jman22

I use mine for everything you mentioned, inventory, scouting and patterning. In the summer cams are on usually on field edges or other food sources that are easy to access. I'll check them once every 4 weeks if I can make it that long. I don't like to check them too often. Once sept and oct roll around I'll move some to perennial scrapes and others to some good cruising trails. Most of these are in spots that I can check while I walk into a stand to hunt. Again, I don't like to check these too often. Post season it's back on food sources to see if I can find bucks that survived the season. I also put a few cams deeper into the woods on trails near bedding. I'll especially do this during the 1st yr of hunting a new property. I ll put them out in late summer and let them sit until the season is over without checking them. I just started doing this last yr as per the advice of some very wise trail cam guys. I'll take info from those pics and apply it towards next season. Helps me see how the deer move through a property. If the following season I get pics of some of the same bucks during the summer , I'll go back and look at the dates, times, wind direction, etc.. that those bucks moved through during the past fall. Im really only concerned with daytime movement. Oftentimes those same bucks will move through on roughly the same days as the previous yrs. Not a exact science by any means, but SOME bucks do follow similiar patterns from yr to yr. This is especially true really early in the season when still on feeding patterns and also when they are cruising for does in late oct and early nov. I've had the same buck come through the past 3 yrs on almost the same day in the middle of the night in early Nov. Have never seen him on cams before or after that one yearly encounter. Pretty cool. Once gun opens, I don't pay much attention to the cams, as we get heavy pressure and most of the movement turns to night. I dont have a great system for analyzing the pics. I print out some blank calendars and write the times that bucks of interest moved through, along with wind direction and any major weather or pressure change. I'll look back at those from previous yrs to try and figure out patterns.

I have a cheap memory card carrying case I bought off amazon. It's easily fits in your pocket and is pretty durable. It also holds quite a few cards. I wrap the outside with a strip of hi viz orange and yellow tape. That way if you drop it it's easier to find. Learned that the hard way a few yrs back.

Solid buck right there!

Ill speak for terrain I'm familiar with which is anything except Big woods. Deer can be slaves to daily habits if it favors survival. If there is a constant (wind, food source, security etc..), they do make predictable moves and bed in predictable areas. Im not saying this guarantees they are going to go by your stand every time, but you can be in the game. Deer definitely dont bed in the same spot everyday as you mentioned. Bedding is almost always based on wind. A deer's nose is its best survival mechanism. Bedding can be very predictable based on wind direction and terrain. I am speaking for my area, which is hills and farm land. I'm not sure "random" is the best word to describe deer movement. There is actually very little random movement by deer. It may seem random, but they are moving with a purpose. I'd be willing to bet this is the same for big woods, but over a much more broader sense.

Really? Sorry bud but your wrong there. Definitely not impossible. Not gonna take the time to reply to your other points, cause I see your only willing too see things one way. Luck is always involved, but skill can enhance your luck in many scenarios in life, not just hunting. And the lottery being compared to hunting?? Oh well I'll leave that to someone else. Happy hunting.

Here is my opinion on that question. Strictly an opinion that I don't expect all to agree with. Both hunters utilized some sort of skill to shoot that buck and both had some luck on their side. But I still have to say the unknowing hunter had more luck on his side. If he hunted that same stand every day he probably wasn't paying attention to wind , bedding, his scent trail, entry and exit routes etc... He unknowingly aligned many specific factors to allow that buck to cross within his range without being had. The guy that was targeting the buck was probably paying attention to all these factors. He most likely had multiple setups, knew where this buck was bedding, and had a entry and exit that allowed him to get close. He probably wasnt hunting every day if the conditions didnt favor it. From experience if your hunting the same stand day in and day out (when conditions don't always favor it), many deer, especially the older does and bucks that frequent that area with figure you out after day 1. Again, I'm talking aBout a lot of specifics here and I know I did stray off path a bit from stubby68 question. Either way the hunter shot a buck that he should be extremely proud of, no matter what the circumstances!

Not bad at all.

Many on here have mentioned that the guys with big egos are the the ones boosting about the big bucks they kill. This may be the case for some, but pretty much all of the guys I know that consistently target and shoot 3yo + bucks in NY do not have big egos and they do not post their pics all over the internet or through text messages for everyone to see. These guys are just as secretive as the big bucks they hunt. And its not because they are doing anything illegal. They just don't want any attention being drawn to them.

Good discussion. I would never critize anyone who shoots a deer, whether it be a button buck, a doe or a trophy buck as long as it was done responsibly. I will admit I love going after mature bucks. I wasn't always like this, but it's just what I do now. They are a different creature and they do act different than other deer. Sure they slip up and have their vulnerable moments, but anyone who has scouted and targeted a particular big buck knows they just act differently. Its a challenge and i enjoy trying to figure out the puzzle. Do I feel good when I see the big buck ive been scouting and hunting?..yes. And do i get a huge rush if im lucky enough to tag that buck?..absolutely! I'm not ashamed to say that. And I have a SMALL circle I hunt with and am pretty private about spreading my pics all over the Internet. Maybe growing up watching big buck shows on tv and the interent influenced my style to some extent. Luckily I never developed the ego that many of these hunters posess.

I do 90% of my scouting from Dec to May. In December if there is snow on the ground you can get a great idea of how the deer are moving through a property, especially if its a new property for you. March and April are my favorite months to scout, as its very easy to see last season sign (rubs, scrapes, trails, beds etc..). This gets much more difficult in late May and into summer with greenup. As a few others have mentioned, in-season scouting can be huge dividends as well, but you have to find hot sign and hunt it real time. Not much time to waste in this situation. I try to hang/check all my stands in April and May. The earlier I get all this done, the less intrusion into some of my prime spots that are closer to deer bedding. I also hang a lot of stands, as I feel stands get burnt out very quickly, so I like to constantly move around, even if its on the same property. I also like to have multiple stands for any type of wind I will encounter during the season. As far as trail cams go, I run a lot of those as well. I have a few out now, mostly looking for a few very distinguishable bucks that I believe made it through the season. I try to get all of mine out by July. These are cams that are easy to get to and pretty much to take an inventory of whats around. I'll move them to scrapes once late Sept comes around. I don't check them very often to avoid scent trails. Last season I started putting a few cams in hard to reach places (near bedding, interior swamp trails etc..). I didn't check these cameras until the season was over. These cameras are loaded with info that you can use for the following season. This is a new tactic that I learned from some wise trail cam guys.

1988 yamaha motor-4 225!

Nice. You do really good work. I'm sure you'll keep busy with quality like that.

Now that's funny!

Merica' !!

Back on topic...I have sped-up the journey of 3 painted turtles on their way across the rd so far this year. Here is a question for those who know more than me: I was always told that if you do move a turtle to make sure you keep him moving in the direction he was traveling and to not move it to a water source you know of about a mile away (just a hypothetical scenario ). Is this true? Makes sense as I guess he/she was moving in that direction for a reason!

Nice buck Oak. Like WNY said, that's a mature deer and I hope you get to watch him grow. More importantly I hope he sticks around for you come Oct!

Hockey night! Hoping the preds can even the series.

Tight lines! Calling for over a inch of rain tomorrow and east winds 10 to 20 mph. Stay safe.

HSS vest for me. Might switch over to a muddy as my vest is getting older and it's important to know that vests need to be upgraded every so often! I also use HSS lifelines on ALL my stands...ladder or hang ons. Cheap life insurance in my opinion. Now that I have a young family, I see absolutely no reason not to be as safe as possible while climbing up aND down the tree.

90 deg! I bet the furnace will kick on up here tonight. Hope we get some of those warm temps up this way at some point this summer.

Not bad at all.

I have two MP8s and love them. And I feel your pain, I have also spent a good amount of money on WGI cams over the years. I'm done with them. I also have a Scoutguard cam that I picked up from Phade that I really like.

I have been buying Coverts lately. Haven't bought any 2017 models, but I really like their cams.

I'll have to give those a try