Like a lot of people probably.. I grew up hunting private property that was a mix of ag land and woods, back in the early 90’s things were different….hunting wasn’t so competitive and permission was easily obtained, as time went on I began to lose property almost every year, eventually I questioned all of it… what is the sense in just learning a piece and then losing it for whatever reason, so I tried some smaller pieces of local public, no thanks… a real **** show. I live at the base of the Adirondacks, I had hunted the big woods some when I was younger, nobody ever killed anything and if you seen one deer you were grateful. Eventually I made my mind up I would focus on learning how to hunt the big woods in the Adks, I knew it would be a painful, a long learning curve, and be mentally tough, not seeing deer on every outing can take its toll fast, and it definitely did. The first few years I would hunt a couple days in the woods, get discouraged and race home to hunt the last private land I had left, our land we owned. Eventually I just made my mind up that 100” farm bucks and dealing with posted signs, idiot neighbors, and local gossip was not my future, so I took the dive and never looked back, I spent every day I had roaming the mountains, wading rivers, and crawling through thick spruce swamps, I covered many miles, and hardly had a close encounter with anything. I would kill a couple does with my bow at home for meat in the early season and go straight back into the big country for rifle, which for us is the main season at over a month long. Mile after mile each season I never killed anything, it was a long dry spell to say the least, 5 or 6 years maybe, after season I would drive to and cruise new pieces, on snow, check tracks, learned winter migration patterns, ran trail cameras, I practically wore out a couple trucks exploring all that the park has to offer, sometimes I would tent overnight in spots, use canoes, whatever it took. Through all the bad times I never gave up, and coming from some pretty lucrative private ag land to over 2 million acres of straight up woods, mountains, swamps, and poor deer numbers… it was a challenge, and then one year it finally clicked, and I killed a 5.5 year old 8, 120” or something, no monster, but a great buck for our area and one to be proud of, and I killed him like the first week, so I kept scouting all season, and in the years following I started killing more, some better, and definitely more consistent. I’ve gotten to the point where I can pretty much feel good about going into the season and kill or have the chance to kill a mature Adk buck, and let me tell you that it’s still no easy task, and if anyone reading this has ever hunted that country I guarantee you that they would agree there isn’t a place much worse to kill a whitetail deer than the Adirondack mountains of NYS, it truly is a challenge, and one I enjoy. I’ve hunted the mid west, I know the grass is greener, I’ve been to all those places and still could go, but something about being in the middle of nowheres with a big harvested mature rack buck and nobody around for miles, no posted signs, all alone, it gets in your system and it’s like a drug, and you can’t help but want more. It takes a long time to learn how to hunt the big woods with some sort of confidence, and it takes a lot of patience, along with a free schedule, lots of time…having time is the key. Being honest with your expectations is huge, I hunt hard, and I’m lucky to see 2 deer a week, I come home after a long trip, pull in the driveway and will usually see 10 deer in my yard, a small buck chasing does, is what is, I still prefer to hunt the big woods and doubt I will ever change. I’ve had the pleasure to hunt with a wide array of characters over the years in my travels, out of a couple dozen I can think 2 that had the mental toughness to stick it out chasing deer in big country, most quit the first weekend, some try twice, all agree it isn’t what they thought. So what is the hardest terrain to kill deer in…. one you quit on and have no confidence in, that’s my answer!!!
