game camera tips | Buck Manager

Game Camera Tips for Deer Hunters

Earlier this week I touched on how game cameras and deer management go hand in hand. Not only do digital scouting cameras work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week taking photos of deer on your property, but they also give you a good idea of quality. What could be easier? Here we go.

Camera Placement – I’ve written extensively regarding tips for camera placement, so I won’t go into as much detail here. However, for the beginners out there, the easiest way to photos of white-tail deer is to have something that attracts them. Food, minerals, and water are obvious and good choices. However, although these sites are great for getting deer photos they may not necessarily be the best for collecting deer survey data using your camera.

Game Camera Tips for Deer Hunters

Rechargeable Batteries – This sounds simple, but you can save yourself some heartache and money if you pay attention here. Digital cameras (and make sure you are using digital) are great because they can work around the clock. The problem is that they are motion activated and that requires power.

Each time they are activated and take a photo, the camera uses battery power. This increases with photos taken in the dark. The more photos you take, the more battery power you will need. Invest in rechargeable and be done.

Solar Panels – You have to love the sun! Sure, it’s not all that great when your sweating your butt off setting up feeders and stands in late summer/early fall, but it can take your game camera to the next level. If at all possible, buy a camera that allows you to hook up a solar panel. If you already have a camera, get it converted so that it will work with a solar panel. Then, when you get the chance to check your camera, all you have to do is change out the SD card.

Pattern Bucks with Game Cameras

Time and Date-This a no brainer, but many hunters fail to set the time and date when they place out there cameras. Or when placed out, the user simply fails to set the time. Let me tell you, it is extremely frustrating when you check your photos and the times are wrong. Make sure to set the date and time because it, if nothing else, it will give you the exact time when animals were in the area, regardless of whether they return or not.

Locks – Scouting cameras are not cheap. Even the cheapest cameras aren’t cheap enough to just give away. If you place your camera in an area where someone could steal it or if you even suspect that someone could take it, make sure it is lockable. Option number two is to buy an after-market locking system that works with your camera. It’s very exciting to get a nice photo of a monster buck, but it’s also exciting when you arrive to check your camera and it’s gone. It’s just a different kind of excitement.

Game Cameras and Deer Management

For as long as I’ve been fascinated with deer and deer hunting I have wondered about those big nocturnal bucks that no doubt walked across the land where I hunted. That was a long time ago, even before I knew “nocturnal” was a word. Cameras are great for “capturing” the deer on a property, but they also help with white-tailed deer management.

Nowadays, we don’t have to worry as much about the big whitetail bucks that “might” be out there because game cameras help us do a much more thorough job of scouting prior to and during the deer hunting season. I said “as much,” because there always seems to be bucks that elude everything, including cameras (pays to be scent-free when setting out your cameras).

Game Cameras for Scouting Deer

Using Game Cameras for Deer

Using a game camera can be fun and exciting. However, looking back at my first couple of years of using a camera, it was not at all what I had hoped it would be. Sure, I saw some bucks. That’s cool. Some were even better than what I had observed during daylight hours, but nothing like the images that haunted my dreams.

I think deer hunters as a group are very optimistic. How could be get up at the butt-crack of dawn, walk ourselves out into the dark, sit for hours upon hours in adverse weather conditions, and just hope to see a deer if we were not, right? We also want to believe that there is the potential for a “booner” on any given hunt.

Patterning Deer with My Camera

My first season with a game camera was mediocre. The camera proved time and time again that the same spike, 8-point buck, 5 does, and 3 fawns visited the are everyday at about the same time. In addition, an occasional “rogue” buck or two would be spotted overnight, but nothing to write home about. There was no freak nasty.

As it turns out, there really weren’t any big, magical bucks that sneaking through the habitat found on the property I hunted. The bucks I thought lived there, in reality, were not there at all!

Were they hanging out on the neighbors property? What was I doing wrong that swamp donkeys weren’t showing up on camera? Did their patterns include areas of the property where I didn’t have cameras. I moved cameras all over, but no massive bucks appeared.

Managing Deer Hunting Expectations with a Camera

Then I thought about it. If I’m not getting photos of quality bucks at night or at different parts of the property (at any time), then there are not any quality bucks to be found. It’s not that I’m not seeing them, then these whitetail bucks simply do not exists, are not found in the area!

The fact of the matter is if you (like me back then) aren’t seeing any good bucks on your trail camera, then it’s not that you’re having a problem seeing the bucks, it’s just that they do not exists. They aren’t on the property. They likely aren’t on your neighbors property either, or at least in close proximity.

In this case, what I had and what you may have, is a deer management problem. It could even be as simple as a deer hunting problem, where young bucks are being harvested well before maturity. If the only bucks you’re seeing on game camera are yearling and 2 1/2 year old bucks then it’s time to take a hard look at the activities on the property.

There are not many monster 2 1/2 year old whitetail bucks running around. I submit that there are none.

Game camera tips to get your buck!

More Deer Management with Cameras

You can use game camera photos to estimate buck to doe ratios, annual fawning success, and the quality of the bucks on your property, but it also gives you snap-shot after snap-shot of what your overall deer management plan (or lack thereof) is doing for you on a piece of property.

Not even the best trail camera can find something that is not there. Later this week I will talk more about game cameras and even include a few more game camera tips for keeping track of the white-tailed deer on your hunting grounds. Until then, keep your hooks sharp and your ammo dry.

More Game Camera Tips for Hunters

Now that you have decided on the best locations to monitor with your game camera, you will need to know a few tips to help make sure that you get quality deer photos. With that goal in mind, when at all possible point the camera toward the north. Not on will placing the game camera in this position greatly reduce the chance of the camera getting triggered by the sun, but it will reduce back-lighting on your subject and give you much better deer photos.

Likewise, placing the game camera in areas of heavy tree cover will also help prevent the mid-day sun from accidentally triggering the sensor. So, if you want to take better photos in a relatively open area, face the camera north. If you are trying to pattern deer using a game camera in a heavily wooded area, any direction will work.

Next, it’s important that you accurately measure the distance from the trail camera to where you expect deer to travel. If the camera is set back too far, then the sensor might not trigger and the camera will miss the shot. Of course, having a deer cross too closely is equally bad since the camera will only capture part of the deer as it passes by — or totally miss the deer all together! Continue reading “More Game Camera Tips for Hunters”

Trail Camera Tips for Deer Hunting

The digital game camera really has given hunters one of the best scouting tools available for white-tailed deer and other game, but most users fall short of using their camera to its potential. The game camera can be a great tool for seeing what’s out there, but like any tool, it must be used properly for the user to get the full benefit of using the “hunter that never sleeps.”

First and foremost, a digital game camera will let you see many of the bucks you have available for harvest in the area where you hunt. Most of the bucks you probably would have never seen otherwise. The most common practice employed by game camera users is to set a camera adjacent to their feeder or food plot. Although this usually gets hunters lots of pictures, all it really tells you what deer are present.

You’re probably thinking, “Well, if I know a certain buck is coming to my feeder, then I will just sit there and wait for him.” But, if you really intend for the camera to help you not only get a look at your deer, but also want it to help you bag “your” buck, then you will have to get a bit more creative, so pay attention. Continue reading “Trail Camera Tips for Deer Hunting”