Scouting Tactics for Trail Cam-Dodging Whitetails - Game & Fish

I’m telling you, that one was a giant,” my cameraman exclaimed as the woods settled following the chaos of several bucks chasing an estrus doe. I hadn’t seen the “giant,” and none of the numerous trail cameras hung by my hunting buddy who’d given me permission to hunt the area had ever captured a “giant” buck either.

Two days later, my buddy and I swapped stands. Soon after, I received a text: “Come help me drag a deer out.” When I arrived, he punked me a bit, indicating the buck was just a “good one.” However, the final flashlight reveal left me speechless. It was indeed a “giant” buck. Not once had this monster been caught on the half-dozen cameras monitoring the creek bottom.

This experience showed me that deer can and will dodge trail cameras. Whether they do so purposefully or while merely following behavior patterns outside the norm is for a deer psychologist to determine. Regardless, it’s key to prepare a plan for deer that may be eluding your stakeout.

One big reason your trail cameras might miss deer is due to menu changes. A lack of water during a dry spell is another, especially on properties with already limited water sources.

Whitetails browse on several hundred different plant species throughout the year, which include forbs, grasses, mast and woody browse. On any day, they may nibble on a dozen or more species, depending on nutritional needs, palatability and availability. When a new restaurant opens, you might make a reservation and then return if it continues meeting your desires. Deer are no different.

So, surveying all available nutrition on your hunting property—and several miles around it—is critical. Although deer often stick to a home territory, they’re not averse to hanging elsewhere if delicious food abounds nearby. Think soybeans, acorns, corn and other desirables, as well as small food plots or feeders in the area.

Similarly, if water becomes a lean commodity, deer will relocate to obtain access to a dependable source. Your property simply may not have ample water resources, or a drought could dry up available water. Regardless, if you have cameras monitoring water that disappears, don’t expect many new images.

Seasons change, and so does a whitetail’s menu. What deer savor in June will likely change by September and so on. One of the whitetail’s greatest disappearing acts occurs when trees—often acorn-bearing white oaks—drop a nutritious bounty. Many deer immediately gravitate toward this powerhouse food, which contains 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein and 15 grams of carbs, plus many minerals and vitamins, in a 1-ounce serving. Similarly, when soybeans, turnips, corn and other crops become palatable, deer immediately drift to these delicacies. Deploy your trail cameras accordingly when the menu changes.

Mark Olis’ expansive background in trail cameras paved the way to his current position as Moultrie Mobile’s senior marketing relations manager. However, before he took on this role, I also knew Olis as a respected whitetail hunter and wildlife property manager, and an experienced big game and turkey hunter. His 30-plus years of hunting and his dedication to creating a whitetail haven on 600 acres of ground give him more than enough credible insight on what to do when deer evade trail cameras.

Olis says intercepting deer heading to newly emerging food plots is a solid early-season strategy, as deer often pile into these areas before sunset to feed on the tender, sweet-tasting young plants. Once white oak acorns start dropping, he suggests seeking out those first trees dropping acorns on oak flats and ridges. Placing a few trail cameras around these early-dropping mast trees is a great way to find a mature buck to pursue. Just don’t wait too long to hunt a target buck when he shows up on camera; once other trees begin dropping mast, Olis says, the buck can find acorns everywhere.

Changes in food availability or preferences certainly produce deviations in established deer patterns, but other things can, too. Therefore, it pays to constantly identify potential reasons for changing behavior and the possible detours a deer may take so you can continue capturing them on camera.

Let’s start with your very presence. Scouting can alert area deer, but once hunting season heats up, savvy deer sense the increase of humans in their homelands. Whether it’s the occasional alarm from detecting your scent or your increased ATV usage when accessing stands, deer notice an uptick in activity. And they may change patterns, oftentimes resulting in detours around your camera. So, avoid sanctuary areas and always use good scent-control practices while visiting cameras.

Also, consider seasonal weather changes. Dropping foliage may expose some trails so much that deer begin avoiding them, opting instead for routes with more cover. Remember this when monitoring trail camera activity.

The oncoming breeding season, of course, represents another major detour. Bucks especially deviate from early-fall rituals so they can be around more does when they finally become receptive to bucks’ advances.

Like a surprise construction detour in your daily commute, shifting deer patterns are sometimes difficult to see coming. Your best tool is experience, which helps provide an understanding of how patterns change seasonally on a given property. If your surveillance budget is limited and you don’t own a bevy of trail cams, experience can help you determine when to move cameras from field edges to interior woodlots. Similarly, you may need to move them from a food plot on a popular public hunting area several days before hunting season kicks off.

As testosterone increases in deer from early to mid-fall, rub and scrape line surveillance provides a trail that—while transitioning quickly as the rut ensues—offers starting points for new trail camera placements if other areas suddenly stop producing images. Regardless, Olis recommends as many trail cameras as you can afford for the best perspective of a property. Whether you move your cameras or have enough for total coverage, monitor all possible detours.

“The key to staying on deer throughout the season is keeping your finger on the pulse of the activity,” Olis says. “As ag fields get cut, acorns rot, hunting pressure increases and the rut heats up, staying mobile with your cameras is key. This is hard to do with one camera, but if you have several that you can deploy as you do your in-season scouting, then you can home in on where the daylight activity is happening.”

Just like that eccentric uncle of yours, deer can display antisocial characteristics on occasion. I recall several articles in which the late wildlife biologist Dr. Valerius Geist described ungulates that would shun breeding season and not heartedly engage whatsoever. Reasons for this include injury, age, bad experiences (with either sex) or simply having genetics that predispose a deer to being less social.

I’ve seen the injury example in several species of deer. When vulnerable due to an injury, a deer may avoid herd interaction, fearing further injury or death. Can you recall a loner buck shunning the bachelor-group lifestyle and instead, living on the edge of all herd activity? That may have been an antisocial deer.

Search for hideouts that unsociable deer may be using now and especially once breeding begins. Although some research claims deer don’t change their movement behavior during breeding, almost everyone I know sees some semblance of lockdown behavior. Whether a buck retreats to hidey holes now due to its antisocial nature or later to avoid breeding competition doesn’t really matter. What matters is uncovering these unconventional hideouts and beginning to monitor them.

Olis says the best way is using cell cameras to “backtrack” a buck’s location. If you’re capturing nighttime images of a big buck in a food plot or elsewhere, Olis suggests switching that camera to video mode to see from which direction the buck enters. When conditions are right, he says, walk that way and look for rub lines, scrapes and trails, placing cell cameras as you come across fresh sign. The goal is to find the buck’s bedding area. By deploying cameras along each trail and rub or scrape line, Olis says you’ll also determine which path he’s using most consistently.

Finally, review your state’s laws and rules governing bait or mineral use. Not all deer fall for these treats, but most will visit them at some point in the preseason, with seasonal visits to follow. Minerals absent in the natural environment can potentially benefit a herd’s overall health and antler growth. Pregnant and lactating does can also greatly benefit from this mineral contribution.

Of course, a feeder full of corn attracts deer like Sturgis attracts bikers. Corn or commercial feed entice deer year-round. While it’s an added expense, it does keep cameras busy with daily visits from nearby deer.

Vigilance is required when deer begin evading your trail cameras, but with an active plan of monitoring, moving and adding cameras to your surveillance system, you’ll miss fewer deer.

Trail camera technology is constantly evolving. Today’s units wow with their features, with many capable of transmitting images and videos directly to your phone via cellular networks. A few of the newer trail cams, especially, stand out for the scouting capabilities they provide hunters.

Moultrie Mobile’s Edge Pro cellular trail camera includes near-infrared technology for clearer night images and an improved IR LED array for better illumination out to 100 feet. However, the real game changer is the False Trigger Elimination (FTE) technology. Artificial intelligence lets you identify and capture only the species you want, instead of crows or racoons. Plus, if a branch or other vegetation that you can’t or don’t want to cut hangs within the frame, you can tell the camera to ignore its movement by eliminating the zone of the picture in which it protrudes. ($139.99; moultriemobile.com)

Ever wished your trail camera could see behind itself? Well, Stealth Cam’s Revolver Pro can. Beyond high-quality images and video and other attributes most leading cameras offer, the Revolver Pro provides 360 degrees of motion coverage out to 100 feet, day or night. When it detects motion, it silently spins to catch the scoundrel anywhere around the camera. The Revolver Pro offers advantages for large areas, like food plots, mast locations and hayfields, where deer often slip by a directionally pointed camera. The camera automatically connects to the strongest cellular network in your area to send images in real time to your chosen device. ($179.99; stealthcam.com)

Nothing beats being there in person, but when your schedule doesn’t allow it, watching a live feed is a close second. Bushnell’s CelluCORE Live trail camera lets you view what’s happening in front of your trail cam in real time. The camera automatically connects to the area’s strongest cellular network courtesy of its Dual SIM Connectivity technology to transmit images or video. Whether scouting, hunt planning or monitoring property for security, the CelluCORE Live provides live video day or night, and No Glow IR LEDs capture nighttime images out to 100 feet. With a host of additional features, CelluCORE Live is tough to beat for immediate intel. ($299.99; bushnell.com)