Camera placement and learning patterns

[Mag]

I bought my hunting property last Summer and used last year mostly as a learning / scouting year. Could have taken at least a Doe on 90% of my sits. I've kept cameras going and have been moving them around to see if I can better understand their travel patterns, placed my stands accordingly. This year I noticed that many of the deer were trailing off of a main trail directly in front of one of the cameras and off into the woods toward the hill drop off. I'm figuring they are bedding down in that area as it gets pretty thick. Anyway, this observation has guided me to relocating a stand where I can better see them as they step out of the thick stuff.

 

[BSK]

Trail cameras can be an amazingly powerful learning tool. Not so much "hunt right here where the camera is," but more for just figuring basic patterns of deer in your area.

I'm figuring they are bedding down in that area as it gets pretty thick. Anyway, this observation has guided me to relocating a stand where I can better see them as they step out of the thick stuff.

We've got up 58 stand on 500 acres, and other than the few that are set for hunting food plots, all the rest have "thick cover" as part of their set-up.

 

[Ski]

This year I noticed that many of the deer were trailing off of a main trail directly in front of one of the cameras and off into the woods toward the hill drop off. I'm figuring they are bedding down in that area as it gets pretty thick.

Very well could be bedding, but also may just be the nature of deer. I often see deer travel the edge of a sharp hill drop off. I almost never see them move along the crest of a hill or ridge. They're always on the edge of the drop as if they're trying to stay below the horizon. Even in a mostly flat field they'll travel in low areas or a drainage to keep their bodies lower than the horizon. When there's some thick stuff above and drop off below, they love it.

I once sat on stand in the bottom of a narrow hollow watching a hill side in big woods. The only real cover was a thicket of spice bush and greenbrier that bushed out on a hump where a tree stump had uprooted at some point in the past. The tree had long rotted away but the hump was still there. I watched half a dozen does through the day lay down right on the edge of that hump under the briers, and eventually saw a good buck swoop down right under it to look in there, even though he himself was on very steep footing. It revealed to me just how easy it is for us hunters to not see deer in what seems like wide open woods. Their ability to hide in small nooks and crannies is amazing.

 

[BSK]

Very well could be bedding, but also may just be the nature of deer. I often see deer travel the edge of a sharp hill drop off. I almost never see them move along the crest of a hill or ridge. They're always on the edge of the drop as if they're trying to stay below the horizon. Even in a mostly flat field they'll travel in low areas or a drainage to keep their bodies lower than the horizon. When there's some thick stuff above and drop off below, they love it.

Topographically, that's called the "military crest." It is called such because it is where you would need to build a trench to fire all the way down the hillside at an enemy charging up the hill. And yes, most bucks I see working a ridgeline are walking the military crest, not the topographic crest. I have always suspected they do this because they can so quickly disappear from danger seen either above or below. Just a few steps in the opposite direction and they are gone from sight.

 

[Mag]

Topographically, that's called the "military crest." It is called such because it is where you would need to build a trench to fire all the way down the hillside at an enemy charging up the hill. And yes, most bucks I see working a ridgeline are walking the military crest, not the topographic crest. I have always suspected they do this because they can so quickly disappear from danger seen either above or below. Just a few steps in the opposite direction and they are gone from sight.

This is valuable feedback as my stands are all currently along the crest. I've been looking at adding others along the military crest. Thanks for the input.