NY Public Lands too crowded?

[Terasec]

I have been hunting my private land in Upstate, NY.
I am now interested in hunting the catskills, closer to home.
have been hearing horror stories of how crowded it is.
is this true? or hype?

[Allseasonhunter7]

where in the catskills? im in delaware co can not tell you the exact location

but my guess is in bear swamp everyones thinking theres problably alot of peaople there so they dont go but i have no idea

[SalCucco]

I limit my public land hunting to bow only and where i hunt in sullivan and ulster county you would be hard pressed to run into anyone. Put in your time, get in early and go a little deeper and you maybe will see one or two people all day.

[jpm8920]

Well I hunt the Catskills and hunt mostly public land, and I don't have a problem. First of all, you should check out the New York City DEP watershed land. There are a bunch of parcels of land that total around 33,000 acres to hunt. They are all over the Catskills and every year they add more parcels.

Also, you should try some of the wilderness areas. Balsam Lake Wild Forest, Big Indian Wilderness, or Slide Mountain Wilderness provide more than enough land to hunt. The hunting isn't easy there (very steep terrain, tons of land), but if you go in far enough, you will barely ever see anybody. Hope this helped ya some. PM me if you have any other questions about the Catskills. I'm from Jersey, but spend tons of time there.

[Terasec]

Thanks for the replies,
I have been looking at big indian wilderness area in ulster cty.
i am willing to go in early and deeper,
because i hunt solo, i try to avoid going in too deep, but am more than able to do so to find secluded areas,
i dont mind fellow hunters, its our lands not just my land, but dont want to be searching for position,

[jcchartboy]

Terasac....Big Indian area has very low deer densities. Most of that area is privately controlled. It would not be my first choice for sure.

[Terasec]

from what i have read,
big indian wilderness area is 35K acres of stateland,
with access through public trailheads,
am i thinking of the same big indian? south of belleayre mtn,

[ImportSlayer503]

i'm from CT, my father and his brothers all go up to NY every year to hunt on state land

[jcchartboy]

Terasac...Yes that is the area I am speaking about. There is approximately 33,000 acres of park land. That does not mean it is public. In fact much of the best hunting areas are not. The majority of the state land is the tops of the mts where vegation is too dense to effectively hunt.
Don't get me wrong, you can find places to hunt, and a few deer. However I know many hunters that hunt this area, based on their reports, I think your time would be spent more effectively elsewhere.