Bow hunting Adirondacks

[LJC]

Hi guys any one bow hunt Adirondacks 

And what are some relatively flat land areas  to hunt  WI'll be my first time hunting north zone and dacts .

Maybe go for rifle season as well if I like the area 

Edited September 4, 2016 by LJC

[The_Field_Ager]

Once a year I go hunt the Daks with the boys. I can't Imagine the difficulty levels involved in closing the gap with a bow. Rifle is difficult enough. I still haven't seen a shooter Buck at any range in the 5 years I have been trying, and we try several new spots every year, plus a few known hot spots in terms of deer sign. It is a beautiful but demanding region to hunt. Try and get some scouting in before you go. You may wanna find a good spot and sit it all day for several days.

 

Good Luck!

[Bendog]

I have, and it can be done....but as a buddy told me when I first moved up there, "Better choose your tree wisely or you'll grow old before you see a deer."

[Buckmaster7600]

I have only killed 1 "nice" buck with a bow in the ADKS. I can count the number of bucks I have had in range on 1 hand. It's tough but it's fun, I just walk around with my bow. I don't like trees stands when I have no idea when or if a deer will walk by so I try to make it happen on my feet.

Compass a spare compass, a map and some comfortable boots and you should be all set.


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[NFA-ADK]

You really need to scout for bow in the ADK.  Flat land is not very abundant in the ADK and most the area's I hunt are not flat at all.  Calling works well if done right but it is some of the hardest to hunt area due to foliage still present in many area's makes seeing any distance hard.  The later part of the season opens up the woods a bit more as the leaves fall.  Main thing is to enjoy your time in the woods, if you do that you will have fun regardless of what you see or shoot.  I use the bow to scout deer for rifle.   Be ready when it happens the deer will be close and you probably will not have time to knock an arrow.

Good luck LJC! 

[wolc123]

One big advantage you have with bow-hunting, is that it is legal to take anterless deer during archery season.   In about 20 years of hunting up there, I have seen roughly 10 antlerless deer for every antlered one.  For many years, it has also been legal to take them during the early ML season, but the state is taking that away in a few zones this year, in effort to boost the population a bit.   We have never had as mild of winter up there as we got last year, so I would expect the population to be good this fall.

As has been mentioned by previous posters, the foliage limits your visibility during archery season, so locating feeding area's is critical.    There is not much food available deep in the forests which have mostly never been logged.   It sounds cool to hike in miles from the road.  There you will find peaceful scenery, but not much deer action.  In some areas, the cut areas on the roadsides are the best food that the deer have, so the best hunting is often very close to the road.   

If you can locate old, long-abandoned farms along these roads, and find old fence lines, that is a good area to look for trails.  In the central Adirondacks, I have found deer hair stuck on some old rusty barbed-wire.   The last time I did that, I located the nearest patch of heavy cover, circled around down-wind, and walked up within 40 yards of four deer.  One ran off to my left, and three straight ahead.  It was early rifle season, so I could only watch them bound away (those three lacked antlers).  I saw only the rear and tail on the one that ran left, but it's tracks were significantly larger than the other three so I suspect it was a buck.  That cover was only about 50 yards off the main highway (RT 30).  Certainly that area would have been a prime spot for a bow stand.  

I would concentrate on edges and food sources.   Lakes, creek-bottoms, and beaver ponds are good, but mast-producing trees are best.   There are not many of those in the central Adirondacks, but they are fairly abundant on the edges.   A few years ago, I was out in my boat on a lake fishing in the fall (ML season) and heard a deer snorting up on the adjacent hill top.  The next morning, I snuck up there from downwind and noted several deer feeding on acorns on the next hilltop (out of range).   The following season, I got up on that oak ridge before daylight, and a group of five or six antlerless deer, led by a huge doe (which I killed), walked to within 20 yards of me, soon after sunrise.  That would have been a prime spot for a bow stand.  I had no issue, slowly pointing the ML at her chest, but drawing a bow from the ground would have been tricky with all those sets of eyes.

I have had many less encounters with deer in and around the Adirondacks, than I have killed in the Southern zone of NY, but every one was memorable, due to the "best in world" scenery up there.   When every thing does come together, as it did for me two years ago when I killed my largest-bodied buck ever up there, you get a little taste of what Heaven must be like.  My "taste" came late in the fall, with all the leaves down, and snow on the ground, from a bit over 300 yards with my rifle.  In close with a bow, with the brilliant fall foliage still up on the trees, would be even better.  Good luck up there this fall.       

   

 

       

   

    

     

[LJC]

5 hours ago, wolc123 said:

One big advantage you have with bow-hunting, is that it is legal to take anterless deer during archery season.   In about 20 years of hunting up there, I have seen roughly 10 antlerless deer for every antlered one.  For many years, it has also been legal to take them during the early ML season, but the state is taking that away in a few zones this year, in effort to boost the population a bit.   We have never had as mild of winter up there as we got last year, so I would expect the population to be good this fall.

As has been mentioned by previous posters, the foliage limits your visibility during archery season, so locating feeding area's is critical.    There is not much food available deep in the forests which have mostly never been logged.   It sounds cool to hike in miles from the road.  There you will find peaceful scenery, but not much deer action.  In some areas, the cut areas on the roadsides are the best food that the deer have, so the best hunting is often very close to the road.   

If you can locate old, long-abandoned farms along these roads, and find old fence lines, that is a good area to look for trails.  In the central Adirondacks, I have found deer hair stuck on some old rusty barbed-wire.   The last time I did that, I located the nearest patch of heavy cover, circled around down-wind, and walked up within 40 yards of four deer.  One ran off to my left, and three straight ahead.  It was early rifle season, so I could only watch them bound away (those three lacked antlers).  I saw only the rear and tail on the one that ran left, but it's tracks were significantly larger than the other three so I suspect it was a buck.  That cover was only about 50 yards off the main highway (RT 30).  Certainly that area would have been a prime spot for a bow stand.  

I would concentrate on edges and food sources.   Lakes, creek-bottoms, and beaver ponds are good, but mast-producing trees are best.   There are not many of those in the central Adirondacks, but they are fairly abundant on the edges.   A few years ago, I was out in my boat on a lake fishing in the fall (ML season) and heard a deer snorting up on the adjacent hill top.  The next morning, I snuck up there from downwind and noted several deer feeding on acorns on the next hilltop (out of range).   The following season, I got up on that oak ridge before daylight, and a group of five or six antlerless deer, led by a huge doe (which I killed), walked to within 20 yards of me, soon after sunrise.  That would have been a prime spot for a bow stand.  I had no issue, slowly pointing the ML at her chest, but drawing a bow from the ground would have been tricky with all those sets of eyes.

I have had many less encounters with deer in and around the Adirondacks, than I have killed in the Southern zone of NY, but every one was memorable, due to the "best in world" scenery up there.   When every thing does come together, as it did for me two years ago when I killed my largest-bodied buck ever up there, you get a little taste of what Heaven must be like.  My "taste" came late in the fall, with all the leaves down, and snow on the ground, from a bit over 300 yards with my rifle.  In close with a bow, with the brilliant fall foliage still up on the trees, would be even better.  Good luck up there this fall.       

   

 

       

   

    

     

Well my plan  for up there is  bow hunt  using a ghillie suit spot stalk slowly on a trail or river or lake side  or any clearings I find .  Because I know the deer are few and far between to stay in one spot  for to long I  dought  that would work 

 Going to try pine lakes area on route 10

I just want to see what its like up there during bow hunting season change of scenery and the challenge of big woods hunting . Since I rifle hunt to I have planty of time to harvist something. 

Just want to injoy the great outdoors of bigoods country.