Trail Camera Efficiency

[Twenty Up]

Had this debate with my hunting buddies this past weekend that I felt obligated to share:

Let's say you have a lease, hunt a particular tract of public land or whatever that's 500+ acres. We'll go with 1,000 so not too big but not too small, and run 5 trail cameras on field edges, mineral licks, corn piles.. the whole nine yards.

What are the chances that you capture at least 1 picture of each buck in the area?

[DaveT1963]

If the mineral licks are in the right areas i would say you have a really good chance of getting all of the local bucks at least once... but it depends on location and proper use.

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[DaveT1963]

If the mineral licks are in the right areas i would say you have a really good chance of getting all of the local bucks at least once... but it depends on location and proper use.

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[seazofcheeze]

I think it depends on the time of the year. In the summer months, home ranges are generally pretty small. Last year, I had 3 cams on a 120 acre piece trying to pattern a buck I was after. He only ever showed on 1 of the 3 cams. If legal, I think your odds go up with bait or minerals.

I also think your odds go up of capturing the majority of bucks in October, especially over well utilized scrapes. I bad a cam on a well used scrape 2 seasons ago in mid October that saw 11 different bucks in a 48hr period. This is in an area I ran cameras all summer and did lots of gassing and shining. I knew of 16 bucks total in the area (there may have been a few more, but I doubt it was many). Anyway, on the scrape I got almost 70% of the resident bucks in a very shirt time frame.

Not sure of that helos, just relating my personal experiences. In my opinion, I wouldn't guarantee you can get 100% of the bucks with much less than 1 cam per 40-50 acres.

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