ww874,

Welcome! I too am from New York (I grew up in Poughkeepsie) and settled here in Virginia after I retired from the US Coast Guard.

I'll give you a brief summary of Virginia:

-- West of the Blue Ridge Mts is rifle country, steep mountain ridges, and no deer hounds. The George Washington Nat'l Forest is HUGE (think of the Adirondack Mts but without the heavy snow).
-- East of the Blue Ridge is shotgun & muzzleloader (rifles too - depending on county ordnance) and lots and lots and lots of deer hounds.
-- No Sunday hunting.
-- Northern VA holds some monster deer (i.e. Loudon County), but they are all suburban deer and very very hard to get permission to hunt.

Shoot me a PM and I can try to help out further if needed...