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Trail cameras, more harm than good?

backstraps

backstraps

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TNDeer Supporter
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Sep 19, 2003
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Boll Weevil said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
horn master said:
I think using cameras is cheating. How much skill does it take to check a camera and see when a deer is coming by.
Click to expand...
It does not really work that easy.
 
piffnmo said:
i think deer are more stupid than we think on a lot of occasions. we give them far too much credit.
Click to expand...
1 1/2 year old four point stupid.5 1/2 year old Tennessee buck not so much.
 
SEC said:
piffnmo said:
i think deer are more stupid than we think on a lot of occasions. we give them far too much credit.
Click to expand...
1 1/2 year old four point stupid.5 1/2 year old Tennessee buck not so much.
Click to expand...

X2 and a 5.5 yr old is practically a rocket scientist of the woods!
 
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
 
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.
 
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...
 
horn master said:
I think using cameras is cheating. How much skill does it take to check a camera and see when a deer is coming by.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 

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