How important are nighttime trail cam pics?

[MOBIGBUCKS]

I only use them to see what is there prior to season. I'm probably not using them the way I should, but they don't mess up my hunts. If I get good bucks on camera then I know the property is worth spending my time on. I like to use them July to September 1st. After that I focus more on hunting.

[Stanley]

I think there is a lot of miss-use of trail cams out there. Lots of hunters try to use cams as a short-cut to tell them where to hunt. That is not a very good way to use them in my opinion, if you are hunting for mature deer. Trying to stick a cam in close to a buck's bedding is just asking to alert him. Scouting should tell you "where" to hunt in an area. I use cams to determine if a particular area is worth hunting. I want to know the size and approximate age of deer in an area. For that, trail cams have no equal. You can get valuable intel as to which direction a buck was moving and under what circumstances...helps you narrow down what bedding to target but don't get sucked into the trap of thinking you should scoot a cam closer and closer bedding. I hang a cam or two on a property for 2 weeks or so on or near main food sources, primary scrapes near food, etc,then pull them and move on.

Almost all the pics of mature bucks I get are at night, at least up till the active rut. Thats what I want. That means I am not too close to the bedding, and I really don't care if a buck avoids a cam location after a while, I will probably be hunting his most likely bedding spots hundreds of yards away...or even a quarter or half a mile away. I don't think a buck will alter his bedding because he smelled where I hung a cam 400 yards away.

I agree with this statement. I also think this why people are using cameras and getting negative effects. There is a skill set to using cameras with out disrupting your hunting area. If you are just hanging cameras and checking them arbitrarily I think your results will expose your lack of trail camera skills.

If you can consistently kill good bucks there is no reason you cant consistently get good bucks on camera.