So tell us what caliber did you decide on???? 7mm-08, 308 or what???

Everyone has just about covered the subject. However I just confirm the 308Win would be my choice and what I suggest for your situation. It will also deal with almost all else in the USA other than probably big bears and at a pinch and good shooting it would handle that situation as well. Investment in a tree stand would be well worth the money. Buy a lightweight which you can move around as and when needed. A stand gives you a great field of view and allows you to observe, even if not hunting. That way you will get to know the very regular movements of the deer population. This regular activity is only disturbed by human or dog intervention. I have tried scents here in the UK and they are basically a wast of time. Half a bucket of maize is a better bet(if allowed !!). Calls , we use a lot over here for roe and muntjac, very succesfully, but I get more pleasure and fulfilment from just watching and waiting and 'hunting', without artificial aids. Best of luck with your new acquisition and welcome to the merry go round of help, argument(friendly), advice and general good humour which pervades this forum.
Don't bother on Fridays, because DOK always comes up with a joke ...well sort of .... on that day :-)

@Ed, when I have the extra money, I have decided on the .308 version of the new Ruger American. @Sus, I don't have to invest in a tree stand, I was walking out on some of our property earlier last week and I stumble upon one of my girlfriend's father's tree stands xD Though it's homemade, and I've heard from a lot of people 'not to use a homemade tree stand', I tell 'em bull! This is one of the most well-built tree stands I've ever seen. Probably helps that he's a carpenter, too! Though regular season is almost over here in New York, I plan on planting a food plot next year. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Welcome to big game hunting! I'm guessing you will love it! Upstate New York is a great place to hunt and you have some fine bucks up that way. I have done an extensive amount of bird and deer hunting in the Cobleskill, Richmondville, Middleburgh areas. Great fun.

I hunt from the ground. I still hunt and cut fresh tracks in the snow and I climb tall ridges where I have views of 400 yards or more to a creek bed or hollow. I've killed deer with calibers including .35 Rem, .30-30, .280 Rem, .270 Win, .30-06, and .307 Win (Model 94 Big Bore).

Every deer I ever shot with a .270, 30-06 and .280 Rem were one shot kills that dropped in their tracks or nearly in their tracks (less than three steps). Based on my hunting experience I consider these calibers to perform roughly equally. The average hunter would not notice the difference in ballistic performance or killing ability out to 300 yards or so. The recoil from these rounds is stout but bearable when compared with that of a .30-30. If you're going to have one deer rifle you can't go wrong with a .270, .30-06, .280 or .308.

The .270, 30-06 and .308 offer many more factory bullet options and loads than the .280 Rem and the ammo is generally less expensive than .280 ammo. The recoil from the .270 is more tolerable than that of the 30-06. With lighter deer loads it can be fun to shoot the .270 from the bench. Less so for the other calibers in general so keep that in mind if you are recoil sensitive or if you plan to do a lot of target shooting.

I owned a .280 Rem Mountain rifle which I loved but ammo was expensive and hard to find at times with few options and I don't hand load. For that reason I'm a fan of the .270 and 30-06 in bolt action rifles. You can find ammo for those two calibers pretty much anywhere.

As a short action round the .308 cartridge is used in more lever rifles than any of the other calibers so if you like lever rifles or want a shorter throw of the bolt on follow up shots give the .308 a close look.

Good luck and welcome to big game hunting.

I just want to clarify; when I mean Upstate, I mean waayyy Upstate. I'm roughly 25 minutes away from the Canadian border. I think I may have mentioned this earlier in this post? Unfortunately, our regular season just ended yesterday. I only saw 1 deer the whole time I was out. Of course, it was the first day I went out hunting after I got my license. And I had to botch the shhh out of that shot, too >.< Oh well, there's always late muzzleloader and I can get the 20gauge back out and get some rabbits xD BigBore, I agree with you about the ground hunting. I'd rather be down there looking for tracks and stalking a deer rather than sitting up in a rickety old tree stand that was built almost 20 years ago lol.

Good luck in Muzzle loader season. It took me several years of bow hunting and rifle/shot gun hunting and having regular deer contact before I learned how to sneak up on them on a regular basis and what I could get away with movement wise if they moved in on me while I was hiding behind a favorite tree. In my case I put a lot of does down before my first buck happened by and before I felt confident enough to pass up on does and start targeting bucks. Mature bucks are a different species altogether.

The more time you spend in the woods observing and making contact the better hunter you will become. The best thing about big game hunting, especially white tail deer is there's always something new to learn so it never gets boring.

Best of luck with the smoke pole.

Personally, if you have your mind set on a ruger American in 308, I'd cut about 4 inches off the barrel and have a handy carbine for the thick woods and still be able to reach out a smack something.

It'll look a lot like my marlin XS-7 in 308.

__________________
"I don't drink or smoke, I spend my money on gunpowder and gasoline."

A lot of good info in this thread for a new deer hunter. I hunted upstate New York when I lived there in the 1970s with .30-06s and shot my best Whitetail there. I used a Model 70 with a 22 inch barrel a 4x fixed scope and a Model 760C with an 18 1/2 inch barrel and a 2-7x scope. I highly recommend a low power variable scope, particularily since you have both dense areas and open power lines. I don't recommend short barrels except for special purpose (crawling through thick brush) and now use an ultralight .270 with a 24 inch barrel and a 2-7x scope as my primary deer rifle in both states I hunt every year: Pennsylvania (which has similar terrain to upstate New York) and Colorado. Keep the scope at the lowest setting except when preparing to take a long shot. Caliber is not that important, I'd stay between .243 and .308 diameter, non-magnum, and avoid the brush cartridges if there is a potential for a long shot.

I'd recommend staying away from rattles, grunts, scents, etc until you get more experience or you'll probably spook deer and reduce your chances. Concentrate on hunting their travel areas, scrapes, and feeding areas. Also learn to be quiet and move slow, whether it's "still hunting" or turning your head to see what you heard behind you while on stand. And wear a safety harness when hunting from a treestand.

Good luck.

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Thanks, Irv, all comments are taken to heart. Sorry about the pet peeve thing in the Turkey post I made I should've known better

I hunt mainly the ADK's where a 100 yd shot is rare, but not unheard of. Any 30 cal or larger rifle is fine for the sticks. My gramp's ( God Bless him ) 30/30 Savage, from the 20's, has taken many an ADK buck, and will continue to do so. Personally, I hunt with a .50 cal Rem 700 black powder, even in the reg season sometimes, and a Super Redhawk .44 mag revolver. A .35 Rem is also a good brush buster for deer. If you have field shots and a tree stand, I would stick with a 270, 308, or a 30/06.

Since I am usually the only one who has the handgun, I get "volunteered" to drive out the swamps all the time. I don't mind, guess who takes the deer most of the time? That really torques them off big time. I just smile.

Anyone who wants to hunt the ADK's with black powder, or any thing else, I'd be happy to have some company. All my buddies deal with the Southern Zone BS - You know the drill - You got permission? (even though I do and he doesn't crap) - and the Oh, me and my 10 buddies didn't see you there, (and only one of them has a legal tag), I even had some guy tell me I shot HIS buck once. So, to avoid jail by shooting something I shouldn't, I hunt up north, usually the Moose River Plains area around Indian Lake, or the Boreas River area in Minerva/Newcomb. Up there all week, and throughout the rest of the season.

adk

I'm over in zone 5C up in Altona. Which is about a 20 minute drive north of Plattsburgh. As for brush hunting and field hunting, I've really got a choice between both of them. My girlfriend's father has 40 +/- acres behind our 4.4 that's brush and open field, and has another 30 +/- up at his camp just up the road bit. That's all woods hunting though. So I guess it's really what kind of mood I'm in that day to what I feel like hunting. Funds have been a little tight lately, so I won't be purchasing a new hunting rifle anytime soon, so the .243 will have to do for now. I know it has the power and accuracy to knock down a deer with no problem. Unfortunately, last year, I was working without a scope. Which made it kind of hard to do any open field hunting. Luckily, I got one for Christmas this past year so I'll be ready to go come season.

i havent read all the post here and possibly this option has been mentioned.
being 78 has few advantages but one for at least some of us is memories of what was.
and what was say 50 years ago was poor quality scopes by todays standards.
many hunters for those reasons didnt trust them. thats not to say there werent some good ones as there were some. my first scope was a 1.5 weaver mounted on a 760 rem pump.
it had a side mount high enough so that i could still use the standard buckhorn sight under the scope. i still own an 88 winchester in 308 with a 3x9 redfield sitting on see thru scope rings. it also has a has a receiver sight some might call a peep sight replacing the factory buckhorn. a setup like that would be hard to improve upon for a woods hunter who dosent
have the need for a scope. the extra power is handy at times when you need to check rack
size for example. you can always turn it down but you cant turn it up if its not there.
see thru rings are still available from companys like weaver.

[QUOTE=longshot378;669333]i havent read all the post here and possibly this option has been mentioned.
being 78 has few advantages but one for at least some of us is memories of what was.
and what was say 50 years ago was poor quality scopes by todays standards.
many hunters for those reasons didnt trust them. thats not to say there werent some good ones as there were some. my first scope was a 1.5 weaver mounted on a 760 rem pump.
it had a side mount high enough so that i could still use the standard buckhorn sight under the scope. i still own an 88 winchester in 308 with a 3x9 redfield sitting on see thru scope rings. it also has a has a receiver sight some might call a peep sight replacing the factory buckhorn. a setup like that would be hard to improve upon for a woods hunter who dosent
have the need for a scope. the extra power is handy at times when you need to check rack
size for example. you can always turn it down but you cant turn it up if its not there.
see thru rings are still available from companys like weaver.[/QUOTE

Some like the see through mounts, but I never did, preferring the flip-off mounts that Weaver made back then. Still have one on a Model 70 I used in the 60s, although I've replaced the fixed Weaver K4 with a variable. My experience is that the old Weaver scopes are better than the Chinese garbage currently sold with the rifle/scope packages, but not as good as the current name brand scopes.

My first 8-point whitetail was taken in the Michigan upper peninsula in 1967 with the one mentioned above. Because of snow in the scope and on the limbs, I could not find him in the scope the first time I jumped him, but after flipping the scope to the side, sitting down and eating lunch before tracking him, the next time he flushed he went down. If I could find flip-off mounts I would probably replace some of the fixed mounts on my other rifles as I never had any return-to-zero problems with them and they are useful in certain conditions.

__________________
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VFW - Member - U.S. Army