Trailcam placement?
 

I am wondering about the placement for a trail cam in the woods.. I have ordered out for some Lucky Buck powder form and will be using it as well. ( I hope it works for this ) Should I put this stuff along with my trailcam where the deer and moose have been known to travel in an area? Or should I put where a big buck has been scraping during the fall? Also how close or how far from the Lucky Buck should I put my trailcam? I will keep in mind that wind blowing on the trees will set my camera off. I am planning on setiing it up in a skidder trail from an old cutting.. Lots of skidder trails here with a very large area..

well i would go with setting it up near heavily used trails to start out with, that's how i run mine. no right on them but with 10-30 yards of one. as far as distance from the camera to your "bait" i put mine normally with in 10-15 feet but i think i have mine closer then most. if your trying for moose make sure you have your camera up higher then for deer or all you get is their legs. (waist height for deer) hope this helps

I would put it near trails but I guarantee wherever you put it, they will come. That stuff is dynamite. I place my homebrews about a foot or two from where I expect the subject to be only because they take magazine cover-like photos. For the commercial cams I don't worry that much about getting close. I place them to shoot up and down trails and point them at bait. As far as height I place them from waist to knee high. If you are using some kind of bait the deer will eventually find it no matter where you put it. Keep in mind that Lucky Buck is a mineral so once it gets in the ground the deer will return year after year.

Blessings.........Pastorjim

In my areas, moose have a tendancy to roam rather than stick to game trails. They like to nibble here, then spot something in another direction and go there for a nibble. Deer usually stick to game trails unless branching out into crop land. I'm not familiar with the food source you are planning to use as I'm not permitted to put anything out as this is called baiting and is not permitted. Wishing you great sucess.

If your trail cam picks up warm blooded animal to take pictures, then point it north, or south.
East or west the warm from the sun will give false pictures.
Thats how my trail cam is setup, it is pointed North.
I found out the hard way, with several 100's of blank pictures.

Little arrow here where I am planning on putting out my trail cams there is no crop land. It is woods that have been cut by paper companies. The moose and deer use certain skidder trails to travel threw these cuttings. Yes the moose and deer both wander in and out of them quite commonly. But they will continue to use them and will have paths beat down in them. They use them to travel from swamp to swamp with. There is a monster of a buck I am hoping to get a look at in there.

Rack wise I am not expecting a lot of points Just a heavey beam rack once it grows out. I maybe surprised though. I had hunted for this particular deer all last fall archery and rifle season. He slipped by me a few times when I was close to him. I saw 11 moose in the last week alone. Mostly cows and calfs though.

Thanks for the replies and I am hoping this Lucky Buck stuff will do the trick in exposing him to a trail cam. If so you can expect to see a big deer posting by me when I get a pic of it. I am planning on setting the cam roughly 3 feet off the ground. I am mostly trying to decide which area I will have the best chance of getting him out in front of it. Once set I will not be able to get to it again for at least a month or 2. Mud season will be here by then and there will be no way that I could possably get to it.So I am hoping this will work..

Phil from Maine: Thanks for the response. As a member of this forum, I enjoy learning about different geographic areas, trail camera setups, modifications etc. Good luck.

I went in to scout those trails out and the deer are surely still using them. The moose also have been in there all winter so the trailcam should give me some great photos. As I was scouting I came across three deer. A doe and her yearlings and now I surely can not wait to set my trailcams out. One of the yearlings in which I believe is a young buck is piebald.. I have never seen these deer in there before either. Now I am wondering what his daddy looks like. I did have my canon camera with me that I am still learning how to use so they are some what blurred.

I went out this morning and set my trailcam out.. On my way back I was able to see those 3 deer again. This time they were around 5 miles east of where I first saw them. So I guess I will not be seeing those ones there. It appears like they have left a deer yard some where and are heading to where ever they came from.. It was nice to see them though.. Now I have to wait until I can get back into my trailcam to see what happens there..

Well I took a walk in to check on my trailcam. I never took an extra sd card so I left mine in it. It showed 117 pics? I am thinking prolly the wind has touched it off. I was being carefull to direct it away from any branches and the like though. That Lucky Buck stuff they never came near it yet. So I will have to wait and see what happens..

Now here is something that has me baffled. Those 3 deer was back in the area where I saw them the first time. They have traveled 5 miles one way and now back again? I have no resonable idea as of why they had done that one. But it does show me the area they are using is far bigger than I have been thinking it was.. So maybe just maybe they will be showing up on my trailcam sometime this summer??

Well I went in and changed the SD card from my trailcam. Something has been triggering it off almost every night around midnight. But, what ever it is it is not being picked up by it. Maybe that big buck I have been trying to get to see. I just do not know what it is. I have Lucky Buck mineral out and nothing is hitting it at all. I did have a rabbit show up on it at around 3:30 am. That has been it so farAnd it has been snowing yesterday. Today raining up here so maybe that will help?? Up here it is hard to get something that deer will come into. Unless it is apples and they have been there for a while.. So I am hoping that they will be showing up on that stuff..

I like 15' from the tree, but location of the mineral lick is also important.

Here is a guide that I have put together for my particular brand, but the placement tips also work for any other brand of minerals.

http://bioplots.com/deer_mineral_guide.html

Hope it helps.

Thanks for some ideas.. I have it set up on a trail that is mostly used a little later on in the year. The moose and deer both use it during our warmer summer months mostly and maybe that is why?? The big buck in there runs when ever it comes to any sort of opening? I have no idea as to why that is. I am thinking that is why it is big and I am hoping this stuff will bring him around as I really want to get a decent look at him. I hunted him last fall and never got to lay eyes on him just his tracks. I did find all his scrapes so I am hoping next fall will be a better hunt for him. For now I am just anxious to see what the heck he looks like.

The main attractant in most any mineral supplement is salt, the deer primarily seek it during periods of lush green growth. I.E. with the bud swell in spring into summer. About time the antlers harden off, I switch several cams over to scrapes.

Prolly why I am not seeing anything yet then as we do not have much for green growth yet. Still some ice on the ground where the sun does not get in good. I am planning on leaving it in there most of the summer until around mid September. Then I will be moving it down on the edge of a cedar swamp where I had discovered that he travels threw. Right next to a lake and a big heath from a large stream.

I think I found out what my issue is.. I went in today to move my camera closer and clear out some of the rasberry bushes. So while I was there I decided to look for moose sheds. They have that place looking like a hugh cowpasture.. Anyways I came across some moose bones that was from a winter kill? Not real sure why it died as it could of been a brain worm or something like that.. That was roughly 3/4 of a mile from where I had installed my trailcam. I am going to leave it there anyways as I believe the deer will be back into there again before long.. I hope so anyways..

Finally got a picture on my Stealth Prowler over that Lucky Buck mineral stuff. I realize this is just a doe but it shows me that they will soon be coming around.. The cam is set up where a skidder trail breaks apart into three different directions. I also lowered my cam about a foot this evening..

looks like a nice area, should have some good pictures once they start hitting it hard.

Well I went back and lowered my trailcam the other day. While I was there I noticed the leaves are starting to come out on all the bushes. So I went back today and thinned them out some more. Trying to help avoid any wind pics. I walked back to where those moose bones were and they are completely gone without a trace. I had purposely taken my camera in with me to try and get a picture of them to share. Since they were not there I took a few pics of what the area I am using is like. I do not believe I could find a better location for it. I have deer, moose and 1 bear come by it to date so the trail and trailcam is going to workout fine. Anyways the first pic is a beaver flowage I walk by. Then the game trail that goes by it as well as looking back at the direction I had came from. Then of coarse my trailcam, you will notice a C-clamp on it. That had to be put on as a result of a black bear attack.The bear broke the bottom latch off it.




A pic after having lowered it. I also am in need of trying to figure out how I can move it in a little close as my nightime pics are a wash.

Well guys I have pretty much threw in the towel when it comes to bucks showing up at this site. I am leaving my trailcam there for whatever does walk in by it and set up my el-cheapo WildGame Inovations trail cam roughly a mile away from this site. It is set up nearly 75 feet from another game trail that moose and deer are currently using. Hopefully a buck or 2 will be showing up there. I also hope my cheapo trailcam will get a pic for me as well. As It works pretty slow and some pics are just plain blacked out?? But, until I purchase a new one this will have to do. Here is a couple of pics on what it looks like.

This next pic is what most of my pics has been coming out like..ggrrrrr.. So if a bear carries this one off I am not sure if I will even look for it. I had this set up at a site that I knew never had been very good rof deer. So I now have it up on the other side of the cutting my stealth is in.

well phil i hope you find those bucks. I would sure like to see some maine bruisers. Are there any apple trees in the area because if you haven't found them by mid Aug putting a cam on an apple tree is almost a guarantee. thats what i have always done. they seem to check the apple trees all year.

No unfortunately there are no apple trees there. I am a long ways from any town with only a couple of camps any place near there. I have put it on top of a small ridge that was cut mixed with some hardwood. Down below it around a 1/4 mile starts a cedar swamp and a big heath on the other side of that. So I have hopes that a monster buck will show up. I do have plans on replacing the el-cheapo trailcam as soon as I can. Still pretty much undecided on which one to get at the moment though.

Thanks for the good luck wish I am prolly gonna be needing it..

sounds like a good spot to me. if you want a cheap flash camera that takes good pictures check out the internet specials on the moultrie website. the D-55 is on there for like $65. i used a IR-55 and it takes great pictures. i know i push moultries alot but i have had wonder dealings with them. they also have some two for one deals as well.

Thanks Vermont Hunter..

I will most deffinately be getting another IR trailcam as I do not care for the flash. I will be looking at a couple of them to try and figure which one I really want to purchase. I will also be looking at what they have for SD cards as well as easy acess to them when changing them out. Thanks for your input.

Not a problem phil. im sure you will be on those bucks soon