yeah, you will know........

[wtnhunt]

Been telling my wife for years, you will know when you see this buck or that buck that we are looking at on trail cam pics. Last year the 9 she shot she said she knew it was him when he was coming across. Have had a few over the years that I have been lucky enough to have that thrill of knowing, "yep its him" and being fortunate enough to squeeze a shot on, and then been a few times in poor light or other distant split second conditions that I thought I was shooting a particular deer only to find it was not the one I was after but rather a completely different decent deer we had never gotten pics of.

Got one that just showed up on the last pull that should be easy to tell if he shows up in front of one of us during season. Pretty unique left brow hooks backward. Don't think we had gotten any pics of him prior, at least none in July or early August. Looks like he is a mature deer to me, thoughts? Hope with all that is going on around us he hangs around and I hope he is still hanging around nearby in about a month.

We had another one I knew should be a shooter that was around and coming past that camera regularly back in June and into mid July, should be a 9 or 10 but he has not been back around. Have a tall 7 I want to see a closer look at too.

[Ravin R10 man]

Looks like a good one Will..

sometimes I watch a buck grow all summer, and he sheds velvet and goes back home.

Have had bucks drop out of sight too, only to show up late season

Then Ive seen bucks summer a few miles away, and killed them when they show up here

Edited August 29, 2016 by Mathews XT Man

[Rhino]

Looks mature to me too for deer where you are William. Good luck chasing him this year!

In the past I've had some bucks that would disappear before or shortly after shedding velvet. One that comes to mind was a big 8 we called Dagger. He had 1 brow tine ~10" long...the other ~4" long. Consistent pics of him from mid July through mid August then he vanished for good. I've also had a lot more bucks that stayed around all year long but I'm able to cover more ground than your place in TN. Some bucks shifted the areas they frequented from summer to fall with those areas ranging up to a mile from their summer core area. Some I've been able to keep tabs on from one year to the next too. IDing bucks from one year to the next is difficult unless there is some unique feature they have or retain in their antlers. As you'd expect, when the rut begins to swing into action each year new bucks show up on the cams we never had gotten pics of previously.

[Strut10]

Trailcam bucks will drive you nuts...................

I used to run 5 cams on my small property 365 days a year.  Bucks would be there all year..............others would be there til you wanted to kill them, then disappear.............. others that you never, ever saw before would show up for a day or a week only to never be seen again.

I haven't had a cam out for 3 seasons, now.  Ironically............ I have killed my best 3 bucks the past 3 seasons............   Go figger.............

 

[wtnhunt]

Just something different about how deer 3.5 and beyond carry themselves as compared to 2.5 and younger, posture and attitude I think shows, sometimes even in tc pics.  

7 hours ago, Strut10 said:

Trailcam bucks will drive you nuts...................

I used to run 5 cams on my small property 365 days a year.  Bucks would be there all year..............others would be there til you wanted to kill them, then disappear.............. others that you never, ever saw before would show up for a day or a week only to never be seen again.

I haven't had a cam out for 3 seasons, now.  Ironically............ I have killed my best 3 bucks the past 3 seasons............   Go figger.............

 

Been a few times with 5 cameras running we ended up having one show up that never got its picture made or had one we had hundreds of pics through the season that we never saw. or disappeared  Have had those that show up once to never be seen again too.  I cut back to 2 to 3 cameras leading up to, during, and about a month post season and quit running them year round.