I can tell you a trail cam directly led to me NOT getting a shot at a nice buck in WI last season on October 13. Had a cam set up about 10 yards off of a major run from early Sept - October which heads E/W. Lots of doe and buck traffic. Single bucks and pairs or solo does, but every deer was traveling from E to W regardless of time of day (except one doe about 3 days prior to the day in question at appx. 2am.) Had pix of a couple nice basket 8s and one little but perfectly proportioned 110" 10 pointer. Plus one big buck that was nearly out of camera range in a fog early AM that was impossible to classify other than "big." So anyway, I set my hang-on accordingly, facing nearly due E with my back to the setting sun for an evening sit. Nice big leaning oak at my back, mock scrape about 8 yards from the bottom of my tree at my 1 o'clock...perfect set up based on the trail cam info. So about 20 minutes prior to end of shooting hours, I see a deer meandering around out about 30 yards in front of me, generally along the run but ranging back and forth while browsing. Keep this in mind for later - I never heard this deer - only saw it b/c I was facing E from my stand. It's a little too thick and dark to make out buck/doe but I am guessing it's a doe, which I was fine with taking as it was only my 3rd sit of the season and I hadn't seen any sign of rutting yet. So I get ready to take the shot once she steps into a clearing about 20 away. This goes on until pretty much right up to the end of shooting hours (I know b/c a time stamp on my trail cam is marks the following about 8 minutes prior to end of legal shooting.) All of a sudden, directly below/behind me, I hear a "chhukkk" of something heavy landing. I peer down below my right armpit and there he is - completely ghosted in on me, headed EAST on the trail while I was watching that other deer out in front. He takes 2 more hop steps and stops right on my mock scrape, but unfortunately with a large leafy licking branch completely covering his vitals and neck. All I can see is his crown and rear quarters. He stands there with me at full draw for maybe 30+ seconds, and then hops away with a tree trunk covering his center mass. My trail cam got him as he stopped at the scrape. Nice wide spread, tall tines, but not much mass. Think he was a 9 (kicker off the back of his G2.) Moral of the story is don't box yourself in to stand placement/orientation based solely on your trail cam. Deer (especially buck) have a way of flipping the script just like that.
