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Has your cell cam ever directly resulted in a kill?

I probably could have this year.

I was sitting in a stand in the bottom the morning of Nov 1, and got notifications that the buck I was after was probably about 200 or so yards up the hill out in front of one of my other stands at a scrapeline. I hung tight in that stand watching other deer and hoping that he would also come through. No luck. Day before I killed him, he was also at the scrapeline about 1:45 in the afternoon, while I was waiting to pick my son up from school. Cellular technology definitely helped by keeping me off the scrapeline to check that camera. Kept me from putting pressure on the deer to check the camera and also kept me current with when he was there. Night before I killed him he worked scrapes then bedded down right in front of my camera, them got up and worked the scrapes some more.

Had my wife come home early that afternoon and I got in the stand about 180 yards from the scrapeline a little after 4 in the afternoon. Wasn't 5 minutes after I got in the stand and he was cutting the field, showed up about 50 yards in front of me.
Picture please!
 
Picture please!
Story here https://www.tndeer.com/threads/timing.443906/
Here are some pics.
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I live about an hour or so away from the farm I hunt so the cell cams haven't ever directly resulted in me killing a deer. I use it to inventory bucks like others have said, as well as pattern what deer are moving through what area as best as I can. I'll also drop them in areas that I'll never go until the right time of year, like the rut. Even then I don't base my decision solely off what has walked by my camera lens. Hard to do at times because we all like going where the most activity is showing us.
 
In my opinion, trail cams are best for generalized information gathering. You can see what time deer are most likely to walk through that area, but I've never actually seen a deer near a trail cam in person.
 
My neighbor killed my target buck last year 150+ 10pt by cell cam. He was on his way to work and got pics of him and a doe headed towards his plot. He called into work drove straight home and killed the deer shortly after. I'm still not sure how I feel about it lol I can't blame him yet I really don't feel like he hunted him either though.
 
Curious how many of you have had a situation where your camera told you a buck was in the area so you went to your stand and killed him??
Yes, velvet season 2022. The stand was about 100 yds away from the camera. Photo came after dark one evening. I shot him just before dark the next afternoon.
 
Curious how many of you have had a situation where your camera told you a buck was in the area so you went to your stand and killed him??
I do not live on my hunting property. Therefore normally when I get pictures of a buck in the area I'm 20 to 30 minutes away depending on traffic, so I can't just load my stuff up and head out there and intercept him so to speak. Now, if I'm on the property and I'm in one stand and I get a picture in front of another stand, I could theoretically get down and try to stalk up on him, but I have never actually Done this but one time and it was unsuccessful 😂
 
My neighbor killed my target buck last year 150+ 10pt by cell cam. He was on his way to work and got pics of him and a doe headed towards his plot. He called into work drove straight home and killed the deer shortly after. I'm still not sure how I feel about it lol I can't blame him yet I really don't feel like he hunted him either though.
I run several cellular cameras. When I first bought my property in 2012 I bought my first regular trail camera. Before I purchase that camera I told several people on here that they were cheating and they shouldn't be allowed. After much debate, I changed my mind, bought regular trail cameras, and then when cellular cameras became available, I switched over to them. I struggle with this all the time, that we are technically cheating by using them especially if we can get to our spot quickly from where we are getting the pictures. I don't know what the answer is. My guess is they're either going to remain legal and people are going to continue to use them, or they're going to become illegal And they're gonna have to completely stop selling them in order to make people stop using them. I don't see the latter happening.
 
I've never gotten photos of a buck and immediately went to hunt, but I've pulled up to a farm a few times and as I was getting my gear together for an evening hunt, have had photos come through of does near my stand. Did not result in a kill but could have. They are however helpful in if you get several photos several days in a row that you know you need to get out there.
 
Never until this year when I started getting pics of my target buck at 4:15 in the evenings on several random days. It was cat and mouse for a few days as I would set up at 3: 30 and wait only to get a pic the next day when I wasn't there. I even named him the 4:15 buck. Then a couple of days later I killed him at 4:15 walking that same trail he had traveled for weeks on random days!
 
First year actually killing three nice bucks on camera, not at the actually location of camera but in the general location.
Now days I don't expect to even see the buck much less kill one I have on camera.
 
I had a camera show a lot more activity than I would have thought on a ridge top. So I hunted there hoping to kill a doe or two and ended up killing a buck that I had a pic of a week before. I don't know if that qualifies.
I'll say that the cameras have taught me that even though several bucks come by my cams each buck comes by so sporadically that I couldn't cheat if I wanted to.
 
Back in the day when game cameras used film, I put one up on a small food plot. One morning I pulled the film, took it to walmart to be processed, and got it back the next morning. The last picture, taken the night before I pulled the film, showed a 6 pt crossing the plot east to west about 15 minutes after dark. The day I got the picture, I told my wife to go setup on another food plot about 4/10s of a mile to the east for an afternoon hunt. This plot sat next to a 5 year old stand of pines that was so choked with brush you could hardly push through it. From these pines a nice trail ran about 10 yards next to the first plot, through a woods funnel, and across the 2nd
plot. Needless to say, 15 minutes before dark the same buck came out of the thicket and stepped into the plot she was watching and she shot it. i can say with authority had I not gotten that pic, I would have never thought to place her on that stand.
 
I suspect A LOT more turkeys are killed as result of a cell notification, when compared to free range deer.
Totally agree. I suspect the same with turkeys. I just recently got 2 tactacam SK's for Christmas, but haven't deployed them yet. Probably will in March. One for turkeys and one for a trespasser. We found headphones in one of our ladder stands 60 yards from the property line in a field we have. 4 wheeler tracks within 100 yards of the stand - yes we investigated. Will be setting a cam there for turkey season for the trespasser and turkeys. It will be up high and monitoring this savage. But thinking ahead, gosh, if you get a pic of a gobbler while you're hunting elsewhere, I can only imagine. I'm not using these as a tool for hunting, but a timing of when to get in the woods.
 
Yes, this happened Friday for me. I knew the particular deer I was hunting (a 120ish" 5 year old massive bodied 8 pointer) would use this area in daylight because I got a picture of him on 1/01/24 at 3:45 PM in this spot. I went in the next day with my climber to hunt him. Never saw a deer but I left my climber. On 1/05/24 I got a pic of two does at 9:44 AM, followed by this buck at 9:45. I had a great wind to hunt the spot, but, it's basically a privet thicket in the shape of a T with open sapling timber on one side and open hardwood timber on the other. Kind of tricky getting into without being seen if the deer are close by in the thickets. It took 2.5 hours to go 3/4 of a mile. I slipped in a few steps at a time with the wind because I knew he was in these thickets somewhere. I guessed within 100 yards of my climber. Once I got to my climber, I actually had a train come down the tracks that borders these thickets to one side, so I used that back ground noise to climb the tree. I got set up at 1:30 PM. At 3:30 I had two does bust out of the thicket with the buck right behind them wide open, grunting with every step. They made a large loop around me through the thick stuff, then went directly behind my tree at 20 yards. The buck stopped to look at them, and that's all she wrote. Without that cell pic, I wouldn't have had a clue he was in the area, and wouldn't have hunted it. I basically was on standby waiting for that pic. I knew that once he was in there, I could slip in and kill him. A five year old in this part of alabama is a trophy regardless of the bone on his head. My loose rule is 140" or 5, so I don't kill many deer. I never weighed this buck, but my guess was 215-230 ish. He was a tank.
 

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Yes, this happened Friday for me. I knew the particular deer I was hunting (a 120ish" 5 year old massive bodied 8 pointer) would use this area in daylight because I got a picture of him on 1/01/24 at 3:45 PM in this spot. I went in the next day with my climber to hunt him. Never saw a deer but I left my climber. On 1/05/24 I got a pic of two does at 9:44 AM, followed by this buck at 9:45. I had a great wind to hunt the spot, but, it's basically a privet thicket in the shape of a T with open sapling timber on one side and open hardwood timber on the other. Kind of tricky getting into without being seen if the deer are close by in the thickets. It took 2.5 hours to go 3/4 of a mile. I slipped in a few steps at a time with the wind because I knew he was in these thickets somewhere. I guessed within 100 yards of my climber. Once I got to my climber, I actually had a train come down the tracks that borders these thickets to one side, so I used that back ground noise to climb the tree. I got set up at 1:30 PM. At 3:30 I had two does bust out of the thicket with the buck right behind them wide open, grunting with every step. They made a large loop around me through the thick stuff, then went directly behind my tree at 20 yards. The buck stopped to look at them, and that's all she wrote. Without that cell pic, I wouldn't have had a clue he was in the area, and wouldn't have hunted it. I basically was on standby waiting for that pic. I knew that once he was in there, I could slip in and kill him. A five year old in this part of alabama is a trophy regardless of the bone on his head. My loose rule is 140" or 5, so I don't kill many deer. I never weighed this buck, but my guess was 215-230 ish. He was a tank.
Many a morning I've used background noise to mask walking or stand sounds. Glad to meet a fellow creeper.
 
If you have trail cams out and you get pictures of a buck. Then you hang a stand and hunt that area because you seen a good one on the camera. Even if you hunt half the season before you kill him. Then can't you say without the camera taking a picture of that buck. Then you wouldn't have even put a stand in that spot to begin with. So we know that happens plenty. So to answer your question yes it happens all the time. Cause without the camera in the first place. You wouldn't have named the buck and know exactly what it looks like. Or hung the stand in a spot you have gotten pics from the camera.
 
If you have trail cams out and you get pictures of a buck. Then you hang a stand and hunt that area because you seen a good one on the camera. Even if you hunt half the season before you kill him. Then can't you say without the camera taking a picture of that buck. Then you wouldn't have even put a stand in that spot to begin with. So we know that happens plenty. So to answer your question yes it happens all the time. Cause without the camera in the first place. You wouldn't have named the buck and know exactly what it looks like. Or hung the stand in a spot you have gotten pics from the camera.
Yes I know that camera info can result in an increase in our interest to hunt a certain area. With typical cameras even if you pull a card every week your prized buck may have only shown up in that area 5 days ago. But with cell cams your phone might alert you at 10:00 PM that a buck and doe are in a bedding area you've been watching thus telling you were you should be hunting in the AM. Those are the stories I am interested in.
 

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