The clock is ticking as most of us are in our final pre season check list phase going through gear, making some tweaks, and wrapping up any loose ends. In addition to all that, running and managing your cameras through the month of August can be vital to your seasons success. Over the last several years we’ve notice a handful of really important trail camera strategies that have really made a big difference in the early part of our whitetail season.
Where to Transition cameras Food Late august is a great time to shift cameras around for the fall. You’ve collected your summer intel and now it’s time to think about any potential shift. For me mostly hunting big timber tracks focusing on natural food sources, primarily being white oak stands, is a great place to start. A pair of binos can be your best friend in late august, glassing western slopes in hill country can often tell you which oaks are bearing nuts giving you an idea of where to hang cameras in relation to that food source.
Even in different types of terrain and habitats that strategy doesn’t change much, find the primary food for the early season in august, set your cameras, and let them do the work. At least for a starting point..
Bedding For any trail camera set, that you’re looking to get short term MRI, most recent information, cell cams are it. It doesn’t matter if that location is food, staging or transition areas, bedding, travel routes. Cell cameras are the less intrusive way to get MRI in a manner that it can be used somewhat quickly.
For longer term trail camera sets, for example you’re trying to figure out a bedding area that you have no intentions to hunt this year but in years to come regular sd card cameras can be used.
The one important thing to note on these bedding type of cameras is to make sure they are spook proof. The last thing you want to do with a camera is alter a whitetails nature behavior. So hang them 6-8 high, make sure the camera is black flash, you want it on a tree that eliminates the profile of the camera so either side cover like a split trunk or a tree wider than the camera body.
A few years ago, we heard a really interesting conversation with Mark Drury and the focus was around how he utilized trail cameras. There was one thing that I pulled from that conversation that really changed my August trail camera strategy. That one talking point was around not checking cameras until after August 22nd. And you probably wonder what is so special about that date.
If you’re watching this video you’re likely a die hard bow hunter, like us, and you crave every bit of information that you can wrap your brain around. At some point I’m sure you’ve heard about some bucks having different summer and fall ranges. We’ve certainly seen it over the last decade. But to Mark’s talking point he noticed a habitual routine of bucks that typical had a different fall and summer range would show up between Aug 18-21st.
Last year we took note of this trying to validate Mark’s theory. Low and behold, it held true. During that 18th-21st time frame a number of bucks showed themselves in their fall range on this late summer excursion.
This is a big deal on a new property or even on a piece your familiar with just knowing about the buck being alive. Now, is this going to hold true for every whitetail….NO. As we all know there are no shoe box answers in the whitetail woods. But holding that post Aug 22nd date to check your regular sd card cameras can be a difference maker in your season.
