No bucks on cam
- Thread starter rattlesnake01
- Start date
backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
Camera placement is crucial. If you have neighboring farms with ag crops or other neighboring farms with people baiting their cams, they may just not have found your pile yet.
2 sides are huge corn fields and the other is a pine tree farm. I haven't lost hope, just wanted to see one. I did move one cam to the opposite side of where I hunt to see if there coming from a different way.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
How many acres do you have and what type habitat do you have? You may have the best around for cover this time of year, when does are the most dominant. I wouldn't worry. Come fall, bucks will show up. I never worry about what I have during the summer. Fun to look at and what your area can produce genetically, but a slight majority will most likely leave come fall. Keep the camera out and you'll see a shift in buck activity around mid-late September
Something is making them fawns!
Headhunter
Well-Known Member
I solved that problem many years ago, well never had the problem you are having, I have never used trail cameras so no problems whether or not whatever deer are showing up on camera. I am not a fan of cameras, I have no need for them. More power to them that use them but cameras are not for me. Of course I never kill any deer so there is that to consider.
I like the situation you are in! A doe dominant area is not a friendly place for bachelor groups but a little later on it is where the girls hang out! Everybody wants to go where the girls hang!
East TN Bowhunter
Well-Known Member
It is weird, I am only getting pictures of Bucks and have not got one doe or fawn all summer in my spot.
I've got a property in Ohio like that. It's mature hardwoods hills & hollers surrounded 3 sides by 10,000 acres of state forest mature hardwoods hills & hollers. Unlike farm country where deer set up home in whatever cover is available, deer density in big woods is pretty low and they are nomadic. I've come to expect a 6-7yr ish cycle where my place is almost exclusively home to does, then progressively fades toward bucks until it's a virtual bachelor pad, then the pendulum swings again. I have no idea why it happens but I recognize that it happens and have adapted my hunts accordingly.
This summer is peaking with does. I've only caught one 2yr old buck on cam and only once in July. What few other bucks I've caught were buttons or spikes and they play second fiddle to the momma does. Three years ago I had almost zero does but bucks of every age structure and plenty of them. That was a great year for early season hunting because the bucks lived there. But this year I'm not going to climb a stand until mid October at the earliest, because I know from history that's when the mature bucks begin trolling around the property. In 2024 it'll be noticeably shifting the other way again and in 2025 I expect a bachelor pad again.
I have absolutely no idea why this long term shifty pattern cycle happens but it does. My brother has a property 30mi away that works about the same way. I don't know if that's what you're experiencing or not, but sure sounds like it could be, especially if you're in a big woods setting.
1984dog
Active Member
Bucks and does are a lot like democrats and republicans. Most of the time they have nothing to do with each other and only find common ground when there is money to distribute. I've been running cameras for more than 15 years on our property and find that the does are just plain out mean. They bite and kick all the time. When they are in the last stages of pregnancy and for a couple months after they drop their fawns, they literately run the bucks off.
I have cameras on feeders and will rarely see a mature buck at a feeder. The mature bucks figure out that humans are linked to a feeder and they will avoid them. Last year, I moved some of my cameras about 50 yards back in the woods from the feeders and I got plenty of bucks. The only bucks that I got pictures of at a feeder were yearlings and sometimes a 2-1/2 year old. The only time I got pics of mature bucks near a feeder was during the rut and those bucks had no interest in the corn.
I have cameras on feeders and will rarely see a mature buck at a feeder. The mature bucks figure out that humans are linked to a feeder and they will avoid them. Last year, I moved some of my cameras about 50 yards back in the woods from the feeders and I got plenty of bucks. The only bucks that I got pictures of at a feeder were yearlings and sometimes a 2-1/2 year old. The only time I got pics of mature bucks near a feeder was during the rut and those bucks had no interest in the corn.
This!
I am doe HEAVY where I hunt. I don't sweat not seeing bucks through the summer.
Bucks are like teenage boys, they go where the ladies are. I know come late October they will start filtering in. I use the first part of the season to knock off a couple nannies for the freezer and let the rest walk to strut their stuff and attract the fellas.
East TN Bowhunter
Well-Known Member
Sounds like an excellent game plan of you are only seeing does. Mine is big mature hardwoods as well and sets up very similar to yours. Its like a shift every couple years. Luckily im in the buck phase of it lol but that also means plenty of sweaty early season bow hunts because i may not see bucks after beginning of november with the lack of does.
1984dog
Active Member
I look forward to seeing the pictures of these bucks on openning weekend after you stack them up.
