Gun Dog Forum

Are there any other member in the lower Hudson, Orange County area of New York that may be hunting either Stewart Airport or Sterling Forrest after the pheasant release?
I've never hunted either area and would appreciate some tips if possible.

hey man. I live in dutchess county. i got a gsp pup that im going to hunt this season. from what I have heard stewart gets packed, especially on opening day...... but people do pull birds out of there. me personally im not going to take my dog out on its first live hunt on opening day. im going to wait a few days until things calm down. I went to a navhda training there and there are nice fields and plenty of land. you have a dog? good luck this season

I'm in Livingston county, I'll also be hunting with my GSP pup next month for the first time. I'm not familiar with down state but I'm not going out on opening day, I'll wait until the first monday when everyone goes back to work to take him out.

@Diplomat; I'm a member of the Rock tavern Chapter of NAVHDA and work out at Stewart with the dogs. Lots of room there, but again I've never been out there for an opening day. Could be too crazy of a time to be there.

@RichK, our Hunt Club has property off of 206 in Colchester and there is a WMU not far from there, again totally unfamiliar with it though.

Our Club also has a stocked preserve and our opener is actually Sat the 7th. I can wait until then.

John S- I came to check out one of your training sessions before i got my pup. i ended up not joining this year because I got my pup in april plus had a bunch of stuff planned and was going to miss out on most of the meets. But I will def join for next year. Everyone was really nice.

Rich- We are in the same boat. ill be out probably the first weekend and then a day during the week. Livingston is in the finger lake region. correct? there is a wild pheasant population up there if im right. i was thinking about taking of weekend trip to the area to hunt but wasnt sure of where to go or what to avoid. if you have any tips or advice let me know. thanks!

diplomat019 wrote:John S- I came to check out one of your training sessions before i got my pup. i ended up not joining this year because I got my pup in april plus had a bunch of stuff planned and was going to miss out on most of the meets. But I will def join for next year. Everyone was really nice.

Rich- We are in the same boat. ill be out probably the first weekend and then a day during the week. Livingston is in the finger lake region. correct? there is a wild pheasant population up there if im right. i was thinking about taking of weekend trip to the area to hunt but wasnt sure of where to go or what to avoid. if you have any tips or advice let me know. thanks!

Yes, in the finger lakes. In regards to a wild population, there seems to be a few. This spring I saw a couple pairs or roosters and hens so I'm hoping they made it. To my knowledge the wild pheasants are far and few between, there seem to be a few hot spots that seem to hold the populations. On the road I live on I believe is one of these "hot spots", there is a large farm field about 3/4 mile down the road that I see pheasants in every year but I've never hunted the field. I'm going to try to track down the land owner in the next month and see if I can get the OK to hunt his field(s).

I really would like to bag a wild pheasant with the pup this year. There are about a half dozen DEC release sites within an hour of my house but it just isn't the same.