Has anyone had a problem with trail cams scaring deer away? Mainly bucks? This year we have multiple bucks on camera but only on appearance per deer if lucky twice
Each buck reacts to flashes different, and differently from area to area. I'm a big fan of black flash cameras. White flash effects the highest % of deer, and some are still put off by Red IRs (especially in video mode). Deer may also be more tolerant with flash near feeders or high traffic areas. Cameras near bedding areas can spook deer more. Another thing to be mindful of, it that some cameras make a clicking noise as the IR filter engages. My old Trophy Cam used to spook critters before it would even take a photo of them. If you have a bunch of single photos with animals looking right at the camera, there's a good chance its making a noise.
Black flash is the way to go. I had alot of one hitters with flash cameras over the years...and even some with red IR cams.
How often are you in checking cameras? If you are there too often you could be leaving scent behind and mature bucks get wise quickly!
We check them around every 2 weeks or so or whenever we refill our feeders but we have taken them out completely now and idk if that was it or if it's just finally the time of year but we finally saw some bucks during the day neither was on cam when we had them up but I'm superstitious so I'm gonna leave them down for a while haha
Put some red saran wrap over your flash. It will dampen the aggressiveness of the white light and will not hurt your picture quality.
Got to watch my white flash camera in action one eve. Deer came in right at dark and I had set up cam just before getting in stand. Had a 2.5 year old 8pt that kept buggin out when the little red light came on that shows cam is working. Flash would go off with the girls posing and then 8pt. would come back. same thing all over again. Weird! Had a small doe standing at my ladder looking up at me with my flashlight in her eyes. I did get a lot of pics of this buck (I believe) later in the week. Fun stuff but I didn't think they would ever leave.
