Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

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JakeJD
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby JakeJD » Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:43 am

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.


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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby DeepSouthHunter » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:22 am

ozzz wrote:What mapping service is that in the last pic?

great Thread


Looks like Google Earth with a topo overlay.
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:33 am

Hunting, whether cameras or weapons, is a game of patience...
Each year you gain intel on Deer movement, feed and water sources and access in/out of your sets - it's a puzzle.
If this is a rural area I suggest you put out numerous cameras intending to learn how the deer travel from one property to the other, across roads, thick areas, ditches, knobs, etc..., etc...
Then map this with Doe locations and you will have a clear view of a running pattern for rut.

You now have upped your odds for next year - very excited for you!

I also would have been prepared to swap cards - I bet that would have lit a fire under your rear-end!!!
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johndeere506
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby johndeere506 » Wed Apr 01, 2015 4:13 am

This thread is awesome! I liked the one from last year too. I bought many new cams for next year to leave about 3 out for a whole season. I dont have much interest in others trail photos generally, but love how you left for a year and you can clearly show when it needs to be hunted.

Man, I couldnt agree more with the doe hunting in early November. Thats like sighting in your gun the eve before your gun opener in my opinion. It can be done, but not helpful if taregtting big bucks.
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby Kraftd » Wed Apr 01, 2015 5:42 am

I may have asked this same question on last year's thread, but what weather sites do you guys prefer for back checking weather against cam pics or other sign, or do you keep a personal record daily and use that?
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby hunter10 » Wed Apr 01, 2015 5:46 am

I enjoyed this post. Neat to see what goes on when they travel without known human presence for most of the year
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby phade » Wed Apr 01, 2015 8:45 am

BigB I remember your threads about this spot in detail because I think you have gained so much intel into that spot you are really set up for success going forward. I remember your original post just thinking about setting a cam up there to begin with, before the first year long soak.

As others have piled on, it may have been prudent to swap cards on the doe tracking night. I am a little shocked a mature buck didn't come through there for a week afterward though. Normally, outside the rut, I wouldn't find that a shock. But, given the time of year, it is a bit surprising in my experience. You noted the right wind never came after that following morning, but also noted similarly that the NW wind seemed to be when most of the shooters came through. Maybe they are picking up on something with that wind, thus the gap in appearances. It might not fully be your disturbance.

I actually think I would re-hang a cam in that spot; I'd rather get great intel on a spot like that, that should produce quality sits. Not for nothing, but if a cell cam has service there...whoah nellie. When she starts breaking loose with pics of shooter bucks on your phone, time to make moves. If I remember correctly, you were looking into crop rotations potentially playing a role in this? Did you come to any conclusions on it?

Great job on this...you really are gaining intel that might otherwise not have been there.
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:26 am

Cool pics, but I agree with previous posters. You missed your opportunity.
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby Bigb » Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:33 pm

Thanks Everyone!

Bucky, I couldn't agree more that I should have pulled the chip but Stanley hit it on the head, I was ill prepared and didn't have a chip. Honestly, I was leading the blood trail since I have pretty good luck trailing wounded deer but at that point I let my buddies go ahead and sat there in the dark contemplating whether I should pull the chip and leave it empty. I leaned that night that I should ALWAYS have a spare chip in my pack. You live, you learn. In hindsight I should have pulled it but for some reason I told myself not too.

KraftD, I use weather bug, seams pretty reliable. If I am hunting the day the pics are taken I do have a journal of all the weather (wind, barometric pressure, cloud cover, etc) I can go back too.

Ozzz, I use google maps pro and do the overlay with the top maps. You can lighten and darken the elevation lines so you can see where the elevation change are on the aerial map. I live three hours from where I hunt so I do a lot of scouting this way. I know the land pretty well but I always try to make a list of spots to scout/rescout before I go. If you stick in the same patterns and only scout the same spots you are likely to miss out on new spots.

Phade, I always read your reviews and try to learn from them, I can tell you have a lot of knowledge on them. The cell camera would be a DREAM unfortunately cell service doesn't support it right now. AT&T gets no service and Sprint gets one bar if I'm lucky. Its in a rough area where this spot is and no one gets any good cell service. I am thinking of picking up one for my urban spot, manly so my dad can check it on his computer and see how the deer are moving since he goes out every other day in October and November. Thats beside the point. I was also a bit surprised that no other mature bucks came through but we did really leave a lot of scent in that area. It was just traces of blood here and there and I spend a lot of time looking for a wounded deer even with minimal blood.

You made a good point with the crops. Last year it was beans (that weren't picked until December) and this year it was corn (that wasn't picked until December) I really didn't see much of a difference in movement. This spot is below doe bedding but with the drop off it still give a great view of the bottoms where the crops are plus there is a creek that has a lot of deer sign that runs along it. Unfortunately it is in the bottoms where the wind swirls, still trying to figure out how to hunt those bottoms. Endless amounts of buck picks but mature buck (and mature doe sightings) are either rare or way in the difference.

You also bring up a good point about the wind. I'm going to check on what the wind was during that week. I would actually love to see no west wind any of those days because that would validate my idea of west wind being the best wind. Thanks for pointing that out, its not always what on the camera but what isn't on the camera certain days. You may be onto something....Il take a look at what the wind was during that gap and post it on here. I honestly never thought of checking the wind the days I wasn't seeing anything on camera.

Thanks for all the advice and tips and hopefully this helps some people out a bit!
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby Bigb » Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:44 pm

MT008, Id be happy to help with a little bit more of a diagram.

The yellow areas are the doe bedding areas.

The pink line is the West wind I was referring too.

The Blue line is the creek that runs through there. To the left of the long creek to the yellow line is either a steep drop off or there isn't a spot for deer to get down. There are a couple spots that the does use to get down to the ag fields down low though. The red line is a deep ditch that the deer can't cross unless they use the trail that goes by my stand. Actually there is only spot at the far left of the picture. I'm actually contemplating blocking that trail with brush so they either co by this stand site or one just out of the frame where we have another stand that borders an ag field

The black line by the stand it the only tractor trail that you see in the pictures that that the deer are crossing on the camera.

The green lines are the ag fields (which I'm sure you can see the ag fields extend beyond the borders o the picture.

Hopefully that helps give a bit more description to the photo.

One quick note, the stand is on the upwind side of the trail because there are no trees large enough to put a stand on. Its either where its at or nowhere and the other side doesnt have room for a ground blind, it drops off pretty quick. Besides it very thick as well.


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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby Swampthing » Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:00 pm

JoeRE wrote:Awesome BigB! Glad you gave us an update a year later, I remember the original post well!

My two cents are next year, since you know this spot is money, so stick your cam some other prospective spot in November to gain intel for the following year...and so on and so on. In my opinion this is about the best possible thing a hunter can do with a cam in the rut TO GAIN INTEL NOT JUST PRETTY PICTURES because bucks move so much (patterning a buck pretty much goes out the window) and it lasts for such a short time.

Last fall I hung a total of 5 cams the entire month of November on 5 different rut funnels....I pulled them and looked at what I got compared to wind and weather. As a result of that intel four of the spots look great and I am prepping a stand site at each and one I don't need to waste a hunt on. I think if hanging a cam on just a "rut" funnel you probably can get away with leaving a camera there 4-6 weeks though not months and months, always remember to hang them high and far back.

Bucky wrote:IMO you missed your opportunity

When searching for the doe I would have grabbed the chip in the cam (your stink is there... might as well get REAL time info... seeing days of buck movement I would have hunted it regardless of the perfect wind... that one mature buck used that pinch multiple times in the span of 10 days.

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I agree in hindsight that would have been a good plan to pull that card just once but I think checking that camera needs to be an all or nothing deal. To be realistic about our self control if a hunter decides its Ok to go in and check a cam he will make all sorts of excuses to justify checking it more and more often which in a spot like, a tight pinch point, that is bad. I think a hunter is better off deciding exactly how long to leave a cam out at the start and sticking to it no matter what. I don't think he missed his opportunity - next year he will be ready.


i like your thinking. I like the fact that he walked the area and saw the direct effect on buck movement as a result.
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby msailor » Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:34 am

I love see the times these bucks used the funnel. Better pack a lunch next year, BigB
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby phade » Thu Apr 02, 2015 5:22 am

If you have a hard time getting to that spot, but generally know it is concentrating the bucks, are they solely going to the doe bed or are some doing that and some filtering toward the crops, etc.

My thought process is if you cannot hunt that often or it is too hard, your knowledge on that pinch might help you pick spots in between there and the doe beds or the crop fields. Sure, you might lose the concentration of bucks, but if you cannnot hunt it as how you want, this might be the next best thing. Since they are pinching, the "swath" of where they go from there isn't going to be massive, and you might be able to take advantage of some lesser known or not known trails. I am sure some of them are hitting the doe beds, but a portion are either hitting them and then moving to the crop areas where more doe bedding might be, or skipping that doe bed if they are scent checking it on a path that leads to the crop areas.

Just some food for thought.

Verizon cams are coming out from multiple brands now, you might want to look into it. They are more expensive to buy and the plans are as well in some cases, but if you can run this cam for say Sept to Dec....it really isn't bad for the intel it provides you without the need to intrude.

For your wind research, look at the a.m. times - I wouldn't worry about west winds on PM hunts that early on due to the times of appearance. It seems like you had a pretty steady a.m. pattern of movement going through that pinch in late Oct through mid Nov. Only in Mid Nov. did the big bucks start making midday visits based on the pics. Assumption being those early does are coming in and bucks are on their feet after a short bedding after sunrise - looking for that first group of estrous does. As the month progresses, you can see more deliberate midday attempts to catch does in their bed. The other thing is that a doe group might really control that bedding - and historically - you might have does in that group going into estrous around the same day each year as long as you do not majorly break that group up. We have a spot similar that just seems to get pounded by buck travel in daylight between Nov. 4 and Nov. 8th based on cam evidence. It's smack in a doe group bedding and it's like clockwork. Visits tail off after the 8th.
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby Stanley » Wed Aug 05, 2015 3:52 pm

ttt
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Not Checking Trail Cam for a year (I did it again)

Unread postby csoult » Thu Aug 06, 2015 12:14 am

Very cool

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