Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
07-16-2008 | 05:54 PM
#71
Nontypical Buck
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 1,482
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From: IA/WI/IL
RE: Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
ORIGINAL: Schultzy
I've had the same identical results!!
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 proves to me that I've got to get better at camera hunting! [:-]
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 proves to me that I've got to get better at camera hunting! [:-]
This also mirrors what I have whitnessed. I do not know what deer do in other people's woods, but in mine most mature deer (bucks and does!) aviod areas that they previously encountered trail cameras. Most strickingly, I see this when I put them out when there is snow on the ground. After 1-2 weeks in a spot, the tracks in the snow tell the story....deer start swinging further and further from my camera...there gets to be a 100-200 foot circle around my camera that has few if any deer tracks in it. Do some deer, particularly mature bucks, alter their behavior more than that? I think they do - in the summer, I have yet to get a mature buck on cam in a location more than once, ever. I have to keep moving the camera around...I have not made up my mind if the deer can regularly detect and avoid cameras in a spot without first learning about it through trial and error....but once they know, mature deer in my woods avoid the area. Also, they continue to avoid it after the camera is gone - the tracks, or lack thereof, never lie.
Based on all the evidence I have seen, I no longer put my cameras, at any time of the year, within 100 yards of my stands....and never within the same funnel, or up/down a trail from my stands. Good places for cameras are often not good stand sites, and vice/versa, anyway.
07-16-2008 | 07:46 PM
#72
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,520
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From: Southern MD
RE: Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
Have any of you ever tried putting the cameras up the tree, say 10-15 ft? I just wonder if it would have the same effect if it were up out of their direct vision? I don't own any cameras but this is an interesting thread and I was wondering about the height thing.
07-16-2008 | 08:12 PM
#73
Boone & Crockett
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 11,682
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From: Michigan/Ohio
RE: Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
Bruce that is a good idea to try.
To go with one gregh said.
When I say deer remember, IMO it's not you, it's they know it's time to start looking for you. IN NLP of MI where the deer have been hunted for years they walk through the woods looking up into the trees. When I first started hunting our place I never got picked off. I was the first person to ever hunt from a stand on the place.
Today they know danger is in the trees, I really cannot explain it. In 96 it became legal for gun hunters to hunt from trees, I supported it. Ever since then we have conidition the deer here to look up[&:] They did not before in SLP where I hunt.
I agree with gregh deer do not remember an incident where they busted you. Put come fall we have condition the deer to start looking for us. The older ones doe or buck seem to know where to look.
To go with one gregh said.
When I say deer remember, IMO it's not you, it's they know it's time to start looking for you. IN NLP of MI where the deer have been hunted for years they walk through the woods looking up into the trees. When I first started hunting our place I never got picked off. I was the first person to ever hunt from a stand on the place.
Today they know danger is in the trees, I really cannot explain it. In 96 it became legal for gun hunters to hunt from trees, I supported it. Ever since then we have conidition the deer here to look up[&:] They did not before in SLP where I hunt.
I agree with gregh deer do not remember an incident where they busted you. Put come fall we have condition the deer to start looking for us. The older ones doe or buck seem to know where to look.
07-16-2008 | 08:49 PM
#74
Giant Nontypical
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 9,445
Likes: 0
From: Central Minnesota
RE: Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
Today they know danger is in the trees, I really cannot explain it. In 96 it became legal for gun hunters to hunt from trees, I supported it. Ever since then we have conidition the deer here to look up They did not before in SLP where I hunt.
I agree with gregh deer do not remember an incident where they busted you. Put come fall we have condition the deer to start looking for us. The older ones doe or buck seem to know where to look.
I agree with gregh deer do not remember an incident where they busted you. Put come fall we have condition the deer to start looking for us. The older ones doe or buck seem to know where to look.
07-16-2008 | 08:52 PM
#75
Giant Nontypical
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 9,445
Likes: 0
From: Central Minnesota
RE: Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
ORIGINAL: brucelanthier
Have any of you ever tried putting the cameras up the tree, say 10-15 ft? I just wonder if it would have the same effect if it were up out of their direct vision? I don't own any cameras but this is an interesting thread and I was wondering about the height thing.
Have any of you ever tried putting the cameras up the tree, say 10-15 ft? I just wonder if it would have the same effect if it were up out of their direct vision? I don't own any cameras but this is an interesting thread and I was wondering about the height thing.
Good post!!
07-16-2008 | 09:41 PM
#76
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,520
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From: Southern MD
RE: Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
ORIGINAL: Schultzy
Thats a great idea there Bruce. I would love to try this and see if it makes a difference. Better yet I will try this. Good post!!
ORIGINAL: brucelanthier
Have any of you ever tried putting the cameras up the tree, say 10-15 ft? I just wonder if it would have the same effect if it were up out of their direct vision? I don't own any cameras but this is an interesting thread and I was wondering about the height thing.
Have any of you ever tried putting the cameras up the tree, say 10-15 ft? I just wonder if it would have the same effect if it were up out of their direct vision? I don't own any cameras but this is an interesting thread and I was wondering about the height thing.
Good post!!
07-16-2008 | 09:46 PM
#77
Site Buck Guru
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 5,922
Likes: 0
From: Racine, Wisconsin
RE: Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
ORIGINAL: brucelanthier
Have any of you ever tried putting the cameras up the tree, say 10-15 ft? I just wonder if it would have the same effect if it were up out of their direct vision? I don't own any cameras but this is an interesting thread and I was wondering about the height thing.
Have any of you ever tried putting the cameras up the tree, say 10-15 ft? I just wonder if it would have the same effect if it were up out of their direct vision? I don't own any cameras but this is an interesting thread and I was wondering about the height thing.
This is one of the things that I plan on trying. I read about it several years ago, but never tried it. I just got the 3 IR cameras last fall and hurried to put them out. This year I will take my time and "hunt" for better trees.
Another thing is that I found that they notice a camera easier if you put it on a real skinny tree. So I'm going to try harder to hide my cameras or brush them in slightly.
Good idea!
07-17-2008 | 05:13 AM
#78
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 4,487
Likes: 0
From: St. Louis, MO
RE: Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
This guy sure was afraid of the daylight. I saw him in my subdivision 4 different times over 2 years, always after dark crossing the road or in my yard. I got this pic at 4 something in the morning behind my house.
I haven't seen him for 3 years now, don't know what happened to him.
I haven't seen him for 3 years now, don't know what happened to him.
07-17-2008 | 06:01 AM
#80
Dominant Buck
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 21,043
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From:
RE: Mature Bucks - Nocturnal...Camera Shy....
Based on all the evidence I have seen, I no longer put my cameras, at any time of the year, within 100 yards of my stands....and never within the same funnel, or up/down a trail from my stands. Good places for cameras are often not good stand sites, and vice/versa, anyway.
. I wonder if the snow track folks would like to take a challenge and see if it's the cameras.....or the constant intrusion on the area? IMO.....when you set a trail cam up on a trail.....you're asking for trouble. You have to go check it (more scent). You're leaving scent where it shouldn't be (where you expect to see deer).....and taking a chance that your flash "might" spook them (or a particular deer).So I'm wondering if they are avoiding the camera flash.....or the constant scent left there by checking the cams????
Introduce a pleasant stimulus (food - minerals) and I'm betting they'll tolerate more than they would on a trail. I'd sure never know if they avoided them on a trail, or not.