(in my opinion) it is 100% dependent on your land layout. If its a bunch of pines and cutover, its going to be tough. If you have heads of woods that are travel corridors through ag fields, it is easier to run cameras.

2dogs has given an actual answer with regards to the original question. Props to you, sir. 2 cameras facing opposite directions is a concept I never considered. I still don't like the concept of placing them and collecting them so close to "prime time".

Here's what I do. Our rut /breeding is the first few days of Jan. I put my cams out about the first or second week of December with large SD cards and hot batteries. I put 2 on the same tree facing 180 degrees from each other. I let them run for 2-3 weeks, I don't check them, I pull them . The next trip in after putting them up is to take them down. Then I form a plan from there. Running cams all season and checking them every few days is not a strategy I like and one I will not employ.

If I getting one on cam coming in every morning for several days straight and I kill him the first morning hunted by 7 AM is patterning , then it can be done.

Prime time is when you want to be in the woods the most. I normally take 3 weeks vacation and hunt most every day. I wanta know where they are when I'm there. I don't wanta be running all over the place stinking it up checking cams during rut, it's time to kill! Does me no good to have a monster patterned and standing under my tree if I'm not there.

Why don't you like my idea of letting them run 3 weeks then pulling them at "prime time" ?

That strategy makes perfectly logical sense in the fact that you are looking for current info that will be applicable to when you plan to hunt. I get it. I just never considered using them leading up to the rut. I've always tried to let my best stand locations rest leading up to the rut. It sounds like you might have better results than I have. I may need to give it a try.

You put your cams on hot trails or scrapes?

That strategy makes perfectly logical sense in the fact that you are looking for current info that will be applicable to when you plan to hunt. I get it. I just never considered using them leading up to the rut. I've always tried to let my best stand locations rest leading up to the rut. It sounds like you might have better results than I have. I may need to give it a try.

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.

I don't care to start running cameras until the bucks have grown most of their antlers. I start them in September. I check them every 3-5 days during that time. I'll get most of the bucks that we kill during that time. During the rut, there may be a different buck or two show up. During hunting season, I'll check them about every other day or at the most every 3rd day and during daylight only. I need to know as soon as a deer enters the area, cause I've found that I have a 3-5 day window to kill him before it starts all over again. I haven't seen any adverse impact on checking them in this manner, either. YMMV, but this is the system that I've developed and it's been working for me for years.

I move my cameras around, until I find the buck I want moving in the daylight regularly.

That's a good use of cams as well, carry them hunting and check or pull the cam while hunting that spot. I just don't like to make unnecessary trips and stink the place up.

2dogs, I understand you put to cameras out at a hub or corridor . Do you hunt in that tree or a tree near it?