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Trail cam strategy

I use to see whats out there and tried to profile "the best one" but thats never happened.

I have one trained on a trail and scrape, then one trained on a salt block.

I lost a property I was hunting due to the owner passing...so now its just my woods that seems to be a funnel from a farm to the big woods.
 
As I look forward to planning my postseason scouting, I want to ask people would think of putting out cameras to soak in March/April. I’m in the deep south and the temperatures are going to be miserable for the summer and so I wondered about just putting out cameras in the immediate postseason to avoid that.

I would mostly like to use the cameras to help with the early season. I had no luck getting on deer in October or November so I wonder if this strategy might help with that too. Put them out, let them soak and then check him a few weeks before season and adjust as necessary?
 
mschultz373 said:
As I look forward to planning my postseason scouting, I want to ask people would think of putting out cameras to soak in March/April. I’m in the deep south and the temperatures are going to be miserable for the summer and so I wondered about just putting out cameras in the immediate postseason to avoid that.

I would mostly like to use the cameras to help with the early season. I had no luck getting on deer in October or November so I wonder if this strategy might help with that too. Put them out, let them soak and then check him a few weeks before season and adjust as necessary?
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Just my observation but summer movement is completely irrelevant information during hunting season. At least in my part of the world. Might get different results down south though. Doesn't mean that you can't get inventory and pull some information from summer trail camera movement but it's a lot of times giving you info that will hurt more than help.
 
Right, I was more just thinking of beating the heat…. I know March thru August is a lot of useless info but my thought would be to check em in mid-late September for early season.

I really don’t wanna brave the swamps in august
 
Yeah that seems like it would work good. Just have to make sure that you would set them where stuff wouldn't grow up too much
 
mschultz373 said:
Right, I was more just thinking of beating the heat…. I know March thru August is a lot of useless info but my thought would be to check em in mid-late September for early season.

I really don’t wanna brave the swamps in august
Click to expand...
Right, I was more just thinking of beating the heat….

Read that wrong 3 times
 
I don't run many cameras but the few I do are in very specific locations. These are primary scrape locations in dense cover. I try to find these spots in February up through turkey season. Once I find one, I walk it out thoroughly. Plan the tree I need to be in and access, etc. This time of year, you can tromp that spot down and stink it up and it does not matter one bit. On a new spot, I come back mid to late summer and slap up a $40 camera and let it soak all through the season. I will check it if I happen to hunt the spot but usually, I let it soak and go pull the camera post season. That way I have the activity on that spot for the following fall. That way that spot is dialed in and I don't have to have a camera out there anymore. I can go find the next spot.

I checked a camera yesterday I had out for months prior to this season. I got great intel for next season, but I knew going into this season it would be a pre rut location. I just never got around to hunting it until yesterday. I did not need a camera in there, but it was nice to see what was coming through. It confirmed what the evidence from the past year was telling me.

Early season I am looking for feed trees and hunting on the fly adjusting to what the deer are doing on an almost daily basis.
 
mschultz373 said:
As I look forward to planning my postseason scouting, I want to ask people would think of putting out cameras to soak in March/April. I’m in the deep south and the temperatures are going to be miserable for the summer and so I wondered about just putting out cameras in the immediate postseason to avoid that.

I would mostly like to use the cameras to help with the early season. I had no luck getting on deer in October or November so I wonder if this strategy might help with that too. Put them out, let them soak and then check him a few weeks before season and adjust as necessary?
Click to expand...

Learn the food cycle where you’re hunting. Deer don’t disappear, they change food sources.

Heat is heat, it’s what we have so I roll with it. If you want to scout, scout. If you don’t want to scout then use the excuse that it’s irrelevant, bacause it is. There’s so much food around in southern summers that your deer won’t be going on walk about anyway, but….if you find them in early to mid August I would drop some cameras to get a look at what’s living there.
 
To help with the heat you can try to go on days when it is lightly raining. That makes it a lot more pleasant in July and August. Otherwise, just tough it out and take plenty of water and Gatorade.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
To help with the heat you can try to go on days when it is lightly raining. That makes it a lot more pleasant in July and August. Otherwise, just tough it out and take plenty of water and Gatorade.
Click to expand...
I’m gonna go in crocs and my undies. Spray my skin with permethrin and bring four thermacells.
 
Even if you don't have a specific purpose or strategy, it's fun just getting a few pictures. If you have the cameras, get them out there.

They have made me a better hunter just because now I know the quality of deer that are out there. I work harder at scouting, sit longer, hunt more often, and am better at passing up smaller deer having gotten pictures of those bucks I never thought existed on public land.
 
mschultz373 said:
As I look forward to planning my postseason scouting, I want to ask people would think of putting out cameras to soak in March/April. I’m in the deep south and the temperatures are going to be miserable for the summer and so I wondered about just putting out cameras in the immediate postseason to avoid that.

I would mostly like to use the cameras to help with the early season. I had no luck getting on deer in October or November so I wonder if this strategy might help with that too. Put them out, let them soak and then check him a few weeks before season and adjust as necessary?
Click to expand...
I run my cams until April, and then put them back out in July. The green up causes a lot of false pics. Also the heavy rain months & the warming temps are tough on cams for the limited info gain you get.
 
It’s one of the ways I give back to my buddy for him allowing me to hunt on his property and he basically allows
me to treat it like it’s my own. He owns the property, pays the taxes on it, finances the improvements and plantings on it, I supply the back and the labor to do cuts, thinning, help him with odd jobs and I send him pics of all the wildlife essentially year around which he completely enjoys. I figure it’s the least I can do as he’s not the most tech savvy and gets more frustrated with it than not. I try to make it easy for him to enjoy the game in his property. I do the cameras so he doesn’t have to worry about it.
 
mschultz373 said:
As I look forward to planning my postseason scouting, I want to ask people would think of putting out cameras to soak in March/April. I’m in the deep south and the temperatures are going to be miserable for the summer and so I wondered about just putting out cameras in the immediate postseason to avoid that.

I would mostly like to use the cameras to help with the early season. I had no luck getting on deer in October or November so I wonder if this strategy might help with that too. Put them out, let them soak and then check him a few weeks before season and adjust as necessary?
Click to expand...
I’m in Tennessee so I understand not wanting to go out in the summer. I haven’t done summer scouting in years now and still get on plenty of deer with my post season scouting.

The most useful summer strategy for us here is glassing fields the last 30 min of daylight. That’ll tell you WAY more than a trail cam will. But if your area does not have that large destination food source then you can definitely put cams out this early.

Otherwise I’d do as much scouting as you can now and note all the best looking spots. Try to find some scrapes with large older looking twisted licking branches which usually signify they occur there every year (potential community scrapes). Throw your cams up on the best scrapes or well used trails that may lead to the largest normal food source. Maybe check in early May before it gets ridiculous and make a last minute move if you need to.
 
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