When do you start.....

[moog5050]

26 minutes ago, Larry302 said:

Hunting naked with a spear is a dream of mine , that's pure hunting ! I have no doubt I could kill one with a spear as many pass by at 5 yards or so .

Hunting with you while you hunt naked with a spear is now a nightmare of mine.  Thanks Larry. 

[Pygmy]

I'd like to hunt naked with  Jennifer Nettles...

We could decide what weapons  are appropriate once we get in the woods

[ATbuckhunter]

I usually start in August. I usually go off previous years observations during the season since I don't live too close to where I hunt. 

[Nomad]

1 hour ago, moog5050 said:

Hunting with you while you hunt naked with a spear is now a nightmare of mine.  Thanks Larry. 

Ok is a deal !

[nyslowhand]

Typically I put out trail cams about mid-May. Little earlier this year due to DEC transplanting bears in my hunting vicinity. Like to see fawns and racks growing. Not a lot of other useful info from cams for fall hunting purposes. Do watch deer movements to try to get an idea where does are residing or if they have changed their historical travel patterns. Stands are generally s/u, relocated &/or shooting lanes trimmed by end of July. Whether it's a good practice or even sound common sense, after about Labor Day my intrusions in the hunting areas are very limited. Maybe once more in Sept to check cams and install any stand cushions or pads. Of course all this hunting prep work varies per individual according to proximity to hunting area and ability to make time in your social or work schedule. Careers do interfere with hunting! lol

[BizCT]

I just refresh batteries in a cam on Monday. Typically bucks in velvet first week in June but I don't add other cams till July/August


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[genesee_mohican]

I put out two cams on state land here in the last week. One on a trail that bobcats like to travel, in hopes of some good video of them, as well as deer and other critters. And another near a stand location that I want to keep tabs on, and has produced some good pics in the last few years. It's neat to pull the card two months from now and see a bucks antlers grow as he passes by each time in June and July, plus getting a picture or video of a bunch of other animals is always a thrill.

[growalot]

Quote

Believe it or not, I have 21 stands set in my 40 acre swamp.  lol

Nothing wrong with that...I have a few I haven't sat in ...in years...but I know they'll be there if I want them...I have the x-mas gift one to put up...I can't figure out where I want it.

I run cams year round ,just move them. Gives me an idea of what all animals ,including the local dogs are doing and yes trespassers thinking I'll just check things out off season, they'll never know...When the animals are here...like most of my yote sightings are late winter and spring. Skunk population is down and woodchucks have vacated our woods for the farmers hay field....Wild cat population is down ...fox way up...rabbits doing what rabbits do...ect,ect

[Grizz1219]

you guys are killing me!!!!! That's it... Cameras are going back out first chance I get to get out there.... Got to get my garden and lawn in shape since it was neglected during turkey season.. LOL

 

 

[Grizz1219]

12 hours ago, Larry302 said:

Hunting naked with a spear is a dream of mine , that's pure hunting ! I have no doubt I could kill one with a spear as many pass by at 5 yards or so .

I'm sure I'm not alone in this request but please, for the love of God, do not post pics..... LOL

[grampy]

This will be only our 3rd year running cams. It all started with a very esteemed member here,"phade", sending a couple cams to my grandsons. We put them out and had so much fun seeing the deer we got on cam, that I started to pick up more when I could. We have around 10 or 12 now! Hoping to maybe get one of those cams that send the pic's to your phone at some point this year! The picture of the buck I use for this forum, was one of the first decent bucks we got using that original cam. My grandson picked the spot to put it!!!  And I got the kill sequence of my buck last year from a cam I got from wooly! Each year we add more cams and do have fun seeing the critters we get on cam. 

[dg13126]

You traditional guys can't shoot as far, so you need your stands closer together...>....

9 stands over 127 acres is not to bad. Travel paths change with weather so does my location.


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[Larry]

I keep my cams up all year on the same trees till September I may change their direction from time to time but I keep them on the same tree. Then in September I’ll start putting them scrapes in video mode.

[Doc]

My hiking and scouting and observation at this time of year are great for checking populations and seeing what number and quality of deer are out there, but the truth is that the activity and patterns are constantly changing such that when fall hunting rolls around, the patterns are completely changed by the time I spend the first hunt in any stands. They are critters driven by the ever-changing elements of food and cover and early summer observations and stand building, seldom improve actual hunting success. The same is true (to a lesser extent) with deep winter scouting after the season has closed.

This is one of those activities where past performance often does indicate future results. Keep a good log book.

[wooly]

5 hours ago, Doc said:

My hiking and scouting and observation at this time of year are great for checking populations and seeing what number and quality of deer are out there, but the truth is that the activity and patterns are constantly changing such that when fall hunting rolls around, the patterns are completely changed by the time I spend the first hunt in any stands. They are critters driven by the ever-changing elements of food and cover and early summer observations and stand building, seldom improve actual hunting success. The same is true (to a lesser extent) with deep winter scouting after the season has closed.

This is one of those activities where past performance often does indicate future results. Keep a good log book.

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.

[nyslowhand]

On 6/3/2017 at 9:41 AM, wooly said:

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!

Yeah, I've been fortunate enough to take decent bucks the 1st week of Oct bow season in the SZ by knowing their late summer/early fall patterns. Swear I won't do it again, but if the opportunity presents itself may have no control..... Sitting through the remainder of bow season and the rut with your buck tag already punched is frustrating. Makes you think about staying home simply to remove any "temptation". LOL

[Doc]

I have found that deer are pretty much slaves to their food sources. That happens to be what ever wild resource that happens to be available at each time phase of the year. In other words the deer are not dining in the oak stands in June. They are not feeding on greens in the winter. They can change feeding patterns overnight when one source stops producing and another begins. The same thing happens when the changes in cover occur as a natural phase of the time of year. Bedding areas do change seasonally just as the feeding patterns do. And then of course there are the rut related changes in patterns unique to the Fall. Even changes in human patterns where massive changes in land use have occurred can make changes in deer patterns. I have always found that the most reliable and useful scouting occurs during or very near the season that will be used when deer movement patterns are most current and representative of what will be happening during hunting season.

[Daveboone]

never stop.

[Grizz1219]

You guys have me chomping at the bit to get my cameras back out... Damn garden is taking up my free time right now but I will be getting them back out as soon as I can!!!! LOL.. Anyone getting any fawn pics??? 

[LET EM GROW]

I don't like to put out cams until Mid Late July. when each buck is distinguishable and nearing fully "growed" ,, Though fawn pics are always nice, i just don't have the time to stay after cams right now. I know my property pretty well from hunting and using it over the last 2 decades. though it slightly changes year to year, the property I hunt next door was recently logged heavily so I'm sure things are going to change this year. But this year ill depend on cams mainly in the logged sections that way i can stay out for the most part and only pull cards occasionally and just observe from a distance. Though i did have to pull 3 stands for the loggers to get wood out. and without many decent trees left, tactics may change a bit there. lol 

[jman22]

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.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I will start putting cameras out this weekend, when I start work on the food plots. Scouting for hunting locations has already been done during the early winter, as their activity this time of the year is different from what it is in the fall. I keep an eye on food sources, which will be available in the fall, over the summer, and adjust some hunting strategies according to what is growing.

[Billdogge]

Started putting out already. Game on!

[NFA-ADK]

October 1st!  lol I would love to use the cams but would get kicked out after I posted the pics!  Personally I do not like the noise and how alert bucks can become to them when not done properly so I have been waiting for better ones to come out, still not impressed with them.  Eventually I will brake down and use them once I find ones I really like.

Only scouting I have done over the years is with the bow when they use to have Sep 27-30 open (Northern Zone) to use last years tags, with that change I no longer scout with the bow and use that time to hunt Long Island.

  I think its more fun to see the deer for the first time when hunting vs on my computer, plus if I found a brute I would probably stick to one property like my buddy did last year and not have as much fun chasing them!  We hunted one property for 3 months and it got real boring after a while.  So much for setting up 20+ stands on multiple properties, we used 4 on one lot for the season!  I won't get stuck in that rut again, lol.

 

[WNYBuckHunter]

2 minutes ago, NFA-ADK said:

October 1st!  lol I would love to use the cams but would get kicked out after I posted the pics!  Personally I do not like the noise and how alert bucks can become to them when not done properly so I have been waiting for better ones to come out, still not impressed with them.  Eventually I will brake down and use them once I find ones I really like.

Only scouting I have done over the years is with the bow when they use to have Sep 27-30 open (Northern Zone) to use last years tags, with that change I no longer scout with the bow and use that time to hunt Long Island.

  I think its more fun to see the deer for the first time when hunting vs on my computer, plus if I found a brute I would probably stick to one property like my buddy did last year and not have as much fun chasing them!  We hunted one property for 3 months and it got real boring after a while.  So much for setting up 20+ stands on multiple properties, we used 4 on one lot for the season!  I won't get stuck in that rut again, lol.

 

There are quite a few cameras available that, in my experience, dont alert deer at all. My Covert and Browning black flash cams are awesome. I have plenty of videos and pics that show mature bucks and does hanging out right in front of them without any spooking or negative reactions to the cameras being there. You just have to be careful about how and when you check them. You just have to do your research on which cams to use and how to use them.