Winter Hunting
Winter Hunting
Photo / Indrek Kongats
One of my favorite places to hunt in the winter months is Allegany State Park. The park has over 65,000 acres of unspoiled wilderness with very few hunting restrictions. Even the special hunting permit that is required is free of charge. You can pick one up the same day at the Park Police office located in the main building at Red House Lake. You still require a New York State Hunting License and must abide by all Federal and NYS hunting regulations. Carefully read the park permit for all special regulations regarding hunting in the park. The park’s hunting boundaries are also clearly defined on the permit.
The hunting in the park is excellent! Everyone’s favorite, the whitetail deer, abounds in the park along with small game hunting for ruffed grouse, rabbit, squirrel and pheasant extending to Feb. 28, 2025. When the ground gets blanketed by snow, hunting gets a lot easier!
Game tracks and trails will become vey noticeable and nature’s natural camouflage factor is eliminated. Once the leaves have fallen, the normally hard-to-spot game will stand out in sharp contrast to the white snow.
HUNTING THE WHITETAIL
Whitetail deer is still open for late bow hunters and muzzleloaders, Dec. 9-17th and again Dec. 26th-January 1st. The regular rifle season ended Dec. 8th. Rifle hunters have been chasing the deer since Nov. 16th so the deer will be a little leery but relieved that the majority of the hunters are out of the woods!
Still-hunting and stalking for the archer is pretty tough when it comes time to bag a whitetail, but with fewer hunters in the woods it may be the only option. Getting in range requires exceptional skill. For the muzzleloader it’s very similar to shotgun hunting and moving about quietly is the most enjoyable way to hunt in the winter time with snow on the ground. A good deer hunter can read the signs. He’ll know from the tracks whether he is chasing a buck or a doe. He’ll also know if the deer are bedding down for the day or moving to and from feeding areas.
Some people think still-hunting - moving quietly and slowly trying to spot the game before it spots you - is the purist form of hunting. Still-hunting isn’t sitting still waiting for the deer to come by your stand or hiding place. That type of hunting requires lots of patience with the hope that an animal is still using the game trail that has been staked out.
Still-hunting means moving with stealth. Stopping and listening, looking for the flicker of an ear or the shape of an antler amongst so many similar antler looking branches. Your senses are at their peak and your heart races as a small sign is spotted and you stop and hold still waiting for the definitive answer that the deer is there.
HUNTING THE RUFFED GROUSE
Ruffed grouse hunting in the park is also very good with lots of mixed forests of hardwood and evergreens, apple orchards, old fields, wetlands including forest streams and brooks. Winter hunting for grouse is easier than hunting in the fall, especially if leaves are still on the trees. Ruffed grouse stand out like a sore thumb, dark brown against the white snow and even easier to spot if they are eating buds high up in a tall leafless aspen.
In the winter you can walk in silence over a blanket of snow, hardly making a sound to spook weary birds. Stopping every once in awhile will make a bird nervous that’s hiding under the boughs of a heavily snow laden bush. It will flush, thinking you know its position. Without leaves you’ll have clear shots and can see where a wounded or dead bird has hit the ground. Snowshoes are a must when hunting off the beaten path and the best kind for the grouse hunter are the shorter and wider bear paw types that maneuver easily in heavy cover and deep snow.
Most people never bother looking up to find grouse as they expect the birds to flush from dense ground cover. A grouse will spot you well before you spot them and will run or take flight well away from danger. If you are chasing a single bird or spook a covey, then start looking for them in the trees because that’s where they will be. The exact location is as defined as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The grouse will land in a hemlock for sure, about halfway up and close to the trunk on an exposed limb where it has full view.
HUNTING THE COTTONTAIL
Cottontail rabbits are another winter treat. Like the grouse they stay brown all winter and unlike the snowshoe or varying hare that turns white, cottontails remain the same color year round. Cottontails are North America’s most popular small game species and offer great sport whether you are just learning to hunt with your grandfather or you are a grandfather yourself. Experienced rabbit hunters know the tricks of the rabbit and that knowledge makes them easy table fare. The tracks in the snow almost always reveal their location and once flushed will try to make a full circle back to their lair.
Cottontails are active mostly at night and hold tight during daylight hours. During miserable prolonged weather conditions the cottontail will stay well undercover or even underground, but come sunshine and signs of snow melting it will have had enough of cabin fever and will be out and about, and the bobbing of its white tail will signal the hunt is afoot. Look for cottontails in brush piles, tall grasses bordering the forest’s edge, along roadways, culvert ditches and one of their favorite haunts, stream banks heavily laden with the tangle of briar branches.
Rabbits dart, zigzag and go in and out of cover so quickly that it makes the flight of a grouse seem predictable and in slow motion. The challenge of hitting a bouncing bunny is truly worth the bragging rights that you’ll have earned and will have the pleasure of reciting during campfire story telling time. Rabbits are excellent game for the table and the very reason to hunt them.
Although you can hunt any small game with a rimfire rifle, shotguns are best suited to the flushing kind like grouse and rabbits. Squirrels on the other hand, just sit there and foolishly look you right in the eye!
Be safe and have fun this winter, as Sherlock tells Watson… “The game is afoot!”
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Indrek Kongats is an artist, traveler, outdoorsman, and business owner residing in Ellicottville. He operates River Dog Art Gallery in Houghton, NY, and his Breakaway Classic Adventures specializes in adventure travel destinations. Learn more about him at breakawayclassicadventures.com.