Trail Camera Placement
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Trail Camera Placement
Hey y'all, hope the start to everyones season has been goin well. I pulled most of my cams out before the season and would like to get them back out there to start collecting some pics, but im not sure where to really put them. I'd like to let most of them soak for the rest of deer season, so where are the best places to set them ? Bedding areas? rut funnels? or should i be placing them on active food sources now to gather intel whats goin on now?
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Re: Trail Camera Placement
A scrape near cover is a good place to get pictures.
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Re: Trail Camera Placement
Scrapes. The best place to get scrape pictures is hands down in a terrain funnel.
If you are trying to pattern a particular buck hang some on scrapes in what you believe to be his core area somewhere
If you are trying to pattern a particular buck hang some on scrapes in what you believe to be his core area somewhere
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Re: Trail Camera Placement
Depends on the purpose.
A tactic that has helped me is putting them in or near places I'm questionable about or want to learn the natural patterns. Sometimes a funnel. Sometimes a place I've found promising sign but don't know if it's rut or if it's night time or if it's all season or what. Let a camera soak all season and see when the area is producing daylight pics of mature bucks.
I had a place I thought was mostly a rut funnel. I did just that. Hunted it real early because there's a few apple trees. Saw a couple deer but nothing I wanted to shoot. Left the camera and came back halloween morning for a dark to dark banking on rut movement. I checked the card as I sat there and couldn't believe the activity and number of different bucks. It really taught me a lot. Funny....I never got pics of turkeys and had a flock of 40+ come by that afternoon and drilled my biggest long beard. 45mins later I shot a buck...that I never had pictures of.
If you want intel to go by....are you looking for an inventory of what's around? Or looking to pattern specific deer? Or just looking to get pics of deer for enjoyment?
A tactic that has helped me is putting them in or near places I'm questionable about or want to learn the natural patterns. Sometimes a funnel. Sometimes a place I've found promising sign but don't know if it's rut or if it's night time or if it's all season or what. Let a camera soak all season and see when the area is producing daylight pics of mature bucks.
I had a place I thought was mostly a rut funnel. I did just that. Hunted it real early because there's a few apple trees. Saw a couple deer but nothing I wanted to shoot. Left the camera and came back halloween morning for a dark to dark banking on rut movement. I checked the card as I sat there and couldn't believe the activity and number of different bucks. It really taught me a lot. Funny....I never got pics of turkeys and had a flock of 40+ come by that afternoon and drilled my biggest long beard. 45mins later I shot a buck...that I never had pictures of.
If you want intel to go by....are you looking for an inventory of what's around? Or looking to pattern specific deer? Or just looking to get pics of deer for enjoyment?
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Re: Trail Camera Placement
I place trail cameras on obvious pinch points (specific creek crossings, bottlenecks, inside corners, or subtle funnels based on topography like saddles or where river bends pinch the timber down), going into and out of the the best buck bedding locations (bulletproof spots that bucks can stay safe from many wind directions) and on community scrapes in the cover. I rarely if at all place cams on field edges even though you can get lots of cool postcard looking pics this way. I get less pictures than others using this strategy probably because I don’t get 500 pics of one doe feeding in the corn or beans but I would say I get a better survey of deer and more actionable intel on big deer and how they are using a property during hunting season this way. My cams really heat up when hunting pressure is on and deer start relating to cover more often (i.e., cams will be slow in non hunting seasons when there is no pressure). My main goal is to commit resources to knowing when and how my target bucks are using the security cover/bedding on the ground I hunt and when the big boys are moving during daylight to focus my hunting efforts. I can frequently track a big buck across a property this way giving me direction of travel and where they are likely bedded based on wind or changing food preferences. The locations that are deeper and more sensitive to human intrusion get cell cams on solar panels or battery packs that can run for 6 months without replacement. The ones that are easily accessible and I can check with minimal disturbance get regular trail cams. I limit myself to checking the regular trail cams to days with rain and wind every two months to minimize disturbance. This is where a lot of guys mess themselves up in checking them way too often or punching into the security cover to check cams which educate mature deer. Hope this helps!
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