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Trail cams..for good or bad?

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
With the double kick the balls Jesse got yesterday, it has brought up another question for me and "my hunting". At what point do these trail cams create more heart ache and lost dreams than good?

We seem to get attached to certain deer because we are able to watch them grow. We get excited to be able to get them on camera and almost create a bond. Some people are able to capitalize on it and harvest that animal, some of use are the neighbor… And thats the other side of this. The part no one wants to think about ever happening to them. Kinda like cancer…

I ran cams for a couple of years and haven't ran one this year, and have been fighting myself on the battle of putting one out. I have a deer that I've grown attached to myself. I seen him a couple times last year on the hoof, and a fellow hunter got pics of him a couple times. Well, I got to see him on the hoof again Saturday at last light. On the hill top skyline with the most beautiful sunset this year. That was a gift in itself. The moment I know he was still around was truly magical to see with my own eyes. It wasn't until the next day that my brain kicked into "gotta get some cams out dumbass, so you can pattern this dude!". BUT, I have had a terrible gut feeling that someone else is going to harvest this piece of art this year and I didn't want to get anymore attached to him…so I haven't.

Once again I'm not sure if any of a ramble is making sense. It has been on my mind a lot this year and after Jesse's day of ball kicking, it seems I'm not the only one.

What are you peoples thought? Is the joy worth the let possible let down? How about the harm of intrusion checking them and what not? Pros/cons?

Sorry to kinda dime you out here Jesse, it's just a very fresh example of one of my fears this year. Not many people have exclusive access to thousands of acres, so I think most of us fall into this category. BTW, this Gr8 8 is really fuggin huge this year!!!! He looked like a giant mule deer buck in velvet up on the grass field ridge.
 

Gordo

Senior Member
5,515
121
Athens County
Well, i used to run cams over 10-15 properties. I currently have not one cam deployed.

Not sure if i'll ever go back to my old ways. It got stressful and began to take away from being able to simply enjoy a hunt.

Been enjoying not worrying about TC's and not being fixated on one deer. Back to the basics
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Not one single camera or picture has helped me kill a deer in 11 years of running cams. Thousands upon thousands of pictures have set me up for disappointment and heartache.

I run them because I enjoy the process. They do help provide motivation, but that is a double edge sword as evidenced by my debacle.
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,743
274
North Carolina
Not one single camera or picture has helped me kill a deer in 11 years of running cams. Thousands upon thousands of pictures have set me up for disappointment and heartache.

I run them because I enjoy the process. They do help provide motivation, but that is a double edge sword as evidenced by my debacle.

My feelings exactly, haven't run them this year at all but keep getting the itch too deploy them lol
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
Didn't run them much this year. Took some fun out of it. Also took some pressure off. Decided I would shoot one if it tripped my trigger. What did I miss out on? If I had prior pictures of the buck I killed this year, I would not have had to size him up as quickly. I would have known ahead of time if he was a shooter or not. Honestly, I probably would have let him go another year. To me, this is my biggest benefit to cameras: sizing up deer before you see them on the hoof. I have never had one help me pattern a deer
 
I absolutely love to run trail cameras. I like to see if I can recognize bucks from years past, I enjoy watching them grow in the summer and I love getting some cool shots of them in different settings. I hope that one day I can use them to figure out a buck or two but I realize that may be something that may never happen. I just enjoy being a part of something that I cannot see every day while I'm up here at home or at work.

We had a buck several years that had double split brow tines that was for sure the buck of my dreams at the time. Sure enough he got killed on a neighboring property and that stung a little but the way I look at it I never saw that buck on the hoof, so without trail cameras I would have never known he existed. Same with Pointdexter the last 3 years now. Is it ironic that he has shown up on someone else's trail camera, namely another TOO member's (Diablo)?? I think it's funny as hell and wish them the best as I had my crack at him and I didn't put 2 & 2 together. That was my fault. I had other 'reasons' for not going after him as hard as I should have.

Keep this in mind, just because you decide NOT to run trail cameras doesn't mean all your neighbors have decided the same. So who benefits? Who wins and who loses? It's a chess match and in the end it's who put's the pieces together and makes it happen. I like putting puzzles together....
 

cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
Cams have helped me kill one buck since 2010. I've killed bucks since then, but only one that the cams helped me pattern.

The last few years have been shitty camera wise. Not getting much on camera and causing me to not hunt certain areas that have produced in the past. In getting the mindset that if they aren't on camera, they aren't there. I know that's not true, but hard to hunt a place when drinks are all ya get.

I swore going into this year I was going old school and letting anticipation help me have more fun. However, curiousity won out.

They're cool to run, but they are also evil!
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
As some of you guys know, I swore off the evil trail cams about five years ago. Like many others, they drove me nuts. The first year of "Old School", I killed a good buck that I rattled in. It just so happened that I had pics of him the year before. My wife even commented on the photo I posted to FB, "Old school", or something like that. Mason has got us right back in a mess. And yes, I'm blaming him entirely. He had never felt the frustration of hunting a particular deer. So when he decided it would be "Tines" or nothing, I got back in the camera game. I like getting pics and vids of deer. I really do. But sadly, it DOES make you feel like you know them. It DOES hurt a whole lot worse when someone else kills them. It DOES drive you nuts knowing they are there, yet you cannot often get a look at them, or get an arrow in them. Cameras, for me, suck the fun out of hunting. But, they add a lot of enjoyment to the pre-season.
 

angelzd28

Junior Member
This is my first year running cams on my own. Usually my dad would put them out and i would just benefit from that. The two previous years i killed my 2 biggest bucks and had no cameras so it was awesome to just see them for the first time and take the shot. On the other hand this summer and fall has been a blast to gets some pics of bucks that hang around and i know i have a chance at. I see your guys point tho, cuz every sit i have where i dont see "my buck" im thinking is he gone, hit by a car, shot by the neigbors. It does suck the fun out of just hunting and being really excited by the first encounter.
 

twireman

Senior Member
2,929
149
Kingston, OH
Ill add that mms cams are a even bigger kick in the bag... Ive been at work when these two daylight pics have came through to my cell phone. Wtf!! One was 9am this morning..

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Outdoorsfellar

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
They can be a curse. They can be a blessing. The buck I hit a week ago that my cam just showed me that he's still around was a breath of fresh air. It's become an expensive hobby for sure. It's nice to see certain deer that I'd normally never see any other way.
 

epe

Senior Member
6,113
93
Lancaster
This year was the first year that we got regular pics on camera of a deer that I wanted to kill, which by some stroke of luck I did. I had made up my mind I was killing him or something bigger. The landowner of this property had pictures of my buck from last year. He definitely put on size. The morning I killed my buck he was all around my camera but did not catch him on camera. We did not hunt this property heavy last year thinking there were no big bucks on it. The picture the landowner showed me after I got made me regret that one. Huge 10pt. Jesse and finely shedded have seen him. But you can also be set up for heartbreak. After talking to Jesse's best friend down home ..lol.. last week I found out he hunted the big 11pt I got years ago. I got him November 5th, and this guy hunted him thru January that year holding out for him. I shot him a mile from where he was getting pictures of him. So it can be a blessing and a curse to run cameras.
 

Kaiser878

Senior Member
2,633
97
ohio
I couldnt imagine hunting without them. Do I get pleasure out of them? Sure do, but they are a tool. The last 3 years of bucks have been aided by trail cams. My buddies drop tine off one of my farms this year was a direct result of trail cam reconisence......

IMO the biggest mistake people make is putting a cam in one place and leaving It there. What's that do for you???? Getting the same pictures of deer at dark tell you nothing.... once I find a deer..... I deploy multiple cams to narrow down his movements. Obviously, this time of year it's hard to do that.... almost impossible....

They also allow me to see deer from different perspectives. Allowing me to age and determine what deer I will and will not kill..... very very rarely do I see a deer from the tree I don't have on cam. Actually almost never..

The only problem I see with them is relying on them to heavily.... they don't catch everything.... and I am guilty of not hunting based on what my cams say..... but I can honestly say for every time it's hurt me it's helped me 10 times.
 

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
I am glad I'm not the only one in this love/hate relationship with them… The biggest part I miss about not using them at all this year, is sitting down with my kids and going through the pictures taken 50-100 yards from our back door. I don't think they miss it as much, they haven't said anything. And if they do ask, you can bet I will go set one up! Maybe two….or three...:smiley_crazy::smiley_dead: