Posts Tagged ‘trail cams’

4 Seasonal Trail Camera Techniques

November 5th, 2017 by BTC Editor

Trail Cameras have become a big part of the modern hunters scouting strategies. But many fall short by not putting in the time to scout and find new places to put their trail cameras. These 4 simple trail camera techniques will help you get more pictures of your monster bucks.

EARLY SEASON

 

As the bucks begin to grow and racks begin to form, it is time to put trail cameras up on popular mineral sites. The nutrients deer need can be found in these minerals for the growth of antlers and milk production of fawns. This is a great place to determine deer density and take an early season inventory of your deer herd.

 

PRE-RUT

 

This time of year, bucks shed their velvet and their testosterone levels begin to rise. When scrapes and rubs become more visible, it is time to move your trail cameras. Scrapes are a great place to find mature bucks looking for receptive does. Most bucks visit scrapes in the cover of darkness, but are easy to get great pictures of.

 

RUT

 

When the does start to come into heat, bucks really start to move. As bucks begin to seek does, food sources become a hot spot for deer activity. By putting a trail camera on the edge of a field, you are likely to get pictures of bucks checking for receptive does. Also helping to show where and what time they enter the field.

 

POST-RUT

 

As the rut winds down, bucks begin showing the toll of heavy rut activity. Low body weights and broken, beat up bodies, bucks become slaves to their stomachs. This is the time of year that corn stations or late season food plots become key trail camera spot. These pictures can help you find out what bucks made it through the season and ones to write off the hit list.

 

Blog originally posted on The Break TV blog by team member Stephen Jones.

Late Season Trail Camera Placement

December 11th, 2016 by BTC Editor

As deer season is winding down and will soon be coming to an end, now is the perfect time to re-position your trail cameras and change your game plan for hunting late season whitetail bucks. As the seasons change, so does a whitetail’s pattern as they shift their focus from the rut to food once again. Here are a couple of tips on trail camera setup and placement to help you get the most out of your cameras before deer season closes.

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Camera Location: Pinch Points and Travel Corridors

While I move most of my cameras to new locations post-rut, I still like to leave one or two at prior locations like pinch points, known deer trails and travel corridors to catch any bucks that may still be out cruising for does. As the fawns come into estrous late in the season, often referred to as the “Second Rut”, these locations are great for catching buck movement in the daylight. It appears to me that is exactly what is going on in the next series of pictures.

1632:120416:45F:0000:ANDI :2E[097:0494]G[024:0x0016]

 

1700:120416:45F:0000:ANDI :2E[099:0453]G[024:0x0016] 1704:120416:45F:0000:ANDI :2E[097:0494]G[024:0x0016]

 

My Setup

When placing my cameras at the above locations, I like to set them up on burst mode to make sure I don’t miss any deer activity. For example, say I had my camera set up to take a picture every 5 seconds, but in normal mode. If this buck would have been trailing this fawn right on its tail, I may not have gotten a picture of him. In burst mode the camera takes several images, one after another, before stopping to reset.

 

Camera Location: Food Sources

Moving trail cameras to the remaining food sources is a good strategy for late season scouting. By now most of the acorns have either rotted or been eaten, so I like to move more of my cameras from the woods to our food plots in the fields. We have a couple of fields planted in winter wheat, clover and chicory, and another one planted in turnips. These have proven year after year to be the hot spots on our property for hunting late season bucks, and this year is no different! After checking my cameras this weekend, this buck has shown up in the daylight hours almost every day in one of our wheat and chicory plots.

 

1440:120616:52F:0000:HAAS :2E[142:0070]G[008:0x0006] 1615:120816:29F:0000:HAAS :2E[140:0076]G[008:0x0006]

 

My Setup

The Timelapse mode on my Browning Trail Cameras is perfect for watching bigger open areas, like our food plots. For the most part, we know where our deer are entering this field, which is why I put this camera where I did. But, deer will often be in that same location and you’d never know it because they are too far away to trigger the camera. Timelapse Mode solves that problem since it can capture game at 200+ yards away. Plus, you can easily view a full day’s worth of pictures in just minutes, thanks to the Buck Watch Timelapse Viewer Plus software that is included with every Browning Trail Camera.

If you still have a deer tag you’re trying to fill, utilize your trail cameras as best you can. They are a deer hunter’s most valuable scouting tool! I shot my biggest buck to date on the last day of Missouri’s 2014 archery season as he was making his way into our turnip plot. Had I not been watching and patterning him with my trail cameras, I may have picked a different stand in that food plot and missed my chance at him.

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Aside from avoiding tag soup, there are other benefits to keeping your trail cameras out during late season. Use them to help take inventory of what deer survived the season, determine your buck to doe ratio, and age of your deer. Looking over this season’s pictures, as well as pictures from prior season, will help you determine your game plan for next season. Another benefit to keeping your cameras set up so late in the year is to aid with shed hunting. Once you start getting pictures of bucks dropping their antlers, you’ll have a better idea of when and where to start looking for sheds.

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Deer season isn’t over until it’s over, so if you’ve already taken down your game cameras for the year, I recommend getting them back out! The above late season trail camera locations and setups have helped me fill my deer tags in the past. Even if I don’t fill my archery tags this year, I have already gained some valuable information to carry over into next season, thanks to my Browning Trail Cameras!

 

By Andrea Haas

Andrea Haas is a Pro-Staffer from Missouri who enjoys hunting deer, turkeys, and upland birds. She is also the founder of the Huntress View, an organization formed to help strengthen the ever growing community of women hunters.