Do Trail Cameras- tool or toy?

[matchset]

every company has a nifty catch phrase... and they all claim to help you hunt!

my first trail camera was a 35mm stealth camera. since then, i've had many brands and models and they've all taken hundreds of pictures. many of which are quite incredible.

but do they actually help us hunt better? i've not yet harvested a buck and also captured his picture.

what's your opinion? have any of you had success in knowing an exact pattern of a specific buck because of a tc?.... imo they help you take an inventory of my deer heard, but not every deer.

they are a great toy, but i do not see them as a tool in regards to the average hunter on 40 acres...

[lungdeflator]

I kind of feel the same way there Matchset. In the woods and swamps theres really no set pattern really. I really hit the cameras hard this past fall and had pictures of one buck 2-3 miles apart. I think a single buck has a large home range and in the thick woods were cover is everywhere there really isnt a set pattern.

The cameras are a tool for me though as much fun as they are. When I find a new area, I set cameras the fall before I plan to hunt and if I don't get any mature bucks it is a waste of time and I wont hunt there.

As far as killing a deer you have pictures of, there are plenty who have done it. I saw the one particular deer mentioned above 3 differents times on stand. And he did end up getting shot in a weird situation the last day of rifle season. Hunt long enough and hard enough and it will happen.

[jkcmj]

The woods we hunt are divided by farm fields, and the bucks often travel the wood edges doing scrapes, so it is very common for us to get a photo of the bucks we kill. I would say since I started with the trail cams, I have gotten photos of most of the bucks we, or our neighbors, have killed. Kind of cool. I have posted before and after photos on this site for a couple years now. I usually get anywhere from 15-20 different bucks of all age categories and usually end up seeing 1 or 2 from stand during the entire season(bow and gun) if I am lucky.

[Code-Man]

This was my second year with trail cameras. My first year I had one and used it for scouting and I finally found one spot and wow did I have amazing luck and without the camera I wouldn't have set my stand where I did because I had a 50 50 shot for trails and I could only hunt one of them. I got a nice 124 5/8 buck middle of the day because I saw on the camera I started getting deer traveling 1-2 pm so I got to the stand by 11:30 did work on it for like 15 min and I had my buck shot by 12:30. I honestly think it was because of the camera I got that buck because I wouldn't have been out there at noon on a sunny day.

This spring I acquired a few more and used them for turkey hunting. After looking at the trail cameras I was able to know when they were coming into an area and what not and I was able to harvest my 10.5" beard with 1.25" spurs but sadly it only weighed like 16 lbs. This fall I had now acquired a total of 4 and on our property it was awesome for scouting. Sadly we didn't take any animals off of the property mainly because of tresspassers and neighbors but because we knew there were some big bucks on the property we passed on some basket rack 8's. I have access to about 60 acres and only about 20-25 acres are woods and it is a river bottom and I'm the only one bow hunting so I use the cameras religiously to know where to spend time hunting and where not to.

I can see where some people could say yes it's like a toy but I'm also in a certain position that I'm trying to get my fiancee into hunting. Last year she was curious about checking cameras and seeing what were on the cameras and this spring she really enjoyed it with the animals we were getting on the cameras and scouting for turkeys. When we put cameras out this summer she was right there with me telling me which way I needed to twist the camera to get the best shot and I had amazing pictures this fall. Sadly all the big bucks the flash had to be used but we are actually getting our cameras ready for this weekend to put them out for turkey hunting and she is getting excited for that. So I think because she is having fun with the cameras wether a person calls it a toy or a not I think she has gotten into the sport of hunting more and hopefully she'll keep wanting to get more into hunting so we have something to do in the fall.

[B. Amish]

absolutely a tool.

[sticknstring]

I've used a fleet of cameras for the past 4-5 years and they've allowed me to locate deer and see bucks I never knew existed. With that said, I've never been able to pattern a specific deer from cameras. I've got pictures of the last two bucks I've killed. It's pretty neat having that history. At least one state has banned the use of trail cameras so a few people think they are more than just a toy. I find it addicting running cameras and checking cards, especially when you have a nice buck around. Tool or toy, I'm hooked.

[Bear55]

They are both tool and toy, it's very fun to see what is out there and take inventory but they can also be used to gain a lot of intel.

I like to use the time and date stamps to get an idea how close I am to a bucks core area. If you are getting daylight pics or pics very close to sunset or sunrise you know you are close. On the other hand if all your pics are between 10pm and 4 am well then you know that bucks core area is a ways away and your chances of seeing him during shooting hours outside the rut are slim. I have a 150 class buck I have several photos of but I didn't spend one hour hunting him because all my pics were in the middle of the night. In years past I wasted entire seasons chasing bucks that never set foot on the land I was hunting during shooting hours.

I also like to use the date stamps to look at the weather on that day the buck moved through. I try to see why a buck might have been moving through that area based on time of year and the wind direction, or if he is on his feet because a storm is moving in. It could also be helpful to monitor preferred food sources at different times of the year.

You also have to watch the pressure your camera is applying to your deer. Some bucks don't care but other get pretty spooked. Infared cams can help that but I feel a lot of the pressure is out there from guys checking their cameras too much and leaving scent behind. I try to keep disturbances to a minimum, go in once to set the cam. I visit once with a digital camera and see what is on my card, if I like what I see I pull the camera and move it to a new spot to take inventory of a different area. If I don't like what I see I might leave it up for a little while longer or still move it to a different spot but I never try and visit a camera location more than 3 times.

There have been countless times I get a few pics of a nice buck and leave my camera there to try to pattern him, well then I use to keep checking the camera and eventually the buck catches on and I don't get any more pics of him. This can depend on the individual buck and the area, you can have better results on food sources or minerals but overall the lower pressure/scent in the area the better.

[PostFrontal]

As Bear said, I think they are both as well. I think I get just as excited to see what is on the trail cams as I do going hunting.

As far as getting an exact pattern of a buck, that might be tough unless you have a ton of cameras. We have to remember that that camera is taking a picture of a tiny spot in the woods and the deer has to walk by and let his piture get taken. And I would think most of that would go out the window during the rut. But might work around archery opener. We buy at least 1 new one a year. Cheaper to do that and split the costs with your buddies. This year we had 5 out on a Quarter we hunt. We spread them out where we have seen big bucks/traditional Rub/scrape lines, and put a couple in random spots that didn't seem like the best spots and we haven't hunted much.

As a tool, we have found 3 things. #1: If you do get a big buck on the camera it helps us to sit on stand all day knowing he's out there. #2: It helps you define what stage of the rut you're in so you can adjust your hunting strategy. We saw a clear shift from random pictures of alot of does and nighttime bucks to Bucks all times of the day on traditional scrape/rub lines, to nothing on the cameras at all. #3: Those random spots that you may have overlooked might be the best spot on your property. One random spot camera we put out in an area that we had walked by countless numbers of time to our "good stands" revealed a major bedding area for big bucks. I ended up shooting a B&C from that stand, and my buddy missed another one.

I have trail cam pics, and so do the neighbors, from the buck I shot, and the one my buddy missed.

[BLACKJACK]

Where trail cameras help me is when I get pictures of a couple big bucks its 1) easier to pass on small bucks 2) gives you motivation to hunt longer and harder knowing theirs a big buck in your area.

They are addicting though!!! Its just like Christmas when I'm going thru the cards once a week!! And antlers are what we're after. I have one camera still out by a food plot and after looking at 900+ pictures of does on my last card, I'm ready to pull that camera unil mid/late May when we'll start seeing some antler growth and fawns.

[BLACKJACK]

I like to use the time and date stamps to get an idea how close I am to a bucks core area. If you are getting daylight pics or pics very close to sunset or sunrise you know you are close. On the other hand if all your pics are between 10pm and 4 am well then you know that bucks core area is a ways away and your chances of seeing him during shooting hours outside the rut are slim.

I've come to the same conclusion Bear, those bucks in the 2 AM pictures are traveling quite a distance. But in their travels they've found my food plots and the does that hang out so when 'that smell' gets into the air they'll hopefully come back!!!

[matchset]

I usually get anywhere from 15-20 different bucks of all age categories and usually end up seeing 1 or 2 from stand during the entire season(bow and gun) if I am lucky.

jk...i'm assuming you are a pretty avid hunter. so why is it that you and i have had similar results.

in frederic wisconsinyyy last year, three cameras on 260acres captured 24 different bucks.

in three months of hunting we say ONE buck we had on camera. we saw plenty of bucks, but not the ones on camera.... i do no understand this concept fully yet.

[Bear55]

matchset

I don't think you are the only one, this is fairly common and there could be a 100 reasons why. How many daylight photos of the bucks did you have?

In my experience the mature bucks just don't move all that much or all that far during shooting hours. If they have enough seasons under their belt to know that if they move they die, even during the rut. I also don't think it takes them all that long to figure out they are being hunted and avoid those areas during shooting hours.

[PostFrontal]

I think first we have to get out of our mind what we see on hunting shows where they say they use trail cameras to "pattern a buck." That's misleading.

That would be like saying on a 500 acre lake, 260 acres of of which you are allowed to fish on, you drop your Aqua View down in 3 spots and see 24 walleyes. Are those all the walleyes in the lake? Are they going to stay in that same spot? But as you get into ice fishing you only catch 1 from those 3 spots and are wondering where all the walleyes went. They are still there, but as the seasons change, their behavior and patterns change, and you need to change your locations of cameras and strategies with it. 260 acres is a huge area.

I hunt on 300 hundred acres around Frederic as well. We have bucks that we know of that move from the property west of us, through our property, down to the property east of us. This last year with the crunchy snow, the neighbors said they watched 20 deer run from our property to theirs as soon as we stepped a foot on our protperty. And each year, the bucks come out off differnt parts of the property. The Quarter we hunt on down by Rochester, we have trail cam pics of bucks, the neighbors north of us have pics of the same ones, and I know they use the property west of us as well. So what I am trying to say is just because you have them on your camera, doesn't mean they aren't there, you just may have to move your stand.

I feel the best time to see a buck you had on camera during the day is the week leading up to and during the "chase" phase of the rut. But from entirely different stands. If you have your cameras and stand in the correct spot (scrape line/rub line/seen bucks before) the week before the "chase" this is when we see them bowhunting. When the chase begins, you'll know because there is nothing on your cameras. This is when we immediately move our stands inbetween and closer to known doe bedding area.

The only other thing is during this time you got to get comfortable and sit on stand all day.

[Bear55]

260 acres is a huge area.

I agree with you that260 is a large area but at the same time it's tiny compared to a mature bucks home range. You might need 2000-3000 acres to cover a home range, maybe larger during the rut. Then you add in all these bucks have their own home ranges that possibly overlap and their own bedding areas so you might only have 1 to 4 bucks that spend any daylight hours on your land. I won't even touch on the rut because anything can and does happen during that time so you pretty have to be ready to see nothing or run into several bucks in one day.

[hockeybc69]

Tool, but I will also say somewhat of a toy.

I have cut back on my trail cam useage....

Solely because I am concerned by checking too many cameras,I am increasing my presence in the woods.

I do try to put cameras in locations that require the least amount of foot travel, but I was going in pretty far for some locations before.

One thing thats very clear to me about cams during the rut, I get a LOT of pics of bucks that I never see on cam again. And in my 7 years of running cams, I kid you not.... I have less than 5 pics of a mature buck during legal shooting hours from about October 1st on through the remainder of the season.

I do, however, get a fair number of pics of mature bucks during daylight from spring through late summer/early fall. But once Oct 1st hits, its lights out!

But I refuse to give up on cams. They are a lot of fun.

[PostFrontal]

That was my unclear way of saying exactly the same thing. That is why you might have them on your camera one day and not see them on stand because it is just a snapshot in time in a particular place. They are still in the area, but just might be on the neighbors property. So the thing you can control is where you put your stand in relation to what they cameras are telling you as a tool.

[lungdeflator]

Basic consensus is it is a tool. So how do you use that tool? Back in bedding areas? Transition zones? Or strictly over food sources? Or does it change as the season progresses? Mock scrapes?

How often do you check it?

During the summer I run cameras almost everywhere, but mostly over mineral licks and food sources. After velvet is shed I typically move the cams to trails to try to develop a pattern. Once the rut comes around I move some to field edge scrapes and some to known rut travel routes. After the rut I move back to food sources.

I try to go at least 2-3 weeks during the summer between checks. Around velvet drop I try to go 2 weeks. Around the rut I check it everytime I hunt that area or once every 3-4 days. After the rut its back to around 2 weeks, depending on how cold it is and how long the batteries are lasting.

[buckpredator]

I tend to use one on high traffic area scrapes, this one is for getting a general idea of what's all out there. I'll put another on a scrape that's back in cover preferably near thickly wooded known bedding areas, if there's rubs or a rub line nearby perfect. I treat checking that camera just as if I'm hunting cover scents, waiting for the right wind, the whole nine yards. Before any "community" scrapes are out I put cameras on food sources.

[Bear55]

Basic consensus is it is a tool. So how do you use that tool?

We could get a 100 different answers so it all depends on what you want to do with them and what you are after. I have read about guys hyper patterning bucks back to their beds by running several cameras and constantly moving them back to find their core area. That is just not for me, I don't have the time and I really wonder if it does more harm then good. I feel even if you are as scent free as possible that buck will know you have been in there and he could change his pattern/bedding too fast for you to keep up.

For me the #1 use is to take inventory of the buck in a given area, I hunt public land so I am all over the county and it sure helps to know if there is a buck I want to shoot in the area vs a whole pile of young deer.

#2 is to gain intel, like others have said you just get a snap shot in time but I like to use that snapshot and learn from it. Like I said previously you can monitor when and where a buck was on his feet. You can look at the weather and wind direction when he was traveling that certain area. Depending on the time of day you can get a fairly good idea if that buck is bedding on the land you hunt or a mile away. You can see if he is using a certain funnel, food source, or rub line and you can use that info to plan your attack on him.

I hunt rifle season but most of my time in the woods is during archery season so I want to shoot that deer outside of the peak of the rut. The most important thing I look for is time stamps to find out if I am close to a bucks bed, if you are getting daylight photos or pics very close to sunset or sunrise then you know you are close. I would pass up hunting an area with pics of a 170 deer if those pics were at midnight, I would much rather hunt an area with a 130 deer with pics closer to sunrise/set because I have a much better change to kill that deer outside of the rut.

Game cams can be great but they can often work against you. I feel the combination of game cams, late summer or early fall scouting or hanging stands keeps more big bucks alive then a lot of other things. Every time we hit the woods I think we give those deer a little advanced warning and I don't want them to have any clue I am after them.

For the most part my advice is for mature bucks, you can get away with a lot more if you are just after any old doe or young buck.

[LightningBG]

I use mine cam to confirm that there are no bucks near where I hunt in MN, so I might as well not wait for one.

[Bear55]

I use mine cam to confirm that there are no bucks near where I hunt in MN, so I might as well not wait for one.

If it helps I have gone years with zero bucks on film and still connected on a nice one. Sometimes they just don't show up in your area until those does make them crazy.

[LightningBG]

Well, since I saw this, it inspired me to go grab the memory card out of the woods (while I was out to the bank anyways).

Venison Train

And a couple small bucks out there I guess....

[fishinfey8]

If it helps I have gone years with zero bucks on film and still connected on a nice one. Sometimes they just don't show up in your area until those does make them crazy.

I tell you what, if you would've asked me how I thought deer season was going to play out this past year I would have predicted a bad year. Barely any sign, no pictures on the camera, not even does. Now fast forward to today and ask me the same question, and I will tell you it was an awesome year. The deer didn't move into our area until the second weekend of rifle season. The first ground scrape I saw was the one next to the buck I shot(after I shot him). The scrape wasn't even one day old! Never saw this guy on the camera either.

After this experience my opinions have changed about trail cameras and deer hunting. Now, I do think they are extremely useful tool in bear hunting...

[PostFrontal]

In Velvet Black and White Photo on neighbors property (sent to me after the season)

Out of Velvet on neighbors property (sent to me after season(never saw the smaller buck)

Picture on a major scrape/rub line (opposite end of property from where I shot him). Starting a couple days before this the numbers of deer we were capturing on camera on this rub/scrape line started to trickle out, but the pictures we did get were bucks during the day on the scrape/rub line.

Shot on 11/8/10. We had put my buddy's sister in a stand on the scrape/rub line from the prior photo for the 1st 2 days of the gun season. This is where we had seen the most buck pictures and is a known buck producing stand. She saw 3 deer total. I was further down in the woods from her on another travel route. I only saw a couple button bucks the 1st 2 days of gun season. On the 2nd day my buddy saw 2 sets of 2 bucks chasing a doe around. So on the 3rd day, I moved my stand across the property closer to a big doe bedding area. He came from the bedding area at 9:30 am chasing a doe through a corn field. She had icycles hanging from her whiskers from being chased all night...

[Musky Buck]

Toy, no bow hunting here so a toy, by rifle opener the game changes so drastically, pressure and the rut and I can't and don't want to disturb my area close to opener, I've never changed location or strategy because of what my camera shows me, the 4 properties I hunt all have generally a mature buck in the area or 2 or who knows, but I just rotate around by gut feeling on those lands and hope a 3.5 year old or older makes that seldom mistake.