Trail Cameras Revisited

Outside Iowa® & Midwest Iowa Outdoors®

With Thomas Allen

(August 30th, 2010)

A little over a month ago we talked about implementing the use of trail cameras to accent your summer scouting in preparation for the upcoming whitetail archery season.  We are going to take a second look, as patterns and habits have changed.  In most cases, the mid-summer to late-summer feeding patterns are what we try to follow when strategically setting up cams hoping to catch that velvet monster a few more times before he goes totally hard-horn.

As a whitetail buck sheds his velvet, the transition from the summer feeding pattern into the early phases of the pre-rut can really be difficult to pinpoint.  A couple of things are happening right now; as velvet sheds tempers begin to flare and bachelor groups of bucks, consisting of all ages, are trying out their new headgear, thus with each passing day their tolerance of each other decreases.

Crops are maturing and the whitetails’ palate preference changes with that transition.  If you had cameras on soybeans that suddenly went dry, it’s because the deer have moved off of the beans.  This is the time of year where soybeans begin to change color from a lush green, to a golden yellow, then finally to a crispy brown.  It has been my experience that during the time frame when the beans are turning yellow until they are completely brown and leaf-less, the deer almost completely avoid them.

The time to relocate those cameras has come, that is unless you enjoy blank cards.  Not for me!  The bucks get dispersed and feeding habits adjust to oak mast, standing corn, and alfalfa.  The bucks will also begin their scraping and rubbing ritual, which usually begin to appear in reoccurring staging and transition areas of timber.  Conveniently, this is usually adjacent to or very near to acorn producing acorn oak flats.

Let’s break this down further to identify the perfect place to hang a camera in early fall.  Locate a busy trail coming from an oak flat that dumps into standing corn or abundant and lush alfalfa.  Acorn mast is a deer’s chocolate, they prefer those to every other food source almost exclusively.  If you can find plenty of acorns near standing crops, you will find the deer.

Because the deer spend so much time in these locations, the bucks will begin rubbing and scraping here as well.  If you locate a scrape this early in the game, I would suggest putting a camera on it as the other bucks in the area will follow suit, freshening it as they pass through to feed in the corn or alfalfa.  So, the rut begins….

As this transition takes place and the onset of the season opener nears, it is easy to get overzealous and want to check cameras one to two times weekly.  This is the time to practice a little more discipline and give each camera two weeks minimum.  However, if battery life won’t last that long, I suggest taking all the proper precautions when pulling cards.  Go out during the middle of the day and do your best to remain as scent free as possible.  If a camera location adjustment is necessary, go prepared with the proper tools and do it quickly!

This is an exciting time in the whitetail woods as the bucks have really come into their own, personalities are getting recognized, and habits are getting predictable.  The greatest way to keep tabs on the transition is to constantly monitor your property.  Long distance scouting is imperative all summer long, but now is the time when a savvy hunter can put himself in position to let the air out of a giant in just a few short weeks.

Game on!

Feel free to contact me with any questions!

(Thomas Allen is a professional outdoor writer, photographer, videographer, and outdoor talk radio show host; for more information visit www.outdoorpursuitsradio.com.  If you have questions or comments feel free to email Thomas at tha481@gmail.com)