• Help Support TNDeer:

Trail Camera Placement!

Ski said:
110%. There are SOOOO many variables specific to an individual property that do not necessarily apply to other properties. To compound it deer seasonally migrate. That's why I run several cameras around the property year round and draw a census from all of the data, not just a snippet from only one time & place. With enough data over time I get to be pretty familiar with the deer using the property, but even then it can get tricky trying to identify 3yr old 8pts or individual does. I couldn't imagine trying to do what you do with so many different and large properties. I'd drive myself mad.
Click to expand...
Something Ive found to be true and at first I thought it was coincidence, but then I see others seeing the SAME THING! This takes lots of work and notes, but if you get a pic of a particular buck lets say, on Dec 1st, 2nd, 3rd of 2022, if you review your pics and data way more often than not, THAT SAME BUCK WITH BE BACK AT THAT SAME PLACE IN THAT SAME 3 DAY WINDOW THE FOLLOWING YEAR! The only exceptions are if hes dead.
 
Huntaholic said:
Something Ive found to be true and at first I thought it was coincidence, but then I see others seeing the SAME THING! This takes lots of work and notes, but if you get a pic of a particular buck lets say, on Dec 1st, 2nd, 3rd of 2022, if you review your pics and data way more often than not, THAT SAME BUCK WITH BE BACK AT THAT SAME PLACE IN THAT SAME 3 DAY WINDOW THE FOLLOWING YEAR! The only exceptions are if hes dead.
Click to expand...

It's 80% accurate 20% of the time in my experience 😂

My thoughts are that as a young buck gallivants around the countryside during rut he inevitably encounters numerous estrus does, and probably gets his chance to breed a few. Those moments get burned into his brain just like an oak tree dropping particularly sweet acorns, so he returns again & again same time same place. He doesn't have a concept of time, no calendar planner with travel plans. It's just impactful moments of survival that leave an imprint in his brain and going forward creates an urge that drives him to repeat that success. Nature doing its thing. The more he matures the more honed in he gets to certain times & places, even if it's not something he's cognitively thinking about.

I think that explains why we see mature bucks seemingly on a mission as they straight line cruise with horse blinders on. You can't distract them for nothing. They've literally got a date. And by the time he's mature he's got an internal rolodex of them. Nature drives him doe to doe like a puppet on a string. Not coincidentally a doe lives her entire life inside a relatively small range and hits estrus almost like clockwork same time every year. So if he locked her down & bred Dec 1st, 2nd, and 3rd last year, then chances are good he'll try to repeat it this year. Again it's not something I think he thinks about or plans. It's just his brain urging him to repeat a cycle of success just like he knows how to be at a particular oak tree right as it begins dropping its acorns.

Maybe I'm completely wrong about it but that makes more sense than anything else I know of. Whatever the reason, it is a real phenomenon. I've killed several older bucks by planning my hunt around it.
 
You may be right ski, but its UNCANNY how precise and exact animals can be in the their concept of time! A dog, for example knows within 5 minutes what time his master is supposed to be home every day. Another dog example: Ive turned my coonhounds loose 3 states away in a place neither one of us have ever been before and those dogs can find me 5 miles from where I turned them loose.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top