let me see if I can help. I am a police officer in NY State and hunted all my life here. It is a crime to trespass on anothers property without permission under both the Penal law and Encon Laws, if the landowner wants to pursue those charges, he is well within the law to do so, even if no posted signs are present. Over the years its become mistaken information that if land wasn't posted it was free to go on it , or that posted signs had to be placed every few feet to be legally posted...not true. One time on property, no signs, upset landowner, call to police and landowner can follow through with charges. Tresspass is a violation to include a fine and up to 15 days in jail. If you are told by a landowner to leave and come back, charges could increase. You do not have to have written permission in NYS, but the DEC puts out ownership cards and iterases all doubt if a conflict arrises. Now some good news to help you out , in NY state it is a crime to harass a hunter while in the field and the DEC Encon officers are more than happy to respond and investigate these matters also. Alot of local police agencies are not as educated as they should be on ENCON laws, but there is only so much one can do with manpower limitations and education, but thats for another time and place. I had a personal experience while goose hunting on land I had permission to be on and a neighbor was upset because we were shooting her geese and she was feeding them all summer. She threatened that if we shot any geese coming off her property , she would shoot us herself. Unfourtunatley it was during the Bucky Phillips manhunt so an Officer couldn't respond right away, but said as soon as they could free one up if we wanted to pursue charges for hunter harassment they would send one to us. They did call the violator and advised them they were violating the law by harassing us and that the geese were'nt owned by anyone, and it was illegal to feed the geese. They didn't continue so we didn't pursue it any further. Just food for thought.