing they have a good amount of deer, especially in poor mast years.


Right as the snow goes in the spring is a good time to get out and scout, its cool, you can see like you would in the fall and there is still some ground sign from the fall. If you time it right you can scout before the bugs come out.

You will need to do another round of scouting in the fall to check mast crops.

I have generally found if you can get in 3 miles or so from a road the odds of seeing another hunter in the woods drops to very slight. It makes for a wonderful hunting experience

Thats my thought exactly. I figure if I get out early enough to find some mast producing trees marking the site on a gps and going back to check the crop on them, and maybe locate some runways I should be in good shape, I plan on trying for early bear and muzzleloading seasons. In the past my style hunting has been mostly drives or stand sitting which has been getting boring and only mildly productive so I'm dying for the chance to drop the hammer on a classic Adirondack Buck or Bear

BTW I just bought a 12ft Radison in the Summer for 200 bucks, It should be just what I need up there.

Irv, Do you plan to day hunt or camp for a few nights? My brother and I usually spend a few nights a few miles back every year in the Adirondacks. $200 for a Raddison,nice steal.

My scouting will usually indicate how I may have to hunt a particular critter. When out and about, I tend to find myself doing a little bit of everything.

I'm not the type of guy to sit in the same "spot" on opening day year after year. Matter of fact, I've never been in the same spot on opening day in the last 25 years.

I plan on doing as much scouting as i can and camp for a few days either backpacking or canoeing in. My family has property in speculator bordering Moffit Beach campsite so I know there is a large chunk of land there to start with, and I thought maybe st regis canoe area as well

I prefer black, it's just never wrong...

Seek and destroy it's a year round endevor!

I live in the catskills.My extended hunt every year is in Idaho. 10 straight days of rifle hunting for whitetails. We hunt unguided and are on foot. We go in to area's that four wheelers can't get in to. I sneak hunt as well as sit,we have a number of really light hang ons out there and we will throw them up if a location warrants it.The four of us shot five deer out there this year,two from the air and three from the ground.
At home archery season is treestand hunting around food sources and bedding area's or the funnels in between. Late rifle is walk until you find them. Our deer get quite a bit of pressure and late rifle season movement is going to occur in the last hour of shooting light. So food sources very near thick bedding area's is where I set up. While I will walk in quite far in our mountains at home,I will do no camping because of the time I have taken to hunt out west.