I've had the same identical results!!

For my purpose and for the deer in my area, i certainly think they do much more good than damage.

I have a lot of different farms that i hunt in this area and i like to know which ones to concentrate most of my efforts on.

I have had good success using them in the past, so i will continiue to use them...

Greg, heres some food for thought:

If you have been putting the cams out for 3 years now, how many 1.5 and 2.5 year old bucks do you get pictures of?

Say you got a bunch of pics of a 1.5 year old the first year you put it out, then the 2nd year you got more of him and so on. Now its the 4th year, and he would be 4.5 years old. Do you think he would "start" to avoid the camera, or do you think he would be ok with it?

I've never got a pic of any big bucks, a few that were 2 1/2, but thats it. I always assumed it was bad camera placement on my part. Camera shy hadn't really crossed my mind. It can't be my fault.....yeah....its the bucks.[8D]

Isn't that the truth. People with knowledge and experience who shared and helped the newbies. Now everyone's an expert and helps no one. Oh wait, was I banned in the old days?[&:]

Mike, very nice buck I hope you meet up with him. As far as camera shy bucks i have watched this through a spotting scope two years ago on a buck that made it through the season. He was at the time a 3.5 IMO and was around 135-140". I placed a cam to try and get a pic. unfortunantly it was a junk slow cam. I watched as he came out and neared the cam. He instantly spotted it and just stared for minutes before walking in front of it. Like i said it was a slow cam [:@]It flashed just at dusk as he walked by and he freaked out and bolted. He stopped as the cam went through the timer sequence and flashed again. It sent him running. I only got a pic of his butt [:@]My son found this buck dead after last season. He was going to be around 150" as an 8 point but had points chewed off [:@]

That is an instersting point, also remember some of those young deer move to other locations.

I have a theroy[8D] Best time to hunt a location is the first two years, the reason is none of the older deer "know" you're there. By the third yearthe deer that were 1.5 are now 3.5 and they know you are there, they might not know where, but they know

I think its more than a theory. I hunt almost exclusively on my own property and the properties that surround it, and i know that the deer "know" im around. You can tell with there body language, like how there always looking around and watching certain spots (such as logging roads, which we use to get to our stands)

It is way more complicated than that. Due to the fact that I believe many of the 1 1/2s change locations because of many reasons. I believe that does control the best places because rearing of fawns demands it. Usually doe family units will reside in the same generals for generations. Then the bucks come second. They usually pick spots that are out of the way for security purposes. They are not afraid to do a little walking to get some food. Besides, after the bachelor groups break up, many of the older bucks become loners while does do not. Some bucks do not even hang out in bachelor groups, they are loners for life. These are the ones that interest me the most. Anyway, due to mortality of bucks which is more prevalent than for does, buck home and core areas change more often than that of the does. This means it is a guess which bucks you will see in the same places year after year. I have seen more 2 1/2s stay and become 3 1/2s in the same area in consecutive years than any other age class. 4 1/2s change quite a bit also. Then I see 5 1/2s become 6 1/2s, sometimes. Anything older, they seem to start becoming nocturnal loners and let a lot of the breeding go to the younger stronger bucks. I'm sure they get their occasional fling in their, especially when a lot of the younger stronger ones have worn themselves to a frazzle. Then, way later in the season/rut, the last week of Nov to the first 2 weeks of Dec (second rut), I see some of the biggest bucks of the season. They are usually hounding some young doe or fawn around a food source in the evening.

So no, I don't believe that a buck becoming camera shy is a learned behavior.

In my experience, a deer can remember some occurances for 2-3 months. Depending on how dramatic the experience was to them. If left alone for the rest of the year, they all forget. A dramatic experience would be like being shot at. Getting wounded would be the most dramatic and you probably wouldn't get a shot from that same stand for the rest of the season, although it's not an "absolute"! [:-]

except for the bickering this is a great post and I believe I have actually learned something from it, at least I have some new theories to think about.