wooly

I try to use my cams in a variety of ways depending on the time of year, critters in season, and most importantly.... my mood and effort I'm willing to put into them any given time of the year. Obviously for deer inventory and patterning when I'm in a deery state of mind. A few other uses I've enjoyed deploying cams for have been setting them over winter carcasses for predators and scavengers. Fox den set ups in the spring to observe activity outside the den. Waterfowl in the swamps in the spring. Cams over decoys. Cams to film hunts (with no success thus far) Cams over cams to observe whitetail reaction to a ground level cam and different flash styles. Cams over scrapes, rubs, licking branches, scent wicks, drippers, mocks...etc.. Cams over watering holes. Cams over beds. Basically, cams over any fresh critter sign or activity that peaks my interest whether it proves to be hot or not. I've never been crazy about setting up cams to catch general random movements of critters just by chance one walks by. Always looking for that one attraction that puts an animal up close and personal to the cam to pick out all the details I'm looking for so setting up with this in mind is always priority #1 for me. Most of all, I'm after good pictures and video that I can learn a little more than an animal walked by my set up. No special programs for me other than logging all my favorite pics in my pbase gallery and you tube channel for vids. All the information I need to know at that point is documented in the EXIF data and time stamps on the images and clips.

Happy B-day G/F!

Some great shots bud! Is this photography stuff a new hobby for you, or are you picking up from where you left off somewhere in the past?

Woods around me are relatively clean aside from a few random private land surface dumps and rust pile relics I like to pick through. Roadsides are a different story, and one of the most noticeable and potentially harmfull items I find laying along my road in particular the past few years are used needles EVERYWHERE! Last year I counted 12 of them on the shoulder of the road all within a mile walk of my driveway. I get the funny feeling it's not the same diabetic tossing his insulin shots out the car window every time they pass by.... but I could be wrong. That's not what we were talking about here anyhow,lol

An affordable blind big enough for two. Sis picked up one of these for us before spring turkey this year. 7' tall with room for both our gear bags, chairs, tripod, weapons, camera gear, and anything else we bring along. It's nice being able to stand up straight to stretch your legs every once in a while and move around without being elbow to elbow. With coupon codes and free shipping code I think she got it for $69. Huge upgrade from being cramped in my little pop up spring blinds in the same price range. Set up and take down is super simple too. https://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/guide-gear-oversized-ground-hunting-blind?a=1333037&SID=j4fp9wx9b20004m6012b1&CJ=1&cjaffilid=3747368&cjaffsite=VigLink&cjadv=CJTSGUSA&cjadvid=1522857&utm_source=VigLink&utm_medium=CJ&utm_campaign=Redirect-Enabled+Deep+Link

That hide would have definitely been going home with me! You don't find them like that every day.

Logged some hours on this Memorial Day carve and just wrapped it up last night.

Thanks Steve, but as you can see by the comment above yours, sometimes the simplest of points goes right over some heads and it's not ok to be concerned when you see stupid stuff posted.

Yeah- I suppose as long as it's not a deer nobody here really gives a crap. God forbid some of you could learn something from someone who knows a little more about a subject without taking offense to it. Just keep patting yourself on the back and pretending you actually give a darn about anything else and continue going about things the way you always have with no desire to learn something new.

Old pic.... Seneca cherry cancer stick! BLAHHHH!

Sorry, I get a little annoyed when I see guys holding turtles by their tails for hero shots. Most of the time those turtles never needed to be handled in the first place, so lifting all their weight by the end of their spine doesn't exactly do anything to make their day any better. If you absolutely HAVE TO handle a snapper for it's own safety (or if you just enjoy handling any snappers you find like I do), be sure to support them under their shell where they can't do any damage to you, and you wont do any damage to them. If your just handling them incorrectly to impress somebody with how "brave" you are by holding them by the tail.... you still look like a wuss to those who know better and should probably just avoid handling them in the first place.

I'm not sure you could do much damage to the tick population by medicating a "handful" of hosts at local feed sites. That may be another feel good reaction to say we are doing something, even though it has minimal impact. I would think that after the "poisoned" ticks fall off and die, that some other critters or birds might eat them as well with unknown affects right on up the food chain from there. More $tudie$ would need to be conducted.... Isn't that the reason they went with those beetle bag traps in the trees for the emerald ash borers? Maybe they are devising tick traps as we speak baited with human flesh,lol

Happy B-day bud!

He gets this way at least once a month..... sometimes even TWICE a month! He's gotten much better since he's gone to the short reply format. Dick!

Around here, those summer patterns can last right into the first couple weeks of archery season since going to the October 1'st opener. Many bucks still holding in predictable bachelor groups at this time, and if you've been paying attention, can be pretty easy to make a move on them to put yourself in position to punch an early season tag. I've seen that here the past several seasons, but haven't found a buck in any of those groups that would have made me feel good about sitting out the rest of the season without a buck tag... yet! As for the post season scouting comment, I think you're wrong again. Those bucks that vanished in November didn't pack up and move to Canada. While their patterns may not be as predictable step by step, or by the clock as they can be during the summer months, post season scouting can give you really good information on an individual bucks core area that can be put to use on future hunts. IMO, most folks that believe winter scouting is pointless are looking to get the wrong results from it, or are simply taking the wrong approach to it by still trying to keep track of bucks by rut sign. A lot of those summer feeding patterns when bucks were bulking up going into fall start to emerge again the deeper we get into winter. Biggest difference is the time they spend on their feet during hunting hours can make them appear to be ghosts. Finding a few "nests" of antlers in a winter bedding area and matching them up with bucks you've observed throughout the summer months is almost as good as finding a murder suspects wallet at a crime scene. It may take time, but now you know who he is, and you know where he's been..., you just need to figure out what he did in between that got him to this point. All that said, I don't really get too excited about running cams and summer scouting until mid July when antler growth really starts to peak. I have a couple cams set up between green fields right now for no other reason than it's a convenient place to run them at the moment, and bachelor groups are already moving through. Really just keeping an eye out for that one exceptional buck that may be around that's developing ahead of the rest. I'll start spending time in my observation stands with my camera when we flip the calendars to July.

Happy B-day ol' timer!

I think I had just about 15-17 hours into this one. It really was a PITA once I got into it. Looked easy,lol

Almost looks good enough to eat!

That's awesome! Good idea getting the kit that included the original "Top Gun" shades!

Nah.... just roam around the woods and call. As long as you did some roaming around the woods before season it counts as scouting,lol

Glad you guys liked it! Like I said, all I was really expecting was to get a clip of the fawn standing up and walking out of the frame. Instead I got 30 clips of him tossing and turning in his bed half the night. You never know what will happen if you never try something new.

For this one TF, I just strapped the cam to the tree and walked away! I really didn't think I was gonna get all that much from it.

Found this fawn last night just before sundown so I hung a cam over it and pulled the card today. If you listen closely at the very end of the video, you can hear some soft bleating which I assume is momma trying to locate the little rascal for supper time! It may be the fawn calling to momma too.... I'm not really sure.

Well, my doctors have been carving ME up like a Jack-o-lantern the past few months, so that's given me the opportunity to do some removal of my own on yet another skull. Went with a simple "burnt oak" theme on this one. Finally figuring out where I can go deep and groovy, and where I need to go with light chicken scratch so I don't blow through the thin spots. This one looked good to me from the time I scribbled the design on there until I sealed over my autograph! Deadhead/shedhead- some of the leaf design gets lost in the folds under the eyes in the side profile pics.

I know it doesn't look or sound like much, but for someone who's never tried it they might be really surprised at the results! I always get scared about leaving cams up over them since I'm never sure when or what machinery will be passing through to cut any given day of the week. Might try it this year if I can set one up right on the edge somewhere. This is from one of last falls archery ground hunts. I just hide in the goldenrod here and that little sapling takes all their attention off me.