Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Opinions on Deer Hunting in Upstate New York

Looks about the size of hill country deer

Just a regular doe, nothing special. Only pic I had on my phone of a deer from up there. Same thing with the bucks, some nice ones but nothing crazy. But a lot of fun.

Great buck and photo! That's what I think of when I think North Eastern deer hunting...

I'd say it ain't too bad

Nice buck

Couple more

Damn good bucks

That he may, but he won't be posting any pictures......

Beautiful bucks! Is that your deer stand in the background in the first pic?

Niiiiiiice

I hunt solo so was only way to get a picture with me in it when I got home

Good bucks without any intense trophy management program, feeding, baiting or high fences. Weird huh ?

You should post up some of your bruisers.

Nice bucks, DVD, and looks like with a variety of weapons too. But sorry, you've obviously hunted a lot in Upstate, so you're not really qualified to answer the question.

Yup archery muzzleloader and slug gun all accounted for

Smoke, I've hunted/lived in NY my whole life, if you want a decent hunt you really want to be on private, somehow. The public land hunts are tough, while there are some large parcels of public, catskills, adirondaks, adirondak park, montezuma, etc. they're surrounded by private lands which turn into sanctuaries just like your area. There's not really any landowners with "trespass fees' it's usually lease only so those parcels get gobbled up by a few hunters, equaling minimal pressure, and more than one landowner is guilty of posting property that isn't theirs. Most are border posted throughout the woods as well. Your shots will generally be 100 yards or less due to forestry, unlike the midwest, it's not a checkerboard of parks and woods, it's dense, and heavy, especially on public, mostly pines, some hardwoods, lots of scrub. If you can get on some of the farm land you will encounter large bucks, as large or larger body-wise, than mule deer. The western section of NY is mostly flat, cornfields, haylots, farms, and again private and difficult to get permission to hunt unless family, friend, or lessee. A few of the previous posters display some nice animals, but the common running theme is private land. Some of the WMU's have antler restrictions in place, those areas continue to increase in numbers. NY claims we have eradicated the CWD we had, um, anyone with two or more functioning brain cells knows that's not possible, it's just NY game management, again. One last item, apparently driving deer is still alive, my son watched drive after drive last season while hunting Iroquois, it looked a nice place to hunt, but then that circus happened again and again, they stomped that place to pieces. Not exactly my type of hunting and most likely not yours considering you're from Colorado. In the larger portions of adirondaks and catskills this doesn't happen much, there's too much land and thick woods for deer to disperse into negating those efforts. That's about all I got.

Thanks Chuckster, I've heard the public land hunting up there isn't easy. I grew up hunting on national forest in western VA, all hardwoods and pines, not near farmland. Not easy unless you find a good area and get to know it. And still not easy even then. Seems like the numbers of deer varied with how hard the winters were and what the mast crop did.


Was just talking to my youngest son about doing a trip back there one of these deer seasons, love to see the old stomping grounds. I took a trip back maybe 12-15 years ago, hiked in mid-morning on a trail about 2 1/2 miles, left the trail and shot a decent buck about 200 yards in, it doesn't get any luckier than that.

The term "Upstate" when referring to parts of NY is an interesting term. It's actually a term the NY City people use to refer to a place that is not the city and is not Long Island (The Island, to them.) Most of the city people, however, are only vaguely, if at all, aware that there is anything beyond Albany. So, "Upstate" aside, you have Central NY, the Southern Tier, Western NY, The Finger Lakes, the Adirondacks and Northern NY. Out where Dan DeGeorge operates is where Central NY, the Finger Lakes and Western NY all come together. There's a lot of farm land and, generally, wooded area of seldom more than a couple of hundred acres and a lot that are smaller than that. Deer can grow big there, but the population density is such that, to find a good place to hunt, you need to put some effort into it.You'll generally be best served by operating like Dan does: cameras, study, tree stands. The Southern Tier is more like northern Pennsylvania. as you get over toward the Northern Catskills, though, you'll get into some bigger woods. The Adirondacks are probably the most difficult area to find deer. You almost have to live there and put in a lot of time, but there are good deer to be had. If you get them, you've earned them. Northern NY, where I'm originally from also our friend Mart, and where Danny L (our maple syrup guy), and Miguel live now (in Lisbon, of all places) is an interesting place. Rural doesn't begin to describe it.

There's a lot of good deer hunting in NYS, but you need to find a place to hunt and then work at it. I'm not saying you can't just go find a piece of public land, go out opening day and whack a deer, but if you truly want to be successful you are well-advised to put in some time preparing. I am hoping to get up there this year for a week or more to hunt deer. I like it a lot better than here for deer hunting. I'm fortunate to have a place here where I can shoot deer, but that's all it is, shooting deer. It's okay, it's better than nothing, but I really look forward to going up and hunting the big woods.

I’ve only hunted upstate New York, actually close to Illion, NY. It definitely was different than where I hunt in SD. I still hunted and was lucky enough to walk up to a couple foes and a buck. We hunted on public land.

Great post and analysis
I just pick up a piece of property 2 minutes from my home archery only area 20 acres only one with permission I killed a buck there this past season and have learned a ton more with my cameras next season should be even better.
This picture has 4 good buck together and another one followed up behind then 10 seconds later. This was taken after the season ended


Deer I killed there in November