Written by Cory Zuhlsdorf
One of our greatest focal points of this channel will be discussing our experiences with public hunting grounds in New York. State land hunting has been a major part in my growth as a hunter and has shaped me as a conservationist and as a young citizen. But I find it difficult to express my love for public land use before I talk about my experiences on private land, growing up on seventy-two acres of forest and farm fields, and traveling close to two hundred miles to three hundred acres of Adirondack land that my great uncle purchased in 1969.
I spent the first fifteen years of my life in a log cabin style ranch home in Victor, New York. Right next door was my grandparents farm that was rented out to a local farmer, who harvested soybeans, corn, and hay. Like many other farmers, my grandparents and parents found more money elsewhere, but we kept the land and continued to use it and make some money off it. Probably the greatest bounty of that seventy-two-acre plot was the wildlife that roamed it. My family harvested hundreds of white-tailed deer, many turkeys, a few fox and coyotes. My dad shot his largest buck ever on that land: a ten point, weighing in at over two hundred pounds. That buck was one of the largest recorded in the state that year. My family had an antiquated method of management for that plot: the crops keep the deer here and don’t shoot a doe if we don’t need the meat (most years we needed the meat). The land we owned was the greatest possession we had. My dad told me at a young age, and it always reminds me of History’s Vikings, “land is worth more than gold.” To this day, there are no words more memorable, and owning my own land is a goal of mine.
We had to sell that land. The family was in debt and needed a way out. Like many other farmers, we succumbed to the comforts of money. I understand that it needed to happen, but I remain ashamed and disappointed. After the land was sold, I moved in to town, my father passed away, and for a short moment, I lost interest in most of my hobbies. It was hard to hunt without my dad and even more difficult to hunt without any land. The death of my dad led me to reconnect with my northern cousins, within fifty miles from the Canadian border, right on the Oswegatchie river. My great uncle sold his land in Victor in the late ‘60’s to find his own path and to seek a little more solitude from society. He purchased around three hundred acres: pastures, a ridgeline topped with a powerline, two wetlands, and plenty of forest. The land and the people up there taught me a whole lot about the outdoors. The terrain up there in the mountains was much rockier than the rural areas among Rochester that I had hunted previously. The boulders, spurs, and draws provided plenty of comfortable places to sit and even more spots for wildlife to hide. Because of the rugged terrain, the young men walked, and the old men sat in stands. This may not sound foreign to the reader, but my dad and I always just walked back home and jumped deer. It was more effective in his eyes, and I can’t recall him ever shooting a deer sitting down.
I never shot a deer in the Adirondack mountains, but I spent many cold mornings and hot afternoons walking around that gorgeous land. And to make up for the lack of deer harvested by yours truly, I made up for in turkey. In May of 2017, I shot my first tom. This was the largest bird that Donnie and I have ever taken, catch our turkey podcast to hear about that. The Adirondack farm my family owns is a great resource, but it is for sale, so I am returning to public land which is definitely not an issue.
Growing up, I was always told that state land was a terrible place to hunt. From my perspective, that statement is simply not true. On opening day of White-tailed gun season, it can be packed to the point of frustration. This past season, 2017, on opening day, I had a shot at a doe, but it was so packed that I didn’t feel comfortable to shoot. I’d much rather be safe than sorry, but I couldn’t help to feel frustrated. It wasn’t anyone else’s fault but mine. We didn’t really think or plan on where we were going to hunt. We kind of just showed up there: along with everyone else. Lessons were learned, and it would be wrong of me not to share them. My first piece of advice is just to go deeper into the woods and higher on the hills if the hunter is willing. If even that doesn’t work, leave that piece of land and search for a different parking lot. Explore. Ian and I once stumbled upon a piece of state land on the south end of Hemlock lake and it made our day. The excitement from that event is a big reason we are doing this whole 585 thing. The disadvantages of hunting state land are surely present, but the land is there for the community to use. That does not mean that the land is worse, or that the wildlife populations are small or unhealthy. The land is a gift, and as citizens, we should respect it and use it as it is intended. I will continue to hunt both public and private land, as both are bountiful with game and adventure. I’m extremely thankful for the freedom I have to hunt in both of those realms, and also thankful for the convenience of having such wonderful forests, wetlands, and hills amongst these Great and Finger Lakes.
585 Outdoors 