New to the Area (Buffalo,NY)

[IAatHeart]

Hey everyone I am on here just hoping to get some help hopefully. I have spent my whole life living in Iowa and started bow hunting there 6 years ago.

 

I am now relocating to Buffalo, NY and I am looking at all of my options to bow hunt deer, turkey, and maybe bear. I also like to upland bird hunt, small game hunt, and waterfowl hunt but my passion is bow hunting. I was just wondering if anyone could help me out on finding a list of the public land and possibly even give me some hints on what properties might be better then others. I am looking at western NY but would be willing to travel a bit further if it meant better hunting. I know basically nothing about hunting NY and I don't even know what regions are better then others so any help is very much appreciated.

 

Thank you,

 

Sean

 

Edited November 26, 2014 by IAatHeart

[HuntOrBeHunted]

Well welcome to Ny and the site. Im sure theres some people near you that can help. You can always go to the DEC webite. They give a list of the local state lands you can hunt.

 

Good luck.

[2012_taco]

I agree check out the dec office for public land. There is no public land in Erie county open to hunting, so you will have to travel to find public land. I know there allow hunting in Darian Lake state park but I believe they require a permit? Good Luck.

[Woodjr55]

There is the Alabama swamps about 45 minutes north of buffalo. It's a very large track of land that will take some scouting to locate a good spot. There is also the heartland swamps I believe up towards barker in niagara county lots of deer up that way. Darien lake I know you need to fill out a release form prior to hunting at the ranger station. Your best bet is to knock doors in the off season lots and lots of farms to hunt in Clarence and niagara county. For bear your best bet is to head south out of erie county

Welcome to the site btw

[JimR]

Check out the NY State Land interactive Mapper (SLIM). Gives you aerial as well as topo and road map views of all NYS public land.

 

Edited November 26, 2014 by JimR

[phade]

Me and Moog5050 have multiple points for Iowa. After next season, we're probably going to start talking about the Iowa trip for bowhunting.

 

I think there could be a win-win situation with information sharing or networking if you have some interest. We're located in Rochester, about an hour east of Buffalo.

 

[IAatHeart]

Thank you everyone for the help I will definitely have to take some scouting trips out to those swamps that were mentioned and find out more about hunting at Darien Lake. I haven't moved yet but should be out there around February or March. 

 

Phade feel free to message me and I can probably help narrow down your search for big bucks in Iowa! 

 

Also does anyone know of any good archery shops in the Buffalo area with indoor ranges? I love to shoot my bow and meet new people that have a passion of bow hunting as well.

[Woodjr55]

Thank you everyone for the help I will definitely have to take some scouting trips out to those swamps that were mentioned and find out more about hunting at Darien Lake. I haven't moved yet but should be out there around February or March.

Phade feel free to message me and I can probably help narrow down your search for big bucks in Iowa!

Also does anyone know of any good archery shops in the Buffalo area with indoor ranges? I love to shoot my bow and meet new people that have a passion of bow hunting as well.

Wolcott guns has a nice indoor range 30 yards but has a bunch of 3d targets at different ranges

[2012_taco]

Nick's sporting goods on Kenmore ave is a small bow shop and has a 20yd range. Alied sportsmans club on clinton in alden has an indoor shoot on thursdays starting in January. And Hawkeye Bowmen is just down the road from allied great club but does not have an indoor range.

[The_Real_TCIII]

Travel an hour south and there are thousands of acres of state land, all of it great bow hunting with little pressure. Hanging Bog, Allen Lake, Harwood Lake, and more

[Four Season Whitetail's]

Hey everyone I am on here just hoping to get some help hopefully. I have spent my whole life living in Iowa and started bow hunting there 6 years ago.

 

I am now relocating to Buffalo, NY and I am looking at all of my options to bow hunt deer, turkey, and maybe bear. I also like to upland bird hunt, small game hunt, and waterfowl hunt but my passion is bow hunting. I was just wondering if anyone could help me out on finding a list of the public land and possibly even give me some hints on what properties might be better then others. I am looking at western NY but would be willing to travel a bit further if it meant better hunting. I know basically nothing about hunting NY and I don't even know what regions are better then others so any help is very much appreciated.

 

Thank you,

 

Sean

Sean i dont know what kind of a hunter you are or how much you would be willing to work for a nice deer but i will tell you that Letchworth State Park wuld be worth your time to check out. Its rough hunting in places but for land open to anyone i dont believe you would find a better place to wrap your tag around a great buck. There is AR in place down there and its working. Many,Many 21/2yr olds running around that most any hunter would be happy with.

[The_Real_TCIII]

Sean i dont know what kind of a hunter you are or how much you would be willing to work for a nice deer but i will tell you that Letchworth State Park wuld be worth your time to check out. Its rough hunting in places but for land open to anyone i dont believe you would find a better place to wrap your tag around a great buck. There is AR in place down there and its working. Many,Many 21/2yr olds running around that most any hunter would be happy with.

there are AR in letchworth??

[IAatHeart]

Wow you guys are giving me a lot of great information and I really appreciate it! I am more then willing to work at some nice deer that's for sure! I have a climber so I can get back and move around as I'm learning the area. My question is what is an AR? Also I went to the Letchworth Park website and I didn't see anything about hunting there. Is it special regulation hunting? In Iowa we had what they called urban bow hunting where they let us hunt in parks and in the city where there were over populations of deer but you had to take a special class to do it. So I was just wondering if it was similar to be able to hunt that state park or at Darien Lake?

[Four Season Whitetail's]

If you google..Hunting letchworth state park you will see all the permit info. They only allow so many hunters in for shotgun season and a permit from them is needed. Bow and muzzy is a self issued permit and anyone can hunt it.

 

AR is Antler Restriction. On the park if you are over 17 years old you can only take bucks with at least 3 points per side. Youger hunters can take spikes and 4's

[Red]

Ill second Letchworth there's done amazing hunting in that park and the antler restrictions has done b great things for the bucks in that park.    In letchworth the deer has to have atleast 3 points on one side to take the buck

[IAatHeart]

This is all great info! My next question would be what about doe tags or antlerless tags, how do those work in NY? 

[The_Real_TCIII]

Doe tags are a lottery, you can apply for two, by zones. There are high probability zones and low. Typically you'll get your first one. You are issued and antlered and antlerless with your archery license

[IAatHeart]

I just really want to say thank you to everyone that was able to give me some information as this has given me a great place to start!

 

My next question is going to be about spring turkey hunting. I'm not sure if I should start a new thread or not but I'll give this a shot since I do bow hunt turkeys mostly. Is there a good population of turkeys in western NY? Do people do a lot of turkey hunting here in NY?

 

I really love getting out after them in the spring and that season is the one that is going to sneak up on me real quick after I move there so if anyone can help in pointing me in the right direction to go after some spring turkeys that would be great!

 

Thanks again!

[The_Real_TCIII]

Lots of turkeys, lots of turkey hunters