White flash.... IR BSK..... Anyone....

[in the dog house]

Will white flash spook deer more than inferred. I have some Moultrie 5mp IRs and I had been getting pics of some good bucks. Checked yesterday after a week between checking and no buck pics. Could the IR be scaring, and should I put a white flash in it place..... Or just pull em and hunt.


Thanks

 

[Shed Hunter]

Both will scare. Eventually mature bucks will catch on to the camera. Just move it a little bit every few weeks.

 

[MUP]

I believe IR will spook them more than white flash will. I try to put IR cams up high, out of the line of sight if possible.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I imagine you won't be hearing from him for a while

 

[BSK]

Both white-flash and IR will cause camera "avoidance" (deer stop walking in front of the camera), although white-flash generally produces more camera "spook" (deer jump away from the camera at the flash). The one exception to this is IR on video. That will produce the most camera spook of any type of illumination.

I hate to say it, but the answer is, get black-flash cameras. They are worth the extra price.

 

[W.Seay]

Black flash is the only way to go!

 

[TENN.BOY]

I have 2 files on my computer that is full just from this year alone that shows it doesn't make much difference.We have tons of picts of bucks from 1.5yrs bucks to 6.5 yrs old mature bucks that keep coming back to cams with flash or IR,I like the flash cams better than the others because we get better night picts, but i'm sure that there are as many bucks avoid the cams all together that we don't have picts of at all, the only place we don't get a lot of mature buck picts is around feeders, they DO NOT LIKE THEM !!!!

 

[hunter drew]

I have set my stand up near my IR camera and watch deer walk behind. So just because your not getting pics don't mean there not there

 

[BSK]

TENN.BOY,

Back when I conducted a comprehensive study of the three types of trail-cam flash (white, red-glow, and black), I too found no statistically significant difference in the number of triggers and repeat visits to camera sites between white-flash and red-glow. However, the difference between those two visible flash types and black-flash was so huge as to be no contest.

 

[TENN.BOY]

What state did you conduct your study ? We have a 1300 acre lease in southern Ohio and the difference in the deer (bucks,does) behavior up there compared to here are night and day . When it comes to hunting pressure or human intrusion in the woods when setting cams or scouting, the deer don't react to hunans like they do here. If you have a doe wind you she may run off 100yds and turn around and walk right back by in 5 mins..There are 18 of us on the lease and 16 are from Tenn. and all of us have had this conversation about the amount of mature buck picts are 10x more up there compared to back home in Tenn.and it doesn't seem to matter what type of cam we use......

 

[BSK]

What state did you conduct your study ?

The data for that study was collected in the Southeast.

We have a 1300 acre lease in southern Ohio and the difference in the deer (bucks,does) behavior up there compared to here are night and day . When it comes to hunting pressure or human intrusion in the woods when setting cams or scouting, the deer don't react to hunans like they do here. If you have a doe wind you she may run off 100yds and turn around and walk right back by in 5 mins..There are 18 of us on the lease and 16 are from Tenn. and all of us have had this conversation about the amount of mature buck picts are 10x more up there compared to back home in Tenn.and it doesn't seem to matter what type of cam we use......

I'm glad you brought that up TENN.BOY. I don't think southeastern hunters (that haven't hunted the Midwest) understand how different the deer are between the two regions. The deer in the Midwest are shockingly active during daylight compared to southeastern deer, even mature bucks. It never ceases to amaze me how active during daylight mature bucks are in the Midwestern agricultural belt. That's why "trophy buck" TV shows are filmed there--big/old bucks are highly patternable and quite active during daylight in that region. In the Southeast, bucks 5+ years old are almost totally nocturnal during deer season.

 

[Mike Belt]

I think that may have something to do with available cover. I believe we have much more expansive cover situations than the Midwest.

 

[BSK]

I think that may have something to do with available cover. I believe we have much more expansive cover situations than the Midwest.

They have far less cover in the Midwest, hence bucks are more visible. But mature bucks in that region can be caught on trail-cam using scrapes and other features in broad daylight most any day. In the Southeast, catching 5+ year-old bucks on scrapes anywhere, even very close to thick cover, is rather rare.