[Upstate NY] Rocky outcrop ridge for hunting cover?

[truckdriver20]

Hey yall! I’m a new hunter planning on hunting whitetail for the first time in public land in Upstate NY this fall. I scouted a spot that has mature oaks, water, etc. although it’s in the Catskills region so there’s a good bit of terrain. I don’t plan on using a tree stand (I know that realistically I should) but I found a few spots where some ridges with rocky outcrops overlook a large-ish open areas with good sight-lines. My thought is to position myself up on one of the ridges with my back to the rocky outcrop (completely covering my 6) and overlook the area and just hope the wind is good.

I know east coast whitetail hunting without a tree stand is a bit of a crapshoot, especially in the mountainy regions, but does this seems like a reasonable strategy, or is the swirling wind/thermals around the ridge/rocks make this a losing play?

 

[birdhunter]

Have hunted this area going on 50 yrs.Plenty of deer are shot by guys sitting on the ground.Particularly opening weekend. Sit tight and let the yahoo's and impatient guys push them to ya.

 

[truckdriver20]

Have hunted this area going on 50 yrs.Plenty of deer are shot by guys sitting on the ground.Particularly opening weekend. Sit tight and let the yahoo's and impatient guys push them to ya.

Makes sense! The spot I’m thinking about 1.5 miles in on a trail and then a few hundred yards off-trail from there. I’m hoping most people that want to drag their deer to their truck won’t go that far. I’ll be quartering the deer in the field and packing it out if I’m lucky enough to get one. I figure what I lack in experience I can try to make up in effort.

 

[Macintosh]

I mainly hunt a couple hours north of you, so not sure how it translates, but generally around me the oak ridges are pretty and have a lot of nighttime sign, but not many deer during daylight. Id hunt those ridges this spring during turkey season and use that as scouting. Find the deer trails and sign and follow it to the thickest greenest cover and look for recent rubs. That’ll give you a sense of the type of areas theyre bedding in and how they get from bed to food. Then find terrain features like benches and pinches that funnel movement, and hunt those—for me thats usually mid-slope below the open oak savannah ridges. Depending on elevation and deer density you might be better off without a stand so you can be a bit more reactive to fresh sign. Its also nice to have a plan B in case its not an acorn year. Also, it’ll likely be all red oaks, which Ive found are a lot more productive to hunt late season, they dont seem to be a key food source before mid-november-ish, somif youre hunting early season also find other food sources.

 

[truckdriver20]

I mainly hunt a couple hours north of you, so not sure how it translates, but generally around me the oak ridges are pretty and have a lot of nighttime sign, but not many deer during daylight. Id hunt those ridges this spring during turkey season and use that as scouting. Find the deer trails and sign and follow it to the thickest greenest cover and look for recent rubs. That’ll give you a sense of the type of areas theyre bedding in and how they get from bed to food. Then find terrain features like benches and pinches that funnel movement, and hunt those—for me thats usually mid-slope below the open oak savannah ridges. Depending on elevation and deer density you might be better off without a stand so you can be a bit more reactive to fresh sign. Its also nice to have a plan B in case its not an acorn year. Also, it’ll likely be all red oaks, which Ive found are a lot more productive to hunt late season, they dont seem to be a key food source before mid-november-ish, somif youre hunting early season also find other food sources.

Thanks for the insight! I’ll keep all this in mind. The spot I’m talking about is less of a ridge as a rocky outcrop on the slope overlooking a bench. I’m new to the game and I don’t live too close to the spot to scout very often, so I might not be able to connect all the dots with bedding, rubs, scrapes, etc. but I’ll sure try. I also plan on spending some quality time in those woods in September for squirrel.

 

[chrisk]

MacIntosh has some sound advice. I've hunted Catskill-like public land in southern NY for 20+ years now and I agree with him on all his points. If you're bowhunting, it's gonna be tough on the ground. If you're rifle hunting, you can get the reach you need. Thermals can help, as they're more predictable. But you must use them wisely, i.e. move into position below a buck's bedding area just as thermals begin to fall in the evening. Or get above the buck just as thermals are rising in the morning. Swirling winds are a huge pain in Catskill-like terrain, and particularly in terrain creases where these mountain bucks like to move. What I do is position myself so that dominant wind blows my scent to one side of where I suspect the buck will approach, or where I have a quartering wind, as bucks normally (not always) sneak into the wind. My best advice mirrors Mac's - find the thickest, nastiest briar patches possible, try to determine off-season if they hold a buck, and determine travel routes to / from. If you're ok with killing a doe, then look for tighter feeding areas - not open areas, but rather patches of feeding areas / oaks connected by terrain creases. In my experience, those are higher probability areas. Good luck!

 

[Wolfshead]

Another thing you can do is to go in there now. Right now, and scout the area in question.
Go now before things green up too much and look for last years sign. Rubs, scrapes, tracks and trails, etc….
take some milkweed and check the wind in these areas to get some idea how it flows. This may help you with where you can possibly setup this fall.
You don’t need a tree stand. People have been hunting off the ground for hundreds of years, and it can be done very successfully.
I hunt almost always from the ground and I’m happy with my success rate. Also it allows you to be able to move easily if you feel there is a better setup someplace else.
Understand however that you are at the deers level this way and must be extra cautious on your movement and such.
A lot of the time I bring a turkey hunters seat and sit on the ground against a tree facing where I believe the deer might be coming from. I also wear a face mask to cover what a deer may see of my face.
Good luck sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[Eleven]

Macintosh just gave you a cliff notes version of a masters course in Northeast hunting. There’s a lot to unpack there.
Some of that preseason work can be done with topo maps/onX, locating terrain features that are advantageous to deer movement. Take into account the time of year that you’ll be hunting, figure out what bucks like to do during that time (pre-season they can be relaxed but don’t move much from bedding and food, rut they move miles and miles, etc) and then setup in those locations.
I hunt the NE almost exclusively from the ground after archery season, and sometimes even then.

 

[Boarmaster]

I hunted deer in public big timber on the ground for decades. The area was very hilly with steep drainages and many saddles by eastern standards. I sat on outcroppings and against big trees about halfway up ridges where there where deer trail both above and below me. Favorite was always saddles or bowls at the end of ridges. I killed multiple deer about every year. Not sure a tree stand would have helped me much. Many of the deer I shot where below me so I was already in a elevated position. On ridges and hills a tree stand would have to be place at the top of a ridge to have much effect. I probably wouldn't have been able to see as much as sitting halfway up a ridge as on the ground.
Its all about the spot and how deer move. Hard to give advise with out really seeing what your area looks like.

 

[LostArra]

Rifle or archery?

Don't over do the September squirrel hunting.
You don't want to change their habits from your spring and summer scouting. As mentioned, their food sources will change but human activity can alter their territory too.

 

[Yoder]

Biggest thing will be the wind. Bring some milk weed and see what it looks like.

 

[Rich M]

Yup find the deer and hunt where they are. Dont worry about being in svtree. Get a light stool and sit with yer back against a tree.

Best areas to sit have multiple trails and at least 2 edges.