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Trail cams saving bucks….

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redblood

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Lower deer harvest thread got me thinking of another reason for lower buck harvest and better bucks overall being harvested in recent years. I think cams play a huge role in this. Not only showing hunters what bucks are out there, but also give hunters data and insight into the true age of a buck before those split second decisions have to be made. I passed a 135" 11 pt this year because i recognized him as a younger age class buck that i had 2 months of pictures of. Even to a selective hunter, that deer would have died due the width and the mass he carried in his rack. It leaves me to believe that the trail and especially cell camera is the best qdm tool we have at our disposal. Thoughts?
 
I doubt it has anything to do with age, why would I shoot the small 6 that I see daily on camera when I got that one pic of the 150" brute in September… that's the mindset of the majority of the hunting public
 
I agree that the trail camera is a very useful tool for QDM.....there is ZERO doubt on our farm we have several bucks that have lived another year or two because of the history we had using trail cameras.
 
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100% trail cameras have saved many bucks.

Many times when I see a buck, I've got pictures of him and I recognize him. Several decent 8's and 9's got a pass this year because I had already made up my mind they were not what I was after. One 9 in particular looked great feeding in a plot with the sun beaming off his rack one morning, but I knew he was 115" deer and will hopefully be much bigger next year.
 
Yes sir. I had a pipe-dream type of buck that showed up on camera in 2019. He was such a great buck that my friends thought I was pranking them when I shared the pictures.
Anyways, I sat out in the cold rain for 3 days, and passed up several really nice bucks while I waited on this buck that never showed. Then I sat for 3 additional days, passed another decent buck.

I never thought I'd be the guy who fell into this trap, but I sure did. Gosh, what a buck that was... he was a host even in the pictures I got of him after season.

So, yes I agree 100% with what you posted and I'm not typically a trophy hunter.
 
Trail cam pics give me grief every year. I'm blessed to be in a very target rich enviroment so every year I get a good one early on camera and let really good ones go . This is the first year I was going to take 2 bucks if the right ones appeared, other years only 1. I enjoy the whole process and the actual kill is way down the list for me anymore.
 
I normally dont pass a lot of 4.5yos... but with my 1 buck limit on my farms, if I get a high scoring deer on camera, I'm passing everything and just hunting that one deer. I've passed up several 4.5yos hunting one particular buck.
 
dgolden said:
100% trail cameras have saved many bucks.

Many times when I see a buck, I've got pictures of him and I recognize him. Several decent 8's and 9's got a pass this year because I had already made up my mind they were not what I was after. One 9 in particular looked great feeding in a plot with the sun beaming off his rack one morning, but I knew he was 115" deer and will hopefully be much bigger next year.
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Yes, it was so easy to overestimate a deers age or rack size from a 10 second till you shoot encounter. Cams have solved that issue
 
redblood said:
I see how that could happen, but people were baiting long before cameras came out
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Yes certainly were but the cell cam tells you exactly when to put your slippers on and crack the back door open 😂 , dont have to be patient. This really does happen all the time here. Everyone has night vision scopes already for hogs and they just get tempted when the buck hits the bait. Everybody knows everybody so when they see John Doe having success with this method, they start doing it too. I know a group of teens that have all taken 150 pluses in the last two years with this method. I could kill a 160 just about most nights on my hog bait if I were inclined to do so.
 
Certainly saves a few for me. Especially when it's peak chasing, and one of the top end 2.5-3.5 year olds chases a doe by you at 50mph. To be able to recognize/identify the deer immediately and not let the adrenaline and chaos of the moment take over saves regret later.
 
Gravey said:
They have their place in managing for sure but I do somewhat miss the element of surprise. If my buddy didn't run them on our lease I don't know that I would.
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I agree with missing the element of not knowing! Saying that, I am still amazed at the number of bucks I see that I have never had on camera.
 
Think cams can go both ways. While I am sure they save some, in other areas where people get no "shooters" on their cameras, their standards lower and they likely kill deer they may not if they knew of the bucks that were avoiding their cameras. Mistaken id of camera bucks happens too, in which a hunter thinks he is shooting his/her "target" deer, only to discover the deer they shot was not that deer.
 
redblood said:
Can hogs legally be hunted at night in your area. That opens up a can of worms right there for sure.
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Yes. You can legally hunt hogs at night over bait. The landowner gets a permit and can name up to 10 people per 1000 acres that can also hunt at night over bait for hogs.
 

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