Christmas in Summer: Whitetail Trail Cam Data
What would you say if I told you I have that Christmas morning, "kid in a candy store" feeling all summer long?
I do and it's because on our properties we run trail cams. Motion activated cameras strategically placed over food sources and heavily traveled trails are more exciting to check than tightly wrapped gifts on a snowy December morning for this whitetail addict.
The anticipation of finding out what is on that SD card after you let your camera "soak" for weeks at a time is almost too much to bear. But be careful, it doesn't take much to do more harm than good when patience isn't practiced.
CONS:
Hunting Pressure!! This is what we believe is the number one cause to why hunters fail to harvest their bucks every year. Hunting pressure is not just during the season. It's a year round effect. We refer to the big bucks we pursue as ghosts, one encounter with a human and they disappear for weeks at a time and begin to venture away from the area they currently call home. Yea you might still be getting pictures of that buck you have been watching on camera all summer long in your food plot, but are they now only during night? Is that because he has moved his home to your neighbor's property and its taking longer to get to your food plot? Our biggest mistakes as hunters is often underestimating the effects of hunting or trail cam checking pressure as the excitement of the hunting season grows. You will gain nothing by checking your trail cams too often during the summer and more harm than good is often done. Your best opportunities for checking your cameras are midday while other land management work must be done such as setting stands, maintaining food plots, or creating entry points.
PROS:
Why put out trail cams on your property? The number one answer is simple:
Come deer season would you pass on this guy?
What if it meant you could have a shot at our 180" nightmare buck named Brutus?
Or what if I told you this is the same buck!? Throughout the past years he has been frequenting our farm causing sleepless nights and missed shot opportunities. In fact we have over 40 pictures of him cataloging 5 years worth of movement across our farm. And we have reason to believe he lives to this day.
The first step to building a better deer herd on your property is understanding the age class of the deer that call it home. This will help you recognize the bucks you would harvest and which ones would be best let go for later years. It is great to have this information before the moment of truth because as everyone knows, when he's staring you down at 25 yards, your judgement tends to be a little skewed.
Other advantages to running trail cams during the summer months will be discussed in future blogs including: identifying trespassers, analyzing fawn recruitment rates, tallying doe populations to plan early season harvest efforts to keep sex ratios in check, and last but not least at The Process Outdoors we always make a point to take the kiddos along for the journey. They love Christmas too.
If you have one, or one hundred cams, we encourage you to get them out in the next few weeks, scouting efforts start early in the summer and if you practice some patience, trail cams can be a great way to gather data of bucks on your properties as well as eliminate human intrusion into your well groomed whitetail paradise.
