In season scouting with trail cameras

[Bucky]

I run em all year round.... inventory first, food prior to season, then to spot check certain areas I don't plan on hunting (unless I get hot intel), then around Oct 10-15th scrapes... if a buck is hitting scrapes near daylight/dusk... you can kill em close to that local, come rut I monitor photo freq... cams will typically blow up with pictures and bucks when a hot doe has come in.... that is time to plant your keyster in a tree near that local and spend some quality time in the woods, then post gun season who made it on the best available food sources (late muzzy/bow hunt if you still carry a tag and have food to hunt)

[Timmy]

I don't have any good input on this thread but I do have a question. There's a great looking bed that I found this spring while scouting that has a trail running from it through the cattails about 200 yards or so which comes out into a crp field that has some scrubby brush in it as well. On the other side of the crp field is some hardwoods and farm fields, but right where that trail comes out of the cattails there is a single white oak tree. I suspect this will be the first stop for food. Do you think I could get away with putting a cam up in this tree facing downward? Being that its a foodsource and the deer wont be there until its dark could I get away with leaving scent there from checking the cam. I know its recommended to place cams on a food souce but would this be pushing it?

I would not disturb the area this close to season. I would have set a camera up in June and let it run uninterrupted until seasons end. This will let you know if the deer do stop and eat acorns. If you set the camera up now and disturb the bed to food pattern what will you have gained? Sometimes it's about next year, not this year.

Yeah that makes sense. Ill wait until next year, put a cam out early and just leave it til the end of season

[ Post made via Android ]

[matt1336]

Trust your scouting. If you set the cam now, the only thing that's going to get look at that buck is the cam. The buck is not going to show up when/where you need him to if he senses that there is a human in his core area.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Timmy]

Trust your scouting. If you set the cam now, the only thing that's going to get look at that buck is the cam. The buck is not going to show up when/where you need him to if he senses that there is a human in his core area.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I guess what I was questioning was weather or not this was far enough away from his bed that I could safely run a camera there. But it sounds like that would be to close, and better to be safe than sorry, and not put one out there now.

[ Post made via Android ]

[live2hunt]

I use them nearly year round. During the summer I am looking to locate a shooter or shooters. Then around this time of the year I move them weakly trying to figure out quickly where they have relocated. Then around the second weak of Oct I put them on scrapes. There are three primary scrapes on the place I hunt that almost every buck around will visit at some point. When I see a shooter show up I make a move. Then during the rut I put them in random off the wall places trying to find overlooked areas for next year. After the rut I use field scan mode on a food source trying for daylight photos. All that being said remember this is particular to my hunting area. My Grandfather runs cattle and is on his fourwheeler or working around the property 365days a year. I learned I can drive a fourwheeler past nearly any bedded deer on the property and they do not spook. Walk in around them or stop the fourwheeler and stare at them and they are wired. So I hang my carmeras mostly in areas where I don't have to step off the wheeler. So spray the camera down and not worry about ground scent.

[Stanley]

I partially disagree. If you have the time, hunt the spot and hang the cam on the way out. Grab the cam on the following hunt. You might not have enough intel before the pre-rut, but you might get enough information for a post rut or late season hunt.

I agree with most. Try to avoid making special trips to hang and pull cameras. Don't count on rain to wash it away. Depending on immediately local hunting pressure, intermittent spikes in intense pressure (gun season, pheasant season) are good times to check in a pinch.

[ Post made via Android ]

The concept is good, but if you change your approach to the stand to set the camera up to capture photos of bucks on their feet you will leave unwanted scent on a bucks travel route. The approach to the stand should be as far out of the bucks travel route as possible. That is why I wouldn't recommend setting the camera up on the way to the stand.

If you are hunting a stand you should already have a good idea the buck will go by the stand. The trail camera will only give you information after the fact. I think a lot of guys get their priorities mixed up. First you are trying to kill the buck. Anything you do to hurt those chances is counter productive. Trail cameras can be counter productive that is for sure.

[phade]

I partially disagree. If you have the time, hunt the spot and hang the cam on the way out. Grab the cam on the following hunt. You might not have enough intel before the pre-rut, but you might get enough information for a post rut or late season hunt.

I agree with most. Try to avoid making special trips to hang and pull cameras. Don't count on rain to wash it away. Depending on immediately local hunting pressure, intermittent spikes in intense pressure (gun season, pheasant season) are good times to check in a pinch.

[ Post made via Android ]

I'm in-line with this practice.

Make as few as intrusions as possible, but don't rule out an area just because you set a cam. If you are smart and not overly abusive, you can get in-season and "long term" intel with cam use.

I almost always have a cam in my pack ready to go while hunting. I may be forced to take a long way out from a stand because of X reason - wind, deer bedding down, whatever. I can't recall how many times I have ended up walking through hot sign in such situations. Since I'm there, and on the way out, I'll opt to hang a cam. Based on my schedule, I may be back very soon, or it may be in a couple days, or it may not be til the next weekend. Hot sign is hot for a reason, and if I can't use that intel this year because the area cools before I can get back there, then so be it...come post season, I'll pay some attention to the spot. But, if I come back say in 36 hours, I check the cam to see what came through.

I am a fan of leaving cams up on trails in and out of hunting spots, where no deviation from the path is needed to check them. Now, having said that, a cam may only be checked once or twice an entire season. But, it helps give me a big picture idea as to what is going on and how the season is progressing.

In other situations, I'll hang cams to confirm that an area is dead/not worth my time. And, sometimes, I'm pleasantly surprised that I either missed something in my scouting, or some other unforseen influence has made that area hot (pressure, weather, acorns/crop, etc.). I may check it once or twice, but if there's action, then I'll hunt it immediately.

Long-term, I have a couple spots that are just fantastic set-ups for certain parts of the rut...funnels or places right along doe bedding areas. I'll hang cams there and let them soak the entire season. My purpose is to record chasing/daylight activity of the bucks checking out those does and hitting the primary scrape there at one spot that will be new to me. Over a couple seasons, I can say with certainty that any time I get a Southerly based wind, I should be in that stand between November 4-8. I know this because of pics from a prior non-bowhunter who set a cam there that it's not even a bell curve...bucks are slack in daylight appearances there before, and after is very hit or miss. Reliably, Nov. 4-8 has about on average 4 different mature bucks visiting in daytime between 12-14 times total (some for the only time I'll see/spot them on the property the entire year). After that time, I'll get one or two daytime visits between the 9-15...gun season rolls in and the area deadens out because deer retreat to interior marsh ground.

[BassBoysLLP]

I partially disagree. If you have the time, hunt the spot and hang the cam on the way out. Grab the cam on the following hunt. You might not have enough intel before the pre-rut, but you might get enough information for a post rut or late season hunt.

I agree with most. Try to avoid making special trips to hang and pull cameras. Don't count on rain to wash it away. Depending on immediately local hunting pressure, intermittent spikes in intense pressure (gun season, pheasant season) are good times to check in a pinch.

[ Post made via Android ]

I almost always have a cam in my pack ready to go while hunting. I may be forced to take a long way out from a stand because of X reason - wind, deer bedding down, whatever. I can't recall how many times I have ended up walking through hot sign in such situations. Since I'm there, and on the way out, I'll opt to hang a cam. Based on my schedule, I may be back very soon, or it may be in a couple days, or it may not be til the next weekend. Hot sign is hot for a reason, and if I can't use that intel this year because the area cools before I can get back there, then so be it...come post season, I'll pay some attention to the spot. But, if I come back say in 36 hours, I check the cam to see what came through.

quote]

Exactly. I do the same thing!

[May-39]

Yes I have cams fail, one quit for no apparent reason after 72 pics over 2 weeks this summer..I turned it off, back on and everything was fine...I haven't re-checked it since first week of August, prolly should

I do run cams during season for a number of reasons..I hunt alot of "quirky" spots..Places where I know bucks end up due to pressure, dispersion after crop (corn) harvest, location near doe bedding groups or other factors. I show up and switch card. If nothing is showing, no sense in blowing spot up or wasting sit.

For example, I have spot on a river island, steep bank on one side large ag field that is 50/50 corn beans on other. All summer there is a doe group on the island...I glass it regularly...Last fall after corn harvest, on a hunch and hot late fall day I canoed to island and kicked a nice buck off the island. He ran up steep bank bedded and just watched me. Checked monthly all winter no real buck sign/tracks. Dont know if it was crops or does..I hung a camera late last night in rain I can check practically from water...Which I will do by switching cards after dark..Does would not leave island last year, they felt that safe, I could have shot all of them with my bow, they would run 20-40 yards away and stand there,,all the way around island.

I've also put a plotwatcher in my go to marsh area overlooking a 75 yard ish stretch of creek in the middle of cattails that most deer seem to cross in due to shallow hard bottom. I use a plotwatcher cause normal cams and cattails equal tons of nothing pics from wind..Same thing, I can canoe to cam en route to stands,,,slide card into cheap cam and scan as fast at possible..with correct wind, I never get within 100 yards of stand and scent isn't blowing into bedding area. I know a keeper will be there eventually, the earliest has been October and latest was second weekend of firearms season in late November

FYI I use cheap cams with the flash turned off..I know something will be there eventually during daylight hours. I'm not shooting a buck that only appears at night..Track size tells me enough..I will probably pick up a couple browning IR cams this year though,,but these are on public land and losing a 150.00 cam would really sting.

[wmihunter]

May39 sounds like some good tactics!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[str8shooter]

I've used them the past two years to find and kill specific bucks. I have four cameras that I'll keep moving till I find the buck I'm looking for. I only run mine on field edges where I can drive up and swap cards. Field edge scrapes, apple tree's, and spots where a field necks down are all sure bets that you will get pics of basically every buck using that area. Once the rut hits I place my cams in funnels and forget about them till after season is over because like Stan said the movement is too helter skelter to gain any valuable intel.

[JoeRE]

I've used them the past two years to find and kill specific bucks. I have four cameras that I'll keep moving till I find the buck I'm looking for. I only run mine on field edges where I can drive up and swap cards. Field edge scrapes, apple tree's, and spots where a field necks down are all sure bets that you will get pics of basically every buck using that area. Once the rut hits I place my cams in funnels and forget about them till after season is over because like Stan said the movement is too helter skelter to gain any valuable intel.

X2 that about sums up my strategy too. I definitely have killed bucks as a result of info from cams. I have been guilty of over using them in the past but have gotten much more careful with them.

[blackwolf]

I use them mainly for inventory in July and August. This year my plan is to put them out now in a couple areas I am not hunting to leave until after gun season to get info for next year.