Trail-cameras have been a big part of my life, even longer than my wife. You might say I’ve been married to the former for 20 years and the latter for nearly 10. And I love them both dearly.
I started checking trail-cameras and clicking through photos in the mid-2000s. I was young, but I took to cameras like flies to a glue trap. By the 2010s, I was running 50-plus trail-cameras every season. Today, I can’t even count the number of SD and cell cams deployed on the tracts I hunt.
Throughout the years, that’s led to a stockpile of trail-camera bucks. Some of these were pass-through deer with only a frame or two to remember them by. Others were homebodies with thousands of triggers. As a result, I’ve cataloged millions of trail-camera photos and thousands of unique bucks.
You learn a few lessons with that much experience. Trail-camera use and operation, buck behavior, hunting tactics, mistakes to avoid – the list is long! But I whittled it down to 15 advanced lessons I’ve learned from monitoring thousands of unique bucks via trail-cameras. Some might make you a better hunter. Others are just cool things to know.
1. Bucks All Have Different Faces
Two elements of whitetail allure include unique antler shapes and sizes. Some deer are typicals. Others are non-typicals. At maturity, some have six, seven, or eight points. Others have nine or 10. Even more, some have 20 or 30. Not to mention the wide range of antler scores from region to region, state to state, or even property to property. Of course, these things come as no surprise.
However, most hunters don’t look beyond antlers and realize individual whitetails look very different. Starting with body size, deer tend to express larger, smaller, or average body weights. Some deer are taller, while others are shorter. Some are longer.
The head is the real kicker, though. Whitetails look different in the face. Bucks have different-colored forehead patches, including black, dark gray, light gray, dark brown, light brown, and red. They also have different markings around their chin, mouth, and nose. Features like these come in handy when separating two bucks with similar antlers or confirming you saw a particular buck in a previous season.
2. Bucks Have Their Unique Personalities
While physical appearance varies from one deer to the next, the inward traits do too. Bucks don’t have personalities in the human sense. However, they do express specific and identifiable tendencies that culminate into perceived personalities.
Oftentimes, this helps put deer in one of several category types, such as aggressive or passive, homebodies or travelers, and much more. It can even help determine food-based preferences a deer might exhibit. Each of these things help profile deer and establish game plans used for targeting them.
3. Every Buck Tolerates Human Intrusion Differently
An extension of No. 2, but an important standalone point, is that each whitetail tolerates human intrusion at different levels. Some bucks are more tolerant of human intrusion. You can go in and hang treestands, fill feeders, hang trail-cameras, and more, all without affecting these deer. However, other bucks get one whiff of ground scent, and they shift to the neighbor’s property.
I’ve learned and re-learned this lesson. With some bucks, I’ve applied too much pressure and ruined any chance of killing them. With others, I’ve completed important scouting or season prep that made it possible to hunt these deer, and it didn’t impact them. Over time, trail-cameras reveal how much intrusion (scouting, hunting, or otherwise) a deer will tolerate. Focus on hunting the tolerant bucks!
4. Home Ranges and Core Areas Vary Greatly
Popular outdoor writing fodder places the average whitetail home range at approximately 640 acres (1 square mile) and core areas at about 30 to 50 acres. Of course, that’s true for a lot of deer, but scientific research using GPS tracking collars shows it’s not true for all.
I’ve hunted many different properties and run trail-cameras on nearly as many. I’ve learned that, from one buck to the next, home ranges and core areas vary greatly. Habitat quality, available bedding cover, seasonal food sources, human presence, and much more, impact both size and shape of home ranges and core areas.
As a result, home ranges might be small or large for individual bucks. Core areas vary widely, too. And home ranges might be relatively blocky, or they could be more organic in shape. Every deer is different. When you see a particular buck in your trail-cameras regularly, you know you are lucky enough to be located in or near his core area.
5. Whitetails Come and Go
I’ve been blessed to follow some bucks over extended periods. There’s the buck I called “Tanker” which graced my trail-cameras for seven years. Or “GP” who was around for five years. Of course, a great many bucks have stuck around for only two years or fewer.
Nonetheless, eventually all deer move on or die. They don’t hang around forever. It’s just the way of things. So, when deciding whether to give a deer one more year, understand there’s no guarantee it’ll come back. Whitetails come and go. A big reason they fail to return is harvest by other hunters, but many die of natural causes and some fall to predators. Take this into account when deciding whether to harvest or pass specific bucks.
6. Deer are Instinctive, Not Calculating
Some people think that deer can… think. We can’t read a deer’s mind, but it’s obvious they cannot reason in the way humans do. They don’t see a ladder on a ladder stand and know hunters are there. They don’t hear a rifle and deduce that hunting season is open.
However, if they see a hunter in a treestand, or getting into or out of a box blind, they can put the pieces together and avoid that spot. If they smell human scent on a trail-camera, it might cause them to avoid that area. Eventually, and sometimes suddenly, it results in an instinctive outcome, but it is not calculating.
7. Video Beats Photo Mode (Usually)
Photo and video modes have their unique benefits. Photos are ideal when minimizing time it takes to sort through files, saving battery life, and much more. It’s ideal for taking inventory or maintaining updates on the deer herd.
Video mode has its benefits, too. First, video helps reveal a deer’s perceived personality. It reveals how bucks interact with other deer. This can shed clues as to whether it’s an aggressive or passive deer, as well as dominance or subordination to other bucks. This can help decide whether to call or rattle at specific deer, or not.
Video mode also illustrates direction of travel much better. The first frame of the video better reveals which direction the deer came from. The last frame of it determines the direction it went. Photo mode often misses this element entirely. Video mode offers more and better data when trying to determine bedding area and food source locations.
8. Antler Size Peaks Around Age 6½ to 8½
Some whitetails live long lives, but few bucks survive past 4½ years of age. In certain areas, they do well to reach their second or third birthday. However, the deer that reach the older end of the spectrum show us valuable lessons through our trail-cameras, including year-over-year antler growth.
I’ve been fortunate to follow some bucks well into and even past their prime. In almost every instance, they produced their best set of antlers between ages 6½ and 8½. There’s good science that supports this observation. In two cases, bucks best sets were at 5½, but they experienced injuries that likely reduced antler score in subsequent racks.
9. Details Matter When Targeting Mature Bucks
Those who hope to target specific bucks must pay attention to details. That much I’ve certainly learned. The details matter. Maybe a buck prefers this bedding area with a northerly wind. Perhaps it beds in another spot with a westerly wind. Perhaps it travels toward one particular food source when the wind is quartering or straight up its nose. Maybe it moves earlier during daylight when the wind direction is more in its favor.
The examples and scenarios of how seemingly small things influence outcomes go on. Stress over the details, or you’ll stress when you realize not doing so cost you a shot at that buck.
10. Info Strips Are Vital Intel
A lot of trail-camera users don’t put enough stock into the most basic element of trail-cameras. Info strips must be set to the correct date and time. This information includes vital intel in patterning deer and picking apart their home ranges and core areas.
Info strips are especially important for studying the underlying factors in when and why deer move. Generally, I study the timestamp associated with every mature buck daylight photo. This led to a significant revelation.
Some bucks’ movements are very random and seem to not follow any obvious variables. Other bucks are predictable. Some of the mature deer I’ve followed with cameras seemed to only move outside their bedding areas when the wind was in their favor. For example, the wind was quartering or blowing straight toward them from where deer expected danger to be.
Knowing this information can help predict when a deer might travel past a certain treestand, hunting blind, or trail-camera location. It’s important intel you shouldn’t overlook.
11. Trail-Camera Issues Are Usually Preventable
Most trail-camera problems are results of user error. Not reading the manual. Installing SD cards with very high write speeds. Failing to format SD cards. Using SD cards in different devices. Allowing battery corrosion to kill cams. Letting ants overtake the camera housing. Pointing cameras in the wrong directions. Angling cameras poorly. Leaving cameras out indefinitely without cleaning and maintaining. These and many more are mistakes to avoid.
Of course, some issues are a result of camera malfunction. But these are the exception and not the norm. Take care of trail-cameras, use them as directed, maintain them with care, and most problems cease to exist.
12. Sun, Bad SD Cards, and Drained Batteries are Pesky
Trail-cameras, especially cellular models, aren’t cheap. Your investment needs to deliver results. But a lot of things work against this effort. Pointing trail-cameras in the wrong direction is one of those. An easterly direction can deliver killer photos of morning-time bucks with backlit velvet antlers. A westerly direction can accomplish the same in the afternoon. But these directions can also produce washed-out images where you can’t even see a deer in the frame. Aiming the camera as close to north as you can avoids these lighting problems, as seen in the graphic below.
Old, faulty, full, and locked SD cards ruin trail cam checks, too. Ensuring these are in top condition and ready to work is a must. The worst trail cam feeling is popping a card and realizing it didn’t take, or save, any photos.
Of course, drained battery life is among the peskiest of trail-camera challenges. Placing cams over bait stations, water holes, and other high-activity areas can accomplish this rather quickly. But it doesn’t have to. Choose SD and cell cameras that offer maximum battery life. Furthermore, pair these with external battery sources, such as battery boxes, solar panels, or a combination of both.
13. Cataloging Trail-Camera Photos is Crucial
Some hunters check cams, observe the photos, and dump the files. That’s cringy. Hunters buy cameras, purchase batteries and SD cards, burn gas to deploy and check cams, and spend untold time posting, checking, moving, and pulling said cams. To not keep the very photos all the money and time were meant for is a mistake.
Instead, catalog all trail-camera photos. Save photos in a file system by year, property, location, and date of camera check. If nothing else, keep all photos of antlered deer. Over time, you’ll look back and realize that mature buck that showed up this year was actually a return deer you’ve seen before.
14. Modern Tech Helps With Photo Analysis
New opportunities continue to provide hunters with advanced technology. Some of these provide enhanced trail-camera photo analysis. For example, many of today’s cell cam apps provide analysis that breaks down deer activity and behavior by camera location. Such tools aid in hunt planning, herd management, and more.
15. Trail-Cameras Are Your Best Scouting Tool
To sum it all up, trail-cameras are a hunter’s best scouting tool. These will never fully replace e-scouting, boots-on-the-ground scouting, glassing from afar, and other methods. In fact, the best scouting effort integrates all of these into one effort. But without question, cameras are forever part of the scouting process, and just might be the most valuable of that stable of tactical assets. Milk the most from your trail cams this season.