I hunt in both central NY (north of Syracuse) and the Southern Tier.

Overall our experience this year was mixed. Opening day we saw an average number of deer. 25 to 30 is not uncommon for us too see bouncing around the hillside when they are being pushed around by our neighbors.

However, after the first day it seemed to taper off drastically. We hunted hard that whole week and saw a grand total of around 10 deer.

My best guess at this decrease was that after getting disrupted the deer found the woodlots that were not being hunted hard and knew a good thing when they found it. We have quite a few adjoining landowners that practice some type of QDM and this has led to a lot less pressure on some of these lands.