Yeah running cameras is part of what keeps us interested in deer all year long. I've never killed or patterned a buck by means of trail cams....it doesn't seem to work that way, not where I hunt. Does and fawns, yes I can sometimes pattern them, but not mature bucks outside of mid-summer and late winter. If mature bucks were highly pattern-able in Oct/Nov, they would, by definition, not be mature bucks....but rather, they'd be dead bucks.

As far as naming deer, that's just a method of convenience. When discussing bucks that we've been watching on the farm year-after-year, it's easier to use a specific name, rather than to have to say "you know that one ten pointer with the short brow points, the dropped tip on his left main beam, the double throat patch, and the small notch in the edge of his right ear". It's easier and quicker to just say "Bob" instead