Trail cam blessing or curse revisited
Whitetail Deer
I recently asked if these things are a blessing or curse. We seem to agree they are both. I was lucky enough to take a buck with a rifle on Sunday. I have trail camera pictures within 100 yards of where I shot him. The interesting thing is a picture a friend sent me. It appears to be the same buck two miles away. The more we learn the more we appreciate these animals.
I replied to the other thread,I like using cameras.I have pictures and videos of the buck I shot from July,August and Sept. I also have a couple of a heavy racked 7pt.that a neighbor shot. My son shot one that my nephew had pictures of 1.25 miles away.No doubt the same deer 1/2 racked giant 8pt. 5.5 years old and 205lbs.dressed. It's not just the deer;coyotes,fox,coons ,turkeys ect.
they should be required by law to be removed from the field 15 days prior to opening day of bow season
Voodoo.......Why ? I'm interested to know your reasons.
I too would also like to hear your reasoning behind the removal of cameras prior to the season?
Yes...please tell us your rationale for removing cameras before season, and what this would accomplish. Specifics appreciated.
Agree with thread title. Sometimes invaluable and other times worthless. It all depends on why you are there.
To me camera's are both a blessing AND a curse. Yes you may get a picture of an exceptional animal or two. But is he on your property, or two miles away now?
I sort of see voodoochile's point... I personally feel cameras are doing all the hunting, the hunter simply checks the camera, sees when the deer are there or not and hunts accordingly... I hear it alot, "my camera isnt showing anything, I wont hunt till I get something on it". Not the way I like to hunt. I don't use them.
I do NOT let my cameras tell me when to hunt. Hell, I only get the pics every two to three weeks. By then , patterns can change ( if there were any ) , and the deer could be anywhere. I just like to see what's on my place. It's also a chance to age a deer before you have to do it in three seconds. I hunt 217 ac. of solid woods except for the food plots and a cleared right of way all around the perimeter. They go anyplace they choose. It ain't like I'm gonna look at my watch and say " Well, Old Crazy Horn will be showing up at the ladder stand in about thirty minutes. Soon as I finish this beer, I'm gonna climb up there and let the air out of him ". Sometimes I wish it was that easy. ......sometimes.
Ooohhhhhh Feilds, you make it sound oh so easy and I sometimes wish it was. But it is not. Not here.
These deer come and go as they please, and few have anything that resembles a pattern. I gave up the idea of "patterning" my deer (really have trouble saying they are mine). I just hunt. I watch the wind, watch the sign, and I put in my stand time and hunt. The camera, its just a tool. Thought it would make me a better hunter, haveing them out. And it has. Just not in the way i thought it would. The way you suggest it does. Didnt happen. Instead, it showed me interesting behaviors and made me think twice about what I was doing and how I could do it better.. Showed me I didnt understand deer or deer hunting really at all. I age deer better. Manage my herd better. I was anticipating the results of putting out cameras just in the wrong ways. Its a tool that I have learned from. Like looking at a satellite photo or getting on this forum. I get on here because after 25 years of bowhunting, I want to be better at it.
I get you voodoochile. I am under the impression you are a die hard traditionalist. Judging by some of your posts. I got into my recurve in a big way this season and I can see your point, but. The cameras are a tool I am grateful for. It showed me what I have here and im that much more passionate about bowhunting because of it. Just knowing that there is a buck like this that lives in my woods gets me so excited, I could care less at this pointif hes on my wall or in my photo album. This image is already, to me, trophy in itself.
I've had a big mule deer on camera over the last three years and two weeks ago I finally got a shot at him. I blew it big time! After much blood trailing, tracking and grid searching and then walking for a week looking for ravens I gave up. I was some bummed out thinking I may have killed him. My heart wasn't into hunting buck #2.
But, thanks to the same camera I know he is alive and well. Late last week I have several pics of him herding does and seemingly no worse for wear.
Now I'm happily glued to my tree for five more long, cold, northern BC days hoping that I get one more chance.
Blessing for me and hopefully a curse for him.
Blessing for me and my buddy....especially our bear hunting. We were able to see many different black bears coming to our stands for years. Then over about a 3 year period we were able to watch the brown bears take over the area. The last year we hunted the spot we had over 800 photos of bears. Only ONE was a black bear. Made our decision to give up on that area really easy!..
Also have been a blessing in a couple of areas we moose hunt and the photos gave us a great idea of the moose in the area and what time they tended to come into the area.
Voodoo, I'm also with you in that I'd like to see all cameras pulled from the field by a certain date. Similar to the regs in Montana where you can not have a camera out if there is a running big game season in the unit. Reason, this is just one more advantage to the hunter. Remember we hunt with archery gear for added challenge, if we wanted it easy we'd just kill with a firearm. I personally work in the outdoor industry and have much profit to loose if there where no game cams, but I truly love the challenge of fairly taking big game with an arrow. Example: I know of two brothers who have multiple cell phone linked cameras out. During a recent blizzard one of them kept getting pix of a very good buck chasing a hot doe on one of their cams. So the two drove 50 miles, hopped in stands and promptly killed two of three mature bucks ,that where perusing a hot doe. These hunters where ecstatic to both take mature deer, but how sporting is it to kill a buck by means of satellite surveillance ? I personally would see no pride or sense of accomplishment in taking an animal being tracked by satellite surveillance .Everything these brothers did was perfectly legal by state standards, but were should a hunter draw the line ethically ?
kidwalker, that is the exact example many folks use to argue the use of trail cams, and of course is an extreme and rare situation. I'm actually surprised to hear of something like that happening in real life. The chances of a mature buck running past a cam multiple times and someone being able to make it there while he's still in the area and sneaking in undetected are slim. I would also consider that unsporting, however I wouldn't lable trail cams with this type of scenario.
I dont use one and its illegal were I live anyways. It always crack me up when I see game camera pics with the deer eating out of a big pile of corn.
I have asked the questions now I will give my perspective. This year is a prime example of my logic. I had my cameras out in an orchard in July. I got some deer and bear pictures. I don't hunt this orchard but use it as an indicator of who is around. I moved my cameras to my deer stand sites later in the year. The cameras told me what my scouting told me, the deer were not showing daily patterns. The trail cameras told me few deer were around. My scouting and reasoning told me there were plenty around. I really like to take a buck that I have captured with my trail camera but I almost never get a shot of the animal where I take him. The average distance is 0.8 miles from where the shot is taken. The cameras have showed me that bucks are out there nothing more. I could hunt as well without these but I enjoy the pictures.
I have several and love'em. Hell, if it wasn't for cameras, I'd have no idea how many freakin idiots we have have trespassing on our property!
Didn't have a clue this deer existed even though had cams out since July. Finally got pics 2 1/2 weeks ago on two cams set up to catch trespassers. Would have went home except for pics.
For the most part I use them because they give me something to do when the season is not open. Also another learning tool. Can take the hope out of hunting because you know what is around unlike pre cam days but then a surprise shows up!!!!
99.99999% of the pictures we get of the big bucks are at night. I don't put them where I plan on hunting. I put them where I have easy access to checking them without disturbing an area. I actual only want night time pictures to see what is floating around. Since it is very open here with too many roads... I don't want other hunters/poachers to find my cameras or see any bucks coming into them.
I will put a bit of corn down to get them to stop at the cameras for better pictures. A week to two before rifle season... I quit putting corn down and pull most of my cameras so the bucks aren't coming to them or hanging around.
After rifle season, I will get a few going to see what made it through rifle season. Again in spots that are only good for easy access and night time pictures for the bigger bucks.
For the most part, the only thing the cameras tells me is what big bucks are around. I don't hunt over bait so I am not going to mess up a good hunting spot by putting bait and a camera anywhere near it. I still rely on my scouting for the areas I hunt.
Making them illegal to use during hunting season isn't really going to affect me. I could careless if we couldn't use them during season.
Tim
