Adirondack deer hunting

[northernbill]

So far this year, I have had the most unproductive deer season that I have had in a long time. I hunt 5f, between Tupper and Saranac Lake, and have yet to see a deer in 11 full days in the woods. There is nowhere near the sign there was last year, but there is sign, and I have located an area a buck is working. I started vacation yesterday and hope things improve this week. Was the winter kill this past winter this severe, or has coyote predation really taken its toll. I would love to hear from some other ADK hunters, and see if they are having the same problems.

[DANNY-L]

I hunt 6c and thats the way it is here also,I think your right on both counts with the deep sow and coyotes. They need to allow us to feed them in some of these remote areas during the winter,or just do it anyhow.

[ihookem]

I can tell ya one thing, it's a late rut in northern Wisconsin for no reason except nature. Maybe you are getting the same. As for coyotes, I take them much more serious now. Just go to lake-link.com scroll down to big game forums, scroll down to the date of post 11/11/11 to 11:36 pm. The trail cam gets a pic of a buck taken down by a few scroungy little coyotes. I was amazed and mad although I'm sure it's rare it does happen.

[DANNY-L]

That buck must have just been worn out,those mangy mugrels will hopefully catch a bullet.

[rebAL]

I also hunt the Tupper Lake area and agree with your assesment on deer population.  I believe coyotes are the main reason.  I was early bear hunting and spooked a coyote.  I called him back in with fawn mute call.  I believe fawns are their top food source from June on.  I spend a lot of time up there during summer & spring and there has been very little deer activity throughout the year.

[Mikey]

My trail cams pick up a lot of night time movement but we do not see a lot of activity during the day.  The bucks are out before dawn and after dusk, when you can't see them and with this warm weather we have been having they just bed down and you literally have to kick them up to get them moving. 
 
Still though, we have been successful with two bucks and one doe for the group over the past week.  It has gotten really slow though and with the trail cam intelligence we know where they move and when but the when is when we cannot see them or hunt legally, which is why I think there are the big guys, the really big guys we rarely ever see and the 'stayed out too late last night dummies' we can usually catch comin' and goin'. 
 
I'm not so sure the winter kill was that severe last year or that the coyotes are more of a problem than before.  While it is true that over the past 20 yrs the main source of food for coyotes has gone from 80% small game to 80% Whitetail, the Whitetail population continues to expand.  If you want to see what sort of movement the Whitetail are up to, head down the thruway toward nyc and youwill see a mess of them on the side of the road.
 
Although we have had some snow, we are still enjoying the warmer weather and there is lots and lots of food available for these animals. 
 
During the last full moon my buddy and I went out and hid in our hunting blind to watch for Whitetail at night - we never saw so many before, all coming and going, stopping to munch or play around.  We could clearly see the bucks and easily recognized those we had seen on the trail cams - but come daylight and forget about it, as it's nap time for bambi and they do not have to move far at all for a quick meal and then back to napping.
 
The site moderator, wny whitetailer, has the opportunity to be out at night and seems to have seen a fair number of deer himself, when he is working though, not when he is hunting (don't know that for sure but hope he gets a big one). 
 
They are out there though, and even after last years harvest which was pretty respectable, and coyote predation, we are still overppopulated with them - we're just not seeing them when we're out looking for them.  jmtcw though.

[DANNY-L]

Wish ya could send some up north. 

[bubba]

I also hunt 6c and saw as many deer as I did the previous season.  I saw the biggest buck I ever saw on the neighbors property in the cut corn field as well as many deer on the property.  I believe you are correct Danny with feeding the deer.  In essence you can do so with food plots and plant some they can eat during the winter.  We plant about 10 acres the majority of which was sugar beets and turnips.  They are still eating the beets.  So do it that way if you can.

[DANNY-L]

We never planted any of the beets but I know some people have. We have always figured to much snow and the frozen grown would make it hard for them to get to but with the winter we had this year would have ben perfect. As far as bucks go this year I didn't see a single one until 2 days after the season a little spike came out behind the house.

[Savage_99]

Your not far from northern Vermont where I read they had the worst winter kill the year before due to record snow.

We hunted Northern Vermont last fall and I saw very little deer sign.

Winter Kill.

[DANNY-L]

On my brothers farm his meadows are planted with some good clover,timothy and such,in past years it was not uncommon to go over after dark during the summer and see 75+ deer but this past summer and early fall I think the most we see was 14 only 2 were fawns. I think last winter did alot more damage to the deer heer than they want to admit. Hopefully this mild winter will help build it back up. It's not to bad going out hunting and letting them walk but it sure gets discouraging not seeing any or hardly any tracks.