Deer Inventory

[retrieverman]

Duuude, that really cool. I love spending time in the woods just watching the animals doing their thing, unaware I'm there & have all kinds of animals even right under me, bedding down around me, mating in front of me, all kiinds of stuff, but I've never gotten into the trail cam thing. I really should get with the times & take advantage of that tech & just enjoy seeing what I catch on them, I'd really enjoy doing that. & I'd have a much better ideer of what critters I want in the freezer is around & when.

Since I hunt 500 miles away from where I live, cameras have proven invaluable to my hunting success, and yes, I’ll confess it’s a little like cheating. I pick out a particular buck every year and only hunt him. In 2015, I was hunting a buck I had watched on camera for 3 years, and he was very elusive and basically nocturnal. Long story made short, I used camera activity to pattern the buck and drove the 500 miles just for one evening hunt on the educated guess he would come in on that day in the daylight, and though all my family and friends thought I was crazy, it paid off big time.

 

[Ninering62]

Since I hunt 500 miles away from where I live, cameras have proven invaluable to my hunting success, and yes, I’ll confess it’s a little like cheating. I pick out a particular buck every year and only hunt him. In 2015, I was hunting a buck I had watched on camera for 3 years, and he was very elusive and basically nocturnal. Long story made short, I used camera activity to pattern the buck and drove the 500 miles just for one evening hunt on the educated guess he would come in on that day in the daylight, and though all my family and friends thought I was crazy, it paid off big time.
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Great story, awesome buck. Thanks for sharing both.

 

[smokepolehall]

Don't lock onto the idea it was a big Buck that rubbed that tree. I have been using trail cams for 13 years, i have looked at pic's by the thousands. I have seen spikes work over trees that size n much bigger. I have seem some shread the bark on cedars a foot in diameter

 

[snapbang]

I did put 2 salt types out 3-4 weeks ago. Ill put the camera out soon and see the result.

 

[MrTom]

Bow hunting one fall I watched a forky absolutely tear up a stand of cedars about an hour after a large buck had come thru and serviced a scrape. I thought the larger deer tore things up pretty good but what that little deer did was amazing.

 

[Okie Hog]

Here is a young buck with excellent genes. In two years he will be great:

 

[retrieverman]

Don't lock onto the idea it was a big Buck that rubbed that tree. I have been using trail cams for 13 years, i have looked at pic's by the thousands. I have seen spikes work over trees that size n much bigger. I have seem some shread the bark on cedars a foot in diameter

Bow hunting one fall I watched a forky absolutely tear up a stand of cedars about an hour after a large buck had come thru and serviced a scrape. I thought the larger deer tore things up pretty good but what that little deer did was amazing.

I agree. In my experience, you can’t estimate a bucks size by the size of a rub or scrape. I only look for rubs and scrapes to find out where bucks are moving through, so I can set up a stand in the area. I hunted my place in east Texas last year the old school method without a camera or corn. I set up my climbing stand about 40 yards off a scrape line. I ended up seeing 6 bucks (all young deer) visit the scrape I was watching, but the mature buck I killed stayed in the brush and skirted it.

 

[Decay]

I’ve used 2 trail cams for years and I absolutely love ‘em. I really like the 10 second video feature. I can stop the video and focus at the best image to count antlers. I put them on a scrape and can get hundreds of photos from September to January

 

[Ninering62]

Here is a young buck with excellent genes. In two years he will be great:

He is a nice lookin buck with great potential. I hope he lives long enough to see that.

 

[snapbang]

We used to hope they would live long enough and our hopes are coming in fruition. But I think its from a lot of hunters not hunting anymore. Even at my property I used to have 2-3 fellows hunt the 80 acres plus next to me. Not a peep this year. The guy I hunt rabbits with says he is seeing less hunters now too.

 

[retrieverman]

We used to hope they would live long enough and our hopes are coming in fruition. But I think its from a lot of hunters not hunting anymore. Even at my property I used to have 2-3 fellows hunt the 80 acres plus next to me. Not a peep this year. The guy I hunt rabbits with says he is seeing less hunters now too.

I can only speak for Texas and Oklahoma, but if you don’t own land or have access to family land, deer hunting has become a rich man’s sport. Both states have some public land, but from the experiences of friends that hunt public, those places get pretty crowded.
I try to keep up with what leases are going for, but I haven’t had to pay for a lease since the early 90’s. I’m incredibly blessed now to have access to family land in both states.

 

[MrTom]

We used to hope they would live long enough and our hopes are coming in fruition. But I think its from a lot of hunters not hunting anymore. Even at my property I used to have 2-3 fellows hunt the 80 acres plus next to me. Not a peep this year. The guy I hunt rabbits with says he is seeing less hunters now too.

Five years ago the area around where I hunt would have hunters galore and shooting on the opener often sounded like warfare. I heard 12 shots on the opener this last fall and on the next day, Sunday, I heard four all day.

Personally I think the hunters have stopped in large part due to the restrictions on processors due to Cronic Wasting Disease and then the covid fiasco. Lots of small processors folded and finding reliable processors around here can be a challenge. Plus, like everything else due to covid, they charge both legs and both arms for a simple chop-chop. Sausage is unreal expensive.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Five years ago the area around where I hunt would have hunters galore and shooting on the opener often sounded like warfare. I heard 12 shots on the opener this last fall and on the next day, Sunday, I heard four all day.

Personally I think the hunters have stopped in large part due to the restrictions on processors due to Cronic Wasting Disease and then the covid fiasco. Lots of small processors folded and finding reliable processors around here can be a challenge. Plus, like everything else due to covid, they charge both legs and both arms for a simple chop-chop. Sausage is unreal expensive.

Same around here, i only have one local choice for processing deer if i don't do it myself. 8-10 years ago it seemed like there were almost a dozen different reputable processors. Many are still open but wont take in deer now.

 

[bamawoodsman]

I’m a trail cam nut.

I should probably get cellular ones but I’m too cheap.

I learned a lot from cell cams. It’s gives you real time updates and pieces the deers patterns together in your mind better than going to check them every few days It also saved me from busting my target buck one morning. I was walking in and my phone pinged and the buck was right under my stand. I had to wait I didn’t get him that day but I got him a few days before the season ended. I can highly recommend Tactacam to save you money on other ones. I’ve tried a bunch.

 

[Ninering62]

I learned a lot from cell cams. It’s gives you real time updates and pieces the deers patterns together in your mind better than going to check them every few days It also saved me from busting my target buck one morning. I was walking in and my phone pinged and the buck was right under my stand. I had to wait I didn’t get him that day but I got him a few days before the season ended. I can highly recommend Tactacam to save you money on other ones. I’ve tried a bunch.

Great post, thanks for the insight & recommendation

 

[deerlessbob]

Lack of processors has been a big problem for our club. We are in a COVID watch county in which there are no processors. That means we can only bring boned meat out of the county and I just don’t do as good a job as a professional does.