Camera

[Paula]

Wondering how you all work your camera(s) location. If you only have 1 do you keep it in same spot or move it? and how often do you check it and will that get more or less frequent closer to hunting?

I started out going out every week 2x because i only have 1card. I have a print out of my map and i kept track by date where i had camera because i didn't know what i was doing. (maybe i still don't) Then i separate the pictures that have deer and title them by spot # and date. Now i am also separating by day time and night time. I have my camera in same spot now because this is across the field of where my stand will be and this is where i want and hope they come out. I have over time cleaned the path for them by cutting vines and moving 2 trees that were down to make it a cleaner path for them. I went out yesterday morning just to turn camera around and i will leave it out there at least 2wks. Think i am doing to much?

[Doc]

I am just now thinking of moving my one camera site and adding a few more. The pictures are getting a bit repetitive since it appears that the does with fawns are the only ones that are hanging in that area. So now it is time to start moving into areas where I expect/hope to see bucks.

I have changed from almost daily checking of cameras last year to about every week and occasionally every week and a half. I think it is probably good not to pressure any area too much with any kind of activity and I may extend intervals between checking even more. Somebody posted a video of a nice buck recently and I was struck with the caution and intense scent checking, and eventually the stare right at the camera as he took a couple more sniffs. It tells me that they are not fooled about the location of the camera and the human scent involved in babysitting one of these. It kind of convinces me that more trips into a bucks domain to check these cameras may definitely get more notice than I want.

As the season gets closer, I will move the cameras farther and farther away from any of my stands. Hopefully, I will stumble on to a pattern of how some of these bucks are moving into and through the area. sounds like a good plan. Time will tell if it all works out as I hope.

[Pat Rockets]

I hunt with a few people here..and my mommy has a camera also..our general rule of thumb is to keep mommys camera in the same locale, being its on a great bottleneck. The rest of the cameras move as the result of whats being photoed. I generally dont get too serious about the camera shots until late august/early september for i have beliefs that things change as the seasons do. Of course its all completely up to the camera owner! One great tip, find an apple tree, point the cam there...

[wooly]

I'M running 4 cams right now. I tend to check them and move them often...sometimes 3x's a week.

If I get a good buck showing up at a certain location with any kind of regularity, I'll leave that cam hang and move the other 3 to trails or edges surrounding that one spot. If I can catch a buck on 2 cams, it usually gives me a pretty idea of where he's coming from and what he's been doing before reaching my cams. Sometimes I'll have all 4 cams in a circle no bigger than 50yds across. When things cool off at a certain location, sometimes I'll simply expand my circle to catch where they're passing through now that they may be aware of the cams location and trying to avoid it.

Basicly, I like to keep them guessing and I'm just too impatient to leave them set in one spot for too long.

[dave6x6]

This is my usual plan. This time of year i'm set up on the outer fringes with the cameras simply giving me some entertainment value and the hopes of seeing something special. I"ll check them every 10 days or so and move them if i'm not seing bucks. Around Sept. i'll move them in toward some of my stands but not near bedding and will not check them at all until I'm on my way to that stand for the first hunt. I don't need to know whats on that camera before then because it won't change anything for me those first couple hunts and the risk of busting a buck out to check cameras is not worth it. At that time i'll pull all the cameras out again and set them on field edges or access trails i have to use quite often during the season anyway. The cameras are up taking pictures during the season but not anywhere near stands. I don't use the cameras for any hunting decisions during the season. For me, I like to get pictues of pre-season bucks but i feel pretty good about where they will end up eventually once the season gets going and i'll be seeing alot of bucks while in stand so the risks of flashing, clicking, stinkin' cameras to educate bucks is not worth it to me.

Edited July 9, 2012 by dave6x6

[Paula]

I put my camera out in april for entertainment i guess. I was amazed at the deer on there but they were all at night, i always thought they only used they land mostly as a cut through. 2nd week there was so many so i moved it. I was told i was wasting my time because with weather and crop and month deer change and i knew that but it was great seeing the deer. Then i moved it in the woods and i found 2 paths that they were using. one was and old one they decided to use again and that one was near where i had my blind at, and i wasn't going to use that corner this year, go figure. If i had money i would buy 2 more cameras but my thought was to put one near where my tree stand will go once the corn was down. so far what i have learned, and i know it most likely will change is that i am getting the deer in the woods during daytime hrs and are still using the bedding area and there is still water for them there also. What i need to figure out is how to get them to come out of the woods and pose for me while i am in my stand or how to get to my blind without chasing them all away. Sometimes i think that is where a hunting partner would come in handy.

[Paula]

spam spam hate it

[burmjohn]

Man they are creative. Nuking him.

[Paula]

wish i could nuke one of them

[Fantail]

How about a good 100 acre skeeter nuke.

Anyhow I haven't moved one cam since spring but the another twice since I got it. Going to move it one more time back to the store if the last go with it doesn't work.