Just pulled these off my trail cam. I've had it up for almost a month now and these are my first photos of deer. (I should I also point out this is my first time hunting ever So I'm a little new to this.) I only have one trail cam and I'm trying to figure out what the deer are doing and where I should set up a treestand. I also have a ground blind too and I was thinking about setting that up too. Next step would to try and find the deer trails to and from this area the cam is shooting correct? What should one look for while searching for game trails? I know that is kind of a loaded question does anyone know and good blog posts or articles on that? I'm thinking that i might want to put up a feeder. Any suggestions on what kind of feeder to use? I was thinking something tree mounted. Are feeders taboo what about salt licks? I don't have that much land. I am also on a bit of a budget here and just trying to maximize my chance of success this year Any suggestions at all are welcome!
Also when returning to my trail cam should I be worrying about cover my sent? If so what products and or techniques can you use to cover your sent?
To be honest trail cams don't help you out much based on the pictures we get this time of year. Deer change their patterns around season time. Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk
salt lick would be cheaper and easier. If you're set up on a good trail, you will see them stop to investigate or even lick. A good trail will have lots of sign like prints and scat from multiple deer and directions, with numerous offshoot trails. Scent control is important. Go out in the rain or just before a rain. rubber boots with a quality brand name scent control would work best. Don't let your skin contact vegetation and avoid your clothes/gear contacting vegetation if you can. Go as long as you can before checking camera, just to minimize your disturbance. If there's just not a lot of deer, they might just go somewhere else so you have to be even more careful. If there's a lot of deer, the young ones won't mind a little human scent around if they don't see or hear you, from my experience. Except maybe if they never smelled humans before.
We never worry about our scent checking cameras. However, we go in and out. If camera is dead, we just replace (or pull it), otherwise we just switch SD cards out. If you are going in to put a deer attractant in, I'd spray some scent blocker on - but that's just my personal opinion. Luckily where we have been hunting - deer are used to people being in there all the time. It sits right on a radio tower road. As for pictures, I agree with Dan...this time is just getting them passing through. They're not normally in their given area. They're traveling. I usually start heavily watching about two months before the season. I will place bait out mid summer to get them in - but PA isn't allowed to bait right before a season.
I would move the camera around. That is very little activity for a months time. Mineral sites in the right location will produce a lot of activity in the summer.
I hunt on a track of 78 acres, but the majority of it is CRP. There is a small point of woods that divides it in half along with a bunch of red willow thickets. I have a salt lick in two different spots and my last pull I had 433 pictures on the cams. Hard part is keeping them around once the summer feeding patterns start to go bye bye. Food plots I've planted this season will hopefully be the ticket to keep some females around which in turn might bring the boys out to play.
So a friend of mine recommended putting down Big&J BB2 which I just picked up today along with a dead down wind evolve 3d scentblocker. I haven't but down the attractants yet because I'm not quite sure how the best way to go about doing it would be. Should I put on a stump, rock, or right on the ground? Thanks for the advice guys! This is my first hunting season ever. I'm already having a enjoying it. Also I check out some new photos!
