The camera will help you learn how many big bucks never ever come out of the cave until 10pm and go back into hiding well before first light.

So do you think does travel as far as bucks or do you think they hold more to a certain area?

We ruled out members setting cams on club plots but not in their private areas. We had members that would go around at 2 pm and check cams. If they saw something, they would sign it out. If not I sign it out after they had been in there stinking the area up right before I got there.

It's like the internet. I grew up in the late 70s and 80s when the internet was a volume of 10 year old encyclopedias on the bookshelf. The information was still there, you just went about obtaining it a different way. People who were born and raised post internet, get the info they want WAY faster and arguably easier. Gadgets like game cameras are paralleling this mindset. Old school scouting will still get you the info you want, it's just harder, slower, and at times the info is incomplete.

It's a double edged sword for me. I'm embracing the lazy scouter mentality, and like to use them to have an idea of what might be encountered quick and easy (and to get my young son excited about what we have to hunt), but I feel the years and years of hard-earned woodcraft and hunting/scouting skills slipping away each year. Use it or lose it, right?

But the poor deer that hides in a thicket until midnight still gets his picture taken. Doesn't seem fair.

I'm with Treemydog.... to me some would say that technology has made the world a bigger place for us individually. I would say the opposite and that it has made the world a much smaller place for each of us.

I remember there were roads that went back up in the mountains and you didn't know where they really went, they were not on most maps and you're Grandfather would just say "them boys up Whitehouse Road... you don't go up in there they are making liquor and who knows what all else they are into".

Now that you've got the internet you can zoom into their driveway and see what kind and color of car they drive.

Same with Game Cameras. You use to hunt and didn't know what is there and were more focused on the hunt instead of the prize. I think it was more thrilling to see a big buck before cameras.

I'm not against Cameras though. I'm glad people use them and I think they have increased awareness and willingness to manage deer on a piece of property instead of just shooting.

Average home range on does is 300-600 acres that they’ll use regularly. Bucks average home range is three X that of a doe.

PCP, no you're not the only one; IMO to each their own - but the challenge you list above is exactly why i put away my game cams as a tool for deer hunting; i guess i enjoy the challenge (and surprise) of not knowing more than having all the G2 & pics & all ... as a pre-season surveying tool, tho, i like game cams a lot ...

Preacher, I think everything you said is true. I actually posted in another post yesterday that hunt exactly as your described... I hunt based on what the camera shows and it works for killing big deer. On the other hand, running cameras I think is the only way to effectively run a true management program if that's what you at into. We decide which deer we are gonna take based on trail camera photos. No way to do that once you see a deer in most cases. The flip side is running cameras can be very discouraging. I remember years ago hunting buck sign and dreaming of how big he might be when it probably wasn't that big of a deer.... Cameras take that unknown excitement away.

You may be an exception, but I suspect about 99% of folks who go on about how they pass 130" 3 yr old bucks would drop a 110" like a sack of crap if it gave them half a chance.

For someone that got into deer hunting later in life, I have enjoyed using cameras as a way of learning deer behavior. It's no substitute for time in the stand and just watching deer, but it has allowed me to learn how different weather effects movement, how movement changes throughout the season, and other aspects of deer activity.

I've enjoyed being able to log what I observe through cameras.


Also, they really piss me off because I get to see what deer were by my stand when I wasn't hunting.

I have seen at least 3-4 three year old bucks that would score around 110" along with a few others that wouldn't score quite that much, and didn't even pick up my gun. I think there are quite a few that let them walk.

Congrats! Let me be the first to give you a virtual pat on the back.

I wasn't looking for a pat on the back or an smart ass response. Simply stateing that there are a lot more people than most think that let them them 2-3 year old walk.

There’s plenty of people who let nice deer walk. Josh, in this post can do it. A lot of people I know letting good deer walk aren’t on here posting it.

I don't have any desire to shoot a 110" buck either, but come on, a 130 class is not a shooter anymore? I'm going to have to call bush on that.

You can "call bush" on it but for a lot of folks these days a 130 is not a shooter. They're actually passing on those in hopes of something bigger.

If you want to shoot a 110 or 130 or 90 or whatever, fine. But some folks don't and are doing like hunters in other states where they actually let bucks walk, don't get their panties in a wad if someone shoots something, and end up with 140 and 150 (or bigger, possibly) bucks.

Clem, my point is I don't buy it. I suspect a lot of folks that claim they wouldn't shoot a 130" buck couldn't get one dead fast enough if it actually walked out.

Running cameras gives me and little man an excuse for going to the woods. He likes playing in the woods with the dog, looking at scrapes/rubs and putting out "supplemental feed". He's only 7 and that's what he enjoys so that's what we do, he likes seeing what critters come to the feed. If there is a buck acting right then we may set up and hunt him, if not thats OK too. We stink the area up and the dog usually eats corn and takes a dump on the plot, but deer will be there the same day.