Trail Cam Rotation

I, like several thousand other bow hunters, am itching to hit the timber come October first. Not only for the obvious reasons but also to try out another technique! I love trying new things out and have done some unorthodox and out-of-the-ordinary experiments to find where the monsters lurk in the past but this time I feel pretty confident with my latest idea. I call it the “Trail Camera Rotation”. Now it’s not fancy and it didn’t take a lot of brain power but it’s an easy one to figure out. Here’s what I did to find where a monster’s been hiding.

Early in the year, I started out with a new piece of property. Not knowing anything about it, I studied a satellite image of the property. From there, I walked the timber, the creek beds, grassy areas and whatever else I came across. After determining three spots that looked promising, I placed a trail camera at each location. One spot was a pure dud and I later realized it was only used during the rut, so I pulled that camera after a month. The other two produced big bucks right off the bat. After analyzing both spots, I decided one area would be too difficult to haul a deer out of because of the standing crops, so I opted to focus on the last place. I gathered the other two cameras and placed them on opposite ends of the productive trail camera and waited two weeks to check them. It appeared that my target buck was coming from one end, so I removed the unproductive camera and placed it even further back from the second camera. Throughout the summer, I walked those cameras back about 90 yards over a 2 month course ultimately finding out where he was bedding. I also realized that part of his core area happened to be on the bordering property, so I stopped at the property line. It doesn’t appear to be a problem as he beds mostly on my side and seems to feel at home on my farm. So now I have several ambush sites along this fairly long area with many opportunities to hunt from no matter what the wind is doing. In fact, If I hear noise from one of these areas, I’ll have ample time to draw and position my bow for a clean shot. It’s all in the homework! From here, all I need is a buck :-(

I used to use the same technique with string but this is much easier. I’ve officially caved in to the 21st century technology and have no regrets. Everything else I do will be the same. I can still make believe I’m an early settler trying to feed my family when I hunt from the ground and nobody will know how ill I really am   So it’s business as usual! Come on October!!!