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trail cam scouting- how to use?

at1010

*Supporting Member*
4,943
139
ok all I am curious about how you all use your trail cameras as scouting tools.

I have run them for years to get surveys of bucks but when it comes to picking a stand I just normally try to play wind and where my gut tells me to go. I have passed a lot of good bucks over the years but haven't killed a decent one in a few now.

I bought the new iPhone SD card reader. My goal for this is to be able to pull a camera card mid day, go through it fairly quickly and if I notice all the deer are coming into the plot, feeder, acorn flat, etc at dark, then I can decide to move down the ridge and hunt a trail system.

my only worry is leaving to much scent around. I have noticed on a lot of shows/webshows guys go in, pull cards mid day, then hunt that set that evening if deer are showing up. Seems to work well and I have avoided do that for years for reason of pressuring deer on my spots.

So what are you thoughts?
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
I started running cams in 2004. At the peak of my obsession, I was running 12 cameras and getting 25K pictures a month. In all this time and with all that data, I still have not killed a buck because of camera intel alone. Is that because I'm a bad hunter? It's possible. Regardless of why I've failed to pattern and kill one with a camera, the fact that I've not even encountered a slam dunk instance tells me that it's rarely just that easy. As a result of this conclusion, I've resigned to using my cameras simply as Inventory Managers. Their job is to educate me on what I have to hunt so I can make sound decisions at game time. Where I actually hang my stands is based more on real time intel (Mark Drury would say "MRI - Most Recent Information) and past observations. Inventory cams still reveal clues to where/how to hunt particular deer. Last year I concluded DD was bedding to the E of our farm because 90% of the time he approached the camera, he did so from the E. Turns out I was right. He got killed leaving a sanctuary 250 yards E of our farm and crossing through an oak flat that connects with our best oak flat. That said, you have to be careful how certain you are about what you see. In 2009, I was baiting the holler behind my parent's place in prep from muzzy season. I had a 130" 9 called Dozer on what I was certain was a predictable pattern. He always came in from the S and that made perfect sense considering the size of the thicket that laid at the head of the holler in that direction. The night we went in to kill him, he came from the N and all hell broke loose. After that, I set 4 more cams in that area and caught him multiple times coming from the N, then button-hooking the corn before coming in. This gave him a great view of the bait and the entire bottom, plus the wind in any northerly situation. But I digress...

This is one of those topics with a wide range of opinions. My life is more complicated at 33 than it was at 25. I had time to go balls deep and it still didn't make me any more successful. My camera strategy is now centered around ease of access and inventory. I'll move a couple cams here and there during the last week of October and November, but they basically stay in the same spots all year. I check them when I have time and take my little girl with me. I don't get too torn up about what they show, or don't show. And when crunch time comes, I generally know what deer I'm looking at and if I want to shoot it. However you go about it, they are fun to have in the woods!
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
To specifically address timing of cam checks, when I'm paying attention to detail, I always do it in a rain. Regardless of time of day, I go in the rain. If I can't time the rain, then midday. But I'm going in the rain if I can at all help it. I've checked cams in the rain at 10PM. Again, didn't matter, but I felt like I did what needed to be done to ensure I left as little impact as possible. That includes being showered and smoked up, rubber boots and gloves, and carrying pruners to snip brush.
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,720
248
Ohio
Like Jesse, I have been up and down the camera ladder. Ran a couple. Ran a bunch. Now just use for inventory. I like low impact. I like easy access. I don't count on cameras ever really giving me the intel I need to kill a deer.
 

at1010

*Supporting Member*
4,943
139
interesting. So you all mostly just use them as inventory. This has been what I have been doing as well.

I have been contemplating if it is worth taking a risk to check on during the midday and decide a movement based on what I have been seeing on camera over the last two weeks versus just doing inventory checks.

I am very torn. Sometimes it seems like checking a camera has 0 effect on deer, yet I worry so often about over pressuring deer so I don't check them too often....
 

Bigslam51

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
25,778
127
Stark County
Another option is putting a camera on time lapse over a food plot. To check it just jump on a 4 wheeler, that way you don't even have to touch the ground, and wear latex gloves.
 

at1010

*Supporting Member*
4,943
139
Another option is putting a camera on time lapse over a food plot. To check it just jump on a 4 wheeler, that way you don't even have to touch the ground, and wear latex gloves.

So this is something I did a lot this past year and I saw a lot of good deer, just none I wanted to kill. I keep cameras on fields that's I could easily get too. I would pull them when I could and get out asap.

On a few occasion I had a buck 2 days in a row coming to feed and set my cousin up there. He saw the buck but didn't get a shot due to distance. So I'd say that does work very well.

Problem is for foodplots/fields on far end of farm. No easy access to pull camera. My only thought is to pull it when wind is right mid day, check it and see if movement has been good. If it hasn't, move on down the ridge to a funnel stand.
 
I'm basically along the line of Jesse and Phil for the most part. I have them over minerals all summer long to get a good inventory and to see antler progression. I do have a few cameras I use in different travel locations to try to pick up an unknown deer or somewhat predict travel routes. However I have yet to really plot picture dates and times to try to figure out a true pattern of a deer. Some of the new software out there may help do that though. Once I get closer to deer season I make sure most of my cameras are in places where I can pull the card on my way in/out to actually hunt the spot nearby. The on-stand card reader would come in handy for that since there have been times I hunted spots and not seen a thing, then view the nearby camera card that night back at the house and see deer hadn't been using the area for some time.
 

at1010

*Supporting Member*
4,943
139
I'm basically along the line of Jesse and Phil for the most part. I have them over minerals all summer long to get a good inventory and to see antler progression. I do have a few cameras I use in different travel locations to try to pick up an unknown deer or somewhat predict travel routes. However I have yet to really plot picture dates and times to try to figure out a true pattern of a deer. Some of the new software out there may help do that though. Once I get closer to deer season I make sure most of my cameras are in places where I can pull the card on my way in/out to actually hunt the spot nearby. The on-stand card reader would come in handy for that since there have been times I hunted spots and not seen a thing, then view the nearby camera card that night back at the house and see deer hadn't been using the area for some time.


That is my point too. There are times Ill pull a card and look through and see only doe/small bucks have hit a "kill plot" for the last 3 weeks and mostly at night. Ill hunt the stand and see that same pattern. Now with having the ability to check the camera quick. I am thinking I could pull card, check on phone and if It seems there are not big bucks going to that area move to one of the funnel stands I have setup in the bottoms that are more travel corridors.

I would be smoked up, rubber boots, etc to do this as I would be making the move somewhat on the fly....... Just wondering if others ever do that!
 

Bigcountry40

Member
4,554
127
I also basically use cameras to inventory and to see what time of the day deer coming to feed, using that path, etc. I am a big scent control advocate so I check my cameras during rain and limit the amount of trips. Typically I check them after I hunt that spot and cameras tell tell me I just wasted a hunt like others have also said.
 

Swampwalker

Junior Member
5
0
i always use video mode during the season and set it above deer eye level. I have noticed that Most deer are spooked by spotting the camera first, then coming in close to investigate. They won't spot it When it's set up high. The video mode will tell the whole story on how the deer is acting.

In the woods, I set the camera up at pinch points between feeding and bedding areas, where Its unlikely for them to be during daylight hours. The worst place to put a cam is in or very close to their bedding. I believe you can get away with a fair amount of human scent in open areas. They're somewhat tolerant, as long as it's not near their security area.

A good place to set a cam would be not far off from where a deer trail crosses a rd or human trail.. With feeding area on one side and bedding area a distance away. On another. If you get a nice buck pic that's heading toward the bedding, setup close to the where you think he's entering.

Sometimes I set a camera in the tree I'm hunting and pull the card as I climb up, then check and put the card back in as I climb down. Let's you know what you're missing between hunts.
 
Well I'm likely the outcast here but I/we have access and run over 100 cams. It's also important to know I haven't filled my Ohio buck tag in 2 years...I realize that most guys only run 4-6 cameras on their property and what I'm about to describe probably is even realistic for most, but I enjoy partaking in this community none the less.

During the summer months, much like most of you, I run cameras for inventory and keeping tabs on shooters and non-shooters but it goes a little deeper than that. Monitoring their summer ranges, travel patterns to food/water/minerals sites, and then bedding. I like to know which bucks group up heavy in bachelor groups and which bucks like to be a bit more isolated. I believe those bucks who do not like to be in good bachelor groups will be even more reclusive come fall...IMO telling us to locate remote areas that he may utilize for bedding come fall. It also seems as though those less social deer are far less active in daylight hours come fall.

During those summer months, we also try to watch and locate doe family groups. Identifying which does have dropped fawns early in the summer and which were late. This gives us an idea of which fawns may come into estrus and approximately when....assuming they reach 70-80lbs. It also allows to us to have an idea of our fawn recruitment numbers and sex ratios.

Once we have several good deer located come late September we move all cameras to gather as much info one specific deer as possible. Typically dedicated atleast 5 cameras per shooter inside their home range. These cards are pulled sparely in the early season typically before/during a rain shower to help eliminate any disturbance of the area. We simply want to know he is still there, if he's traveling or bedding with any kind of pattern. If we have any data showing a pattern, we hunt that deer. Moving on to late October, we start checking these home range cameras as often as the deer will allow...sometimes that's weekly, sometimes that's when the season is over.

Again during the fall, we leave 2 cams out per doe bedding area. We start checking those late October to start monitoring for does showing sign of coming into estrus. Come the 3rd week of October we check these units weekly until the first or second week of Dec. This allows us to know which does are coming into estrus and when. This is pretty vital to us come the following year. For years I never paid any attention to does on my cameras, until a good friend told me otherwise and was able to land a giant mature buck from this strategy. When he had evidence of a hot doe, he hunted near the bedding and connected.....he was also using a cell cam.

Any cameras we have not dedicated to the above, we simply leave out in areas of interest....funnels/pinch points, staging areas, etc. We only pull these cards after the season is over (post season scouting included)

In our grand scheme, after the season is over (post season scouting included) we are collecting and compiling data on specific deer for the entire season to use the following year. There are several well deserved and successful hunters who believe in the 7 day rule. Don Higgins explains this very well.....Assuming similar weather/wind a buck will revisit a destination he visited the previous year within 7 days.

Again I'm not an expert nor do I claim to be. Just my $.02 in how and why we run cameras and share my sickness for chasing and learning about these beautiful creatures that seem to always outsmart me. Hopefully I this year I get to put my tag on something..haha
 
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