What if.......

[RUGER]

Currently my plan is to visit the camera site one day a week.
Throw out a bit of corn, replace the card / batteries and disappear again for another week.

I spend about 30 seconds there and don't touch anything.

What if you see a true monster buck on your camera, do you stop going at all or keep on with the normal routine?

I have never messed with trail cams and I don't want to screw around and run everything off before the season ever gets here.

Gonna put out a new camera today since the last one I can't find a card for it.

I just want a picture.

 

[ruger7mag]

Since it has been raining so much, I wait until right before it rains or when its sprinkling, and I try to go around lunch time. I go about every two or three weeks.

 

[BSK]

I visit my cams weekly, and have no problem getting mature bucks to come back time after time. But then I do take fairly serious precautions in the way I visit my cameras.

 

[thickethunter]

I visit my cameras every week to two weeks in July and August. Leave them alone in September. Then only when I walk by the camera going to a stand during the season. Then back to every two weeks after saeson until antlers fall off.

Each persons camera location is unique. Depends on how hard it is to access, how close to bedding areas, what deer are eating, how good you are with scent control, and what your deer are used to.

 

[TheLBLman]

As a general rule of thumb, try to visit a cam site when the chance of deer being near it is least likely. More most locations, this will be mid-day to, ideally around 1P.

 

[de novo]

1 pm is my scheduled time to check during the summer. I go whenever I want until the end of august and then I leave it alone and check the week before the bow opener just to see if there is any consistency to the buck visits. Generally, the bucks have shifted by the late September check.

 

[Ironsmith-Jared]

I don't put out trail cams until after season is over. I use them for scouting reference. I want to scout the deer in winter pattern so I put my trail cams out immediately after season. Once the deer have lost their antlers I usually pull mine.

 

[MUP]

Along and with some of the advice already given, after you get your first pull or two, you'll have a better timeframe of when best to return to check it.

 

[BSK]

Along and with some of the advice already given, after you get your first pull or two, you'll have a better timeframe of when best to return to check it.

It isn't running into deer (time you check the camera) that matters. It's how much scent you leave going to and from as well as around the camera.

 

[RUGER]

I use the best scent control there is, a HONDA

 

[rem270]

Man we squirrel hunted saturday and i changed my card out about 7 am. My dad was across the field blasting away at squirrels. At 730 it started raining and he crossed the field and went in the woods by my salt lick to head back to the truck. I came back that evening to change the batteries on my cam and even with all the shooting and people walking through the woods the 9pt i been getting on cam was there at 8:42 am. Just an hr after he was shooting 150yds from the lick.

 

[RUGER]

Man and I were talking about that yesterday.
I can't wait to see what time we get a picture.

I am curious as to how long after we left yesterday we got our first pic.

 

[MUP]

Along and with some of the advice already given, after you get your first pull or two, you'll have a better timeframe of when best to return to check it.

It isn't running into deer (time you check the camera) that matters. It's how much scent you leave going to and from as well as around the camera.

No doubt scent control is paramount, but, if you keep barging in on the deer when they're visiting the site over and over, there has to be a negative effect. Especially if there are any mature animals visiting. Just like bumping deer from any other area multiple times imo, eventually they will move somewhere else. It's just another precaution worth taking imo.

 

[BSK]

I use the best scent control there is, a HONDA

Exactly, and that will help dramatically. Of all the "scent control near cameras" tricks I've tried, riding right up to the camera on an ATV had the most effect.

 

[BSK]

Along and with some of the advice already given, after you get your first pull or two, you'll have a better timeframe of when best to return to check it.

It isn't running into deer (time you check the camera) that matters. It's how much scent you leave going to and from as well as around the camera.

No doubt scent control is paramount, but, if you keep barging in on the deer when they're visiting the site over and over, there has to be a negative effect. Especially if there are any mature animals visiting. Just like bumping deer from any other area multiple times imo, eventually they will move somewhere else. It's just another precaution worth taking imo.

Perhaps. But most older bucks that hunters are interested in are not visiting the same site at the same time day after day. Individual bucks tend to drift through and use a particular site every week or so.

In addition, it isn't human contact that deer avoid, it is human contact deer deem dangerous or threatening that they avoid. A person walking up to a salt lick may be completely ignored by deer if they do not perceive that human activity to be dangerous, just like deer ignore the farmer driving by on his tractor day after day.