I think that the difficulty in pattering has more to do with the terrain you are hunting than north or south. I hunt in the Catskills, and becuase the land is difficult and the deer densities are very low, patterning is very tough. I know the Adirondacks are the same way, but even more difficult. I have hunted other places in NY, southern and western NY, where is was rolling farmland, and the patterning was much easier.

The only time I find that I get somewhat of an advantage in patterning the deer is when we get an early snowfall during archery. Snowfall during rifle does nothing because the deer are already spooked, and snowfall in the winter doesn't accurately show you what they are doing during the fall because they are yarded up.