Trail cameras, more harm than good?

[backstraps]

There are just my two cents worth of thoughts:


I have learned that I have made more mistakes using trail cameras than not. I now use a trail camera to take an inventory if you will. Trying to catch what bucks are on the property I want to hunt come season. The biggest mistake I have made with trail cameras is turning getting a bucks picture into a hobby!

1. Dont get anxious and check them too often. The deer will pattern you, long before you get a shot at him. Try and hang, check, or relocate cameras during or just before a good rainfall, to help with scent control.

2. Trail cameras will scare deer! Even though some cameras are blackflash, still need to be certain the are 100% quiet. IR, warm glow, white flash, they all scare deer, placement is key.
Try to never cross an area you want to take pictures of. Plan an entry and exit route, just like you were hunting the area you are hanging the camera.

3. Once you see what you were looking for, I suggest moving the camera out. Leaving the cam in one spot to watch a deer grow will not help you harvest the deer. I have learned this the hardway! I have placed cameras around a mineral site to catch the deer's reactions to the trailcam at the mineral site...deer will begin to avoid an area with a trail camera on it.

4 Last but not least...I would never run a camera in an area you are going to try and hunt. Regardless of the preventions you may take, going in and out placing and checking cameras you are doing nothing but educating the deer in your hunting areas.

I think (in my personal opinion) a trail camera should be utilized more as a tool than a new hobby of just snapping pics of deer in your hunting woods.

Once you know what you have on your hunting property, and other data you may be collecting, the trail cameras job is done.

RUT stages, moving trail cameras around scrapes etc can be a great tool as well.

 

[horn master]

I think using cameras is cheating. How much skill does it take to check a camera and see when a deer is coming by.

 

[monsterbuck07]

Then horn master using a gun is cheating.....pick up a rock.

Good Post Backstraps!

 

[backstraps]

I by no means think trail cams are cheating. Too many mis-conceptions about trail cams. They can be used many different ways.

I think they can be an invaluable tool when used correctly.

Way too many items in hunting equipment could be categorized as "cheating equipment" But we have all read those post.

 

[Boll Weevil]

I tend to agree that running cameras is very much a delicacte risk/reward balance. I run mine to take inventory during the summer, only check them on the order of once a month (usually less), move them once I've seen what I need to see, and refrain from hanging them directly in those spots I intend to set stands.

No hobby cams for me; I'm an absolute minimalist when it comes to camera use after watching this video of how deer often react to them. In a word...wow.

 

[Shed Hunter]

I tend to agree that running cameras is very much a delicacte risk/reward balance. I run mine to take inventory during the summer, only check them on the order of once a month (usually less), move them once I've seen what I need to see, and refrain from hanging them directly in those spots I intend to set stands.

No hobby cams for me; I'm an absolute minimalist when it comes to camera use after watching this video of how deer often react to them. In a word...wow.

That was actually an interesting video but ever since me and the other guys I hunt with started using cameras we've done a lot better. Of course I know the cameras probably have nothing to do with that since we've only seen harvested one of the bucks we got pictures of.


I always just put the camera anywhere from 50-100 yards away from were I want to hunt.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Thats a geat video Boll Weevil. Thanks for sharing

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

I think using cameras is cheating. How much skill does it take to check a camera and see when a deer is coming by.

i dont think its cheating,i think its fun as can be

 

[SEC]

I think using cameras is cheating. How much skill does it take to check a camera and see when a deer is coming by.

It does not really work that easy.

 

[SEC]

i think deer are more stupid than we think on a lot of occasions. we give them far too much credit.

1 1/2 year old four point stupid.5 1/2 year old Tennessee buck not so much.

 

[Hollar Hunter]

i think deer are more stupid than we think on a lot of occasions. we give them far too much credit.

1 1/2 year old four point stupid.5 1/2 year old Tennessee buck not so much.

X2 and a 5.5 yr old is practically a rocket scientist of the woods!

 

[reloadxx]

I am one that cant wait to get a camera up after season ends to see what has made it threw the season. I have learned over the years it will hurt you if you check them often so now i leave then up till july and they all come out and i stay out of the woods. So far that has worked pretty good

 

[102]

ANY time you enter the domain of a mature deer, you are going to leave scent. PERIOD.

The more scent you leave, the QUICKER the MATURE animal will vacate the area.

Cameras are full of human scent and are not visually natural.

 

[ghosthunter]

Good video. Thanks.

 

[BHC]

My take on trail cams after running them 8-10 months out of the yr for a few yrs:
1) they are great herd monitoring/ deer census tools
2)they are great scouting tools( I personally have learned a lot the past 2 seasons thru cams)
3)they are the next best thing to killing him
4) they can really hurt your hunting of mature bucks, but the camera doesn't itself. I have 5 cuddeback IR cams and have never witnessed a buck spooking from one if I put out a bag of corn I can set my cam on thirty sec or five min and I'll still get multiple pics of mature bucks until it gets gone and thats everytime.

They hurt me last yr in that I became very one dimensional I hunted one group of bucks all yr, because of that I sat in the same stands again and again and saw fewer deer, I also got very frustrated.

This yr I plan to find several deer to hunt in diff locations and hunt them all regardless which is the biggest. I don't plan on hunting any stand more than 2 or 3 times maximum. And certain stands I will only hunt during the chase phase under ideal weather conditions. Another thing I will not do is over check cams typically my cams are near a stand and so I'll put it there when the wind is right and pull it when I hunt it to keep from adding extra pressure.

I do think they are what you make of them. That can hurt you or help put one on the wall...

 

[BSK]

I think using cameras is cheating. How much skill does it take to check a camera and see when a deer is coming by.

Generally, only hunters who HAVEN'T run trail-cameras think this. Once hunters start using cameras they find out that deer are nowhere near as "patternable" as the hunter believed deer to be. Very few deer follow consistent patterns on a daily basis, especially older bucks.

 

[BSK]

Backstraps,

A couple of things I do to reduce the problems you mentioned:

Regardless of whether I'm getting the pictures I want or not at a given location, I usually move every camera ever time I check it. This prevents build-up of scent from teaching deer to avoid the area.

I try to find locations for my cameras where I can ride right up to the camera on an ATV. The scent laid down by an ATV doesn't appear to spook deer (but I certainly try to avoid letting branches, grass, and brush from touching me or my clothing on the ride into and out of the location).

I use primarily black-flash cameras, although just the presence of the camera will cause some deer to avoid the area once they've seen the camera box (which is why I move cameras frequently).

Try to position cameras near locations that influence deer movement through a small area instead of trying to monitor a large area.

I have successfully run cameras in areas I'm going to hunt without serious effct, but I try to only set-up and then recheck the camera while I'm going to and from my stand to hunt. In those conditions, I'm taking maximum scent precautions.

 

[bowriter]

Of course they are cheating. That is why I took all the broadheads off my arrows. That is making it too easy to kill a deer.

I do not and will not use a trail camera. They require far too much labor and skill for me. I don't care what deer are on my properties. I'm going to kill whatever walks by anyway.

 

[Bottom Hunter]

man needs to cheat, it's in his DNA...lol.

thanks for the video....very interesting and informative....again...thanks!!

 

[horn master]

http://m1139.photobucket.com/albumview/ ... GWRekf0%3D


These are all from public land if it loaded right. click through them I think I got my double droptine in there too. Check out #26 I think that is the best picture of him.

 

[Bottom Hunter]

nice topic with some legs to go in many directions.....keep it open....thanks.

 

[redblood]

pros: let u see the quality of bucks in area
provide a recreation
u can keep tabs on deer density in an area

cons:
leads to further human intrusion in the deer woods
can educate mature deer
cost/ time

 

[BSK]

pros: let u see the quality of bucks in area
provide a recreation
u can keep tabs on deer density in an area

cons:
leads to further human intrusion in the deer woods
can educate mature deer
cost/ time

Good pro and con list redblood.

 

[Shed Hunter]

http://m1139.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/hornmaster1/deer024.jpg.html?


These are all from public land if it loaded right. click through them I think I got my double droptine in there too. Check out #26 I think that is the best picture of him.

That must be some nice public land you're huntin!

Did you get camera pics of most of the ones you killed?

 

[102]

BSK brings up a good point.
Again, there needs to be more parameters about the way a camera is used.
the way BSK is checking the cameras, and in areas where 4-wheelers are NOT perceived by deer as a threat, it may be a good idea th ride right up to the camera, wearing gloves, and check the camera without getting off the wheeler or leaving much scent.

But don't try this on public land. I assure you, if there is a 4 wheeler trail next to a deer trail, your camera is headed to the PAWN shop.

 

[BSK]

Honestly, I would never consider hanging cameras on public land. They are darn easy to steal, no matter what type of locking cable you put on them.

 

[horn master]

That is why I have never used one BSK. I prefer to use pure luck instead.

 

[horn master]

just saw your post Master Chief. Thanks and no I've never used a trail camera. If I hunted private land I would use them. I do have alot of their sheds though. I mainly hunt around Tims Ford lake with the help of a jon boat to get away from people. Waterways hold some great bone.

 

[DMD]

As far as trail cameras and their use hurting chances of killing a big buck, it is one of those questions we will never know for sure - unless deer start talking! Every hunter will have a different opinion about it. But it does not seem like there are any less mature bucks being killed since the explosion of trail cameras over the last few years. If the use of trail cameras was a negative, the number of mature bucks being killed would have dipped significantly, because there are tons of trail cam users. It is my opinion that we get all bent out of shape about things that really don't bother deer at all. They MAY skirt around our cameras, but they aren't taking a ticket to the next state. Maybe I'm wrong, wouldn't be the first time!

That being said, the biggest help trail cameras are to me is for deer inventory. The pictures I get, give me the extra "oomph" I need to stay longer and pass up smaller bucks waiting on a bigger one. If I didn't know what was out there, I think I would convince myself there were no mature ones and shoot a younger buck.

 

[Mike Belt]

Cameras are fun and useful but they by no means put meat in the freezer. Most who use them to inventory the buck portion of their deer herd find out quickly that most of the bucks they capture during the summer are gone by Fall which sort of renders them useless. The bucks your're interested in picking up can only be captured during the Fall and into hunting season and the liklihood is of only getting a single picture of them. With this being the norm I hardly see where setting a camera up and getting a pic/s of a buck/s could be considered cheating.

Most of my camera use is from pre-rut through the season primarily at scrape sights. What I've found is that from the first set until the first time I pull my card and check out the pics I may only have a single pic of any given buck. All too often in order to set up for a good pic at the scrape sight the camera is set very close and highly visable. Many pics show the buck eyeing the camera. Even when you are very conscious of your scent while setting up I believe the camera itself (even when not shuttering) is enough of a visual deterent to prevent you from getting any more pics of that particular buck and could possibly deter him out of the immediate area. The only resolution is to hang the camera high with a downward view.