ORIGINAL: GregH

I have 4 Cuddebacks, 3 of them are the IR models. For the last three seasons I have put them out at the end of the season, usually around Dec 1st. They stay out until the end of March or early April. I do not bait the camera sites, I only put them out on trails.

I've prooved it to myself that the larger bucks do get camera shy. I've gotten 2 at the most, pics of 3 1/2s and 1 of any 4 1/2 or older. After that, they skirt the camera. They'll walk a semi-circle around it and sometimes create a new trail in the process. This is especially easy to see because we have snow here and the tracks are the proof.

Another thing that I see is that the older bucks are always looking at the flash and the IR or red light. I know they aren't supposed to see it, but they do. To back this up, I have set my 3 IR cams to video mode and have had big bucks come down the trail, spot the IR beam and stop dead in their tracks. They usually stare at it for a while then back up, turn around and leave. This makes for a very hard to detect pic of the buck.

I was checking my cams every 7-10 days to avoid the scent thing, but I may go to longer intervals or move the cameras more often. I may go so far as to set all of them to day time only but I know I'll cut the number of pics in half or worse.

I have never gotten a pic of a true monster that I know exists here. The biggest being up to about 150". It just prooves to me that I've got to get better at camera hunting! [:-]