Cameras - call me crazy
Connecticut
Back in the day we would scout and put up a stand where our gut told us to. Today we now use cams to tell us where to put up a stand. I just bought a house close to the CT line and I took a walk in the woods behind my house and saw tracks everywhere in the snow. No lie, I couldn't walk 15 yards and not cross tracks. I put up 2 cameras 100 yards apart. One at the end of my lawn where a run goes right to it. I put out some bait for that cam. I then put out a cam where a run intersects with that one. Well after a few days I go and check them as the deer seem to come by daily as shown by the tracks. I check the one at the end of my lawn and see tracks going right to the bait and stopping and turning away, no deer on cam. I check cam 2 and see tracks going right to the side of camera and not in front of it. Tracks everywhere 4 days, 2 cams 100 yards apart and zero deer on cam. After seeing these results I am now rethinking all the past season where my gut told me to sit but I didn't listen due to the technology. Funny thing now that I recall I used to see more deer before the cam. Is it because less deer now or because we are quick to relocate due to poor cam results?
The camera view is a tunnel. I've always thought of them as a 50/50 chance to seeing deer. I won one in a raffle and have used it, just to experiment with. I enjoy getting an animal picture, but I think of it more like trapping, rather than hunting.
In selecting a stand site, you have to read the lay of the land. Funnels, shelves, tracks, food and cover will tell you more than a camera will. You have to determine why a deer would pass within range of this spot. Even as you then hunt the location, seeing deer and how they move through the area may lead you to re-locate to an even better spot.
Before the camera, trail timers were the hot item. One of the more important things a camera tells you is "when" the activity occurred.
Would you choose between two locations simply because one camera view only shows doe, and another location, a buck?
I don't use cameras to tell mr where to put a stand, never will. I use cameras for two reasons. First and foremost is for inventory. The cameras let me know what is out there and that lets me know for sure if I should be spending more time in that area. Secondly, the cameras tell me when to spend time in that area. If you study the pictures on your SD card trends will emerge
This year with all the acorns bait didn't work so my cameras were picking up very little but my plot watcher was getting 6 to 12 deer everyday just milling thru the hardwoods I like Longbeard use the camera for inventory but even that changes I have deer late season that I haven't seen in 3 months .I remember when I put thread across a trail and looked to see if it was broken when I went back I knew something went by and that was it .I still walk in the wood look around and say that would be a nice tree .Steve
Like Bill said, nothing beats scouting and understanding where the deer are feeding, travel patterns and bedding down. The areas where I hunt have some good deer trails, but some are only used at night, so a camera may show lots of deer activity at night but nothing during the day. If this is all you used you would think the deer disappear during the day. Knowing that trail is only a night trail is useful info if you use it as such.
I have cameras on my private property spots..mainly to figure out times...i still enjoy finding trails and signs then I let the trees talk to me on where to set up..
I had a cam out in my Berkshires spot and got all night pics in the swamp so I decided to move deeper in the woods. My buddy decides to sit where my cam was. On the first day he has three deer come in at 8am. My cam showed night pics so it discouraged me from hunting it, I wonder how many deer I would have seen all the years if I disregarded the cam results?
notme
you have pictures of your private spots? The trees are talking with you? Do the oak trees say your nuts? Do the hemlock try offer you a drink? Do the birch trees ask you to join their society? Interesting! Very interesting! :)
Everything has a voice there BBB..build a stone wall,let the stone talk to you...scout a spot,let the trees tell you where....of course this has become easier since the elves taught the ents how to speak...
notme
I usually go to the woods to stop hearing the voices telling me what to do, so maybe I just turn off my listening mode when I leave the truck. Next time I'll pretend my wife is the tree or rock. :)
Spike,
I hear what you are saying. Many times I've seen a track that was new right BEHIND my cam tree or something and been frustrated. I find them a fun thing to play with, but still hunt based on old ideas... just curious to have an idea of what's round. That said, I think cam placement is almost harder than treestand placement. I can shoot a deer within 40 yds all the way around my tree, I can see a deer anywhere from 30 to 100yds away pending the spot. the cam can only see deer that are within what, like 20 yds almost directly in front of it. That's pretty tough to pinpoint...
Sounds like the deer are taking camera-evasion lessons from Bigfoot.
My hunting is restricted more by where I can get access than by anything else, so probably wouldn't affect my stand locations so much, but it would still be interesting to get a peek at what's out there, I suppose. I guess one big plus for cameras is that you can place them in spots where you would never place a stand due to wind direction or visibility or proximity to the property line or whatever.
Right now I'm more interested in seeing what OTHER critters are using the area....
GF - interesting point. I rarely hunt where I have a cam, and I pull cam's almost all the time during the season (theft fear)... It's amazing how many guys have cam's literally in front of their stands.
Once I find an area with sign I use Plotwatcher Pro. Two of them in the same spot, back to back, cover about 270 degrees with a wide angle lens allowing for day time movement patterns to emerge. I really do not care much about night pics. Being high up in the tree allows me to ignore the sun light therefore I can point them in any direction.
I put them 24 - 30 feet up in the same tree I hunt from. I use a tree saddle to climb and leave no signs behind me when I leave. It is fairly difficult for someone to spot them that high from the ground. Also, it never disturbs the deer as I collect info only when I hunt the area. I could leave them there for 2-3 months taking pictures every 5 seconds during day time and still have free space on a 32 GB SD card. Not HD quality pictures but good enough to show patterns.
Once I use them for a season or two I really do not need them again unless I change to a different location. Movement patterns usually stay the same over the years given no major factor triggers a change.
I hunt a public spot bordering a large private property where the owner had a feeder up on a ridge. Deer traffic was up and down that ridge like clock work. Not to long ago he sold the property and the deer changed their travel routes. I was scratching my head to understand what happened at the beginning of the season for about a week. Then I took a walk to the top of that ridge and noticed the feeder was gone. From there it was just a matter of relocating about 80 yards on the new travel route as exposed by sign and cameras.
This year I tried the new Bushnell Trophy Wireless cameras. They drove me nuts for two reasons. The wireless hardware / software is buggy. When they worked I was bombarded constantly with meaningful pictures making the thought of quitting my job a permanent resident in my brain. Out of 4 cameras, 2 were wireless DOA, one stopped working after a two weeks, and the last one after a month. During the time I owned them I had to visit often in order to reboot the wireless system once it locks.
After that failed experiment I went back to using my 6 Plotwatcher Pro's and I am happier. They never failed me and I do not think about quitting my job anymore.
I check my plotwatcher every 7 days if I see something interesting I hunt it my deer Chang all the time
I put out cams because the landowners were hinting and I wanted to keep the property. Pics pretty much confirmed what I already knew about the area. I can't get out much so it has been helpful for what I'd call 'macro' patterns. Saw someting very interesting. A huge shift in the pattern with the summer solstice. This year confirmed that when acorns are aplenty I'll have zero traffic on my spots.
Saw a setup like yours in a public land spot I hunt in Ansonia "SixLomaz". Camera was about 20 to 30 feet up and I was like that's a damn good idea, but I don't have the guts to climb that high to mount a camera.
