What have you learned...

[Rhino]

What have you learned about deer and their habits from using trail cams?

There's a myth that when you capture a pic of a buck at a certain spot, he'll be around there from then on. I have people ask me every year on our place here in MS where they need to go to hunt a bigun because I run trial cams. Here's some specific questions:

1) If you get a pic of a mature buck how long do you expect he'll be around that spot?

2) If you do expect him to be around that spot, is it dependent on the time of year within an open hunting season?

3) Some hunting shows give the impression with their "hit list" that they get pics of the vast majority of the mature bucks in their area. What percentage of the mature bucks to you think you get on your hunting area?

4) How far apart between sets have you caught the same buck on a trail cam?

5) Do you scout more or less as a result of using trail cams?

Please share any other useful information about what you've learned. If you don't use trail cams & your close hunting buddies do, share your thoughts.

I'll refrain from sharing what I've learned for a week or so.

Edited August 3, 2010 by Rhino

[hunter109]

idk about how long a buck will stay around but i herd if you place your cam over a scrape you will get the same buck over and over agin but never tried it yet well what you all think

[rhine16]

1) If you get a pic of a mature buck how long do you expect he'll be around that spot?

Depends on the time of the year. I feel like bucks pretty much stay in their "core area" right now. During the rut, I don't take much stake into getting a picture of a buck and thinking he'll be there some other time.

2) If you do expect him to be around that spot, is it dependent on the time of year within an open hunting season?

Guess I answered that question above

3) Some hunting shows give the impression with their "hit list" that they get pics of the vast majority of the mature bucks in their area. What percentage of the mature bucks to you think you get on your hunting area?

I'd guess for my 600 acre farm, there are 4-5 mature bucks on it per year. We usually get 3-4 on cam. So 70ish %

4) How far apart between sets have you caught the same buck on a trail cam?

Several times I've had pictures of bucks that my neighbors have had... One particular buck went at least 3 miles from where we had been taking pics of him all summer.... He ended up getting killed a mile and a half away.

5) Do you scout more or less as a result of using trail cams?

Cant answer that... Started deer hunting when I was ten and got my first cam at 14, so I really don't know.

.

[redkneck]

What have you learned about deer and their habits from using trail cams?

There's a myth that when you capture a pic of a buck at a certain spot, he'll be around there from then on. I have people ask me every year on our place here in MS where they need to go to hunt a bigun because I run trial cams. Here's some specific questions:

1) If you get a pic of a mature buck how long do you expect he'll be around that spot?

2) If you do expect him to be around that spot, is it dependent on the time of year within an open hunting season?

3) Some hunting shows give the impression with their "hit list" that they get pics of the vast majority of the mature bucks in their area. What percentage of the mature bucks to you think you get on your hunting area?

4) How far apart between sets have you caught the same buck on a trail cam?

5) Do you scout more or less as a result of using trail cams?

Please share any other useful information about what you've learned. If you don't use trail cams & your close hunting buddies do, share your thoughts.

I'll refrain from sharing what I've learned for a week or so.

I scout and place stands based on food sources, terrain, etc. The cam pics do dictate often what stand I put more of a priority though if I have caught pics of something impressive. The bucks that are most impressive of course are those that are the most nocturnal (for me). Some will say they are over pressured, but I think they're just wise from experience. The deer seem mostly patternable (yeah I just made that up) during the early season which is why I love my early bowhunting, strictly looking for food. During the rut I've had the same bucks on cams that are 3/4 mile apart in the same 24 hours. They seem to sometimes make the rounds and are back on the same cam sometimes, but sometimes it's a one-time pic. After the rut they're back to a more patterned routine, but still seem to have a really good range on them (I assume because the food sources have dwindled so much). This is about all I have learned.... if anything at all.....

[Ethan Givan]

What have you learned about deer and their habits from using trail cams?

There's a myth that when you capture a pic of a buck at a certain spot, he'll be around there from then on. I have people ask me every year on our place here in MS where they need to go to hunt a bigun because I run trial cams. Here's some specific questions:

1) If you get a pic of a mature buck how long do you expect he'll be around that spot?

2) If you do expect him to be around that spot, is it dependent on the time of year within an open hunting season?

3) Some hunting shows give the impression with their "hit list" that they get pics of the vast majority of the mature bucks in their area. What percentage of the mature bucks to you think you get on your hunting area?

4) How far apart between sets have you caught the same buck on a trail cam?

5) Do you scout more or less as a result of using trail cams?

Please share any other useful information about what you've learned. If you don't use trail cams & your close hunting buddies do, share your thoughts.

I'll refrain from sharing what I've learned for a week or so.

1. If I get his pic before October then I expect to get more pics of him. I usually have the deer patterned well through August and September and then October rolls around and Im usually back to square one.

2. I expect the mature buck to stay in a certain area through September but it usually does not help much because all the mature deer I ever get pics of are nocturnal. During the rut I get pics of bucks during daylight some, usually at weird hours like middle of the day.Most of the time Ive never seen these deer before, and I usually never see them again.

3. Less than 25%. I dont have enough cams to really cover the area I hunt because I am a broke college student. I would say Ive only gotten pics of a fourth of the mature deer around the land I hunt. Two or three mature bucks isnt much for 800 acres of total hunting ground, but that generally all i get through a season. I know for a fact there are more there, I just dont have the cams to cover the area.

4. Couldnt say. Most of the time I get pics of a deer only at one spot and not real frequently, just ever so often. None of my neighbors around my farm use trail cams that I know of except for a buddy of mine that hunts about 3/4 of a mile down from me. I think he has had pics of a couple of the same bucks I have pics of. Doesnt happen real often. There is so much land behind my farm and his that we really only can scout and have cameras on a small sample of the area.

5. Probably more. I scout property even more now, trying to find an even better area to put a camera on, and then possibly a stand. I absolutely love running trail cams, and trying to get pics of the biggest deer I can. This motivates me even more to get out there and scout.

Ive only used trail cams for about 3 years now, and some of the land I hunt I just started hunting last year. I havent had many years to really learn much like some of you and Im still learning about alot of the land I hunt. I guess my observations are not real credible for this reason. This is just what Ive noticed during my short experience.

[wtnhunt]

I have learned that trail cams help me to know what is there Al, and help me better decide on where to set my goals. I have also learned that just because I have trail cams does not mean that we will get pics of all or even most of the deer that are around, we may get a pic of a buck one time or not get any pics of some of the bucks that we might see.

1. Hard to say. Good example last year we had possibly 4 or 5 different mature bucks we got pics of, but only one that seemed to be somewhat regular and at that he came around our cameras about once a week or so. He did on one occasion pass by 3 of our 4 cameras in a 2 hour stretch of time covering about 3/4 of a mile. Pretty sure he was cruising for does. The time he passed by the first camera kind of gave me an idea he was bedding on or just off our neighbors property. Never could figure out why he was only around every week or so though. Same deer went mia for about 3 weeks. That buck began showing back up and around December when a young doe came in he was all over our property getting his pic made on multiple cams at different times. Pretty sure that buck was the dominant buck and we were in his core area.

So to answer the question I think it all depends on the timing and of course on the does and the stage of the rut.

2. Again hard to say. Some bucks do disappearing acts for days or weeks at a time, and that seems to be throughout the year, even outside the rut. We only own 60 acres and have a neighboring property that is 35, so we don't have a large area to monitor with cams, could be that the deer just skirt the edges of our property but are still right in this area.

3. Pretty sure we get a small percentage of the bucks that are in the area, probably less than 30 percent. May have been higher when I had more cameras running along the river bottom, but now with only 2 cams running and those cams in a relatively small area I am certain there are bucks that we never get pics of that may be in this general area that may or may not come onto our property. The idea of a hit list is nice and all, but realistically on small property chances are we may or may not ever see a buck we get pics of and also there is always that chance we may have a deer show up that we never got pics of. I think it was 3 years ago we had a buck show up in the back yard late in the summer while they were still in velvet, I ended up taking the buck with the ml'er, we never got a single pic of that buck on any of our trail cams yet he had to have been near them.

4. Not sure what you mean Al. Same camera different time frame or different cams? We have gotten pics of the same buck come back by a camera on a few occasions within 30 minutes following a doe. We have had pics of the same deer on 2 different cameras 250 yards or so apart within 10 less than minutes.

5. Being that we hunt behind the house, it really does not make a huge difference, our stands are pretty well set although I do a little fine tuning from season to season depending on what took place the previous season.

[hoosierhunter]

I had several trail cams out during the summer of 08 and was catching pictures of one buck(3.5 year old) very consistently. I started moving cameras around and picking up on his trail route that he was using more often than not. On opening day I caught hom using that route but wasn't in my climber. I caught him two more times throughout October using that same route. On November 2nd I killed him about 20 yards from one of my cameras. He was coming exactly from where I has established his bedding area at through trail cameras.

That's why I always leave one camera on my food plot and move the other 3 around to try to get a handle on where they are moving to and from the plot.

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

1) If you get a pic of a mature buck how long do you expect he'll be around that spot?

Depends on the time of year. Right now, I expect him to be around until the last week of Oct or the first week of Nov. The bucks aren't roaming much. As soon as the pre-rut kicks in, all bets are off.

2) If you do expect him to be around that spot, is it dependent on the time of year within an open hunting season?

Pretty much answered this question in #1.

3) Some hunting shows give the impression with their "hit list" that they get pics of the vast majority of the mature bucks in their area. What percentage of the mature bucks to you think you get on your hunting area?

I'd guesstimate 50% at most. And I could be way off. It might be more like 25%. Mature bucks are sneaky SOB's, even when it comes to cameras.

4) How far apart between sets have you caught the same buck on a trail cam?

5 miles. I've also visually verified 5 miles of travel by a specific buck in less than 8 hours.

5) Do you scout more or less as a result of using trail cams?

Cameras don't influence my amount of scouting.

General thoughts:

Deer are messy eaters, especially mature bucks. If you find a lot of half eaten corn, pellets, etc on the ground it's probably falling out of a buck's mouth.

Trailcams are excellent for targeting management bucks. You can usually decide well in advance that a particular buck needs to go and then when you see him, you don't have to waste a bunch of time studying him to make up your mind.

[sskybnd]

1) If you get a pic of a mature buck how long do you expect he'll be around that spot?

i expexct him to be in the area till the rut kick's in,

3) Some hunting shows give the impression with their "hit list" that they get pics of the vast majority of the mature bucks in their area. What percentage of the mature bucks to you think you get on your hunting area?

id say 10% than will get the other's that are trolling for does

.4) How far apart between sets have you caught the same buck on a trail cam?

cant answer that, we only have 90 acres to set camreas on.

5) Do you scout more or less as a result of using trail cams?

id say we scout more, if were not getting the pics we move the cam around,

id say being deer are a creacher of habit i feel most deer will stay in there core zone unless pressured to much and have to leave, or the rut comes in, to me the cam is just telling me what trails they are using to get around,

[elkoholic]

I do not use my trail cameras as a hunting aid for deer, although I have tried it for elk. Got some good elk pictures last summer near a high mountain spring and a resulting wallow just down the slope, but even though the elk were still using it during the season (I can still smell it), I never saw an elk there.

As far as deer, there are two mature buck that I get pictures of every day, and today I took pictures of one of them from the kitchen window. They will be around in the daytime until they shed their velvet and then become mostly noctural. Once the rut starts gearing up in late October I may not see them again until mid December, or maybe there will be a few sporadic sightings.

There is one large buck that appeared on camera one time each of the last three summers, and was never seen while patroling the woods. This year there is one buck (the same one maybe) that I saw once as it crossed the road and stopped and posed for me, but has avoided the trail cams so far. Within a ten mile radius (not an uncommon home area aroung here) I probably only get 10% of the mature bucks on camera on a consistent basis and maybe 30% of all mature bucks.

I have actually seen the same buck over eight miles from the previous days sighting and this was not during the rut. During the late rut or second rut we tend to see a lot of buck we have never seen before passing through looking for a receptive doe.

Due to logging and thinning projects it would be impossible to keep in touch with local deer movement here without getting out there and scouting. Although I do not usually hunt the local deer I am still well aware of their bedding areas and many of their prefered feeding spots and it is just too much fun to be out there scouting. There are probably a dozen areas in the surrounding mountains that I am quite familiar with.

The only thing I have learned from trail cameras is what some of the mature buck look like. I already knew they were there and it is nice to get a picture of them. A visual to go with the sign.

[BamaTrae]

In 2005 I killed a buck that I had on camera all summer coming to a food plot around 5:00pm. I killed him at 5:00pm. If I hadn't had the pics I'd not known he would be there. I do believe in patterening the deer in the summer and taking them while on their pattern. It's a great way to tag a big old buck early, and then enjoy meat hunting the rest of the season.

[Rhino]

Good stuff so far...keep um coming!

[redkneck]

You wanna know the most important lesson I learned last year the hard way? Turn off the #$%#$% camera when you're hunting. I had to sit there with my bow for 20 minutes watching this brute and just before stepping into the plot, already had the bow up, the cam IR goes off and spooks the doe in front of him.

That sucked to say the least.

http://www.realtree.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95925

[Rhino]

Similar situation happened to one of my best friends 3 years ago. My camera was set to cover a well used trail under a honey locust tree one of his bow stands was covering. I told him it was there but here forgot. A doe was easing through there shortly after 1st light. The flash went off on the Cudde right as he was waiting to draw, it spooked him wayyyyy more than the doe that trotted off. I apologized & we both got a good laugh out of him being flashed. The pic showed the doe quartering toward him looking toward his stand apparently alerted to his presence.

[woolybear]

What have you learned about deer and their habits from using trail cams?

There's a myth that when you capture a pic of a buck at a certain spot, he'll be around there from then on. I have people ask me every year on our place here in MS where they need to go to hunt a bigun because I run trial cams. Here's some specific questions:

1) If you get a pic of a mature buck how long do you expect he'll be around that spot?

Untill the seasonal food source changes or the rut kicks in

2) If you do expect him to be around that spot, is it dependent on the time of year within an open hunting season?

Yes- although some bucks will stick around and hunker down on the propperty when the pressure is on, the vast majority will move off to the closed to hunting propperty durring daylight hours and travel the extra miles to seek food and breed under the cover of darkness. A hot doe can change all that.

3) Some hunting shows give the impression with their "hit list" that they get pics of the vast majority of the mature bucks in their area. What percentage of the mature bucks to you think you get on your hunting area

50%- guesstimated by road and field observations

4) How far apart between sets have you caught the same buck on a trail cam?

2 miles

5) Do you scout more or less as a result of using trail cams?

More. As mentioned... as the deers late summer and early fall feeding and bedding locations subtley change you need to make micro adjustments to stay on top of them where you can kill them.

Please share any other useful information about what you've learned. If you don't use trail cams & your close hunting buddies do, share your thoughts.

I'll refrain from sharing what I've learned for a week or so.

JMO:D

[ruttinbuc]

I have stopped using trail cameras. With a 5 month season here I find it necessary to keep the extra pressure off the deer. I know that the area I hunt holds some very nice bucks. I found they become nocturnal very fast with the slightest of disturbance.

I hunt a lot of transition zones and try to move with the food source when it changes. Last year I found myself in the right church, but the wrong pew on more than a few occasions. I knew the deer were there by long range scouting and then when the time came to hunt I went and found the most promising sign and hunted. A trail camera might have helped some, but I think keeping that pressure off the spots got me closer than I might have using one.

I can't comment on what I see on TV where they are hunting pretty much un-pressured land that is ringed by sponsored trail cams and making "hit lists" Where I hunt if you can see a buck from the road so can everyone else. You can only hope you are sitting in the right place at the right time. Regardless of trail cams or all of the other "tools" that is all it comes down to.

[mikebohio]

love trail cams. i think this is a little off your topic but the best thing that the cams do for me is let me know weather the deer signs i see are done at night or durring shooting light. how many times before cams have you set up over a heavy travel corridor only to see nothing for days? another thing it does for me is help me keep my finger off the trigger with marginal deer.they are easier to pass when you know what ealse is using your area.

[Rhino]

Ok...time to share what I've learned. For obvious reasons I can only say what I've learned about bucks. Every buck seems to have its own individual personality so to speak. Some are roamers, some are home bodies, and some fall in between. First I'll answer my own questions and then add more food for thought.

1) If you get a pic of a mature buck how long do you expect he'll be around that spot? During the summer months I expect him to stay close to where I caught him. I feel like I've confirmed what I've read through radio telemetry studies conducted here. Once they come off their summer feeding patterns (usually around 10/7, give or take a few days) they could show up almost anywhere. Most bucks that are still around seem to go nocturnal around mid September. A few I've caught on cams haven't.

2) If you do expect him to be around that spot, is it dependent on the time of year within an open hunting season? I don't expect a buck be around a certain spot after the 1st week of October anymore. The only exception to that is the late post rut period. I have caught post rut bucks on a feeding pattern here and was fortunate to kill on of them 9 days after I last caught them on a TC near the same place. I've also caught some others like that and put some buddies on them. Some were killed, some were missed, & most weren't seen during daylight hours.

3) Some hunting shows give the impression with their "hit list" that they get pics of the vast majority of the mature bucks in their area. What percentage of the mature bucks to you think you get on your hunting area? So far it has varried from year to year. Thanks to the cooperation of some buddies we ran & shared pics from 12 trail cams on our place. By my count 66 bucks caught on trail cams met our club's criteria last year. 11 of those bucks were killed out of a total of 18 bucks killed on our place that met our club's criteria last year. That was by far the highest percentage of trail cam bucks killed (~60%) vs. surprise bucks we've had. The prior years were: 2008 - 40%, 2007 - 45%, and 2006 - 25%. The number of cams running during these other years also ranged from 10 to 12. Prior to that the number of trail cams was too few to compare to the other years. On average I hope to get 40% of the mature bucks on our place using 12 trail cams. Making a long hit list & thinking you've gotten the vast majority of them isn't possible.

4) How far apart between sets have you caught the same buck on a trail cam? The farthest so far has been ~3.5 miles. The most common distance has been ~1.5 miles so I figure that's close to the norm. There have been a few that seemed to hang around a 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile area.

5) Do you scout more or less as a result of using trail cams? I scout more now. Once scraping activity kicks in hard I prefer camera sets over scrapes above all other choices. I also scout a lot harder right after the season than I ever did before. I scout around my old stands to learn what the deer were or weren't doing and for new stand postions on edges & funnels that are overlooked by other hunters. These potential new stands are particularily for hunting during the rut. Why? Since the majority of mature bucks range more during the season than I previously thought before using trail cams, I prefer to place my stands at spots where something causes their movement to be restricted to a smaller area. The less hunting pressure in the area, the better. It usually works out to be 1 or 2 new postions selected and prepared well in advance of the rut. I've been doing this for several years now. During each of the past 2 seasons the biggest antlered mature bucks I've killed were taken from new stand postions selected for that season. I have 2 more ready to go for this season.

Like I said earlier, every buck seems to have its own individual personality. Last year I kept close tabs on a mature 9 point where one of my best friends hunted. He killed that 4.5 year old buck on the afternoon Oct. 3rd right where we'd kept tabs on him. That same afternoon I was hunting about 4 miles from him on an inside corner between 2 different aged timbered areas. The more recent cut only had pines cut out. A 5.5 year old 8 point made the mistake of passing by me about an hour before dark. At the time I didn't know I had trial cam pics of him. After checking cards I found he had passed by 2 of my trail cams. They were set about a mile apart. The closest one to where I was hunting was ~1/2 mile away.

Many people think when you catch a buck on a scrape he retruns over and over again. Hasn't happened hardly at all for me. Usually the case is having multiple bucks caught at the same scrape. Like y'all previously said, it's common the catch the same buck at multiple scrapes with a fair amount of distance between them.

A couple of years ago I had caught a wide mature buck during the summer on a cam. For that reason I ran cams a lot around that area to try to keep tabs on him. I only caught him on cam twice after that with them set on 2 different spots from where I caught him the 1st time. You'd think running cams that hard in a certain area you'd get a large percentage fo the bucks around there. Didn't happen that way. On morning during the late pre-rut I saw 3 different nice bucks along with 4 different chases. I only recognized one of them. With so many deer around that particular stand (yep a new one) I went back the following morning. The 4th buck to appear (2nd surprise buck) that morning was a big mature buck that had never stepped in front of a trail cam. An obvious shooter and he happened to be the biggest buck killed on our place that year. During the mid January post rut period a young hunter killed the mature 8 I had gotten pics of real close to where I 1st got him that summer. He virtually disappeared between 10/7 and mid January. No idea where he went.

In a nutshell IMHO the chance of predicting where a mature buck will show up during daylight is hit or miss at best if you catch them on a late summer feeding pattern or a post rut feeding pattern. Outside of that time there's no telling where one will be from one day to the next. Having trial cam pics of them gives you the advantage to ID them, if it's one you've caught on cam. That obviously makes it easier to make a quicker shoot or don't decision since most decisions have to be made within a few seconds but you still have to be prepared to expect to encounter surprise bucks every time you're in a stand.

Edited August 10, 2010 by Rhino

[redkneck]

Al that's a real good read. You definitely do more than the average guy when it comes to preparation. I pretty much have the same final conclusion which is there's no telling where he'll show up. I have come to appreciate post rut feeding patters more and more over the years. Scouting during that time did provide me with a great opportunity last year, I just couldn't close the deal. During the late season we were running about 4 cams most of the time on the northern half of our 1500 acre lease, and the bucks seemed pretty predictable as far as thier movements, there was just no telling what time of night he'd pass by, but they all made a big loop by the same cams almost daily in search of food. I think if we had a plot that was more pallatable that time of year there would be more bucks taken later, but usually for us they are taking to the plots less and less in late season as the grass becomes less pallatable.

[GWSmith]

Al, I'm just following you around when you Hunt.....LOL

p.s. Were the Hunter numbers consistent from year to year (Harvest % data statement #3)

Edited August 12, 2010 by GWSmith

[Rhino]

Were the Hunter numbers consistent from year to year (Harvest % data statement #3)

Hunter numbers are usually fairly consistent from year to year. It generally works out that way with a set number of members & very little turnover during the past 5 or 6 years. Number of guest hunter days may change a bit from year to year.

We probably had less hunter days in the woods last year than we've had in the past. The Saints road to the Superbowl had a lot to do with that. I personally put in less days last year because I limited out on Jan. 2nd.

We probably had more hunter days during the 2006 season than the others. The reason I say that is some members won't come without guest & those particular hunters were enticed to make a late season run. Why? A lot of post rut bucks were hitting our plots during daylight hours that year. We had more post rut mature bucks killed that year than any other year in the history of our club.

BTW Gary...Total buck kill numbers on our club were pretty close from one year to the next during those years. They were: 2006 - 15; 2007 - 15; 2008 - 17; 2009 - 18.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Rhino

[jdavis]

I've learned that just because I put up no trespassing signs doesn't mean the neighbors think it applies to them.