Wassup with the IR? Can deer see it?


redkneck

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So I got off a little early today, and went to fetch my trail cam. Nothing significant on it, but every deer looked spooked. I've always felt like the deer could sense something was up when that thing charges up. Best thing that was on there is a basket 8 and he looks like he's ready to bolt! What's your opinion?

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depends on the deer IMO.

I have millions of pictures....yes millions. Some deer will stay by the camera for hours or come back to the same spot often and never seem to care about the IR or white flash. OTHERS seem to bolt. I don't think its the white flash or the IR flash that spooks them but rather the noise or the scent you left on or around the camera that spooks the deer.

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depends on the deer IMO.

I have millions of pictures....yes millions. Some deer will stay by the camera for hours or come back to the same spot often and never seem to care about the IR or white flash. OTHERS seem to bolt. I don't think its the white flash or the IR flash that spooks them but rather the noise or the scent you left on or around the camera that spooks the deer.

Yep, with Todd on this. Don't have any IR cams, but like Todd says, have pics of tons of deer that are totally relaxed in front of the cams, then have also watched some deer approach the cams where the deer seemed a little skittish. Have often wondered if deer notice the led's on the "no flash" cams, would guess they probably do.

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So I got off a little early today, and went to fetch my trail cam. Nothing significant on it, but every deer looked spooked. I've always felt like the deer could sense something was up when that thing charges up. Best thing that was on there is a basket 8 and he looks like he's ready to bolt! What's your opinion?

Infrared scares deer and I don't care what people say. My cousin has 2 and so do some friends of mine. The deer pics they get are almost always spooky. The thing about the infrared is that when the red light comes on it constantly gets brighter until it takes the pic. With the flash, its BOOM and it's gone. The deer don't look nervous either ;)

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Hey Red! That little four point that I posted in our Bonehead thread ran back about 5 yards after my flash went off. The big tree to the left of picture with the little tree right by it is where he ran to. Just left of that tree and looked back at camera. It was neat to see because I have always wondered if they got spooked from the camera's. He watched it for about 5 minutes then went on his way like nothing happened. They I am sure did not go far. I was only 15 yards away to see this happen. If you look at that picture you can see the strap that is holding on my ladder stand to the right of the picture. I will add the picture to this so you can see. The other picture is of me when I got down and stood in his spot with 4 fingers showing the same spot where he stood to add to my photo album. I think it is more of the camera turning on and the flash if you have one. He jumped as the flash went off.

1-27.jpg

2-19.jpg

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You realize that even two million pics would be the same as averaging 275 trail cam pics per day for 20 years? You're a busy bee.

Good thing I only said 1 million and not 2.....LOL :D:D

Seriously I currently have 5 trail cameras out. Would be 6 but need batteries for one of them ;).

And I generally keep them out year around.

We have been running trail cameras for close to 15.

The first 5 years or less we ran 2.....LOTS of money was spent on the 1 hour film department. It was bad we would just walk up and they knew exactly what we wanted no questions asked :p:D

Since year 5 to now I would say we have had between 3 to 8 cameras close to year around.

So I am probably pretty close in my million of pictures. :clown:

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You da man Todd! I got just one, and use it quite a bit starting about 6 weeks before season. Would like to get another, but I can't see having that many, lol. It gets to be almost like work!

What's your fav camera you got? I got a leaf river, it's been good to me, but I'll probably get a Cuddeback next go 'round.

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What can I say they are addictive :D;):p:D

I can check them all pretty quickly with the aid of my golf cart. Its a fun thing to do with the kids. :D

We have a fairly good size farm so I like to have pretty good idea of whats running around and what is going on. I mainly use them for keeping tabs on the deer but I often will set some up for turkeys or coyotes. Heck there is even times when I wish I had a couple more.

My favorite is cuddeback hands down. Battery life is great, flash has great distance, the pictures quality is great, but most importantly the trigger speed is amazing!! So that is all I buy any more! No point in waste money on a camera and batteries if a deer has to stand in front of the camera for a full minute before the camera is going to take its pictures. As we all know deer aren't going to do that...

You da man Todd! I got just one, and use it quite a bit starting about 6 weeks before season. Would like to get another, but I can't see having that many, lol. It gets to be almost like work!

What's your fav camera you got? I got a leaf river, it's been good to me, but I'll probably get a Cuddeback next go 'round.

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You It gets to be almost like work!

It can get to be like work keeping several cams going, especially when you do run them year round. We have gotten into the hundreds of thousands of pics from trail cams, only been running cams since 2003. First was a stealth cam film cam, then a leaf river and then onto homebrews. Figure that leaf river took into the tens of thousands of pics before we started having issues with it.

Last year we had one really nice buck making his way past 4 different cams around our property, I got a pretty good idea that the buck kept no real pattern because the times where he was at those cams were never the same, but I did get a better idea where he was going to and coming from. Pretty cool when you can track times and places where the deer are at. Also when you have groups of does at two or more different cams at the same time you get a better idea of how many animals you have around since does are a little tougher to identify than bucks.

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