I've been running cameras for around 15 years. Went from just getting excited to see a buck on camera to realizing the potential our property. Over the past 10 years it's been more about seeing what up and comers look like and then getting a good idea of the number of shooters we have spending time on our land. This is good to know if you have friends hunting with you as it minimizes mistakes on shooting bucks that we don't want to shoot yet.

All that being said, over the past 3-4 years it's become clear that putting any kind of pressure on a mature buck can make that buck nearly impossible to kill. I think a lot of hunters underestimate how weary mature bucks can be. So, last summer I put out a camera and never checked it until bow season. After that I didn't check it until the rut. A buddy of mine hunted the field for the first time around late December and had 3 really good hunts. Saw a shooter, next day missed a shooter, next morning saw another shooter. I don't think it was coincidence that the year before I was checking the cam on that same field every 2-3 weeks and had minimal mature buck sightings.

From now on, I'll use them in a similar way that 2 dogs does, except I'll also start running them around late August, but will not check until bow season. "IF" you are going to pattern a mature buck on our place it's going to be during the first 2-3 hunts of bow season.

As others have said, it really does depend on each individual buck's personality. Every now and then we get a mature buck that just doesn't seem to be as concerned with dying as his cohorts and for those bucks you really can check the cam every week or so without an issue, but I believe those type bucks are very few and far between.