Just curious as to how those view getting their target buck on their camera and deploying that to their hunting strategy. With being fairly new to the camera game (2nd year), I get bigger bucks on camera seems to be every 4th day there abouts. Of course it varies, but as a general rule of thumb. Currently I'm watching 3 bucks I target. One question that I find myself asking is if I see a shooter on camera at say dusk, should I make an extra effort to be in there the next day since I know he is in the area. Or just continue going out as normal to places I know they travel and hopefully we meet up. I know a mature buck travels many properties and it is impossible to know their plans on any given day. Here lately though I have found myself thinking I need to be in there the next day because I know he is at least in the area within 24 hours. Does anyone have any insight on this or is it pointless to try and almost "time" it? I'm assuming it would increase the chances of seeing him on the hoof a little? Back when cameras weren't around I never asked this question because I didn't know what existed, even more when something was in the area. It is exciting the more we can learn with these cameras.
Shooter buck question
- Thread starter flankston
- Start date
catman529
Well-Known Member
Cameras for the most part tell you a deer is in the area, not how to kill him. If a buck is only showing on camera every few days, and you hunt the day after getting a pic, you're too late. Pay closer attention to the wind and how you approach your spot. And don't forget that a deer has to actually walk in front of a camera to get its picture taken. There's dozens of other deer trails they could take, and some older deer even learn to avoid cameras. Just go hunt, and don't hunt the same spot too much.
If you are only having pictures of him every few days and never 2 days in a row, I wouldn't hunt the day after a picture unless like catman says that there is a trail he could be taking that doesn't put him in front of your camera. I would also watch if any factors are similar on the days you get pictures. I had one buck I would only get pictures of on clear sunny warm days. No idea why but I eventually saw him on one of those days, he wasn't a shooter, but definitely was fun that I had patterned him that well. When I am using cameras it is more for an inventory what is there, not when or how to hunt them.
I have a buck that i see every single time i hunt a stand. I only get pictures of him once every three or four days, even though this camera is only 50 yards from my stand. All a camera tells you is that he walked in front of your camera. It doesn't mean he wasn't there if you don't get a picture.
tree_ghost
Well-Known Member
I find that your hunting strategy around the deer on camera is determined by where your cameras are located. Some cameras I have over food sources, some over scrapes, some over bedding areas, and some over funnels. Depending on where the camera is will determine the strategy and timeframe I have to make a move on a buck. You can't make the mistake of consistently hunting behind a buck…ask me how I know!
BSK
Well-Known Member
Great advice.
BSK
Well-Known Member
As one of the most intense users of trail-cameras around, I can say camera pictures rarely effect how or where I hunt. The one caveat to that would be if I'm only getting a particular buck in one part of a property (say a corner or just along a property line). Then I might focus my hunting on that part of the property. But I could point to dozens of incidents where a particular buck was killed by a hunter FAR from where that buck was regularly captured on camera. In addition, some bucks never get photographed in daylight, yet that doesn't mean they are totally nocturnal. The buck I killed this year I've been photographing regularly for the past two years. Not one - not one - of those photographs was taken in daylight over two years. Yet this hunting season, the buck was seen chasing does in daylight three times before I killed him about 9:05 AM.
