Outdoor Logic with BioLogic

15 Trail Camera “Views”

Information Collection Solution

Now that there are some discernible antlers on top of the bucks’ heads, it’s time to get those trail cameras working overtime. Much can be learned about our herd, and the data may help us in harvesting a mature buck this fall. “Information” about deer movements and, more specifically, the habits of a buck you’re after, can be the most important parts of a successful hunt. This information is also vital in making sound management decisions. Give these ideas a try to get the most from your trail cameras: #1 - To begin, choose the right camera. To me, the three most important features are a quality lens, an effective infrared flash and a quiet shutter. You may also want other features like better resolution, timelapse, burst mode, video, password protection or builtin viewer. It all depends upon your personal needs, but like most things … you get what you pay for. #2 - Mind the angle of the sun. The best daylight images will usually have the sun at the camera’s back or angled from the side. As a general rule, place the camera southerly of your target. At times you may get away with facing your cameras toward the sun; it depends upon the angle to the sun. It’s really the sunrise and sun set that you should try to avoid. However, if you have a nicer camera, sometimes you can achieve some beau tiful effects by catching some of the sun in your image.

As a general rule, you’ll want to set your camera with the sun at its back or from the side. However, with some nicer cameras, at times you can capture beautiful images by allowing the sun behind the subject(s). (Photo Credit: Dave Medvecky)

#3 - Your camera should have a clear view of

your target area. Remove all obstructions and cut branches, weeds and twigs out of the way. Make sure your lens and infrared flash have a clear path to the target area. If a sunbathed branch is blowing in the breeze in front of the camera’s sensors, you’ll have an SD card full of “buckless” images.

#4 - Shoot a test photo/video so you know it’s

framed properly. If your camera has a built-in viewer, this will be easy, but you don’t want your camera to capture just legs or half a set of antlers. Consider using a digital picture viewer or a small digital camera so you can check over your photos in the field.

#5 - Instead of trying to capture animals passing straight across the camera’s path, try to angle

the camera to the trail. Trigger speeds have come a long way, but if you’re covering a trail or a passage where the animals come through quickly, it’s best to angle rather than placing it perpendicular to the trail. If at a right-angle and the animal passes through the sensor area traveling fast, you may only have an image of a hind-end or nothing at all.

#6 - Deter camera crooks by concealing the camera, securing it to a tree, hanging it in a hard to reach spot or placing it in a locked steel box.

First, use some common sense; don’t hang your camera in an obvious location like next to a feeder, at a gate opening or along a walking trail. Oftentimes, trespassers will take or destroy them so there’s no evidence of their unscrupulous act. Find a less obvious spot and camouflage the camera into the surroundings. A friend of mine carves out a cavity in a log or stump for the camera.

I like to place my cameras on a tripod and I will camouflage both the camera and the tripod with ghillie yarn. I believe it is easy to locate a “horizontal camera strap” around a tree with “vertical bark patterns.” I doubt that I’m hiding very much from the sophisticated nose of a whitetail; my goal is to hide it from the vision of people who shouldn’t be there in the first place.

One of the best ways to discourage theft is to hang the camera out of reach. Bring a climbing stick section or a couple tree-steps to help hang the camera too high to reach. If you hang it high, you may need to place a wedge behind the camera to angle it downward to the target area.

Security chains and cables work well to deter most, but sometimes if a “camera-pinching jerk” can’t take the camera, they destroy it. If a resolute crook wants the camera, they seem to find a way – unfortunately, a pair of bolt-cutters fits in a backpack.

A “time-lapse” feature takes photos at predetermined intervals and works great for covering larger areas like food plots or agricultural fields. (Photo Credit: Dave Medvecky)

#7 - Take advantage of your “time-lapse fea

ture.” This means the camera is triggered at predetermined time intervals rather than movement through the sensor area. Time-lapse is a great feature for covering food plots, agricultural fields or any large open area. If you can’t figure out which trails deer are most often using to access a food source, time-lapse can teach you. #8 - Use scent for a stopper. Create a “sign-post” in a spot where there is obvious animal traffic. It doesn’t need to be whitetail scent; fox or coon urine are two of my favorites. Most animals want to “claim their territory” and often stop to urinate over the last animals’ deposits, letting the others know, “I live here, too.” A sign post can stop them so they pose for the photo.

Not only can scent get them to “pose,” but it can also attract them from a distance. A little Trail’s End #307 or Golden Buck will work during early season or after the rut, and Special Golden Estrus is perfect during late October through November. Place the scent on a Key-Wick and then put it on a branch or twig about four feet off the ground.

Scent can not only help “pose” bucks for a picture, it can also help attract them from a distance. A camera set at a mock scrape location is one of the best ways to get an inventory of all the bucks in an area. (Photo Credit: Paul Marion)

#9 - Develop a system for filing your photos.

A property manager should be good at keeping records. Trail camera photos help to gather information on mature bucks, document trends over time, and there is no better way to determine density, buck-to-doe ratio or age structure of your herd. Nowadays, a property manager can collect 200,000 images or more in one season, so it’s important to find a way to organize your images so you can find them to recap. #10 - Find the sweet spot. Most cameras will claim they are good to a certain range, when in reality they stink at their maximum touted limit. Set them close enough to your target to get good nighttime illumination on the subject from your infrared flash.

#11 - If theft isn’t an issue, get some lightweight, small rubber cords (bungee-cord) with

hooks at each end. The straps some manufacturers give you to fasten a small camera to a tree could double for a tug-strap to pull a vehicle out of a ditch and take two people to get around the tree. Otherwise, with mounting systems like the “Stake Out” or “Stic-n-Pic,” you don’t need a tree at all. Some trail-cams will work with a regular camera tripod. I prefer this method – I can essentially set a camera anywhere. There are numerous other mounting options, but it’s nice to have something simple and quick.

Find a fast, easy way to hang/set your camera. Small “bungee-cords” work well for quickly hanging cameras around trees, but the author actually favors small tripods because they can essentially be placed anywhere. (Photo Credit: Todd Amenrud)

#12 - How and when you should check your

cameras depends upon many factors. In some instances you may want to check them every day or two. Under other scenarios you may want to wait a week to 10 days or more before you check them. Variables would be the time of year, location of the camera(s), what you’re trying to accomplish, how you’re check

ing them, weather conditions and more. The idea is to check or move your cameras when you will disturb the deer the least.

#13 - Use your cameras to “back-track bucks.”

If a buck is showing up at a food plot or feeding station after dark and you don’t have good tracking conditions, use your trail camera to track down its origin. The closer you get to their core area, the better your chances for a shot during legal shooting light. The key is to keep your cameras moving. A buck may simply walk 5 feet out of your camera’s sensor area, so keep repositioning them.

#14 - If you’re getting photos of deer looking at the camera, they’re either seeing your infrared flash or they’re hearing the shutter trigger.

Try hanging it high to keep it above a whitetail’s normal line of sight. About as high as you can reach usually works (about seven to eight feet). Again, you may need to place a wedge behind the camera to angle it down to the target area. If they’re still looking at the camera, you probably need to spend a little more on a better camera

with a quieter shutter.

If you happen to get images of deer looking directly at the camera, it may mean the camera’s shutter is triggering too loudly or they are seeing the infrared flash. Since this photo was taken during daylight, this buck likely heard the camera “wake up.” (Photo Credit: Todd Amenrud)

#15 - Take “inventory” of your bucks. If you don’t know exactly “who” you have roaming your property during the summer months and into September, set your camera at a mineral source such as a BioRock. After hard antler arrives, switch to mock scrape sites. You may not get many photos of does at the scrapes, but from early October through December, bucks are instinctually drawn to scrapes. You can “doctor-up” a buck’s natural, existing scrape or make your own “mock scrape.” A Magnum Scrape Dripper with Active Scrape or Golden Scrape will work best for this tactic. The best part of both of these is you usually get multiple angles of each buck as they lick the rock or work the licking-branch.