jeff barwick

"It was November 17, 2007 the first day of Virginia’s firearms deer season; however, instead of carrying a rifle I had my bow. This would be the first year I decided to hunt with a bow exclusively",

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jeff barwick

NEW video post now available @ On the Ground, Outdoors...... our newest addition, a blue heeler puppy named.....Blue. Please drop in and take a peek.

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jeff barwick

"I've been using trail cameras for a few seasons now and over the years I've learned a thing or two about where to place them in the suburbs where I spend most of my time hunting. The first thing I've learned is that winter scouting is a must........"

Let's visit NYBowhunter and get the whole story...I know I am getting ready to place my trail cams and this article is right on time. Maybe the ideas here will be a benefit to other hunters as well. Good luck with those cameras.

Please, if anyone gets some good trail pics, email them to us and we'll post them on the blog for you......send them especially if you use some special technique or method....maybe we could write an in depth blog article and feature your trail camera talents.

Thanks for dropping by. Come again and look for those trail pics.


Jeff
On the Ground, Outdoors
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[/align]I've been using trail cameras for a few seasons now and over the years I've learned a thing or two about where to place them in the suburbs where I spend most of my time hunting. The first thing I've learned is that winter scouting is a must. During the winter you can follow deer trails through your hunting grounds and really start to figure out how the deer travel through the area.One of my properties I've had permission to hunt for 3 seasons now, but this is the first season I'm really hunting it. What do I mean? Season 1: hunted property twice. Season 2: hunted property throughout the season, but learned how the deer utilized the land only through hunting. Now it's season 3 and I know how the deer use the property and have extensively scouted the area so I can use this info to help me decide where to place my trail cams.So far I've been off to a really good start and I've captured "shooter" bucks on every two week camera staging. The main reason for this is because I had a rough idea of where the deer would be traveling through prior experience.I got the pictures, but then started to notice something - the deer were either looking up at the tree or seemed to be somewhat alerted staring in the camera's direction. At first I though maybe there was another animal behind the camera diverting the deer's attention, but then it hit me. I wasn't wearing any scent free clothing, rubber boots, or gloves and it was hot while I was out in the woods placing my trail cams - the deer were picking up my scent.Luckily I noticed this about 2 months before the season was set to open so I could remedy the situation and hopefully have the bucks back there by the time opening day arrived.Now when I go to check my trail cams or move them to another location I wear gloves, rubber boots, a long sleeve shirt and pants and make sure to spray myself down with some sort of scent killer which I also carry with me into the woods. Once I place a camera in a new location, I cover the lens with my hand and spray the camera with scent killer as well as the surrounding area that I have contaminated with human scent. Since then I have noticed that the deer are not alerted when they walk by the camera and act much more natural and I'm sure the reason for this is because I've helped keep the area much more scent free.Next time you place a trail cam in the woods, make sure to take every precaution you would while hunting deer. At the very least, wear your rubber boots and bring along a bottle of scent killer so you don't kill your prime stand location before the season opens.[/align]