Adirondack hunting

[Brad Metcalf]

anybody on here hunt the Adirondacks? I have been wanting to for years

 

[Lowg08]

This is on my list of public land to hit. Are their some decent sized mountain bucks. I’m talking 6-8 year old ghost.

 

[ADKHTR]

Years ago I traveled and went on many hunts through out the country, got to see first hand a lot of the midwest, to say hunting the Dacks is a humbling experience would be an understatement, I live in upstate NY also. I hunt at least 5 days a week all day for the first half of season and then almost every day to the end assuming I have a tag, if I see one deer for every 3 days of hunting I’m pretty content, and that’s any deer… numbers are low, pressure can be bad within a mile from a road. I do pretty good and usually kill a good buck every year but it doesn’t come easy, I own a seasonal business and close down for the whole deer season every year. An average buck for the Dacks is probably a 2.5 year old sporting 90”-100” rack, a good buck will be 115”-125”, a great buck will be 125”-135”, anything 135” plus is almost unheard of and a major accomplishment, over 150” almost never happens, I enter several local contests and generally know what is being killed every year, do big giants exist…. sure… do they get killed.. not usually, hunting nocturnal bucks 5 miles from a road can test ones determination, over the years I’ve had many guys hunt with me, most quit, only a few are ever successful, I’ve found either people love hunting the big woods or plain hate it. If a person realizes that a week long hunt in the Adirondacks is probably more like going hiking with a rifle and the chance of killing something is less than 1%, well then you mite be ok… I do good and kill nice bucks almost every year, none of them come easy and the learning curve was steep, I also have lucrative amounts of time at my disposal. I love hunting in the Adirondacks, I have a camp and also do a few backpack hunts each year, I say none of this to discourage anybody to give it a try, I’m just super honest, chances are if you have watched a video or read a book about hunting in the Adirondacks I know the gents, the best hunters aren’t on youtube however…

 

[Jstumbaugh]

I belong to a camp on the east side of the Adks, We have had the camp roughly 12 years and I think there has been 3 bucks shot. Two studs and a unicorn. There are deer in the area but they are far and few between. Moose are on the rise in our area and I think it may be pushing the deer out. The post above is spot on. Density is low, woods are thick. Great time to spend getting away from people and hunting hard.

 

[ADK Pond Skum]

Also an adirondack hunter here . Like the previous posters stated - there are some big deer out there to be had , but they are hard to kill . If you hunt it with the right expectations you’ll have a great time . Beautiful country with a lot of access across the whole park

 

[mossyoak52]

Hunted the daks for 30 yrs before moveing west
The bucks in my avatar all came from the daks
(Pepperbox wilderness) like the others have said hard hunting very few deer but when you finally do prpbably gonba be a bruiser

 

[Poindexter]

Vermonter here. Haven’t crossed the lake to hunt yet, but would imagine NY, VT, and NH are pretty similar?

 

[ADKHTR]

Vermonter here. Haven’t crossed the lake to hunt yet, but would imagine NY, VT, and NH are pretty similar?

One would assume yes, I see a lot of VT plates all season, from what I hear NH seems to be getting better, the quality of bucks that is..

 

[mossyoak52]

One would assume yes, I see a lot of VT plates all season, from what I hear NH seems to be getting better, the quality of bucks that is..

Vermonters has most of ny leased up.

 

[Lowg08]

One would assume yes, I see a lot of VT plates all season, from what I hear NH seems to be getting better, the quality of bucks that is..

I’ve been researching east coast public land big mature deer hunting. West Virginia is 1st and NH is next. The license are very reasonable too

 

[mossyoak52]

I’ve been researching east coast public land big mature deer hunting. West Virginia is 1st and NH is next. The license are very reasonable too

west virginia has some nice bucks and some nice black bears

 

[Lowg08]

west virginia has some nice bucks and some nice black bears

Oh yes. I’m really only interested in the bow only counties. Seems to be managed well.

 

[mossyoak52]

Oh yes. I’m really only interested in the bow only counties. Seems to be managed well.

they manage their over all herds well we are considering moving to weston wv

 

[mossyoak52]

Years ago I traveled and went on many hunts through out the country, got to see first hand a lot of the midwest, to say hunting the Dacks is a humbling experience would be an understatement, I live in upstate NY also. I hunt at least 5 days a week all day for the first half of season and then almost every day to the end assuming I have a tag, if I see one deer for every 3 days of hunting I’m pretty content, and that’s any deer… numbers are low, pressure can be bad within a mile from a road. I do pretty good and usually kill a good buck every year but it doesn’t come easy, I own a seasonal business and close down for the whole deer season every year. An average buck for the Dacks is probably a 2.5 year old sporting 90”-100” rack, a good buck will be 115”-125”, a great buck will be 125”-135”, anything 135” plus is almost unheard of and a major accomplishment, over 150” almost never happens, I enter several local contests and generally know what is being killed every year, do big giants exist…. sure… do they get killed.. not usually, hunting nocturnal bucks 5 miles from a road can test ones determination, over the years I’ve had many guys hunt with me, most quit, only a few are ever successful, I’ve found either people love hunting the big woods or plain hate it. If a person realizes that a week long hunt in the Adirondacks is probably more like going hiking with a rifle and the chance of killing something is less than 1%, well then you mite be ok… I do good and kill nice bucks almost every year, none of them come easy and the learning curve was steep, I also have lucrative amounts of time at my disposal. I love hunting in the Adirondacks, I have a camp and also do a few backpack hunts each year, I say none of this to discourage anybody to give it a try, I’m just super honest, chances are if you have watched a video or read a book about hunting in the Adirondacks I know the gents, the best hunters aren’t on youtube however…

what part of UPSTATE are you from i spent 30 yrs hunting the pepperbox wilderness and fishing tupper lake and lake champlain

 

[mossyoak52]

my family ownes 400+acres in franklin county on the back side of loon lake

 

[mtluckydan]

Multiple well written books on hunting the Adirondacks...better show up with a well defined skill set and low expectations. Many better places to hunt in NY with more & larger bucks. There are mature bucks throughout but many serious hunters & deer drives are popular so plenty of pressure depending on where you go. Goggle "Adirondack Horn Hunters" This group of guys got it done for decades.

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[mossyoak52]

I live in Northern Oneida County, but hunt almost everything else further north of me, I have no doubt we know several people in common, I hunted MT for lions once over 20 years ago, near Alder.

your in western ny, oneida holds some pretty big bucks
stauben county holds some seriously BIG bucks
i do believe its the #1 county in ny for trophy class whitetails in ny

 

[mossyoak52]

Yup the Brunos, they were killers for sure.

lions and wolves are plentiful in montana we kill a few of both every year

 

[mossyoak52]

Any of the brunos still alive and hunting the daks i know they used to access thier hunting area by canoe

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[Macintosh]

Grew up in North Creek, not far from Loon lake someone else mentioned. My family still has their place there although it's now got running water and electricity and the road is a lot better! I dont have a lot of experience hunting outside the eastern adirondacks and the high peaks region, but the area especially at those altitudes is at the very northern fringe of the whitetails range and the soil is anything but fertile, so it's never going to have the rack-size of most other places--I've seen plenty of 200lb deer from the adirondacks that would have the "score" of a farm-country fork horn because those mountains are a tough way to make a living for any deer. Hunting It's really very different than the big-woods areas of VT, NH and Maine though, in that for the most part in Vt NH and Maine you can drive a lot of roads to access different areas and look for tracks, etc. I live in Vt now, and we simply dont have the big chunks of public that the Adirondacks does, and we also have far higher hunting pressure per acre. ADK's for the most part you are 100% on foot, at least on public land. Some areas do get pounded, but it's really, really easy to get away from people. It's one of the only places I have been to in the US East of the rockies where the scale of the public land is on par with the large chunks of public you'd find in the west--the southern appalachians has some as well, no superlatives here, but no doubt the adirondacks is one of the larger concentrations of public land in the East. NH and Maine also have plenty of room, much of it being timber country and lower elevation, so deer densities in many areas are higher than the adk's. The above post detailing deer density, etc is spot-on, as long as you don't actually have any expectations of seeing more than a couple deer in a week or of bagging a deer, you'll love it. Just bring your walking shoes, rubber boots or a boat are v helpful many places, and for sure you'll need a good sense of humor.

edit--Mossyoak, looks like you may be referring to a different Loon Lake, North Creek is near the loon lake off Northway exit 25. I worked in Keeseville for many years, and my brother lived in Black Brook--that's a lot closer to where you are referring to, correct? quite a bit in that area seems to be leased. Some very cool country on the North side of the park though.