Early Season Trail Cameras

[funderburk]

Where are you guys putting your cameras in hopes of locating an opening day kill?

[Swedishbowhunter]

I have all of mine in a tote with a rice and they will stay there until July.

[Seeker529]

I’m putting mine on places I expecting to harvest in fall... trails leading from bedding to fall good sources... some field edges just for inventory taking. But the ones outside of bedding I won’t touch until I decide to hunt that location

[Hawthorne]

I put them on transitions they will travel from food to bed. At least 200 yards from the bedding you plan on killing. I’ve had decent luck putting them in the tree I plan on hunting but not all the time. Usually I’ll hang them in late June and pull them early September. When I go around to pull my cards in September I’ll check for mast production also.

[Grizzlyadam]

Using a cam to find an opening day kill is a slippery slope. At some point your going to have to go and pull that card a short while before you intend to hunt to see if there is a shooter. So if a buck is there and is on a fairly regular schedule you run a big risk of throwing him off by going in to check those cams. So at the same time you check your cam and find a buck you want to go after he just realized you are poking around looking to kill him and he may very well boogie out of there. If using the cams it's best to put them far away from bedding in a place where human activity is fairly normal like a road crossing or field edge. I prefer to check them mid day on a rainy day to minimize and disturbance I create. You end up with night time pics that will only tell you he's there and not help you determine where to set up, but that's where your off season scouting comes into play and you have a good idea of where he may be bedding and feeding.

A better practice to find an opening day shooter is to do some glassing from a distance if possible. I have good luck glassing green fields first thing in the morning the beginning of September. The bucks are still hanging out together and I get to see where they are exiting the field to bed for the day. So when opening day comes around they may not be together still but they are likely still on the same feed to bed pattern, feeding in the same places and bedding in the same places.

[CritterGitter4]

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I hope the picture shows up as I anticipated it to. But here is what my strategy is for what I believe is the most efficient way to monitor the bucks using this particular farm.

All the buck icons are indicators of buck bedding areas that I found while spring scouting and observations from prior seasons. This past season, I located a primary scrape in a "thermal hub" that separates at least four buck bedding areas. To me, the decision to put a cell camera over this primary scrape was a no brainier. I can go back and correlate the pictures with different wind/weather conditions to have an idea where and when the buck was coming from. I have three other spots like this where I am able to monitor multiple buck bedding areas with only one camera.

Here are a few tips for placing a camera on a primary scrape that separates bedding areas:

1. Hang the camera in late August before or during a good rain. Preferably, this tree is already prepped and ready for the camera so you are in an out with as minimal intrusion as possible.
2. Hang the camera high. I usually bring in one climbing stick with me when I hang these cameras. It is best that the camera is out of the buck's line-of-sight, and as undetectable as possible.
3. Use an external battery pack, the last thing you want is for the camera to die during the season when the intel is the most valuable.
4. Beef up the scrape. In SW Wisconsin I really like to use vines for a licking branch on these scrapes. This particular scrape tree is a low hanging oak, which they already scrape on. But giving them a vine licking branch will make the attractiveness of the scrape even better.

If you want another example of how I do this I am more than willing. Good luck, but it takes a lot more than just relying on trail cameras to get yourself in position to kill a buck!

[DhD]

Using a cam to find an opening day kill is a slippery slope. At some point your going to have to go and pull that card a short while before you intend to hunt to see if there is a shooter. So if a buck is there and is on a fairly regular schedule you run a big risk of throwing him off by going in to check those cams. So at the same time you check your cam and find a buck you want to go after he just realized you are poking around looking to kill him and he may very well boogie out of there. If using the cams it's best to put them far away from bedding in a place where human activity is fairly normal like a road crossing or field edge. I prefer to check them mid day on a rainy day to minimize and disturbance I create. You end up with night time pics that will only tell you he's there and not help you determine where to set up, but that's where your off season scouting comes into play and you have a good idea of where he may be bedding and feeding.

A better practice to find an opening day shooter is to do some glassing from a distance if possible. I have good luck glassing green fields first thing in the morning the beginning of September. The bucks are still hanging out together and I get to see where they are exiting the field to bed for the day. So when opening day comes around they may not be together still but they are likely still on the same feed to bed pattern, feeding in the same places and bedding in the same places.

Lots of people use cell cams these days.

[Grizzlyadam]

Using a cam to find an opening day kill is a slippery slope. At some point your going to have to go and pull that card a short while before you intend to hunt to see if there is a shooter. So if a buck is there and is on a fairly regular schedule you run a big risk of throwing him off by going in to check those cams. So at the same time you check your cam and find a buck you want to go after he just realized you are poking around looking to kill him and he may very well boogie out of there. If using the cams it's best to put them far away from bedding in a place where human activity is fairly normal like a road crossing or field edge. I prefer to check them mid day on a rainy day to minimize and disturbance I create. You end up with night time pics that will only tell you he's there and not help you determine where to set up, but that's where your off season scouting comes into play and you have a good idea of where he may be bedding and feeding.

A better practice to find an opening day shooter is to do some glassing from a distance if possible. I have good luck glassing green fields first thing in the morning the beginning of September. The bucks are still hanging out together and I get to see where they are exiting the field to bed for the day. So when opening day comes around they may not be together still but they are likely still on the same feed to bed pattern, feeding in the same places and bedding in the same places.

Lots of people use cell cams these days.

Yea, thanks. I didn't even consider that when I wrote that and the op was not specific. I should have added "unless you use a cell cam".

[brancher147]

I have been hanging them right on or just off a main road or access path where deer are used to human activity. I use them for inventory and mostly night pics that I then backtrack to bedding known from previous scouting and hunting. If I hang near bedding I like to wait for a windy dry low humidity day that my scent won’t hang around for long. No cell service where I hunt so no cell cam option and not really something that interests me anyway.

[Dewey]

I put them on transitions they will travel from food to bed. At least 200 yards from the bedding you plan on killing.

Same thing I’m doing this year. I set up cams to catch the maximum amount deer in a main travel route from bed to general feeding areas. When I see patterns according to what time they show up on cam I can then apply the beds I found while winter/spring scouting to make an educated guess on where to set up which is rarely near the cam unless it consistently shows daylight movement.

[funderburk]

I put them on transitions they will travel from food to bed. At least 200 yards from the bedding you plan on killing. I’ve had decent luck putting them in the tree I plan on hunting but not all the time. Usually I’ll hang them in late June and pull them early September. When I go around to pull my cards in September I’ll check for mast production also.

When you pull in early September, do you notice your intrusion negatively affecting any movement?

[funderburk]

I put them on transitions they will travel from food to bed. At least 200 yards from the bedding you plan on killing.

Same thing I’m doing this year. I set up cams to catch the maximum amount deer in a main travel route from bed to general feeding areas. When I see patterns according to what time they show up on cam I can then apply the beds I found while winter/spring scouting to make an educated guess on where to set up which is rarely near the cam unless it consistently shows daylight movement.

Good stuff.

[Hawthorne]

I put them on transitions they will travel from food to bed. At least 200 yards from the bedding you plan on killing. I’ve had decent luck putting them in the tree I plan on hunting but not all the time. Usually I’ll hang them in late June and pull them early September. When I go around to pull my cards in September I’ll check for mast production also.

When you pull in early September, do you notice your intrusion negatively affecting any movement?

I don’t notice but it might affect them to some degree. They aren’t has spooky early on I think. I get in and out quick. I don’t walk around the area getting my scent everywhere. I do that in winter and spring

[eazyduzit94]

Food and water. For me that's mostly edges of ag fields and/or fruit trees, creek crossings or pond edges. I have put them real tight to the bedding areas before but they seem to pick up on the camera a lot more than if I just back them off a bit.

[Twenty Up]

Most bucks I find move from summer bedding areas to winter bedding areas once the velvet hardens. I’ve followed Bucks 1.5 miles before, sometimes they never move. Really depends on a lot of factors.

I do prefer to target open creek bottoms with a lot of vegetative growth in close proximity to other transitions where trails intersect.

Once I locate a buck I’d like to kill, I really begin clustering cameras and begin predicting where I anticipate him to relocate.