Deer Season 2018

[skillzman1]

Took advantage of the fresh snow this morning. Hunted through the ledges and ridges looking below into the stiff wind. Finally, I see the silhouette of a head staring at me 120yds away as a nice 5 pointer stood up out of his bed to see what was making noise in the snow behind him. 2018 tag filled.
Hunting a mountain that is as ledgie as the come, that I've been hunting for the last 8 yrs and part of the range of mountains my ancestors have hunted for over 200 yrs. Gives a certain sense of accomplishment.
Trying to figure my way through the ledges in the snow and a pair of small does stood up from the beech brush below me and walked off slowly. I believe they tipped the buck off as they trotted by. I watched them go and then started picking my way down through, cautiously, due to the snow and the 40% grade under the ledges. I stopped and looked around and there he was staring at me head on about 120 yds out, between trees. I thought it was one of the does at first, brought my rifle down off my shoulder sling, twisted the scope up to about 6, pulled into the brush he was standing in, realized it had a rack and squeezed off a round from my .308 BLR. Dropped him right in his bed with a neck shot!
Then I got to drag him a mile out of the woods all by myself. Thank you for the snow and down hill!!

[Stillhunter]

Great hunt and story Skillzman! Congratulations and enjoy the Holidays even more now that you have been successful. Good shooting by the way. 120 is not a chip shot.

[geogymn]

Nice hunt, that was fun!

[sleepy]

Just got back from the annual week long hunt in the Tupper Lake region, Tough week with a lot of rain and it seemed like a lot of leaves still on trees. A few deer sighted but very little buck sign in the woods and no deer taken.

Curious to hear anyone's opinion on the beech brush in the ADKs. I hiked into one of my best areas and the ridge was like a jungle with the beech brush. Are the woods changing? A lot of the trees with leaves were still green and the density of the brush was unbelievable seemed like there aren't many mature beeches left.

Anybody experiencing this change?

[bioguide]

Congratulations to all those that have filled their tag... so far. I've enjoyed the write ups of your hunts.

We pulled camp today after having spent a total of 12 days over muzzle and regular season. Overall we saw little sign in rubs/scrapes compared to prior years and seemed to have encountered more moose browse than in years past. I've got to change it up somehow for next year so back to the topo maps this winter.

Sleepy, you might like to read this article about the changing forest: https://www.esf.edu/communications/n...ronforests.pdf

[sleepy]

BioGuide
Thanks for the link very interesting article on the long term trends of the ADK forest. Nice to see that folks are looking at the long term trends and not the short term widow so many use to judge the environment

[Buckladd]

Had a good weekend in the woods. Seeing more buck sign, especially rubs, each day. I think the rut is happening but slow. Saturday was sloppy as we had six-inches of snow. Sunday was a little better, but crunchier. We got bucks each day: a 4-pointer that went 138 and a small 3 that was shot by my buddy who came up from Florida and hasn't gotten a deer since the 1970s.

I'm off all this week, headed for camp today for a bit and then my brother's camp in Cranberry Lake on Thursday for the weekend. He travelled in from Arizona and I'd like to see him get a deer.

[Mallard1100]

Just got back from my club in Long Lake. It was a great week aside from missing what would have been my first chance at an adk buck. I have been hunting a long meadow and misjudged the yardage. later ranged at 275 yards. Quite the shot for the adks. I did find a small amount of blood and with a fresh track my inner Benoit shined and I told myself I would track this deer until dark. I got on the track and immediately this wise ridge runner began to punish me, taking me up and down a mountain face for 3 hours. I jumped him twice at close to 30 yards but had no shot on a mountain completely covered in short beech full of leaves. Much of what the previous poster stated. I lost the track after he got into some clear cuts. Heart breaking situation but a learning experience none the less. Not much rut sign but the club saw a ton of doe just no bucks in tow. The club that borders us shot a nice 9pt 200lber. Hopefully next year will be my year...... always an adventure up there.

[adkman12986]

Originally Posted by Mallard1100

Just got back from my club in Long Lake. It was a great week aside from missing what would have been my first chance at an adk buck. I have been hunting a long meadow and misjudged the yardage. later ranged at 275 yards. Quite the shot for the adks. I did find a small amount of blood and with a fresh track my inner Benoit shined and I told myself I would track this deer until dark. I got on the track and immediately this wise ridge runner began to punish me, taking me up and down a mountain face for 3 hours. I jumped him twice at close to 30 yards but had no shot on a mountain completely covered in short beech full of leaves. Much of what the previous poster stated. I lost the track after he got into some clear cuts. Heart breaking situation but a learning experience none the less. Not much rut sign but the club saw a ton of doe just no bucks in tow. The club that borders us shot a nice 9pt 200lber. Hopefully next year will be my year...... always an adventure up there.

Strange that the bucks aren't chasing the does. Just 20 miles (Tupper Lake area) they have been chasing them for a week now.

[bobadkhunter]

Mallard1100, I saw that 9 pt. and that was very impressive. we've taken 4 bucks on our club(very close to yours). I was one of the lucky 4 having taken a 143 lb. 4 pt. on 11/14. He was with 2 does.....his neck was swollen abnormally large. I've seen a tremendous amount of buck sign and ALOT of moose sign(saw a huge bull couple days prior to tagging my buck). the moose(when they go thru an area) in my opinion do change deer patterns for short periods of time. I like seeing them but I don't like them in my area when i'm deer hunting.
good luck all as we are now in the second half of our season. By the way we received about 14-18 inches of snow over the weekend(between Tupper and Long Lake)….which is really to much.....but the deer are still moving around.

[Buckladd]

Well, how did everyone fare with the snow? I went to my brother's camp in the northern ADKs on Thursday. We had all kinds of great plans until 18-inches of snow showed up. We went out in it, without snowshoes. Slow going. We packed it in early and came back to Warren County. Saw some deer there, no bucks, but I know several were killed over the weekend. Hope a few were by the guys on here. Back it from Thanksgiving on.

[Cpswing555]

rough trip to say the least. We arrived at the edge of camp early Friday evening. While plowing through the 18 inches of snow in my dodge diesel I was wishing I had added a few hundred pounds of weight. We saw a white weasel jump across one of the tracks in front of us. the racks were narrower than mine thus doin us no good. Put in a couple of miles the first day with no snowshoes (that sucked) snow was up to the top of my boots on the road and up to my nuts as I tried to climb the one mountain. after making it nearly the entire way home I was met by my friends with some snowshoes. much better but still tough. The second and third days we did just over 4 miles on shoes. tough going. saw some pretty sites. three deer total and no new fresh tracks on the last day. we packed up and headed home this morning. found a dead snowshoe hair on the road with its neck tore out. we inspected and headed home. It was a good trip, a tough trip, but eventually I will get one of these damn deer.

CP

[Mallard1100]

Originally Posted by Cpswing555

rough trip to say the least. We arrived at the edge of camp early Friday evening. While plowing through the 18 inches of snow in my dodge diesel I was wishing I had added a few hundred pounds of weight. We saw a white weasel jump across one of the tracks in front of us. the racks were narrower than mine thus doin us no good. Put in a couple of miles the first day with no snowshoes (that sucked) snow was up to the top of my boots on the road and up to my nuts as I tried to climb the one mountain. after making it nearly the entire way home I was met by my friends with some snowshoes. much better but still tough. The second and third days we did just over 4 miles on shoes. tough going. saw some pretty sites. three deer total and no new fresh tracks on the last day. we packed up and headed home this morning. found a dead snowshoe hair on the road with its neck tore out. we inspected and headed home. It was a good trip, a tough trip, but eventually I will get one of these damn deer.

CP

Hang tough CP. same boat as you....it’s tough for us out of state hunters to time and capitalize on the conditions up there. I get one week and that’s it and hope for the best. Saw my first buck this year after 6 + years of hard hunting up there and unfortunately blew it. Still wouldn’t trade it for anything. The vast wilderness, camp life, and comraderie can’t be beat. That’s what keeps us coming back. It’s always an adventure and that buck of a lifetime can walk out at any second......

[Tug Hill]

Deep snow has really put a damper on many northern zone hunters. On Tug Hill it’s pretty much over unless you hunt on snowshoes near the winter yards.
Deep snow in the south west ADKs have forced deer to migrate early towards the Black River Valley, and hunters are stacking them up in their wintering yards there. I know of 6 rack bucks killed in the last 2 days.
It was -17 degrees this morning in Boonville, -25 degrees on Tug Hill along with 24” of snow on the ground. We better hope for mild temps and reduced snow levels or the winter kill will be severe.

[Cpswing555]

yes, -24.8 this morning at our friends camp. only -4 here in PA. I have the same worries. I can't say I totally blame them for hunting near the yards. HUnt where the deer are Right? My big concern is that they will enter the yards too early and eat all their food stores and starve. I guess we can only hope. Remember "big bucks don't get big by being stupid"

[Tug Hill]

I was not condemning anyone for hunting in or near the winter yards, just stating what the deer hunting situation is in these areas.

[Cpswing555]

me neither Tug, and I didn't take it that way. I just worry about them getting in there early is all and depleting their resources.

[Buckladd]

Tug is right about migration, I know some hunters in the central ADKs who witnessed it right after last week's snow. As for hunting the yards, a few years ago that happened near Benson during the late muzzleloading season. DEC adjusted the WMU boundary after so there is no late season there. It was fish in a barrel.

Where there isn't deep snow it seems the bucks are really moving in on the does. Our group and several others I know are having some action. A young hunter in our group got a piebald buck on Sunday. I saw this deer as a fawn two years ago and didn't think it was around. When it came out of the drive he thought it was a normal deer covered in snow. You can see some pictures here: http://adkhunter.com/trailhead/.

We got another buck and had two others slip by over the weekend. I'm off this week and am headed to that area shortly to hunt on today's fresh snow. I have not seen a buck yet this season but see does nearly every time I hunt, so maybe today's the day; or tomorrow, or until I run out of tomorrows later this week! Good luck all, keep at it. I am, for sure.