Trail Cam placement during range shift

[Grandslam11]

When the salt lick pics start to come to a halt, where do you guys transition your cameras? I do not have any plots or fields, I strictly hunt woods and oak trees at the beginning of the year. I know putting a cam on an oak tree can/cannot be very production due to the deer using different trees.

 

[Bone Collector]

That is a tough question. I'm torn on this, because While I have started running camera's almost year round, I don't want to be in and out every two weeks or so and I don't want to be in there stinking the place up moving cameras around.

I tend to just leave my cameras where they are (on the more heavily used areas) and know that the bigger bucks will disappear, but they generally come back in Oct. I don't want to move them, and say find where the bucks are, but bump them going in and out to check/set up my cams.

Now if you have those cameras that you can check from a phone or a computer at home, then go for it and just try to move then cams before a rain storm.

 

[Hunter 257W]

I leave mine on the salt year round for the most part. Like BoneCollector, I figure deer movement is so random after they stop craving salt that the few pictures I get aren't worth the damage I'll do by being in the woods so much fooling with/moving cameras. Besides, if a roaming buck wanders through during the rut and you get a picture of him, that don't mean he'll still be around by the time you see the picture anyhow. At that point it's more of deal of having to be there, in-person, at the moment that "outside" buck decides to stray across your property in my opinion.

Now after deer season is over I'll set up a camera or two as specific spots that have been proven to attract bucks and bait them with corn to take a census of what survived the season. I have found one particular spot that has never had salt or anything else on it that for some reason attracts bucks - mostly at night.

 

[backyardtndeer]

I run a few and leave them where they are, check them every couple weeks but I am in and out of the site in short time just long enough to swap out the cards. Rubber boots, vinyl gloves can help minimize scent you leave behind on a camera. Mineral site cam pretty well keep one there year round. Deer aren't working scrapes yet, but have a camera on a scrapeline that is kind of in a natural funnel that goes up late spring/early summer, activity there should begin to pick up. No ag crops on our property, would probably run one on trails between bedding and ag crops if I was able to, should be a good place to catch deer right now before corn starts coming out. Primary crossings of water can be a good place to run a camera.

 

[Mike Belt]

Funnels, etc. Once the scraping starts there is no better spot.

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

I figure deer movement is so random after they stop craving salt that the few pictures I get aren't worth the damage I'll do by being in the woods so much.

Deer movement isn't random even during part of the rut....the only time it's random is when a buck gets on a doe and she takes him all over the place to get away even then her route can be anticipated via saddles and funnels. After salt lick dries up I put them on parallel trails to doe bedding, acorn flats, and pinchpoints/funnels

 

[Boll Weevil]

Those cameras on mineral stations will stay right where they are because I established the licks in areas that were already heavily used. I will however place the rest of my cameras along other known travel routes: creek/canal crossings, looking up the length of a hedgerow, and at fence corners. All are where I can drive right up to them silently to download pics and at this time of the year I check them no more that once every several weeks. As mentioned above, when primary scrapes start popping up, I'll immediately move them.

 

[Tennessee Lead]

I leave most of mine over the mineral. High traffic areas so I don't want to miss something there.
I'll take some cameras and move to scrapes once they appear.


Sent from the barrel of a model 70 at 3300 fps

 

[nick2720]

I agree with Mike belt I find pinch points or funnels put cams on these year round . I love the rut pics on these places bc I can have 6 different bucks in one day traveling through . Or tight spots in between corn and a tree line they like to walk the edges of. Also cut fences, pond levees or entrances to fields . Most likely to get a pic when it's set up on a path or least resistance that I've seen.

 

[nick2720]

I forgot one thing also . Iv been running cams since 2002 and I've learned that im more successful the more general I set the cam up . I may not make sense but what I mean is instead of pointing cam off of one oak tree hoping to get a deer walking in front. Set it up on a oak tree that is looking at 10 other oak trees where a deer might not walk in front of your tree but could go to any of the other trees. I did a mini study on trail cams in college . I put 2 cams on a tree and 50% of the time if I had the cams turned 90 degrees from one another and I'd have missed shot of deer on one of the 2 cams . Expand your field of few on cams and you're going to have more pics

 

[Double-D-Team]

Funnels, etc. Once the scraping starts there is no better spot.

I agree hole hearted...Maybe even close to a bedding area, on the trail to and from. Recommend you do this very carefully and even in the rain to keep you scent down. It has worked for me. Second find a travel lane as I call them and the most effective is the intersection of trails. Hope this helps.

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

Funnels, etc. Once the scraping starts there is no better spot.

I agree hole hearted...Maybe even close to a bedding area, on the trail to and from. Recommend you do this very carefully and even in the rain to keep you scent down. It has worked for me. Second find a travel lane as I call them and the most effective is the intersection of trails. Hope this helps.

good tip....entry and exit routes to known bedding is valuable information when you get those pics.....then go to windfinder type in your zipcode to get the wind for the day and time to further educate yourself when that deer uses that route so your not wasting time hunting it when the wind is wrong

 

[JCDEERMAN]

This used to be the question I asked every year. My best results have been moving off the salt to fields around the start- middle of September. Starting around mid-October, I switch to scrapes and pinch points

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

Funnels, etc. Once the scraping starts there is no better spot.

This and I love to set my cams on video mode

 

[deerchaser007]

I moved mine to active fence crossings from feeding area to bedding area. It tells me the bucks leaving my property and the bucks coming to my property. Done that for several years and I got better census of shifting bucks over any other move of the cam.