Before trail cams

[deermanok]

Without showing my age too much, does anyone remember or ever used that special thread that was strung across a game trail?
If an animal passed by it would break the string. It was really low tech stuff and you couldn't get much more info, other than something had passed.

 

[rhbc13]

I've used heavy fishing line before (and sometimes still do) . I try to kept about 2' above the ground so smaller animals will go under it. Not full proof by any means, but it does work. Usually use it where I don't want to put a trail camera for fear of theft. Used it once in a logged out area where they put up a deer fence when they were done. Deer could still get in but they couldn't figure out how to get out do to the lay of the land, they had a trail worn right against the fence on the inside, crazy.

 

[fishhawk2700]

I never used the thread but i did spend every free moment I had "scouting". From mid August through all of Michigan's deer season i spent time in what we called recon stands. I hunted Michigan's thumb area on my sisters dairy farm so there was a lot of open ground. With crop rotation, deer movement changed from year to year. With these recon stands being on the edge of crops and wood lots, you could get a good idea of which way deer were moving in and out of the crops. It worked well for us over the years.

I'm going to piss a lot of people off but as far as trail cams go, IMO, they should be illegal. Just like baiting they are another short cut for people that want instant gratification. Trail cams are just one of many reasons that after 52 years , I have quit whitetail hunting.

 

[deermanok]

I have mixed feelings about trail cams. You can get an idea of what deer might be in your hunting area. Of all the guys I know that use cameras, not one has killed a deer that they got pictures of.
I don't care how much you try, but you're going to leave scent behind when you go to check your SD cards.

 

[JIMYJAC]

I have mixed feelings about trail cams. You can get an idea of what deer might be in your hunting area. Of all the guys I know that use cameras, not one has killed a deer that they got pictures of.
I don't care how much you try, but you're going to leave scent behind when you go to check your SD cards.

Mixed feelings. I have used them to pattern, took a decent buck last year with it`s use. That said I enjoy old school tactics more like the thread deal. I have an old primos that I can take sd card out an put it in a digital camera when i go afield which I enjoy. Had a new one out last year and a new sd card was corrupted and did not get pics. Also with the new ones you have to download. I might just leave this to the young guys.

 

[CatamountRob]

I like fooling around with cameras during the summer when I’m out mushroom picking but I’m not smart enough to take what I get on camera and turn it into any kind of hunting strategy. I rarely see any kind of pattern that holds up for any length of time. I do enjoy seeing what’s out there tho.
I did kill a buck that I had on camera a few years back and I did kill it where I had pictures but I’ve always hunted there anyhow.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

I found no benefit from using cameras on the farm i hunt. But i do get great pics of different wildlife that i dont see while hunting, also the occasional trespassers(its always the neighbor).

 

[southdakbearfan]

Best benefit I have found to trail cams is capturing the license plates and faces of trespassers.

That is actually the only thing we use them for.

 

[retrieverman]

I have mixed feelings about trail cams. You can get an idea of what deer might be in your hunting area. Of all the guys I know that use cameras, not one has killed a deer that they got pictures of.
I don't care how much you try, but you're going to leave scent behind when you go to check your SD cards.

My list of deer I‘ve killed because of trail cam surveillance is too long to list, but two examples are my 2020 buck and 2021 buck that are posted in threads on here. In 2015, I had a buck so patterned I drove 500 miles just to make one evening hunt, and I killed the buck.
I’ll be honest and say at this stage in life that I get about as much joy out of trail cam pictures as I do hunting. I’ve been using them for over 20 years and seen some really cool stuff on camera that I would never have seen otherwise.
My 2015 buck…

 

[Matthew323]

In my opinion, the only way to really know where game is, regardless of how small (squirrel, rabbit, upland birds), or how large (deer, antelope, feral hog, black bear, elk, moose, turkey), is to put yourself out in the forest, plains, swamp, etc. where the particular species that you intend to hunt lives, eats, sleeps, and travels between those areas. I always called this scouting.

Game cameras are something I have yet to experience. I can see their allure, as they eliminate, to some extent, a hunter's need to personally scout out.

When I move to Arkansas I intend to spend a good portion of the first 12 months introducing myself to the various landowners that have property that I would I like to hunt on. I will offer 40 hours of my labor on their farm/ranch in exchange for written permission to hunt on their land, to include the right to scout year round.

I figure that if I can get this type of permission for at least 10-12 different (hopefully more) properties, then a couple of days spent on 1 piece of land, would be followed by another couple of days spent on the next property, in a rotational basis.

I am thinking, hoping, to be able to work for 8-10 hours on day 1, then follow that with 1-2 days of scouting.

This way, not only would I have a nearly year round idea of what game was doing what on each piece of property, I would also be another set of eyes & ears for the landowner.

In addition, I would be establishing relationships, hopefully friendships, with the respective landowners.

 

[retrieverman]

Best benefit I have found to trail cams is capturing the license plates and faces of trespassers.

That is actually the only thing we use them for.

I use them for that purpose too.

 

[Okie Hog]

i use trail cameras to pattern hogs. Also see a lot of good buck deer photos.

Decades ago i took three whitetail bucks that scored 189 and above. Last day of deer gun season 2020 i passed on a young buck that scored about 170 points.

 

[ShawnT]

Don't recall that thread your referring to.

 

[deermanok]

Don't recall that thread your referring to.

I don't remember the name but it was very thin like sewing thread.
O.D. green, came on a big plastic spool.

 

[retrieverman]

I don't remember the name but it was very thin like sewing thread.
O.D. green, came on a big plastic spool.

It was called a Trail Timer.

 

[retrieverman]

In my opinion, the only way to really know where game is, regardless of how small (squirrel, rabbit, upland birds), or how large (deer, antelope, feral hog, black bear, elk, moose, turkey), is to put yourself out in the forest, plains, swamp, etc. where the particular species that you intend to hunt lives, eats, sleeps, and travels between those areas. I always called this scouting.

Game cameras are something I have yet to experience. I can see their allure, as they eliminate, to some extent, a hunter's need to personally scout out.

When I move to Arkansas I intend to spend a good portion of the first 12 months introducing myself to the various landowners that have property that I would I like to hunt on. I will offer 40 hours of my labor on their farm/ranch in exchange for written permission to hunt on their land, to include the right to scout year round.

I figure that if I can get this type of permission for at least 10-12 different (hopefully more) properties, then a couple of days spent on 1 piece of land, would be followed by another couple of days spent on the next property, in a rotational basis.

I am thinking, hoping, to be able to work for 8-10 hours on day 1, then follow that with 1-2 days of scouting.

This way, not only would I have a nearly year round idea of what game was doing what on each piece of property, I would also be another set of eyes & ears for the landowner.

In addition, I would be establishing relationships, hopefully friendships, with the respective landowners.

I think this is going to be tough to pull off in today’s world, but I sincerely hope this plan works out for you.

 

[Matthew323]

I think this is going to be tough to pull off in today’s world, but I sincerely hope this plan works out for you.

One can only try. If I present myself well, and furthermore tell the landowner that I don't expect him/her to grant me any privileges until I have proved myself to be trustworthy, then I feel that I have a reasonable chance at success.

The absolute worst case scenario is that I spend a week, or two, working 40 hours per week on someone's property, only to get stiffed by an unscrupulous person. If that happens, it won't be the worst thing that ever happened to me, nor the end of my world.

Even if it happens, I would at least have spent some quality time outdoors, have had the satisfaction of knowing that I accomplished something that I can take pride in having done a good job at performing, and move on.

 

[HC]

FYI, Arkansas has hundreds of thousands of acres of public land to hunt.

 

[SuperKirby]

I have have a few trail cams up. I really like to see all the animals moving around on the farm. I can't say that I've ever patterned a buck off them. For as much as I enjoy checking cameras and flipping through pictures I can't help but wonder if they make hunting worse?
For the longest time I was thrilled to take anything with antlers. Didn't know any better and was told that so far as anyone knew nobody had taken a buck off the farm. My assumption was that there must not be too many deer here. So when I took a little fork my 3rd or 4th year hunting with a muzzleloader I thought I was king of the world. A few years later I was introduced to trail cams and a buddy out one up on a trail, dumped some corn in front of it and a week later I had three nights in a row of a 6, 8, and 10 hanging out eating. I was thrilled. They disappeared after the corn was gone never to be seen again. I figured they smelled the corn, came from who knows how far away and then left. A few years later I put up a couple of my own and lo and behold, we have bucks! Most are small, but not all. Now I run them I guess because I enjoy the deer.
The real issue is I now know there's a decent 8, a 9 and a 10 out there. I pass on deer now that I would have been thrilled with a few years ago. Where I used to go out every year just hoping to see a deer I now go out more with the expectation I'll watch deer but highly unlikely I'll see a shooter.
Is this better? I don't know. Either way I blame the trail cams.

 

[MrTom]

I think the cams may change the perspective of how some people hunt. I have a camera I leave up on trails at the cabin. When we get there again I swap out the card so we can see what kind of traffic is happening. It can be interesting, but I don’t hunt there.