peakrut

On my flash one I was able to get the same buck 3 times but only after moving the camera around the property.
I will no longer do this also as I scented up the place.

kry226

There's no doubt that deer can learn to avoid the cameras. I think, in regards to the flash, its the shadows created by the light that spooks deer, not the light itself. I have, over the years, and where legal , shined many a flashlight on deer at night and observed their behavior. Most of the time, if they get jumpy, its not from my light, its from their own shadows or from tree branches or brushshadows casted by the light. Your results may vary, but these were mine.

Also, I think smell/scent plays an important factor that is being overlooked. I am not, nor will I ever be, convinced that a deer cannot smell the camera, or the owners scent left from placing or checking the camera.

Moving the camera every three days is probably the best advice I've heard when it comes to keeping deer on their toes and not spooking them with the camera, or allowing them to learn their location. Or just cover the entire property with cameras so deer cannot move without getting nailed. [8D]

Hunting pressure doesn't make a deer change it's home territory, so a bunch of cameras probably wouldn't either.

pigiron

I now have threeinfra-red cameras which I purchased for this exact reason of spooking deer. Last year I was using Moultree trail cams/with flash, and spooked at least half the animals I was taking pics of.

Now I have two Moultree infra-reds, and a Primos Silent Image and I don't notice much difference. It's still spooking deer, larger bucks and does alike. I almost feel that a mature doe willreact quickerthan some of the larger bucks.....Who knows.

What I do know is that I think I'm going to stick to daytime pictures and stop teasing myself with bignocturnal bucks. Maybe I'll spook a few less too. Don't get me wrong, it kills me not to know what lurks in the night, realizing that one of these guys can come strolling by within shooting hours......but at this point spooking another buck almost seems detrimental to my hunt.

Here's a pic of a decent buck that I trail cammed for my cousin. In my opinion he's outa there. I never got him again on camera. It's probablypossible to see him again, but maybenot in that tree stand.

GregH

You HAD to know I was smarter than this. See......one of these deer is on my wall....and the other will be...as soon as my taxi's done with him.

They were both jawbone aged.

[/quote]

Nothing to do with being smart, just inexerienced. There's nothing personal here at all, I'm just pointing out how you keep portraying youself as some kind of expert. No one here on this thread posted an absolute except you. Then we get to listen to you whine about it. I take that back..... I said you were just a beginner....... that's an absolute.

If you were real smart and a real expert, you'd know that jawbone aging is to be taken with a grain of salt. Just inexperience showing...... again. In other words........ I don't buy it.

I've saved the jaw bones from 17 mature bucks that I have killed. I use them as only part of the aging process. Sometimes they don't tell you squat except that the deer is older than 1 1/2. I sent a whole box of them along with pictures and measurements (weight and antler score)with my local DNR biologist who took them to a meeting with his peers. They sat around and aged them then gave them back to me! LOL!! All I can say is, if you can't trust your local biologist, who can you trust??!! [:-] I'll try to post some pics of the deer and their percieved age when I get home from work tonight. Ever heard of a 190 lb field dressed, 140 gross 1 1/2 in the wild??

The most accurate method of aging involves taking a cross section of the tooth and counting the rings. I haven't gone that far yet.

GMMAT

Never posted an absolute. Not once. The only "whining" I hear coming from this posts is from WI. The only "absolute" I posted.......was that there are none (or VERY few).

What does me being a beginner have to do with this thread? Does that fact mean I'm wrong? I think the photo eveidence I provided supports my claim.

And about the jawbone aging..........I left that to my taxi. Farmcntry uses the same one I do. His name is Keith Bowman.....and he's a national champion....and well respected in his field. I have no idea of how to jawbone age a deer.....so I leave that to the experts. If Keith tells me my deer were 3.5 and 4.5 respectively.....that puts them BOTH at 3.5 yrs (OK.....to be exact.....somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.1666666 at the time of the photo) in the trailcam photos I provided. That's good enough and close enough, for me.

So to cover your last foot in the mouth statements.....you now have to discredit my taxidermist. Heck......if you say both my bucks were spikers....I guess that's what I gotta live with!

HuntingBry

To those of you with experience in the deer avoiding the cameras, do you think it is the action of the camera taking the picture (i.e. flash, or sound), the scent associated with the camera, or a combination of the two? I have noticed with my cameras there is a definite smell to them that does not go away, and I've wondered if that has an affect on the deer.

Thoughts?

GMMAT

Bry.....I haven't experienced the "flash phobia" with the deer I hunt. BUT.....I spray down my camera when I put it in the field. I wear rubber gloves when I check it.

The landowner mows the upper pasture (2 acre open patch in the middle of the woods), so I know the deer around there are used to machinery being in the vicinity on occasion. I admit to driving my ATV to within 50 yds of my mineral site (where I keep my cam)......but I try to be pro-active about scent control when I retrieve my cards and change batteries.

I have a sneaky suspicion that scent scares "some" deer away from cameras.....ESPECIALLY when there's no "real" reason for them to be in that area, anyways (ex - camera on a trail v. on a mineral or bait site).

I also don't hunt near this site......and don't worry about leaving human scent in this area. I use mine ONLY for inventory purposes. I don't buy into putting them on trails......for the area I hunt. Too much intrusion and too much temptation to over-check them. But that's just the way "I" do it.

loogout1

I see deer as being just very finicky and on edge. I think that a single deer at any given moment will or wont be spooked by the flash and or the sound of the camera. I have does standing around "posing" for the camera one day and then have them in blur mode in mid stride the next. I also just got pics(which I posted) of a mature(consensus shows, since he's at least 3.5) buck that walked into the frame and then stopped in the next frame, unspooked. I think the deers' individual personality has a lot to do with it too.

GregH

It's plain to see who's got their foot in their mouth. I just stated that jaw bone aging was a ball park guess at best. If anything, I discredited my DNR biologists, not your Taxi. Please don't put words in my mouth.

I knew that Taxi's were artists, very good ones at that, however, I know that they are not any more trained then anyone else when it comes to jaw bone aging deer. Even the biologists have a hard time with it. It's a best guess figure.

Is this hard for you to comprehend??[:-]

GMMAT

It's not hard to comprehend that......when faced with ANYONE who has a differing opinion than you......YOU:

1. stoop to personal attacks (Do I need to re-post the thread where you called me a "loser" because I simply disagreed with your opinion?)

2. Belittle my experience

3. Discredit my taxidermists jawbone aging skills

4. Basically call me a liar.....even when faced with photographic evidence

5. Belittle my hunting....by stating that I hunt around sidewalks, houses and street lamps.

I get PM's all the time about this.....from people who can't believe that you're stooping to such tactics. it's really not becoming of someone who thinks they're revered as much as you think you are. Are you that threatened?

At no time have I ever made this personal.....yet you can't get away from it. Get a life, Greg. Every time I post something.....it's not really about YOU.