Summer Trail Cameras and Bait

[BA-IV]

So the locating mature bucks thread brought a few questions to my mind. Say you located a single or a double set of big tracks coming in and out of a block, and you look on a map and decided the best places to scout or some transition edges that need some attention. Of course we would scout them, but here in the south, green up has done happened in March due to a below average winter, so you haven't found much besides rubs and a few trails. Now here comes the questions. You have cameras, but instead of letting them soak for months at a time, you put one camera where you think the bucks are close by and putting some type of mineral block or trophy rock type block down and putting a camera there. The goal wouldn't be to have just any deer come to it, but the specific bucks since they seldom bed close to other deer. Do yall it would move them out, or maybe other deer start using it, and cause the bucks to look for other places to live?

My thoughts would be along the lines that the camera would have to sit for at least a month, or be checked in the rain to minimize intrusion...But if you're getting a buck or bucks on camera during daylight repeatedly on the block, wouldn't that be putting you in the game for early season? On the other note, if all the pictures are night time, you know you need to push in deeper with the camera. I know this isn't true Beast style, but its a different look on cameras and bait. Just looking for some opinions on what other people lean towards or have experienced.

[Wlog]

On private land I put mineral sites out close to where I can drive to it or walk where they accept people. I only go once a month to freshen minerals and swap cards. I get most of the bucks in the area atleast once.

It's still possible to find the beds after green up they just aren't as easy to see. Going in once now and leaving it alone until season is still an option.

[mainebowhunter]

Baiting is not allowed here. So I really have no experience with baiting to try and kill a buck during early season. I have baited trail cams when its legal preseason... when there is A TON of food available, results are pretty lackluster. Late season, totally different story. Baiting cams works very well...but no hunting in late December. NOTE: I am also baiting trailcams in spots where big bucks live. (3.5yr and older)

Where I live, its on food sources, natural food sources. So still is natural bait. I run a lot of cameras and I used to think that if you ran enough, you could catch a buck using a place every day at a certain time and move in and make the kill. It does happen...but not often. Apple trees ...sometimes if you can catch a buck on a food pattern, you can kill one. I have done it. My buddies have done it. But the velvet shift deer really change and move. Sometimes its instant, sometimes its a week.

BUT many guys try and try and try and it just never works for them. The bucks are always after dark. And they keep doing the same things every year with the same results.

Historical data is always the goal. But if you dont have it, you need to gather as much data as you can. The problem with checking once a month, your chasing where deer have been, not where they are going to be. You hunting behind them, not in front of them. Trying to time your trail cam checks with your hunts works well so you can check cams more often.

Just my 2 cents.

[Southern Man]

For me, after spring green up I never had much luck with a bait or mineral camera set up. I used to bait corn from mid January until spring green up and had lots of good bucks come to the location. When things started growing most of the deer left the site. During that time frame bucks still had their horns too, so getting an idea of what made it through the season was pretty easy. I have left cameras from late winter until September or so on mineral with no intrusion but most all the pics were young bucks, does, and fawns. The more I run cameras, the more I see it best to set them for long periods of time (sometimes a year) and use the intel for next season. As everyone knows patterns change several times throughout the year and what you see in a spot in April / May could (and probably will) have nothing in common with fall movements. At least thats the way it works for me.