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Trail Cam Education (updated)

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Harold Money jr

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2007
Messages
915
Location
East Tennessee
I've put a couple cameras out the last 2 years mainly to see if my hunches about buck movement are correct. I don't put any attractant out I'm mainly wanting totally natural movement. I am in awe of what you can learn about deer movement in your areas.
I've been hunting my main area 180° wrong forever. Tonight I learned more from a camera than I learned hunting the area for 20+ years. I am excited to learn a mature buck and several more from the past are cutting a corner so they don't have to go in a steep hollow. They just go below the steep part where it flattens out a bit. I had always hunted this area on a north wind that needed to be blowing hard. After what I've seen now a south or west or south west at the polar opposite end of the wood lot will be much better. I've thought they were mainly moving from left to right but it's opposite. Here's a pic of the big guy from tonight while I was hunting another area. I would've never seen him had I hunted there because he would have smelled me. Btw we've killed several nice bucks through the years here, I just think the ones we killed were the outliers in their movement. The area used to burn out very quickly and I believe I know why now.
 

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I don't catch much movement from my trailcams but from what I've seen in person, how they move definitely changes every year in accordance to acorn drops and hunting pressure. Kinda neat to see the changes that happen yearly.
 
The cameras will cause me to hunt a lot this December around the 9th. Last year Dec. 7-10 there was bucks running all over my place and I wouldn't have had a clue if those cameras didn't catch the action. Again a deer hunting education from the cameras.
 
Harold Money jr said:
I've put a couple cameras out the last 2 years mainly to see if my hunches about buck movement are correct. I don't put any attractant out I'm mainly wanting totally natural movement. I am in awe of what you can learn about deer movement in your areas.
Tonight I learned more from a camera than I learned hunting the area for 20+ years.
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I say this exact thing every time someone who doesn't run cameras starts talking about how using cameras is "cheating." I doubt anyone uses cameras more than I do, yet I can honestly say cameras have never helped me kill a particular buck. HOWEVER, what I have learned about deer behavior from trail-cameras has unquestionably made me a far more successful hunter. I've definitely learned more from trail-cameras than I ever have from almost 50 years of sitting in a treestand.
 
Cameras can be a wealth of knowledge. Not only for the purpose you describe but also for monitoring habitat improvements to see how effective they are. I use the heck out of cameras.
 
I got the buck in the trail cam pics on the 15th, by mapping software he was 597yds from the only 2 pics I had of him. He came into the woodlot with the wind completely at his back. All I can figure is either a doe lead him off or a dog earlier in the day ran him out of his normal area. Either way I was truly blessed to see him. He's by far the biggest I gotten pics of this year. Hopefully the late season will be 1/2 as good for us.
 

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Wow, what a buck! Congrats!

I can't tell you how often I kill a buck FAR from the area where I'm photographing him most frequently. But it's usually around the rut, so you never know where they will be.
 

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