#319152 - 07/30/07 11:46 AM
Deer pics. during hunting season?
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gil1
12 Point
Registered: 04/06/07
Posts: 6116
Loc: Nashville, TN
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I wasn't a tndeer junky until a few months ago, so I didn't check in on the site to see pics. during last deer season. I also don't have trail cams but am highly considering it because of all these awesome pics. I'm seeing here.
Do y'all keep your cams out during the hunting season? Does it help you fine-tune stand selection? Or do you pull them so as not to stink up the woods checking cameras? Do the deer get caught on camera as much during the season as they do now, or are they warier of cameras? For one, I know there's no bait piles during the season and I assume deer don't use licks as often during the season, so I assume the number of pics. goes down. Do you still have cameras on trails and around food plots during the hunting season?
I see some folks have their cameras out early, some don't put their cameras out until mid-summer. What are the reasons?
Just curious.
Gil
_________________________
"May you live all the days of your life." - Jonathan Swift
I'm a Pope & Young Official Scorer - I'd love to score your critter - no charge.
I conduct professional game camera seminars.
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#319175 - 07/30/07 11:58 AM
Re: Deer pics. during hunting season?
[Re: gil1]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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For research and management purposes, I run my cams from August 1 to January 31. What I'm looking for is the number of individual "unique" bucks that use a managed property during summer, and then during the hunting season. Considering most properties (those under 1,000 acres) really aren't large enough to truly "grow" an older buck herd (raise males from birth to death at maturity). Much of small-land management "success" is driven by attracting older bucks to the property, even if they don't live their full time. As long as they use the property during the hunting season they are "manageable" and "harvestable." Tracking success in drawing bucks to a property is part of the management process.
I also want to track when these bucks appear/disappear from the property. Over the years, I've found very destinct patterns in this.
I will run a "baited census" in early August (over salt licks), but the vast majority of my camera set-ups through the rest of the summer/fall are not "baited" (nothing artifical used to specifically draw the deer in front of the camera). However, that doesn't mean there aren't high-odds camera set-ups. Small food plots are great camera set-ups, as are real and "mock" scrapes.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#319650 - 07/30/07 07:18 PM
Re: Deer pics. during hunting season?
[Re: BSK]
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woodchuckc
8 Point
Registered: 02/09/05
Posts: 1595
Loc: Hickman County, TN
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I pretty much run my cameras (I'm up to 3 right now) all year long, mainly because I enjoy doing it. I don't rotate them to different spots, so the deer are used to them being flashed and my scent being in those spots. I still get roughly 75 - 200 new pictures a week on each camera, with about 2/3 of them being deer and the others being turkeys, armadillos, etc. depending upon the time of year.
Two cameras are over mineral licks and one is just situated at a neck between two food plots. All of the cameras are at one end of my property, and are within 300 yards of each other. It is amazing to me that well over half of the pictures on each of the cameras are of different deer (I know this is true for bucks, and even though they are harder to identify uniquely, it seems to be generally true for does).
I know that cameras and the data they provide could be used a lot more effectively than what I am presently doing, but I'm still mostly using them as a "fun toy with some usefulness" kind of device.
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#319739 - 07/30/07 08:01 PM
Re: Deer pics. during hunting season?
[Re: woodchuckc]
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156p&y
10 Point
Registered: 10/23/01
Posts: 4097
Loc: Franklin Tn
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This time of year we use our cameras over either small food plots or bait. Since our small food plots are dirt this year we are using baited sites only. I've noticed that we get more of a variety of bucks at the food plots than the bait sights, especially older bucks.
Once late August comes we pull bait and usually the cameras. I like to use a camera I have that has no flash day or night during the season. It's a small one that I don't think they even make anymore. I have to plug it into a tv to even see what's on it but I use it just for scouting purposes. In areas where I find scrapes, rubs, ect. But the main thing I like to use it for is placing it outside where I think a big buck is bedding. If I can pinpoint at least one of his beds, how he enters and leaves, and what wind he uses in that approach. He's pretty much pinned down and I'll wait until the right conditions to hunt him.
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#319752 - 07/30/07 08:07 PM
Re: Deer pics. during hunting season?
[Re: 156p&y]
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BUMPUS
4 Point
Registered: 07/07/07
Posts: 195
Loc: FLORIDA
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TO HELP WITH HUNTING, BUT MAINLY FOR THE ENJOYMENT
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NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO THERE YOU ARE
BUMPUS MILLS, TN. MY PIECE OF HEAVEN
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#319981 - 07/30/07 09:45 PM
Re: Deer pics. during hunting season?
[Re: BUMPUS]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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gil1,
Honestly, cameras have never been much use to me for hunting/scouting purposes. I say that because in primarily wooded habitat, older bucks just don't have predictable patterns. I rarely get more than one picture of a mature buck at any single camera location. In essence, mature bucks in wooded habitat are not very patternable.
However, cameras can tell you what areas are seeing a lot of deer activity. If you just want to find high deer activity areas, they will work for that. For patterning a particular buck, useless (in my opinion).
But to really get a good inventory of the bucks using a property, you have to move the cameras frequently. Some deer do not like getting flashed repeatedly. I've watched deer walk around behind cameras to keep from getting flashed, and they will do this every time they come by. Some deer don't mind the flash, by some deer do. I move my cameras every time I check them. You don't have to move them far. Just 30-50 yards away is good enough.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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