Trail cameras or nah?

[NMSbowhunter]

I've been debating moving one of my cameras to the parking/walk in to try to start patterning the hunters that use this same area, but that's only a halfway serious idea

Thats probably not a bad idea at all. I put one up on a main entrance to a WMA to get an idea of traffic during the week and on the weekend during turkey season. One use I do put cameras too is a lot of times in a high traffic area I will place one covering my vehicle when I go in to hunt. I hide it well and have a note in my truck to remember to get it before I leave. That way should there be any issue I would have them on camera.

 

[BTaylor]

Kinda zeroing in on a couple 500 acre areas in 170K acre management area. Thinking about hanging a cam in each section after I go walk about. Just let them soak until I get back from CO and see whats in there. Never hung a cam on public before but I have a couple inexpensive cams I think I am going to put out.

 

[Weldabeast]

Yep...I hate trail cameras
I tried again this year and yeah...I see some bucks but 5k pics of Spanish moss blowing in the wind on 1, moisture inside the len on the 2nd and no useable pic, and camera 3 malfunction/ boogy night discos in the woods.....I hate trail cameras

 

[Aeds151]

My 2 looking in same area had 1 pic of a deer nothing else(should have been may) the other camera was off. Had to play the old eject battery tray and spin batteries and jam tray back in for it to work. Both brownings. Im done with cams. If there is not hot hot HOT sign in area, keep hiking or head home and do work.


No forced hunts


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[jonkytron]

So after a 6 seasons of using trail cameras on and off, some seasons heavy, some little, and some not at all, I’ve come to the following conclusions:

1) you don’t need them. trail cameras are only as good as the scouting you do and the sign you read. You won’t get any meaningful pictures of deer if you cant read deer sign, and if you can read sign, you will kill deer there without pictures.

2) they are fun. I love seeing what goes on in the woods when I’m not there. So for that reason alone, they are cool.

3) A mock scrape is key! Putting up a mock scrape in front of your camera in a place that has well worn deer paths and good sign will draw the deer ever so slightly to your camera. Hang a branch, scrape the ground, piss in it

5) your scent kills your hunt: every time you step in the woods the deer know you were there. It doesn’t matter what you do for scent control. Rain doesn’t wash it away. It takes weeks and the deer remember. For this reason, Visit off season (spring/summer).

6) cell cams are worth it: put that cam up in the summer, watch from your phone and leave that area alone until you hunt. Constantly checking cams makes it so deer won’t visit your cam.

7) cams are best for the next season, not the one you’re in: use your cell cams as intel for the following season. Put them up in areas you don’t hunt, hunt other places, and use all the pictures from that year to recon for the following season. Pattern the deer and other hunters

8) lock em up, hang ‘em high: don’t let people steal your stuff, don’t let ‘em know where you hunt

9) save your batteries: photo mode over video mode. Single photo mode. 1min interval. Medium/low sensitivity. Use a solar panel, battery attachment, and good batteries. Longer batteries means less time changing them, and less scent in the woods.

10) don’t only hunt your pictures: pictures are great, and can give you info, but they can keep you chasing deer that you may never see again, and keep you from hunting other areas that may give you better luck and better intel.

that’s my 2 cents. Good luck!