Didn't know where to post this. I'm curious as to how many guys put out food plots or such and then put up trail cameras to see what's walking around and then take a buck that they had previous pictures of. I'd do a survey type of post but don't really know who to do it. (ie, no food plot and cams and buck taken that was on cams, food plot and cams and buck taken that was on cams, no food plot and cams and buck taken that was not on cams, food plot and cams and buck taken that was not on cams)

I have 2 buckeye cameras that relay photo's to my computer instantly. Needless to say my 1st stop in the morning is the computer! Both are by food plot and bedding areas that I maintain, on my mothers property within 300 yards of my house. I guess it's strange that I rarely hunt this area. I would, and do, if I see sign a very nice buck is in the area, but that hasn't been the case this year. Guess the main reason I don't tromp around there much this time of the year is fear of pushing a deer out to someone else-it semetimes seems there is a hunter behind every tree on neighboring property (which I have permission to hunt too-just don't like crowd hunting). And the deer population here is just a trace of what it was 10 years ago. Last year there was a very nice buck showing up regularly, but I made the mistake of waiting till shotgun season to go after him-1 day too late! Anyway, I do most of my hunting on 2 other properties we own, both within a mile and a half of my house. Interestingly, I can look through old trail cam photo's and match them with the bucks I take off these other properties most of the time, which has proven to me just how big of an area a buck will roam.

Thanks for the response. I'm going with the cams you have next year that send the pictures.

Dave, I have both food plot/cams and no food plot/cams. I have shot bucks and does that I have pics of on both.

What I try to do is what Grant Woods suggests and that is try to do a deer survey in August. I use corn sometimes with a mineral site that I will NOT hunt over.

We have cams out all the time somewhere. I can pretty much recognize most deer when I am hunting them. Now pre-rut and rut will be different.

Thanks for the response. Near Madison, we are seeing none of the bucks on camera from the summer and in essence all new bucks that were never seen before, with a food plot in.

I run cams only on field edges not where I will hunt,

I have killed a few I have pics of and some I have never seen before...

We definitely have 3 types of bucks show up on our cameras and we have no food plots. Bucks that live on lease year around, bucks I only see during the rut, and bucks that only show up in the summer. Normally 1 big mature buck, maybe 2, and several dinks never leave. All medium aged bucks seem to travel more, but once they become the big man on campus they seem to prefer our place. Seems like one big aggressive buck can keep a pretty big home range to himself and his bachelor group. This was particularly true of the big 6+ year old I had this year. He was a bully and he never left a 500 acre area. Unfortunately he survived an arrow I put in him and he hasn't been moving much since. I hope my dad or grandpa can finish him off. It was a truly painful experience for me to wound a buck I had been watching for 4 years. The cameras told me how to get him, but it made me feel like the first year 4H kid taking his hog or steer to the sale. Sorry for getting a bit off topic.

I had a cam right behind the stand dad and I both killed deer from. Tons of buck pics and both bucks we killed we captured on cam!

I run two cams during the year and then pull them late Aug. i don't have that much land to hunt, so I only go in one time after that to clean up a mineral site prior to season. I put in a small food plot in between small field and woods edge that overlooks funnel in spring. For me, it's just as much about keeping the does around so a buck might show. It seemed to help as I was able to keep them around all year. I haven't had either buck from last two years on cams. My neighbor did for last years. I had a big one in July on cam that a neighbor ended up getting a mi. away. For me, I don't have the luxury of getting too focused on one buck I may never see. I mostly just try to pattern does. So far, so good.