Trail cam slow down

[fadetoblack188]

My trail cam pics have really slowed down as far as activity on them goes.  Doesn’t anyone else have this issue as October approaches?

 

this sucks 

[doebuck1234]

13 minutes ago, fadetoblack188 said:

My trail cam pics have really slowed down as far as activity on them goes.  Doesn’t anyone else have this issue as October approaches?

 

this sucks 

Went from having 15+ pics weekly the past 2 months or so to 3 pics this last pull(this past friday).first year having cam out at this time of year so cant base it off previous year's 

[Bow sniper]

Acorns are dropping and there moving habitats are changing won’t b long until it picks up a gear

[Robhuntandfish]

20 minutes ago, fadetoblack188 said:

My trail cam pics have really slowed down as far as activity on them goes.  Doesn’t anyone else have this issue as October approaches?

 

this sucks 

Mine usually is in reverse. Not many bucks til season. They def change patterns.  This year I have only one buck on cam at both places I hunt .  Which is unusual but it usually pics up mid oct. 

Last year at spot in 6S had hardly any bucks cam but ended up with my best ever and saw another big one in muzzle. 

I always hope to have does and take one early for the freezer then hope they draw the bucks in. 

[fadetoblack188]

Alright hopefully this is just a bad week and picks up again 

[G-Man]

Some slow down others pick up.. food source change is part of it, bucks carving out their own range is another as bachelor groups break up. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

Is it possible that repeatedly checking the cams has pushed the activity away from them? I worry about that


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[G-Man]

7 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

Is it possible that repeatedly checking the cams has pushed the activity away from them? I worry about that


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I check several of mine ever 2 or 3 days getting 500 to 1500 pics per cam in that time frame. Imo depends on where the cam is located and how easy it is for access to check, walking down a deer trail or thru brush would be a bad thing

[bhunterED]

They are changing patterns. They will hit the acorns if available over most anything else, if you have the cans on another food source they'll be back once the acorns are depleted and may even bring others with them.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Patterns start changing right around now. One of the reasons I dont put a ton of faith in summer time pics or patterns. I have a couple of cams set in places where the summer patterns bring them, and others in typical fall pattern areas. Ive been seeing the transition between the cam sites recently as well.

[fadetoblack188]

This is only based on my once cell cam. I’m going to go out and check my regular cams tomorrow in the same area, hopefully there is a lot of traffic on them. 

 

Hopefully

[Iluvracks1359]

Same here, very little pics over the last two weeks, one spot is a lone apple tree on the edge of a farm field.. they hit it hard daily, but the apples are running thin and not many pics, other spot is mixed area, field and hardwoods and completely stopped dead for the last two weeks. . . Had deer there almost every day

I suspect action will pick back up soon

[fadetoblack188]

Going to check the other cams in the area today. I am hoping better results then the cell cam, but I don’t have high hopes. 

 

What do you do if the other cams also slow down. Move your stand? Or stick it out and hope it pics up

[Bolt action]

Same stuff is happening in my neck of the woods. Had a card pull on the 8/24 that showed lots of activity. Probably 800 pictures of actual animals (as opposed to wind blowing branches around) from the prior 2 weeks. When I pulled on 9/7 though I had very little deer activity. Mostly turkeys racoons does and fawns. Just a handful of bucks. I've been reading up on this baiting thread and think I might give it a shot! 

[fadetoblack188]

Ugh so my card pull was lame today.  Hoping it pics up again and those bucks comes back. 

 

My two shooters not on cam once this week

[nyslowhand]

Annual event - velvet comes off, the bucks don't like each other, bachelor groups break-up, infrequent solitary buck cam photos and eventually mostly nocturnal photos. Early estrous does in Oct bring out some of the smaller bucks into the daylight. Then around about the Halloween time frame the big boys begin to circulate a little more & a few daytime sightings occur. Obviously the main rut brings out all the bucks into daylight hours that you've been seeing on cams and some more never seen before. FYI - Just because the BBs have been around a specific area during the summer does NOT always mean you'll ever see them while hunting. Sorry, sad truth! This is a "rule of thumb" pattern I've seen over the years, but obviously there will be exceptions to this behavior pattern.

[fadetoblack188]

So you think I’m going to start getting more nighttime photos of bucks in the near future?  

 

Then em eventually end of the month they make start working back into day light. 

 

Wonder why why people hunt early oct if they are so unpredictable / not around 

[nyslowhand]

Although these fall (Oct) patterns "typically" happen, there are exceptions... Always the possibility of a BB going to a large agr food source at dusk or returning to his hidey-hole at dawn. Lot of hunters try to key-in on known BB hide-outs waiting for one to venture out in the daylight hours. Some hunters try to s/u along known rub lines when they begin to do that activity.

Why hunt Oct..? Hell, we all have been sitting around for ~11 months dreaming of hunting deer again. Invested a lot of effort/$$ into scouting, preparing stands, food plots etc for the upcoming deer season. Hard to restrain those urges if only with the slightest possibility of encountering a BB. Does are your best natural attractant for bucks, so if you keep track of their seasonal activity - where the girls are the boys will show up! This causes a lot of controversy among hunters, shooting does in Oct. IF... I were going to put a doe in the freezer, Oct is an ideal time for me. Personal preference!

Sounds like you may be a somewhat new deer hunter..!?! Lot of other hunters are willing to offer advice/ You need to know how to pick n choose what is suggested and how it might apply to your specific hunting area. Not an easy task for a newbie!! So, my 2¢, get a few years of hunting under your belt and you'll have a better understand of whatz going on in your area, at what times and how to interpret cam activity. Sorry, I have no "how to get a BB now" secret.

For people with questions like you have, wouldn't it be nice if the NYDEC posted a past deer season's harvest report by date AND by sex of deer reported.Maybe there is one, I'm just not aware of it! Closest I've seen is below & scroll down to pg16. The 2018 deer harvest, per day, but only as a total of all reported and not shown as by sex harvested. 

https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/2018deerrpt.pdf

[G-Man]

7 hours ago, fadetoblack188 said:

Wonder why why people hunt early oct if they are so unpredictable / not around 

Because if you do find them you tend to find them all. Many large bucks are shot beginning of season, takes a lot of scouting as they are bulking up on preferred food in preparation for rut.. if you dont know what and where it is as it changes day by day then you are in the october lull ...While rut hunting is simply being there as the love struck buck chase through.. in early.season you cant really make any mistakes as bucks are on alert for rivals as they bulk up, late you could be doing jumping Jack's if the buck is occupied with a doe and its oblivious ...

Edited September 21, 2019 by G-Man

[fadetoblack188]

Not a new hunter by any means just really the first time trying to pattern them and scout them and trail cams and what not.  I have always just gone and picked a spot and hope for the best. I have shot many deer. I just never gave any care to actually scout them.

Now I have more time/money/etc 

So now I want to like work for it not. Like have that sense of success that I’ve been tracking this deer for months and pics of him and bam now I got him ya know? 

 

Trying to really learn the sport instead of just doing the sport. If that makes sense. 

Edited September 21, 2019 by fadetoblack188

[nyslowhand]

For decades I hunted the way you use to, hope for the best. Today I have cams out, do lots of stand prep work and even keep a journal for historical patterns, sightings, etc. Not convinced either way is exponentially better than the other.

[G-Man]

So I have several cams today that were very hot 2164 photos in a week and my hottest.cams that were 800 or so a week dropped to 400 or so lots of daylight bug buck photos on the 18 19 20 .. 7 to 830 am ,the big  bucks I was getting in velvet have now relocated to an apple orchard 2500 ft away and are in hard horn feasting on apples.. fortunately it's all my property.. so just cause your cameras went dead in one spot they have simply moved. In my case heavier cover and prefered food is what they moved too. 

[Zag]

I've got cams at each end of the plot, over 1500 between the 2, lots of day time buck pic's, most pics are day time.

[fadetoblack188]

Ugh my cams have been dead. 

 

Im going to head out Wednesday’s and lay some buck urine scent on some wicks see if I can get anything to take interest maybe bring something back around