By: Heath Wood
Every year, hunters credit trail cameras for aiding in the harvest of their hit list buck. Cameras have numerous benefits for hunters; arguably the most significant is the ability to pattern deer movement and bring them into shooting range.
One of the easiest ways to obtain photos of deer is by placing a trail camera in front of food or minerals. Typically, these pictures will not yield enough information to help pattern a buck’s movements to aid in the harvest. To effectively pattern deer with trail cameras, the hunter must place their Stealth Cam trail cameras strategically, gathering the necessary data to compile a game plan for the fall. When using game cameras to pattern whitetail bucks, hunters typically use their cameras during the summer when bucks are relatively easy to pattern. The problem with summer patterns is that hunters assume they have bucks figured out, and then fall arrives, and deer patterns change.
After bucks make their annual pattern change and the pre-rut inches to a few weeks away, many hunters wonder how they can use their trail camera to pattern deer during the fall. Below are three effective ways to pattern mature bucks with a trail camera during the hunting season.
Gather Photos From Previous Years
The time frame of when to start using trail cameras and how long they should be kept running are two common questions amongst hunters. The longer the camera is in place, the more pictures there will be. The key is to use cameras in the same general area each year, allowing a chance to go back to previous years’ pictures and monitor buck movement with a controlled variable.
By pulling the data from two or three years of pictures simultaneously, hunters can see at what point in the year buck movement is the best and when it starts and ends. By patterning the annual movement of bucks, hunters will know when and where to hunt.
Scrape Lines & Rub Lines
Gathering data from years past is an excellent way to pattern bucks. A great place to pattern yearly buck movement during the fall is by monitoring specific locations where bucks visit annually. There is no better location for annual visits than on a bucks rub and scrape lines.
Bucks commonly visit the same general areas when making rubs and scrapes. The Stealth Cam Fusion X cellular camera is an excellent way to pattern buck movement with rubs and scrapes. When hunters have scouted or hunted in the same areas for multiple years, they know where deer sign will most likely appear each fall. They can tell this without the aid of trail cameras. However, when using the Fusion X cellular camera, located on a well-used rub line or a fresh scrape line, the hunter can pattern mature bucks by monitoring when they visit the most often, without visiting trail cameras which can leave human scent in the area.
Food To Bed
Not as strategic of a location but just as effective to pattern deer movement during the fall, cameras can be placed between where deer feed and where they bed. By having cameras monitoring movement from food to bedding areas, the hunter can pattern what time of day deer move and what bucks routinely use the same area. Because of information from trail cameras, hunters know the exact moment to ease into the area to hunt.