New Here..........Just moved to NY

[rick james]

Hello all.  I just moved to the Clifton Park area.  I grew up in Rutland, VT but spent the last 8 years in Pennsylvania, and just in October moved back up north and ended up in Clifton Park and working in Albany.

Anyone local around here?  I hope to make some local friends around here that are as passionate about hunting as I am.  Any decent public hunting ground around here?  I am considering a lease for 06', but hope to find some public property for 05' that isn't hit too hard by others or even better yet a few landowners that wouldn't mind a bow/turkey hunter.  I probably will continue to do my firearms hunting in PA/VT for this year.

I archery and rifle hunt deer every year in both PA and Vermont, turkey hunt in Vermont, and predator hunt in Vermont as much as possible.  If it is furry, I probably enjoy hunting it.  I also fish quite a bit too in the summer months to keep busy.

Here is a quick pic of the first Vermont bird I tagged last year...........managed to call in 6 legal goblers in 3 days last year and I managed to fill my 2 tags and called for 2 other guys to fill theres too.  Hope to meet a few of you guys soon!

[anthony passero]

Welcome to the site. There is great turkey hunting all around you! I lived in Albany for 10 years and gobblers are everywhere.  I have had good luck deer hunting outside of Warrensburg in The Adrondacks.  The Catskills can be tricky though. deer hunting on public land wait until late in the season and hunt the rut. Less pressure. Unless you pack in, pressure is high early in the season. Pistol Parlor and taylor and Vadneys are the best stores for guns and gear. Also Neudeckers in Troy. Any questions feel free to PM or email me. Anthony

[htrjv]

Hi Rick, Welcome to New York.  I'm here in Rotterdam.  

The one thing New York has in its' favor is the amount of "Public (State) Land available to hunters and fishermen.  Stop into to any Walmart and pick up one of the Free State maps in the Sporting Goods dept.  You'll be able to see where the "State Lands" are located.

In Clifton Park, you should check out the Clifton Park Sportsmen Club, on Englemore Road.  Nice facilities for both gun and bow.  
There are many clubs around here.  Just outside of Albany, in Colonie, is the Watervliet Road and Gun club, located on Rifle Range Road, off Route 155 between Central Ave and Route 20 (Western Ave).

I belong to several clubs on my side of town, as do most of the hunters around here.  If you want or need any more info PM me.  Oddly enough, work takes me through Rutland every month.  We may know the same people.  Joe

[rick james]

Thanks for the welcome guys........much appreciated.  

I will have to look into those clubs, I work in Colonie right by CBA and ITT Tech, and don't have access to a shooting range around here so that would be awfully convenient and should allow me to meet some more people.  I would love to meet anyone local sometime, I hope to find some friends around here that are interested in the same thing as I am.

[ken w.]

Welcome to New York.Unfortunate home of Shummer and Hillery,but the rest of the state is ok tho  :grin: .I too hunt PA and spent every summer in Vergenns,Vermont on my grandparents farm.I shot every woodchuck I could see on that farm.
    Lots of good hunting in New York and fishing too.Just about every finger lake has good Ice fishing along with lake erie if its frozen.

[Raging480]

Welcome to NY!  I am from the Albany area originally, but I have moved to the Syracuse area for my career.  I am constantly changing my hunting spots, due to deer population, human pressure, etc.  Starting this winter, I plan on scouting an area new to me, some public land about half way between Albany and Syracuse.  If it looks promising, maybe a bunch of us can schedule a hunt together next fall.

[bubba]

Rick,

Welcome to NY.  I live way upstate on the Canadian border, so I am kind of the outsider as far as location with just a couple exceptions. If you visit the state DEC site you can find where there is state land around you.  I hope you are a frequent visitor to the Hunting in NY site here. There is a good bunch of guys who visit here.

[rick james]

Thanks again for all the welcomes guys.

Have any of you actually joined the Sportsmens Club of Clifton Park?  Is it worth the membership fees?  I will probably be going there on 2/10 to see if I can get approved to join.  They apparently have indoor archery (20 yards only), 3D's, 10 - 80 yard targets for archery, an indoor pistol range, and 50-200 yard rifle range, a 200-300 yard rifle range, and skeet/trap shooting. It is $100 new member fee + $75 annual fee for the first year which is kind of high, but if it is a nice club it should be worth it.  It is awfully close to my house too, I should be able to slip over there in the evening after work to shoot.

[Rwalter63]

Rick,

That price doesn't sound to expensive to me. The sportmans club I belong to the annual membership dues alone are $185. Its a nice club but
it doesn't even have as much as the club your describing. The club I belong to does have 6 skeet fields, 9 trap fields ( $3.50 for 50 clay birds), 2 sporting clays ($6 for 50 clays), indoor pistol or 22 rifle range (25 yds? and if its not busy you can shoot archery in there), large outdoor pistol range, and 50/100/200 yard out door rifle range ($2 a day usage fee for outdoor/indoor shooting ranges.). They also have 265 acres that you can hunt on (also in the process of adding 50 more acres) of which 130 are wetlands. They run a pheasant club which is hard to get into and runs an additional $80 where they release pheasants for weekend morning hunts. They also have a very nice club house/bar  where they serve dinners every Friday night.
What they really lack is archery ranges, both indoor, outdoor and 3d. They use to have an outdoor range but the members that used to set it up every year apparently are no longer there or doing so. I just joined about 3 months ago. I choose it for the same reason your looking at Clifton Parks club in that it is the closest club to my house. So there prices actually sound pretty reasonable to me.

Robert

[htrjv]

Rick, $75.00/yr is about the going rate. Guan-Ho-Ha in Scotia is $80.00, and Iroquois in Rotterdam is $50.00.  I'm not sure what Watervliet is, but I believe it is somewhere between 50 and 80.  Clifton Park's Sportsmen has come a long way in the last 20 years.  You really can't go wrong with facilities.  We both know it is the people that make the club what it is.  Joe

[rebAL]

Welcome to the Caqpital district!  Be sure to attend Sportsman's show third week-end of March in Albany.  There's a lot of local & regional information, vendor's & seminars.  Clifton park is a good location for you- close to Vt.,Adirondacks, and local rural hunting & fishing opportunities.

[htrjv]

Hey rick james, how did you make out in finding a club?  Did Clifton Park work for you?  Joe