When you start talking about putting trail cameras up in April, be prepared for a few silly looks.
Let them make the silly faces — maybe they’ll get stuck that way — your early season scouting could have you making your own silly face from behind the trophy of your dreams.
When I’m chasing the snow back with my trail cameras, I have a few basic tactics to make sure my cameras always come home safe and my pictures are full of critters.
Knowing your hunting area is probably the biggest factor in understanding when and where to put cameras. If you’re hunting a new area this year, early scouting is a great time to find your bearings. I like to hit the woods while there is still a skiff of snow on the ground. This will give you the ability to see exactly which routes game is taking through the hunting area. Routes will probably fluctuate throughout the year, but this is a great starting point.
Now that you have your footing, branch out until you understand where and why game is moving though the area. Are you in a transition zone, where game is traveling from one place to another? Or are you in a source zone, where game is traveling to a food plot or bedding area? Understanding the game you’re hunting is a major part of being a successful hunter.
Once you have a basic understanding of what’s going down, the actual placement of your cameras comes down to how many you have and how brave you are.
I run a two-camera set-up, and will gradually move up to five or six as archery season approaches. The cameras overlook transition zones between a grass field and a thicket where I found several winter sheds. By studying the snow track, I found the main entry and exit points and placed my cameras to watch the action. So far I’ve caught pictures of roughly 30 deer, two turkeys, three elk and a calf moose — all in two weeks.
A couple tips have helped keep my cameras safe and taking pictures. No. 1 is to invest $5 in a lock. Your camera cost $100, why let it get stolen over five more bucks?
Second, instead of placing cameras the recommended 4 to 5 feet from the ground, move them way up the tree — like 8 feet up. By putting the camera further up the tree and angling it so it’s looking down at your intended target, you will achieve a much greater range of view, and prevent snow from accumulating on your lens. Moving your camera out of the basic line of sight also protects it from being stolen by a passerby.
Getting out there and discovering where critters are hiding early in the year will give you a massive leg up when it comes time to put one on the wall. So don’t let anyone tell you that you’re crazy for early scouting, because there is never such thing as too early to be successful.
Michael French can be reached at [email protected]