sandbur
5 year old buck +
I have not used trail cameras for years and enjoy the anticipation of not knowing what is there. I do get some pictures from my neighbors. Constantly pulling cards is not a good idea for better deer hunting-buck or doe.
Mature buck summer home range issues
- Thread starter Peplin Creek
- Start date
I have not used trail cameras for years and enjoy the anticipation of not knowing what is there. I do get some pictures from my neighbors. Constantly pulling cards is not a good idea for better deer hunting-buck or doe.
Peplin Creek
5 year old buck +
Yeah for sure, I run a lot of cameras but I sometimes go months without checking certain ones because of this.
FarmerDan
5 year old buck +
I love my trail cameras! it's fun and a big part of the experience. I wonder, though, if the conclusions we draw from what we see are valid? Yes, there are specific steps for using camera's to do population surveys. Good procedure, but still filled with assumptions that may or may not be true. You get a good idea. Don't bet too much at the absolute accuracy. How much area can a trail camera cover in relation to a buck's home range? What are the odds a particular buck will step into that area? Baiting might help. To me, the odds still seem long. Every summer we see awesome bucks in bachelor groups - never to be seen again. In the rut, we see bucks we never saw on any one of the many trail cams we run. It's still lots of fun and occasionally those pictures can provide good intelligence very applicable to the previous period.
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Cameras are awesome tools for sure. But I use them with a grain of salt. I don't care where the bucks spend the summer, as long as they show up at my place in the fall...which they tend to do. Pulling cards all summer and giving cute pet names to the bucks so I have some history with them is just not what I am into. But I get it, for some documenting the bucks year round and seeing them on film is as important as the hunt itself. Just not my thing. Actually, I don't even run my cameras Jan. through August. I pull them inside and save the wear and tear.
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Usually have a bachelor group of 3 or so bucks visit my place from April through August, and then they go COMPLETELY MIA (at least from camera view) until the rut begins. First year or two it happened I thought for sure I wouldn't see any good bucks during hunting season but the week before gun season started scrapes showed up overnight under every field edge I've got. Of the bucks I've taken, I would say about 1 out of 3 were in the bachelor groups that had been hanging around in later spring and summer, but the other 2 out of 3 were new arrivals that showed up for the first time during rut.
On the other hand does and fawns never do the disappearing act, and increasingly keeping them happy on my ground year round has shifted to my focus with the knowledge if they largely stay put I'll have good buck traffic when the rut arrives... and count me in with Native Hunter on your situation possibly being a GOOD thing allowing for more habitat work without concern of spooking bucks too much prior to season.
On the other hand does and fawns never do the disappearing act, and increasingly keeping them happy on my ground year round has shifted to my focus with the knowledge if they largely stay put I'll have good buck traffic when the rut arrives... and count me in with Native Hunter on your situation possibly being a GOOD thing allowing for more habitat work without concern of spooking bucks too much prior to season.
g squared 23
5 year old buck +
I agree with above, you're running WAY too many cameras, probably trying to get a picture of a big buck, and you're doing more harm than good. Either switch to fewer cellular cams and cut it down to about 3 and check them just before the rut so you might know what's around.
I am a huge proponent of knowing whats around so you can make a better decision when the moment of truth arrives. But pics before September are fairly worthless, unless you're a scrapbooker in need of material.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I am a huge proponent of knowing whats around so you can make a better decision when the moment of truth arrives. But pics before September are fairly worthless, unless you're a scrapbooker in need of material.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Peplin Creek
5 year old buck +
I would agree I probably run more cameras than are needed. But I contribute a lot of my success and knowledge I have gained of my property and through my hunting career to trail cameras. Things from understanding what food source is hot at what time of year, to certain stand sites being ice cold until the rut when it becomes the top spot on the property. I actually do use them to know when I should stay out of area as well. Or the scrape that goes from 100's of pics in a week to 15 because the seeking phase has started. Also during the rut it's seems like 10:00am - 2:00pm seems to be ideal for traveling mature bucks. There are just so many things that have helped speed up the learning curve I have a hard time reducing them.
With all of that said, I can clearly see the point your making though. Anytime I am stepping into the woods to check them it's a big risk and one maybe the bucks have caught onto or maybe they have just found better habitat else where.
gwm
5 year old buck +
I run my fair share of cams and am on the property almost every weekend from March to mid August.
We usually will get a couple 3.5 or older on camera in the summer months. Some years we get a lot of pics and some years it's here and there. I don't change my habits up a whole lot so some must tolerate me more than others!
It's nice to get summer pics but I don't sweat it too much. If things started to change for us in the fall then I would look at doing things differently.
We usually will get a couple 3.5 or older on camera in the summer months. Some years we get a lot of pics and some years it's here and there. I don't change my habits up a whole lot so some must tolerate me more than others!
It's nice to get summer pics but I don't sweat it too much. If things started to change for us in the fall then I would look at doing things differently.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Great Links!
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
The only validated protocol for conducting a trail camera census that I know of is the FRWC protocol: http://fwrc.msstate.edu/pubs/deer.pdf
Because I don't want to use bait given the disease transmission risks of point source attractants, I turned to black flash cameras over small fields less than a quarter acre. They help a lot in terms of keeping bias out of the data, but there is no validated protocol for conducing an absolute census. I'm less concerned about absolute numbers than trending data from year to year. I'm running 11 cameras over 378 acres which is around 30 acres per camera. This is a much higher density than the FRWC baited surveys and I run them for a much longer duration. They are wireless cameras on solar panels in fixed positions, so there is zero disturbance for data collection. I run one survey from Jan-April (our season ends in early Jan). This is a "survival" survey that tells me how many deer survived the hunting season regardless of sex. The second survey I run during the month of September, just before our archery season begins. It is our "recruitment" survey showing the number of does (both survivors and those that immigrated to fill the holes left by last seasons harvest), bucks, and fawns. We trend this data year over year.
Thakns,
Jack
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Agreed. Fascinating. Thanks for those links.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Bill,
I'm using the older BuckeyeCam Orion series as my primary network. They have higher powered radios but were more expensive than the newer X-series. I do have one of the X-80s that I've been testing since they first came out. I'm sure that eventually I won't be able to get the Orion's fixed as parts become obsolete (not that I've had camera related failures yet). So, I've been playing around with the X-80 to see what I'll need to change in the network when I'm eventually forced to change.
Here is a link to an old thread. It has the first hand experiences of a number of folks that got the X-series, the good, the bad, and the ugly: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/x7ds-are-in-transferred-from-qdma-forums.5724/
One thing to note is that the first release, the X7D used a radio that was so low in power that operational distances were not really practical. I think this was part of trying to get into a higher volume price point. They soon realized the issue and came out with an upgrade with a higher power radio (X80) that made it more useable. These are still not close to the power of the older Orion series.
Also, keep in mind that RF transmission is not for the faint of heart. If you have good line of sight, the BECs are pretty much plug and play, but if you have terrain and vegetation issues and need to install larger antennas like I did, there is a lot to consider. I have several threads on here discussing issues with my network including antenna mast construction and such that may be worth a look if you go this route.
This thread may also be useful for folks considering the Cuddeback system in that it shows the growing pains of a new private network wireless system that even a company with success in that arena had and the kind of issues to watch out for.
Thanks,
Jack
j-bird
Moderator
I don't have mature bucks on my property until the rut. Just the way it is. I simply lack the depth of cover to house doe family groups and have enough space after that to house bucks. The does stay for the cover and food and the bucks come in November looking for the does. There really isn't much I can do about it without grossly converting my row crop fields to cover and loosing the income from those fields. Every property is different and has it's limitations.....you have to learn how the deer use your place and why and then figure out how best to work WITH what you have and how and when to take the most advantage. Our properties are not islands. Deer will come and go as they please.
CedarSwamp
5 year old buck +
We run cameras on our property and our neighbors who are older. Our properties are almost identical, but theirs is more remote and they always have tons of bucks in the summer and we have far less. It's also interesting that most every buck we get pics of on our property will show up on the cameras on their property, but there are lots of bucks that show up on their cameras that we never get pics of on our property. I really think the remoteness makes a big difference for most summer bucks.
I have really enjoyed getting summer pics of bucks and trying to harvest them right in the beginning of bow season before they change their patterns. Patterning a buck prior to the rut is a lot of fun. I can see why you would love to get bucks using your property in the summer and beginning of bow season. I don't have many answers to your question. What I have seen help the most attracting bucks in early season would be soybeans. In areas by us that traditionally don't have a lot of summer bucks beans have made them come in! For early bowseason beans and alfalfa seem to trump corn by us for early bow season. Corn moves up the list as the season drags on.
So maybe reducing some pressure on the property and planting soybeans or other plots that are primary food sources for late summer/early bow season would be the trick!
I like that you're looking for answers to improve your early season hunting....that's half the fun!
I have really enjoyed getting summer pics of bucks and trying to harvest them right in the beginning of bow season before they change their patterns. Patterning a buck prior to the rut is a lot of fun. I can see why you would love to get bucks using your property in the summer and beginning of bow season. I don't have many answers to your question. What I have seen help the most attracting bucks in early season would be soybeans. In areas by us that traditionally don't have a lot of summer bucks beans have made them come in! For early bowseason beans and alfalfa seem to trump corn by us for early bow season. Corn moves up the list as the season drags on.
So maybe reducing some pressure on the property and planting soybeans or other plots that are primary food sources for late summer/early bow season would be the trick!
I like that you're looking for answers to improve your early season hunting....that's half the fun!
