Hey guys,
So this past hunting season just ended yesterday and I have lots of questions for you experienced bow hunters here. Let me tell you a little about my experience and then I'll get to the questions.
This past season was my first true year of bow hunting as I went out on my own. I have bow hunted before and I do not gun hunt (yet). My experience with bow hunting is in Wisconsin with a friend who owns some land and he had everything set up for me. The tree stands were all ready and their locations were scouted out well in advance by my friend the very experienced hunter. I went out to bow hunt in Wisconsin for three years and in that time I was able to get a nice doe. It was awesome.
Anyway, this year, I went out and got my own bow, got my own camo gear and decided to hunt on my own here in NY. I live in Rockland County so my hunting area was Sterling Forest in Orange County.
I spent one day scouting Sterling Forest. I found scat and foot prints and ultimately picked a spot on a ridge overlooking a valley where I had found some scat. My first morning out in SF, I saw a big freaking buck. I was so excited. He got to about 40 yards of me and I took a shot. I shot low though. Stupid me forgot my rangefinder at home that day and my reading of his distance was probably way way off. I went back to that same spot for the next four days and saw NOTHING. Morning and afternoon I was there and saw nothing. In case anyone is wondering where this was, it was near Blue Lake around the IBM Campus. I parked at the furthest available parking spot and hiked off trail into the woods. Thank you Garmin.
Needless to say, after seeing nothing at this spot for the next few days I decided to look for other spots to hunt at SF.
One day, during gun season, I tried the archery only area near Southfields between Route 17 and the NYS Thruway I87. Nothing there either.
Then I found a spot near the Sterling Ridge Blue Trail. It was off trail and had some hiker's or hunter's pink tape leading to a ridge overlooking another valley. I spent 3 days there last week during late season. And then I found my own spot further past this one in the same kind of setting - ridge overlooking a valley. Nothing there either.
I should also add that I do not yet have a tree stand and my setup consisted of me sitting on a rock or on the ground against a tree. I tried to make the best of my tree-stand-less situation.
Almost every evening after my "hunt" when I would drive on the road leaving SF, I would see deer on the side of the road. This would be near the IBM Campus. So my last day in SF, I picked a spot about 300 yards from the road with a wide vista of the woods. Again, I saw nothing.
I spoke to the DEC guys at SF and they told me that it was a really good season for hunters at SF. As of a month ago when I spoke with them, they had registered 60 harvested deer.
Now that I've gotten this out of the way - here are my questions:
What am I doing wrong? I spent at least 10 days in SF and I only saw one deer that whole time in the woods (that buck on my first morning out).
I'm not asking anyone here for their secret spots in SF but I am asking what I should be doing differently to increase my chances of harvesting a deer.
Do you guys set up trail cams in SF leading up to hunting season? Do you set up permanent tree stands deep in the park?
If there's any advice you can impart on me, I would really appreciate it as I'm very very new to this sport and I am in love with it already.
Thank you all very much.
