Charles Alsheimer's "A Guide to Adirondack Deer Hunting" a book report.

[NorthvilleNewbie]

Back when I was a toddler, Charles Alsheimer, famed local wildlife photograper and hunter, wrote a book in 1985. I bought this book in the spring and read it cover to cover. It seems from what I hear and as a person new to the sport, that a lot of the same information rings true today.

Elementary information:
             I felt that the language in this book was easy for readers to understand, and the first half of the book is basically Deer Hunting 101. Together with reading this, participating in hunter's safety courses, and reading BBS messages, the sport all crystalized in my head. Once Charles was past this point, he addresses the sport more finitely as it pertains the Adirondack region.

Information gathering before your hunt:
            The old practices of scouting before the season rings true here. Scrapes, food sources, and past sightings are elementary things I think we all understand. The book is obviously dated insofar that with the internet, we now have access to satelite photos, topo maps, and online DEC information about deer harvests in the Adirondacks proper. Funny how he gives instructions on how to mail order maps and request information that is easily accessible today with a search engine. Handheld GPS has replaced compasses and so on and so forth. Aside from this though, one of the things I took away from this portion of the book was that the quickest way to get discouraged hunting the Adirondacks is to try "pot luck" on opening day.

2011 and 1985:
             What was interesting is I noted deer harvest numbers provided by Charles were higher in those days. That could mean one of two things. Either, the lack of interest in hunting nowadays, as the older generation starts to die off means less hunters are out there, OR it could mean there are actually fewer deer. I tend to believe it might be the first theory. Thoughts? The low numbers in the Adirondacks are explained, as the boreal forest region that stetches from the bowels of Russia, across Alaska, and south through Canada; the Adirondacks is actually a very southernmost tip of this. Together with that, and the fact a lot of the area is protected under the DEC as "Forever Wild", the lack of logging disallows good browse for the deer to grow in the understory from lack of sunlight, and thus cut their numbers as far as a maximium carrying capacity goes. Its always been my understanding that the deer are bigger and more mature in the Adirondack, but few and far between.

Interviews with local hunters.:
             The resounding message about pre-rut hunting in the Adirondacks was, "don't waste your time." Charles interviews several hunters towards the end of the book. Each one hunts a different portion of the Adirondacks with different styles, ie; drives in Arietta, still hunts in Hamilton and so on and so forth. It appears deer numbers were low compared to the Southern Zone in those days as well. The "culture" of the Adirondacks is still very much alive in certain spots. Simply read a Don Williams article in the Leader Herald sometime and you'll know what I mean by this. Charles' interpreted message I believe may be that in the pre-rut, your time is better spent scouting than actually hunting. 

Overall:
          I thought it was a good read and explained a lot of why the Adirondack hunting environment is so different than anywhere else. Basically, the Adirondacks takes a lot of time and effort, which is mainly why I chose to hunt Mayfield this year and get as close to that southern line as I could!

[hunts2long]

Don't believe everything you hear or read about old timers...lol....hunts2long

[adkRoy]

More coyotes now than back then.  That equals fewer deer.

[carcaju]

your comment on the state not letting the mature forest to be harvested is verry true all you have to do is look at the knapp estate area in warren county, the woods there are mosty old growth with verry little browse for the deer and no ground cover for the smaller game . you can hunt  all day and never see a squirrel or a grouse and in the main part of the forest i have yet to see any turkeys yet on the edges of the woods in privetae land where logging and cut back has occured the bio-diversity is outstanding for big and small game

[NorthvilleNewbie]

More coyotes now than back then.  That equals fewer deer.

    Coyotes are in fact a big problem. Matter of fact, I'm looking to get into predator hunting just for the fact that it'll help out the deer. I've also heard of "Coy dogs" and have had an ex-girlfriend tell me a tale of how she got chased on an ATV by one in Cherry Valley. Not sure how true that is, or how vicious those things actually are. Not knowing if the coydog problem is bullshit or not, but at her camp I remember he dad coming up to set up tiki torches. I asked why, and it was so you could see the coy dogs approach at night. I was like oh great but what then? But, if I can knock down a couple of coyotes that could potentially predate a fawn, I'll feel like I did the deer population some good. After the rut, I'll look more into this type of gear. Again, I'm not sure if the coydog problem is real, or if the alleged problem with coydogs and coyotes are one in the same. 

Don't believe everything you hear or read about old timers...lol....hunts2long

Haha don't worry Doug, I divide everything by two. But I did read an article in this year's Official DEC Hunting and Trapping regulations guide that came with my license that I bought the other day. It stated that the number of hunting licenses has declined an average of 1% for the past 25 years. In 1984 there were about 800,000 license holders to 600,000 is 2008. Now on a national level, its found that between 1991 and 2006, that the total number of hunting population declined from 7.4% to 5.5%. All this points to less hunters. Should this trend continue, it'll make hell for conservation efforts for certain species. And from what I just said about coyotes, when you take that small percentage of the population that are actually hunters, and then figure that another fraction of that do predator hunting, its no wonder that there are fewer deer and more 'yotes.

your comment on the state not letting the mature forest to be harvested is verry true all you have to do is look at the knapp estate area in warren county, the woods there are mosty old growth with verry little browse for the deer and no ground cover for the smaller game . you can hunt  all day and never see a squirrel or a grouse and in the main part of the forest i have yet to see any turkeys yet on the edges of the woods in privetae land where logging and cut back has occured the bio-diversity is outstanding for big and small game

I agree with everything you just said. This is why the Southern Zone is phenomenal for numbers. I don't know why DEC wouldn't just rotated certain portions of certain WMUs and open them up for logging. I'm not saying let them build McDonald's and a damn Starbucks every ten miles throughout the Adirondack park. The timber is a renewable resource. Being new to the sport and before I started my learning, I thought that the Adirondacks was probably AWESOME for deer. When I started educating myself on it, I was like, "Oh, I didn't know this place had such damn low numbers." So it was a little disappointing. Farmland, meadowing, with cover here and there was what made deer happy, I didn't understand that yet, but I do now.
    I think the ulitmate aim of the mid-1800's legislation protecting the woods in the Dacks was to keep that area of the country unmolested from the industrial robber-barons like the JP Morgans and Rockefellers and the Carnegies that would take down every shrub, tree and twig in the area to further their profits. In essence, its good, but the biodiversity sucks. But with what we know about environmental science, conservation and information, the laws are antiquated. It should be opened to logging on a rotating basis.