Rifle hunting season starts at sunrise Saturday in the mid-Hudson and in a huge swath of counties from Westchester to all the way north of the Capital District. The DEC said 575,000 hunters are licensed to hit the woods statewide during the 2017 season.Hunting season for deer and bear runs 23 days in the Southern Zone, the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s most popular hunting zone, which takes in the mid-Hudson.