Is this buck gone for good?

[TheLBLman]

Each buck is an individual. Some are just more wary than others.
I've had some, even older ones, not seem to upset by bright white flash.
But most quickly start avoiding anything that looks suspicious to them.
That "avoidance" may just mean a few yards in altered travel.

 

[fairchaser]

I rarely place cameras near my hunting spots. I only use them to take a census of the bucks in the area. We've already gotten another pic of this buck 1/2 mile from the original spot. I think he's checking out the does in the area. Normally when a buck moves 1/2 mile he's in another property. One of the advantages of having a large property to hunt is you can follow a buck more easily.

 

[TheLBLman]

I rarely place cameras near my hunting spots.

Wise words.

I do however place cams where they're easily serviced along my comings & goings

Of course, if you were shooting for pet deer in someone's backyard, you could have an entire film crew there with you, and none of this would matter.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

Don't be discouraged, he very well could be looking past your camera

 

[BSK]

Don't be discouraged, he very well could be looking past your camera

And even if he did see the camera, not a big deal. Deer stare at my cameras all the time. The see it, stop and stare, and when it doesn't do anything threatening, move on.

 

[Shed Hunter]

It's amazing how different individual deer can be. Most bucks I get on camera return. Even in daylight often.

Some deer out there must just be intensely good at avoiding us. I glassed a pretty nice buck and put a camera out and over three months never got a picture. Got several other deer I never glassed in the field but never him

 

[Lt.Dan]

My experience has been that the big mature bucks in my AO will not return. I pulled all my cameras from the woods. I tried having them high, still would not see the good ones again. Hope this doesn't happen to you. Oh, this is the 1st year not using a camera and I have had 2 great mature bucks pass my stand while I was in it. Just didn't have a shot at either one.

 

[BSK]

My experience has been that the big mature bucks in my AO will not return. I pulled all my cameras from the woods. I tried having them high, still would not see the good ones again. Hope this doesn't happen to you. Oh, this is the 1st year not using a camera and I have had 2 great mature bucks pass my stand while I was in it. Just didn't have a shot at either one.

Are you walking to your cameras? I ask because since I stopped walking to my cameras, my return visits went way up. Now, if I can't ride an ATV right up to the camera, I don't put a camera there. I can place cameras WAY back in the woods, where I have to ride a half-mile cross-country, and still get the same mature bucks on cam dozens of times from early September until the end of the season. No avoidance. But I only use black-flash cameras and I only ride to check the cams.

 

[Ski]

I rarely place cameras near my hunting spots. I only use them to take a census of the bucks in the area. We've already gotten another pic of this buck 1/2 mile from the original spot. I think he's checking out the does in the area. Normally when a buck moves 1/2 mile he's in another property. One of the advantages of having a large property to hunt is you can follow a buck more easily.

That makes an enormous difference, pun intended. A deer relocating a 1/2 mile very much would be off the vast majority of properties. For most of us it means he left. Please keep us updated on how this progresses. I'm really curious if he'll ever come back to that area again, or at least this season.

 

[Smells Like Sulfur]

Over the past few days I've had a new buck coming on to our property. He's been mere feet from the camera, been flashed, looked right at it, and continued to eat the acorns like nothing happened. I've seen him in the same area twice since then.

I wouldn't necessarily say that he won't be back.

 

[BSK]

That makes an enormous difference, pun intended. A deer relocating a 1/2 mile very much would be off the vast majority of properties. For most of us it means he left. Please keep us updated on how this progresses. I'm really curious if he'll ever come back to that area again, or at least this season.

Even if this buck relocates, was it because of the camera or was that just a coincidence?

 

[Ski]

Even if this buck relocates, was it because of the camera or was that just a coincidence?

No way to say for sure. Time will tell though.

The manner in which cameras are used is something we don't talk about much. For a lot of us, especially land owners, cameras are monitoring tools. They're passive and static, ever present fixtures that deer grow up accustomed to. There's no reason to fear them.

But for aggressive bow hunters a camera is active, being set up for a reason and only for a certain amount of time before being moved again. When I find and choose a buck to hunt I will go in hard scouting, hanging cameras, learning all I can. I go in at least once more for more scouting and card checks, cam re positioning. Once I have what I think is the info I need to kill him, I choose an appropriate time and I hunt. Within 1-3 sits I've either killed him or spooked him far away. The entire hunt takes maybe a week on the long end.

From the buck's perspective, I am suddenly and grossly invading his personal space and leaving these little clicking, flashing boxes on trees with my scent. While probably not necessarily threatening at first, it is apparently alarming and their demeanor changes to show it. By then it's too late. Either I kill him or spook him off never to see him again. If he does survive then it's reasonable to believe those cams and scent that had him initially alarmed meant that he was in imminent danger. And although he may not be able to analyze or reason what it all means, you can bet going forward every time he encounters human scent or trail cams there will be an instinctive urge to flee.

Cameras on your property are set in place forever and pose zero threat. Fawns grow up around them and raise new fawns around them. But cameras used by mobile hunters chasing specific bucks are different. To an experienced survivor buck they may as well be the hunter himself.

 

[BSK]

That makes a lot of sense Ski. I have never used cameras like you describe, hence that's why I've never seen deer react like that. I run cameras as a monitoring tool. Some get moved frequently (chasing the hottest scrapes) and other are left in place all season (a traditional scrape, a food plot, etc.), but I'm not setting them up specifically in areas I plan to hunt.

 

[DeerCamp]

I got a picture of this buck and he obviously sees the camera and then next two photos (I have it set on 3 shot burst then a video) he wheels around and runs off. I didn't get any video before he ran off.

My stand is 350 yards away. Will I ever see him again? Cameras can be a blessing and a curse.

Hopefully this pushed him about 350 yards off his normal route

 

[fairchaser]

Our hunting property has only 45 hunters but some hunters will run 25-35 cameras. I would guess an average of 5 cameras per hunter. That's 225 or more than 1 per hundred acres. These cameras are all removed after the season but moved continuously throughout the season. Deer see them regularly and some care and some don't.

But, a few seem to avoid them and seem to know they aren't part of their natural environment. I guess they have smelled them enough to associate them with humans and don't like them especially in their core areas.

If you think about the spider web of scent trails hunters use to put out, pick up and check cards and batteries on game cameras you begin to get a mental picture of the scent road blocks we create for ourselves.

The only thing we can hope for is there it is so pervasive deer must ignore it to survive and move about to feed and bed. Some deer will simply move into cover that is so thick that it is impenetrable by humans or secluded by swamps or rivers. Some will reduce their daylight activity. I have noticed that deer are less afraid of cameras at night than in daylight like the buck in the photo.

Regardless of what I think, game cameras have become an essential part of the deer hunting experience and aren't going away.

 

[BSK]

Our hunting property has only 45 hunters but some hunters will run 25-35 cameras. I would guess an average of 5 cameras per hunter. That's 225 or more than 1 per hundred acres. These cameras are all removed after the season but moved continuously throughout the season. Deer see them regularly and some care and some don't.

Just another example of how each deer is an individual. I see the same thing with bait/corn piles. I don't think I've ever run a baited photo census where there wasn't a buck or two that refused to come to the corn. I will get a picture or two of these bucks, but they're always way back in the background. These bucks NEVER come to the corn.

If you think about the spider web of scent trails hunters use to put out, pick up and check cards and batteries on game cameras you begin to get a mental picture of the scent road blocks we create for ourselves.

Honestly, when it comes to running cameras, I think this is the biggest problem. And you put it brilliantly, "...the spider web of scent trails..."

 

[Lt.Dan]

Are you walking to your cameras? I ask because since I stopped walking to my cameras, my return visits went way up. Now, if I can't ride an ATV right up to the camera, I don't put a camera there. I can place cameras WAY back in the woods, where I have to ride a half-mile cross-country, and still get the same mature bucks on cam dozens of times from early September until the end of the season. No avoidance. But I only use black-flash cameras and I only ride to check the cams.

I have to walk. No motorized vehicles allowed. But I would only check them monthly at most. The last time I had a nice mature buck on the camera it was August last year. I hadn't been to the camera all summer and checked it on opening day in September. His pic was on it and 3 other buck. Never saw them again. I took the camera's down at the end of the season. I would see doe and immature bucks all season long, but never the wise mature bucks or doe for that matter. I would say 2.5 year old and younger only.

 

[megalomaniac]

Just another example of how each deer is an individual. I see the same thing with bait/corn piles. I don't think I've ever run a baited photo census where there wasn't a buck or two that refused to come to the corn. I will get a picture or two of these bucks, but they're always way back in the background. These bucks NEVER come to the corn.


Honestly, when it comes to running cameras, I think this is the biggest problem. And you put it brilliantly, "...the spider web of scent trails..."

Exactly... the scent left by us checking cameras is a huge problem

Cameras are an incredible tool, but 90% of folks check them too often or they are placed in areas that will push a buck away during checking them.

I'm with BSK... run 4wheelers or sxs all over the farms, all my cams are set where I can access them from a vehicle. Makes a big difference on bucks avoiding cameras

 

[TheLBLman]

I try to place my cams (especially the non-cell ones) really close to a "beaten" path, whereas I can check them coming or going while primarily coming thru for other reasons.

To minimize the potential "spooking" of deer, another issue is the TIMING of just when you check a cam. For me, one of the best times is early afternoon (like 1pm), as this is a time when there is typically decent air flow (to help scatter & dissipate your human scent), and your sounds will typically be most muffled by other routine sounds (including the wind itself).

Another good time, imo, is at least 45 minutes before dawn, or at least 45 minutes after dusk. This is especially the case if you're walking or driving near that particular cam anyway.

 

[BSK]

I try to place my cams (especially the non-cell ones) really close to a "beaten" path, whereas I can check them coming or going while primarily coming thru for other reasons.

To minimize the potential "spooking" of deer, another issue is the TIMING of just when you check a cam. For me, one of the best times is early afternoon (like 1pm), as this is a time when there is typically decent air flow (to help scatter & dissipate your human scent), and your sounds will typically be most muffled by other routine sounds (including the wind itself).

Another good time, imo, is at least 45 minutes before dawn, or at least 45 minutes after dusk. This is especially the case if you're walking or driving near that particular cam anyway.

Excellent points TheLBLman. I check my cams when - statistically for my property - deer movement is lowest, which happens to be noon to 2 PM.