I love fooling with trail cameras - almost as much as hunting. But, I've said for years, as others have as well - "don't make too much out of the information obtained from them". An empty trail camera can discourage you from hunting in a spot that is a fantastic hunting spot. Case in point - this season, I put a cellular trail camera on a spot that is a traditionally good picture spot. It's on a knob where several hollows intersect - I put the camera in front of a beech tree that always has 3 or 4 scrapes, as it did this season. Early muzzleloader season, I got numerous pictures of bucks and does using the scrapes. Some nice bucks. But, as November moved along, the activity on the camera just completely dried up - nothing! I don't get to hunt this tract often -so, when I finally got the chance in late NOvember, I was contemplating where to hunt. After going over the information in my brain, I still felt this to be my best spot - after all, it was the best travel corridor on the property and there were a lot of acorns on the ground there. So, I hunted there. I was really amazed in two days sitting - I saw several deer and killed a decent buck (nothing giant) the second sit. But, of the deer I saw, none were in front of the camera. All of them were about 20-40 yards below the camera - traveling, scraping, and eating. When I shot the buck the second morning, as I went to get him - I saw numerous fresh scrapes probably 25 yards below the beech tree where I hung my camera. Also, all kinds of feed sign in the leaves. So, my camera was getting zero pictures - 25-40 yards away, all kinds of deer sign and deer sightings. I have known this for years, but it was strongly reinforced to me -trail cameras are great tools for taking inventory before and after season, but they can be lousy scouting tools.
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