A few shooters mixed in there. Kinda bummed, b/c we accidentally deleted one of our best cards. Let's see if this works... (There are a few more in the next post)
This guy is back for fall 2011. He and I squared off in 2010, and I just could never get near him. He's a smart old resident. I'll throw my hat back into that ring again this fall, but given where he likes to bed, he's virtually unhuntable until the Halloween decorations come out. 2011 2010 How many inches do you guys reckon he's packed on? I think this old fellow is just about maxxed out.
Finch - those are the prehistoric 1.4? MP flash cameras. A few of the pics are from the newer 3.0 MP IR's that they sold in two-packs. Some of those flashers have been in service for 7 seasons now, without a problem. They don't seem to spook the deer, so we keep on using them. It's like those things are indestructible, and there's never any drama. My new 3.0 MP IR's seem to have a problem (particularly in the summer with heavy foliage) differentiating between light and dark. The time will read 7:20 a.m., and they're still thinking that it's dark out, and taking pics in IR mode. It sucks, b/c it whitewashes the pics, sometimes to the point of being a total whiteout. You can see it in a few of the IR pictures above. Once the leaves come off, or if you position them along an open (field) edge, they work perfect. Live and learn. I'm going to leave my flashers on my deepest, darkest mineral sites, and moving the IR's out to the field edges until the tree canopy opens up a little more. Those whitewashed pics are maddening. But those cams were CHEAP, so I can cope with the minutiae.
Q, just scored a couple of Moultrie 2.0s from ****s for like 40 a pop. There bare bones, but get the job done. I've been rocking the old model 2.0s with the lantern bats, but these new 2.0s run 4 Cs. Just set one out on a scrape set a few days ago, I'll let ya know in a few weeks.
Ben - let me know how those work out. I'm a firm believer in quantity over quality when it comes to trailcamming. As long as it's reliably snapping pictures, I don't need to make postcards out of them. I just want to canvass cameras all over hell's halfacre and figure out where the big boys are lurking. It's just hard to find a cheap camera that uses an economical battery system and gets good life. That said, even if I had a cam where the batteries lasted 12 months, the anticipation would still get the best of me, and I'd be in there after 4-6 weeks to check the card. LOL
Are these truely PA deer? If so then you've got yourself a heck of a little honey hole there Q! Which end of the state are you hunting on? I got an offer to hunt Western PA as a trade hunt for my OH land but the guy has yet to produce anything over 130"
Geeze Fran !!! There are some great bucks in the bunch. Do you have any sheds to them ?? Best of luck this fall !! Can I come hunt with you ?? Been sucksville scouting here. Tim
Timmy, I've got sheds from maybe 3-5 of these guys. There are a couple that I'm not 100% sold on. There's one big guy in there who I've wasted full days tearing mountain after mountain apart looking for his sheds, but I keep coming up empty. Either he's wintering in a different range, or somebody keeps yanking his sheds before I can get to them. I've got piles and piles of rinky dink yearling sheds - and those are hard to match up, too. So maybe I have more headgear from these guys than I think. You know you're welcome out here anytime, bro. Be patient, you'll find a buck to hunt.
