"Since 1994"
Some of my thoughts on what hunting the Adirondack wilderness does for the soul!
The park (click for regional view) is roughly the size of Vermont!!!
It is a 6 million acre state park in northeastern New York State that encompasses the Adirondack Mountains. Contrary to popular belief, the Adirondack Mountains are not part of the Appalachian Mountains. They are actually part of the much-older Laurentian Shield of Canada. The Adirondack Park is the largest park in the continental United States (almost 3 times the size of Yellowstone National Park), and the only one in the nation with constitutional protection. About 40% (2.4 million acres)of the park is state owned and open to the public for hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities. There are large tracts of land designated "wilderness" and no motorized vehicles are allowed. So if you want to get off the beaten path....and I mean REALLY get off the path, to find some undisturbed big whitetails, the Adirondacks are for you.
Caution !!!! THIS IS TRUE WILDERNESS AND THOROUGH PREPARATION IS A MUST!!!!....- Safety tips-
Heres A little about me...if you care -- and thanks for visiting my "Adirondack Whitetail Hunting Page". My name is Jim and I retired from the United States Marine Corps in 2003. I am an avid whitetail deer hunter that grew up in the Adirondacks of NY. For well over a decade I travel back from my various duty stations each year to the heart of the Adirondacks in search of big NY whitetails. My buddies and I backpack and canoe into the "deep woods", and sometimes deep snow, for 7-10 days. We have taken some pretty nice bucks on our hunts, but the truth is we have a great time whether we get a buck or not. The experience is not unlike that of the early 1900's (I think). For those of you who look through this page and are thinking that big bucks are stumbling over each other in the Adirondacks, I should point out that on the average there are less than 3 whitetail per square mile. Be prepared to hunt long and hard and still get skunked, and maybe even go a whole week without seeing a single deer. But maybe...just maybe...you will have an encounter with an Adirondack bruiser like the ones below.
I use my Model-700 7MM-08 in the big woods but I also enjoy bowhunting and muzzleloading.
These are some of the ADIRONDACKS bucks we've knocked down on our annual deep woods trip. (click on the picture for a closer look)
Click below to see some of our
Adirondack Bucks!!
2006 buck. Well we had a slow year for deer but had a lot of fun building our new Rack-n-Claw Hunting Camp. Jim did manage to knock down one young 4 pt though. Rack-n-Claw members Mike, Butch, Joel, Jim and Jeff. Hunting new territory required a some time away from hunting in order to scout and learn the terrain. Those big bucks better look out next year!!
2005 buck. Here is Danny "Bucky" Barber's completion of a 20 year quest for an Adirondack big buck! this 10 pt gives him a good reason to smile.
2004 buck. Meet my brother "Butch"...He took his first Adirondack buck this year, a nice ridge runnin 9 pointer. Way to go Butch!
2003 buck. Jim jumped this 10 pt buck toward Gordy in a ground blind on top of a mountain.
2003 buck #2. Mike was still hunting a mountain side when he caught this 8 pointer chasing a doe.
2002 buck. 17 year old Zac scores on a super 19 inch wide FIRST BUCK! Jim also took a smaller buck this year.
2002 bear. Mike took this bruin while looking down over a beechnut grove.
2001 bucks. Another great trip to the "Dacks" with two good Adirondack bucks this year! This is Jim,Mike,Joel and Ron
2001 6pt buck..Mike stayed on this buck's tracks for two hours before Joel and he teamed up to down this nice 6 point.
2001 8pt buck..Joel took this real nice 8 pt on stand right before dark.
2000 Millenium bucks..That's right...two good 8 pt Adirondack bucks this year! This is Jerry, Gordy and Jim
2000 Millenium buck..Mike returned after 9 years away and found a nice 8 point while still hunting in the dark timber.
2000 Millenium buck..Gordy was sneaking around on top of a high Adirondack ridgeline when he spotted this nice 8 point doing the doesearch shuffle
1999 buck..Gordy joined the "tracker club" by tracking down this ol' boy on 16 Nov 99.
1999 Buck..How about another look...... The gang (Gordy, Ron and Jim) with the 180 lbs, 4 1/2 year old, 9 point (plus a split tine), deep woods monarch.
1998 buck... Jim grunted in a deep woods 9 point on 21 Nov 98.
1998 buck... A second look at the 98 buck.
1998 story.
1997__ We missed a nice buck ("Romeo") on the Adirondack trip this year so we have only fond memories for 97'.
1996 buck... Jim took this swamp buck at 2 in the afternoon. Gordy & Jim pose with the 14 point, 140 class buck, 185 lbs. 1996 buck...another look.
1995 buck.. Jim tracked this buck down while he was with a doe and shot him while he was rising from his bed. 8 pts, dressed 205 lbs, 140 class B&C. 1995 buck... A closer look at look at the rack. Excuse the smile please.
1994 buck,.. shot by "Gordy" on the left. 130 class 8 pts 230lbs! 1994 buck,.. "Gordy" hid in a stump to bag this rut crazed buck!
1993 buck.. shot by "Gordy". Check out the neck on this buck! 1993 buck..This is a young 4 point shot by Jim the day after Thanksgiving 1993 (Jim only had 3 days to hunt that year)
1992 buck.. "Terrible Ted", shot by Roger, 8 pt, dressed 250 lbs, 145 class B&C! 1992 buck.. "Terrible Ted", another look 1992 buck.. Jim's first Adirondack buck, 6 pt while huntin with "Uncy Larry"!
1990 bucks..We got these two bucks from our base camp before 9 A.M. using deer drives. (before I started backpacking deep into the Adirondacks) 1990 buck.."Gordy's" 10 pointer shot on Thanksgiving Day 1990 (Our first deep woods buck !!!)
I have also been fortunate enough to be able to hunt several other states to include;
North Carolina for several years with my long time hunt'n partner Jerry. Virginia, 1999 ,still hunting a steep mountain top Virginia, 2000,a ground blind was how this buck was dropped. Alabama 2001Jerry and I hunted our first Alabama rut.
Illinois 2000 & 2001 Spot & stalk with MZ hunting with my friends Gary, Michele and Bob. Ohio 2002 & 2003 with good friends Travis, Todd and Charlie, Todd took this nice 11 pointer (bow).
Texas 2002,Catch this hunt on the Outdoor Channel "Gone Huntin" Texas 2003,Catch this hunt on the Outdoor Channel "Gone Huntin" Mississippi 2003 ,with my good friends Jerry and Gene Mississippi 2004; ,grunted in at 7:30 a.m. Hunting with Gene and Brian Michigan 2004; This 210 pound 14pt nontypical was taken from a blind at 1:00 pm Ohio 2005; This 8 pt typical was taken with my Knight muzzleloader at 130 yards opening day of the Ohio late MZ season. Some early sightings by Travis and I made us aware that this buck was in the area. I never thought I would see him the first night in my climing tree stand! Ohio 2006; This wide 9 pt typical was taken by Travis with a crossbow during the rut. A game camera had captured this buck a month earlier. Travis was jumping for joy. Ohio 2007; Jim took this nice 9 pt on Oct 30th with a cross bow as several rutting bucks cruised the area
LIMITED OPENINGS in our Adirondack Hunting Club:
Our Essex County hunting camp now has limited opening for serious Adirondack Hunters. We have good hunting for deer, bear grouse, snowshoe rabbits, and coyotes. This 255 acres also provides access to the remote Jay Wilderness, giving you access to over 7000 wilderness acreas! The dues are $200.00 per year. Serious hunters can e-mail me for more information by clicking on the sign at the bottom of this page.
ADIRONDACK TROPHY ROOM
More trophy bucks from the Adirondacks! If you hunt the Adirondacks, e-mail your photo and I will add it to the trophy room. Hope to see you in the
"Adirondack Trophy Room"
NYS ADIRONDACK REGIONAL INFORMATION
I highly recommend "A Guide to Adirondack Deer Hunting" (By Charles Alsheimer and Larry Watkins) for all hunters that plan to hunt this vast wilderness region. This book is full of great regional whitetail information. The map below shows the general whitetail population in NY.
The northeast corner is the Adirondack Region
Less than 15 deer per sq. mi. is an understatement.
If you are thinking about hunting the Adirondacks for the first time you know you must start with a map study. There are several companies now producing CD's with detailed topo maps. I use Toposcout, "Adirondack Region". These programs not only give you maps of the region but allow you to print maps of specific areas of your choosing and you can add symbols and a legend taylored to your needs and desires. I have also found a free on line Topo map sight.
If you are a true lover of the Adirondack deep woods you'll enjoy my favorite Adirondack poem:
THE VAGABOND SPIRIT ...."I like these old woods," said a gentleman whom I met on Racket last year; "I like them because one can do here just what one pleases. He can wear a shirt a week, have holes in his pantaloons, and be out at elbows, go with his boots unblacked, drink whisky in the raw, chew plug tobacco, and smoke a black pipe, and not lose his position in society. Now," continued he, "though I don't choose to do any of these things, yet I love the freedom, now and then, of doing just all of them if I choose, without human accountability. The truth is that it is natural as well as necessary for every man to be a vagabond occasionally, to throw off the restraints imposed upon him by the necessities and conventionalities of civilization, and turn savage for a season, and what place is left for such transformation save these northern forest?""
1857, by S.H. Hamond, The Adirondack Reader, by Paul Jamieson
