while i know you can never have enough cameras i was kind of curious as to what othrrs are doing in regards to the amount of cameras you have compared to the amount of land you hunt? And often do you check your cameras? Like many, or all, of those with cameras i wish i could check my cameras every weekend. Luckily i am over an hour from where i hunt so that helps counter my lack of patience. We have been chrcking cameras about every 3-4 weeks. Would like it to be every month or even month and half to keep the activity down. Eventually i would like to have enough cameras that i check half of them each time i make a trip out there and keep me busy for the day.. only problem is we have about 6 out now, hopefully will add another 4 cameras or so during the year and continue to add to stable. Not exactly sure on the amount of land the club has but i believe its in the neighborhood of 7000 acres. A few large 2000 acres pieces but a lot of smaller pieces a few hundred acres a piece. With only 6 cameras its been very tough picking where to put them and being relatively new to the hunt club and only have one season there so far, still dont know where all the little pieces are that are too small for us to run dogs during gun season.. i think those areas could be nice if people arent really around there and already set up. more cameras would help us cover more ground but itll be very difficult regardless. This trail camera stuff is a very enjoyable addiction i have picked up and hoepfully it will payoff when october rolls around.
I've always heard that the optimum land to camera ratio is one camera for every ten acres. Of course I've never heard anyone explain how they came up with that number. I would definitely say that with six cameras for 7000 acres, you could definitely use more. I too check mine every three to four weeks and I think that's plenty. With that amount of acreage, I would concentrate on the areas you plan to hunt. Look for trails that connect bedding and food sources and heavily traveled trails. At least that way you will get a good idea of what deer are there. Blessings.........Pastorjim
On our 2000 acre lease we have around 30 cameras running and we still have bucks stay under our radar with only onhand visual sighting. If that many cameras are not an option, I would run as many cameras as possible until you find a target buck you would like to pursue. I then would move your cameras to that area so that you can get a better pattern on him.
on that big of a property more cameras will definitely increase your odds of finding the big bucks... but since u only have 6 now I would really key in on placement. right now the deer are in there summer feeding patterns so I would put the cams in pinch points between fields to get more deer in one picture, then when u can see where they are coming from try to locate those trails and put cams there. as for how long in between check 3-4 weeks is enough.
I think it depends on too many factors to have standard guidelines. What kind of terrain is the 2000 acres? How much is water or crops? How much is bedding areas? How good of access do you have to potential camera sites? How much traffic outside of hunting does the land get? How susceptible are the deer in your area to human pressure? etc, etc... I'd love to have more cameras, but I'm currently running 4 (2 in previous years) on over 1700 acres of land.
I think Fitz hit the nail on the head with this one.... IMO I understand you have A LOT of land.... but not all of that land is good land. There's a lot of variables that are really good to more cameras and even more to the bad. I would raise caution to "where" you put the cameras, "your" travel routes to and from cameras, and I would put some serious thought into where the deer are now vs when season comes around. I know a lot of guys with leases and checking cameras every 3-4 weeks in great, but some check more frequent and while the deer tolerate them now bc there's no hunting pressure as soon as that velvet drops that deer is no longer going to put up with your crap. Since you only have 6 cameras, I would scatter them honestly into areas you think look good or would like to hunt around, then start keying in based on what cameras tell you. Depending on terrain start moving cameras to where the hotter spots are to figure travel routes and study topo maps to figure bedding areas out without getting to close with cameras. I think most could go on and on and on but be very cautious with the cameras..... more isn't always better.
Right now on around 160 acres we have 6 cameras going. Not near enough for me and it is a 6 1/2 hour drive to get down there to check them. It's easy to let them soak for a while but it sure is trying on the nerves to not be down there every weekend. Thank goodness (sorta ) gas prices are the way they are or we would be. I vow to invest in at least one Covert Black Ops to help me cope with the time in between!!
yeah all of the land is not land that i care to spend time to hunt. I know some of them have deer but not as much as others. We have A LOT of water, no piece of land is without swamp or river running through or around. We also have A LOT of bedding areas.. about 80% of the timber is pine and there have been a lot of places thinned and a lot of place cutover in the last 10 years. So the deer have plenty of thick cover and a lot of unobstructed travel trails that they tend to stick too... Even when dogs are on them they will stick to the thinned out lanes. Being newer to the area we have put some time in to find areas of interest but it is still difficult. But slowly but surely we will have more cameras, hopefully adding a few each year between us.
