Trail Camera Review: Olymbros T3

When you’re just getting started hunting, there’s a good chance that seeing wildlife is a big part of the draw for you. And when you get to see their hidden habits, it’s even more addicting. That’s where trail cameras really come in handy.
Depending on where you hunt, you may or may not be familiar with trail cameras. For example, if you hunt heavily pressured public land, you might be afraid to use one for fear of theft. And if you’re a new hunter, you probably haven’t even thought about them before. But if you do use one, this trail camera review will introduce you to the features and pros/cons of this particular model so you can decide if you’d like to try one yourself.

Trail Camera Background

I received a message from Olymbros® a while back, asking if I would conduct a trail camera review on their model. I was eager to do so, as I love trying new cameras in the woods and since I’m a biologist, I could never get enough wildlife pictures! Specifically, I received the T3 16MP trail camera.

The T3 is capable of taking pictures at different resolutions (up to 16 megapixels) or videos in 1080P full HD. The menu choices were pretty impressive. I was able to change the trigger interval (how long the camera waits between pictures), the number of pictures taken, the sensitivity level (what size disturbance triggers the camera), etc.

The camera also uses a no-glow, infrared LED light, which doesn’t spook wild animals like some flashing versions. Finally, if you’re concerned about someone stealing your camera, you can lock it with a 4-digit password – granted, that doesn’t stop someone from stealing it necessarily, but they’re not going to be able to use it either.

Field Test and Results

I received the camera and didn’t have much opportunity to deploy it on some private property until later in the summer. But after only a few days of sitting over an old mineral lick, I got some cool pictures. The camera really blends in well against a variety of tree barks, but it disappeared very well against a paper birch!

Overall, the settings seemed to work as I thought they might. Given the short time frame I had to check the camera, I set it to a high sensitivity level and low interval to make sure I captured pictures. Some were inevitably empty due to branches triggering the camera or animals being just out of frame. But it was able to capture a nice sequence of a doe and fawn digging around in the soil.

I also captured a few (alright, MANY) pictures of black bears. Most of them wandered by, but some curious ones couldn’t resist a closer inspection of the camera, causing the subsequent pictures to be rotated a bit. For example, this picture was already tilted from another bear. This one then decided to check it out too, causing all the remaining ones to tilt the other way. So far, none of them have destroyed the trail camera, but since I’ve lost cameras to bears before, I need to invest in a steel box sooner than later!

Thus far, I haven’t had many good night-time pictures. Most of the pictures with deer in them have been pretty washed out or over-exposed. The picture below of a raccoon was one of the clearest night shots I’ve captured.

I also explored some of the other camera functions by choosing the video and photo mode, which takes both when triggered. I captured a cool sequence of at least three gray wolves, including pictures and the video below.

Potential Improvements

There are only two slight cons I noticed. First, compared to other trail cameras I’ve used, the field of view seems a little more constricted or zoomed in. It’s not a big deal for the average hunter, but it’s just something I noticed after placing the camera in the same tree as others before it.
Second, when I was setting the camera up in my living room where the light was uneven, I noticed the camera makes an audible click much like a car blinker. Presumably, this is the camera switching from daylight to nighttime mode. It was fairly loud and might spook the occasional deer or turkey if light levels are varying drastically in the field, but it’s definitely not a deal-breaker for me.

Trail Camera Review Summary

Overall, I enjoy this camera. It takes nice pictures and performs well in different conditions. I really like that it has a small LCD screen for viewing pictures in the field. Instead of just swapping out the SD cards, I can quickly scan through and see what’s been happening while I’ve been gone. The bottom line is that this trail camera takes good pictures and would be a good addition to your hunting equipment if you’re into this kind of obsession.
If you’re interested in this camera, check it out!

9 Affordable Waterfowl Hunts

There is nothing better than a good guided hunting trip and few things more frustrating than a bad one. Do some research prior to handing money over to an outfitter by speaking to individuals who have hunted with them about their experiences.

You will know if something sounds fishy, and it's a red flag if an outfitter won't produce contacts. For these trips, check out Getducks.com and Ramsey Russell.

Manitoba Sandhill Cranes

Manitoba is a waterfowler's dream. Everybody knows about the great duck and goose hunting this province offers, but what many hunters from the States don't know is how great the hunting for Sandhill cranes is here. The province offers some amazing opportunities to hunt what is arguably, one of the tastiest birds out there so good, in fact, that many have nicknamed these birds the "ribeye in the sky."
Sandhills decoy well and there are a number of outfitters in the province offering hunts. So, whether you want to extend your duck- or goose-hunting adventure to Manitoba or want to go there just try your hand at these birds alone, check out the amazing opportunities for Sandhills just over the border in Canada.

North Carolina: Swans & Ducks

You may not feel like a complete waterfowler if you haven't at least dreamed of going after a tundra swan, and the go-to place to do it is North Carolina, where some outfits run success rates close to 100 percent. The Mattamuskeet Refuge area is the hub of hunting North America's largest legal waterfowl.
It's a simple outing and affordable for this ultimate trophy. An average duck hunt run's $550 to $600 with lodging per day for up to three guys, so you and a few buddies can have a three-day package and that's about all each of you will pay in the end.

 

"My kid out there mowing grass this summer could afford this hunt. Go for two or three days, so you can pick a nice mature bird and enjoy it," Ramsey Russell of Getducks.com says.
"Instead of seeing a few you will see hundreds if not thousands, and when you get your swans you can chase pintails, scooters, long-tails and all kinds of fun stuff." Experience boat blinds for decoying ducks in the shallow flats, true traditional East Coast tidal hunting.
It's the place to go to get your hand on a beautiful plumed out swan for taxidermy in January.

Delaware Sea Duck Combo 

Historic Chesapeake gets all the hype, and Delaware Bay is not on the radar of many waterfowl hunts, but it should be. One of the biggest bodies of water on the East Coast is home to massive ledges where deeper waters come right up to oyster shoals and the hunting is terrific for white-winged, surf and common scoters.
Experience classic layout boat hunts, with plenty of cool options if the weather gets too rough for sea ducks. Chase mallards, geese, black ducks or brant, or score that trophy long-tail in a place that also has plenty of Eastern Shore-style Canada goose hunting.

"We quit booking Maine because weather can screw you up so quick and there's not much you can do when you can't chase sea ducks," says Russell.
It's a good trip to bring spouses along, because it is surrounded by civilization, yet it has fantastic hunting and is off the beaten path, without the pressure of the famed bay to the south. An affordable hunt at $250 to $300 per day, and it's not too expensive to get to, because any major airline flies to Baltimore or Washington D.C.

Pacific Northwest Greenheads

When guys say "greenheads" the Northwest is not the first place that comes to mind yet. Editor Skip Knowles cut his teeth on mallards in the Columbia Basin, with absolutely no idea how good he had it. With a seven greenhead limit and tornadoes of pintail, wigeon and Canada geese flocking through eastern Washington, this is one of the most consistent bets in the country.
Russell's waterfowl hunts run $350 a day and for $1,500 you can get lodging meals and everything for a three-day duck hunt. There are many reputable outfitters at all levels hunting Washington on both public and private lands.
Thousands of acres of impoundments and standing flooded corn are routine on private lands, and you can bring your boat and hit the Columbia, McNary and other spots scattered around the big river's many refuges. Southern Idaho is often a short stopper of greenhead flocks and can be excellent, too.

Mississippi Dela Ducks

Public opportunities in the Deep South are getting tougher, but private land waterfowl hunts with outfitters are becoming more affordable, and this is a place you just have to experience.
Duck country down here is so different from the rest of the U.S., with some of the best dirt in the nation in regions with the lowest, wettest spots imaginable, places where rivers come together and the flooding creates some of the best habitat in the world. Cypress breaks, ag fields and flooded impoundments host mallards, gaddies, teal, wigeon and just about everything else.
For $350 a day in Tallahatchie County you can stay in an antebellum plantation home and enjoy top-notch meals and drinks on the delta, where in spots so many mallards trade back-and-forth at eyeball level around the refuge you won't believe it. Mississippi is simply full of great guided duck hunts at all levels.

North Dakota Ducks & Geese

Come pay homage to the duck motherland, a place that produces birds, stages birds, and funnels millions of spring snows when they come back through. If the snows get stalled due to weather, you're in for the waterfowl hunt of a lifetime.
Russell doesn't book North Dakota trips but does make referrals and that Devil's Lake region is something special, he says. Where else but NoDak can you legally hammer 15 Canada geese in the month of August?  For $350 a day, you can have British Columbia-style bag limits.
Nobody is shooting 15 Canadas per man per day (the birds are just too tough to dial that efficiently) but some of the guys have killed 10 or so apiece.
"Six of us shot 65 big resident birds one day, so it happens," Russell says. Great mallard hunting is a given in central ND, and the state's laws are set up so outfitters have to play by many of the same rules as regular hunters.
"It's a mighty damned big state," Russell says. "I know guys going out there for 15 years who still get off the beaten path far enough to avoid competition."

Texas Panhandle Cranes

One of the best kept secrets for years, a sandhill crane hunt on the Texas Panhandle is at the top of our list. Thousands of tiny glacial lakes left after the Ice Age are scattered across terrain now surrounded by countless acres of beef country full of wheat corn, milo and soybeans.
The result: a vast and beautiful habitat. Some lakes have ducks, others geese, still others cranes. Most lakes offer a mixed bag of teal, wigeon and mallards right at daybreak and then geese are the late arrivals doing their thing along with the cranes.
"A guy can go out and shoot ducks, geese and score a bonus crane on any day," Russell says.  "Texas has always been the place to go to shoot cranes and it hasn't slowed a bit." Affordable, from $250 a day and up.

Kansas Ducks & Geese

For duck and goose hunters, this is a paradise, and it's no longer a secret. Kansas duck hunts have been getting lots of attention because the central area is simply unbelievable, and guided hunts are reasonable at $300 to $350 a day with lodging for skies with mallards, teal and wigeon.
Goose hunts can get legendary in a hurry when flocks group up en masse, and the limits are relaxed by U.S. standards. There is good public hunting at Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira (among others) for those willing to do their homework, and some of the country's best gunning for wild upland birds if you like to chase prairie chickens, pheasants and quail for afternoon fun.
The state has a wonderful cooperative private land farming (WIHA is a program fro public-private hunting) that can turn up some gems, too. Kansas is now definitely on the list of places you need to visit for your next duck hunt.

Arkansas Mallard Mecca

Stuttgart? Sure, you gotta do it. But there is so much more to Arkansas. Example: One of Russell's favorite duck hunts is just over the border heading north out of Monroe, Louisiana, where a wide spot in the road called Wilmont, Arkansas, just may be near heaven for the duck man.
It hardly has a place to eat, but one of his outfitters has 300 acres located in the middle of a 6,000-acre federal sanctuary, a few hundred yards from where 100,000 mallards sit all day long. With a 10-man blind, they limit nearly every day.
"I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to waterfowl hunt with nine other guys, but I looked out and my whole peripheral vision was full of moving flocks of mallards," Russell said.
"There are little X's in this world and this boy has it. Ten people with limits by 10 a.m.," he says, "and they did that all but one day of the entire season." Pony up $600 for this dream hunt, with lodging and meals.

Easy One-Duck Hunts

Not every morning in the blind needs to result in a limit.

Perhaps my attitude toward duck limits comes from my pedigree as a bowhunter, where success during any given day afield is far more the exception than the rule. I'm just not hung up on posting big numbers in the duck blind. Don't get me wrong – I love limiting out, but it's not a necessity for me and is not how I judge the success of my hunts.
I don't care that much; I just love to hunt. And so does my Lab, and while she would definitely choose more retrieves than fewer, she takes whatever she can get. This is why I'm really into scouting different kinds of duck water.
Naturally, we all want that big-water point of reeds we can tuck into and intercept a myriad of duck species throughout the entire season, but that is just the kind of spot that takes a lot of work to find – and hunt – and isn't conducive to an hour-long sit at first light.
Knowing this, I keep an open mind and my eyes peeled for easy-to-hunt small-water spots that are perfect for short hunts, which don't require a trailer-load of decoys and gear.

Teal & Woody Hideaways

The smallest water that ducks will hit is pretty small, but it's also going to limit the types of ducks that circle overhead. The early-season, where one-duck hunts shine, is all about the teal and wood ducks. Sure, you might get lucky and have a few resident mallards pitch down, but you're not going to have crazy flights and eye-popping action. It's just not in the cards.

 

The hunting can still be a blast, though, and is a great way to test out the steadiness of your retriever in the process. Before all that, you've got to identify the right situations in which to hunt.

 

Hunting camera

Drawing up the ideal spot would only involve conjuring memories of a pond on some public land north of my house in the outer suburbs in the Twin Cities. The quarter-acre pond is tucked into a tract of land that is bordered on two sides by running water. A small creek and a decent-sized interior river frame the ground, which is maybe 20 minutes from the Mighty Mississippi, and all of that water acts as an aerial funnel to usher ducks into the airspace above that little pond.
While it's not much to look at – on paper or in person – it sure is fun to sit on at sunrise because during pretty much every sit you're going to get a chance at a few woodies, and occasionally, mallards. The setup is a two-decoy operation, where my dog and I can get a little fix in the morning and still be home with a duck or two before the day is really going. For the times when it's mid-week and I'm not into the work of bigger water and spreads, that little pond is perfect.

 

Easy, But Not Too Easy

The thing about a hunt like this is it's got to produce ducks, but not be so easy that everyone with a semi-auto and a Lab will know about it. I find most of these types of spots through aerial photography and then confirm them by slipping in to scout on foot. It doesn't take long to look at a waterway or slough and decide if there are a few good locations to sit.

Some of the best one-duck-hunt spots I find are beaver ponds, or just open-water corners of vegetated wetlands on public ground. It doesn't take much, and most of the best spots will be visible on aerial photography. The key, of course, is to get in and make sure you can hunt there because it sets up right.

 

I've got one new spot in northern Wisconsin that looks like it should be a wood-duck magnet that I can't wait to sit. It's an L-shaped pond tucked into the timber near a good-sized flowage, so I know it should draw some birds. It's also got high banks and quite a few trees that my Lab and I can tuck into for cover. It won't be the kind of hunt where I'll need three boxes of shells, but it should be a productive place to spend an hour or two when I'm crunched for time and still really want to hunt.

Conclusion

This season, if you're itching for as much duck hunting as possible, don't write off a quick, simple hunt during a morning when you don't have half of the day to spend staring skyward. Oftentimes, you can get away with hip knee-high boots or hip waders, a couple decoys, and a call or two if you scout the right one-duck spot. While it's not going to produce outdoor television results, it will help you (and your dog) get a duck fix when a bigger-production hunt is out of the question.

 

The Hunter Decline and How We Can Fix It

WE'VE LOST 2.2 MILLION HUNTERS SINCE 2011. HERE'S HOW TO HELP SAVE HUNTING.

Doug Hinkle has a trophy room full of shoulder mounts, a lifetime Missouri hunting license, and the Savage 99 lever-action rifle that belonged to his grandfather.
Doug's father gave him the rifle, chambered in .300 Savage, when the pair shared their first deer hunt, back in 1969, just as whitetails were returning to their county in northern Missouri after a century of depletion. Doug has hunted with the rifle a couple of times since, but the Savage has migrated farther back in his gun safe as Doug has added synthetic-stocked bolt guns and semiautomatic rifles to his firearms collection.

 

These days, there's no shortage of whitetails around Doug's place. In fact, when we hunted together two Novembers ago, we each could have hung our tags on mature bucks within the first hour of the season. What's lacking in Doug's life isn't deer or guns; it's somebody to pass that Savage 99 down to.

 

Doug's kids don't hunt. His neighbors have leased their farms to out-of-area hunters who don't bring kids when they come twice a year, once for bow season and again for the rifle season in November. The closest Doug, who just turned 60, can get to a gun-worthy heir is his sister's husband, but he's nearly Doug's age and lives a couple states away.
"I've thought about just giving Granddad's rifle to one of my kids in the hopes that maybe they'll have kids who hunt or shoot, but that seems really unlikely," Doug told me. "My kids were raised as hunters and shooters, but I don't think my grandkids will be."

 

The License Cliff

You may think you encounter too many camo-clad competitors in the places you hunt, whether it's a public duck marsh or a limited-draw elk unit. But the reality is that the number of licensed hunters is down across the country. Hunter numbers peaked in 1982, when around 17 million of us bought licenses. I was a high school sophomore in rural north Missouri that year, and it seemed like every one of my friends — including Doug's cousins — hunted every chance they got. Full disclosure: I killed my second whitetail with Doug's grandfather's Savage, so its fate is personal to me.
Since 1982, hunting participation in America has declined steadily. In 2016, the last year for which the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has data, only 11.5 million hunters were counted, a drop of 2.2 million from the USFWS's 2011 survey.
Sure, that's still a lot of hunters, and on opening day of deer season, it can seem like most of them are in your county. We're accustomed to demonizing these anonymous competitors for stealing "our" opportunity, but take a closer look at them. Chances are they look a lot like you: middle-aged white guys craving a chance to do what they love to do.
This is the second problem with America's population of hunters. Not only are we getting fewer, but also we're getting older. According to the USFWS, back in 1991 52 percent of U.S. hunters were between the ages of 25 and 44. Demographers consider this the most productive segment of society, comprising members who are disproportionately physically healthy and actively contributing labor and economic benefit to their communities. By 2011, the percentage of hunters in this age bracket had dropped to 33 percent of the whole. The percentage of hunters aged 45 — 64 had climbed to 44 percent. More troubling is the percentage of hunters over age 65 — 11 percent in 2011 (up from 6 percent in 1991). State wildlife agencies figure that most hunters stop buying licenses when they hit about age 70.
If you are silently cheering this trend because you think it will create more opportunities for the rest of us, consider that as both the absolute number and percentage of hunters decline, so do license sales that support wildlife management in America. So do the markets for guns and bows and the habitat-enhancing excise taxes their sale generates. And so do political and cultural support for hunting.
Statisticians call this decline the "license cliff," and the current trajectory shows the slide accelerating and steepening. Factor in another demographic trend — the urbanization and cultural diversification of America — and it's easy to imagine a future in which hunting is considered a quaint curiosity of a bygone era and not a dynamic part of the modern American culture, economy, and landscape.

Recruitment Redux

Demographic trends are a little like battleships. They take a long time to gain momentum, but once they establish direction, it's hard to influence their trajectory. Will we ever again be a country of 16.7 million hunters, as we were in 1982? Probably not. But Eric Dinger is convinced that we can stabilize the slide toward oblivion and even add hunter numbers, if we do one simple thing.
"We have to replace ourselves," said Dinger, the cofounder and CEO of Powderhook, a digital app that aims to connect hunters and anglers with people who don't currently participate regularly in either activity. Powderhook intends to help create three million new hunters in the next five years, mainly by making it easier for us to talk to each other, help each other, and feel more like companions than competitors.
The idea is that as each of us ages out of hunting we will have recruited someone to take our place, someone who in turn feels both obligated and eager to replace themselves, creating a chain reaction with our hunting heritage as its fuel rod.
"If every one of us took just one person hunting next year that number looks completely different," said Dinger.

In recent years, conservation organizations — most notably the National Wild Turkey Federation, National Shooting Sports Foundation, Sportsmen's Alliance, and the NRA working through the Families Afield initiative — have worked to lower barriers to hunting participation. But many of these efforts have focused on youth and haven't adequately followed up to ensure that activated kids continue to buy licenses and hunt when they become adults.
"That's a key point," said John Frampton, president and CEO of the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports and one of the national leaders of the
accelerating R3 movement. R3 stands for Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation.
"We have to reach out to the population of adults who may have been introduced to hunting earlier in life and have fallen away from it [reactivation] or who have never been introduced to it in the first place [recruitment]. These are people with disposable time and income and who can understand and appreciate that hunting is an activity that can improve their quality of life, provide them with high-quality food, and give them a connection to the natural world."
After years of stop-and-start work aimed at slowing the decline of hunters, this appears to be the year of intentional R3-ing. Commissions are studying the problem. Symposia will discuss solutions. But Dinger says one demonstrated way to fix the slide is to do what hunters do best: talking passionately about hunting.

Digital Mentoring

Don't underestimate the power of connection, even in the relatively anonymous ether of cyberspace. Once hunters start talking to would-be hunters, Dinger says, it's a relatively easy next step to bring the relationship into the real world, one that can blossom on a clays course or in the turkey woods.
Prospective hunters need real-time local answers. They don't want to scour the Internet to piece together the answer to a question. And often they want to communicate anonymously. The Powderhook app enables all those dynamics by incentivizing the exchange of information. By participating in this exchange, digital mentors can earn status points that they can trade in on products or reduced prices at retailers.
But Powderhook's main role is as a virtual campfire, a place to foster dialog between those who have information and those who hunger for it. In simpler days, that relationship was called mentoring and apprenticing.

Hunting camera 

The idea of Powderhook's app is to give prospective hunters a "mentor in the pocket," a connection not only to knowledgeable individuals in real time, but also to organizations with deep resources. So far, Ducks Unlimited, the NWTF, National Deer Alliance, Quality Deer Management Association, and Union Sportsmen's Alliance are partners of the app, along with brands such as Cabela's, Yamaha, and Federal Premium ammunition.
"Those partners are critical to our work and amplifying the message," said Dinger. "One day, when someone says, 'I'd like to learn to hunt,' I'd like the reflexive response to be, 'You gotta get Powderhook.' Not because we're going to do all the work, but because we can empower everyone to do some of the work."
Will my buddy Doug Hinkle download the Powderhook app? When I asked, he was both candid and dubious — two qualities that define most of the hunters I know, especially those from the Show-Me State.
"Do I wish there were more hunters in my world? Yeah, I do. I'm starting to feel like the only guy around who hunts," said Doug. "Am I gonna give my Savage to a guy I meet online? Not likely. But I've got a lot of deer, and I wouldn't mind helping somebody get their first buck. It honestly doesn't sound like that hard a thing to do."

5 Advantages to Early-Season Deer Hunting

Most hunters think of the rut as the best time to kill a big buck, but there are valid reasons why early season can also be good -and sometimes the earlier the better.

It didn't feel much like deer hunting weather — temps in the 70s, muggy and buggy — yet there I was, perched in a ladder stand 80 yards from a persimmon patch roughly the size of a house. It being so warm, I didn't expect much action until the waning moments of daylight. So it was somewhat unexpected when a doe and fawn showed up with two full hours of daylight remaining. That turned out to be the tip of the iceberg.

It wasn't long before a young buck showed up, followed by another, and another. As the afternoon wore on, the number and age of bucks arriving to feed on newly dropped nectar of the gods grew. I stopped counting individual rack bucks at 10, though I know there were more. None quite made my personal minimum, but the experience of seeing that many adult bucks in one place at one time was reward enough.
The assembly was somewhat unexpected, though it should have been. It was early muzzleloader season in Kansas, a state that has a lot of bucks, at a time when those bucks tend to be at their most visible and potentially vulnerable period. While most deer hunters favor cooler temps and the hot action of the rut, early season offers some alternatives that rival and may even exceed the rut if your goal is to bag a big buck.

What Happens in Vegas...

One advantage of early season hunting involves social interaction. In late summer, whitetail bucks begin forming loose associations called bachelor groups or bachelor herds that will remain together to some extent into the early fall. They may include as few as two or three deer, or more than a dozen depending on deer densities and food availability.

Hunting camera 

I use the term "loose" because the groups can vary in size and individual deer from day to day. The bottom line is that if you see one buck at this time of year, chances are good you'll see another, and another, and another — and they tend to get larger as the evening wears on so be patient.

The Other Rut

When talking about deer, the term "rut" is typically applied to that magical time when even the wiliest whitetails drop their guard and wander around during daylight hours. When referring to ourselves, we humans ascribe the term rut to a monotonous routine we're stuck in.
While we don't call it that, whitetails also sometimes get into a fairly repetitious routine, but only early in the season. While the rut is exciting, it's also very random. To the contrary, whitetails are at their most routine, and most "patternable" very early in the hunting season.

 

Low Pressure

While deer — particularly bucks — tend to be fairly routine, it doesn't take much to throw them out of their early-season patterns. Studies have shown deer move increasingly less during daylight, and more in thicker cover as hunting pressure increases. Like the savvy fisherman who wants first water — to be the first to cast a fly into a particular pool — you want to be the first in a particular patch of woods. And if you did your scouting properly, your fist sit should be your best as deer will quickly begin patterning and avoiding you.

Time Management

As already mentioned, deer tend to be rather routine in the early season, and one of the more common patterns is that daylight activity tends to be compressed into the first and last few minutes of the day. Deer don't like moving around when it's warm, and more importantly, in full daylight. Their eyes function best in fading light. Knowing this, you can maximize your effective hunting hours by concentrating on the first and last hours of the day. There's no need to sit those long, all-day vigils like you will when the rut kicks in. And because the days are much longer in the early season, you may be able to hunt peak hours and still put in a full day's work.

Relax

For several reasons, early-season hunting tends to be more relaxed. Some of it has to do with weather. You don't have too, nor do you want to move too quickly when it's warm. Deer season is a marathon, not a sprint, so you want to pace yourself and work up to speed slowly. Early success also brings certain benefits. With a deer or two in the freezer, and potentially at the taxidermist, the pressure is off so you can relax and get more enjoyment out of the weeks and months of deer hunting still to come.

12 Early Season Bowhunting Mistakes

The start of another bow season is just around the corner. Every hunter that heads afield with a stick and string does so with big hopes and dreams.

 

 

However, despite our best efforts many of those dreams will not come to fruition. And while there's no denying that the early season is a difficult time to fill a whitetail tag, it can become nearly impossible if you fall into the trap of committing a handful of these early season bowhunting mistakes.
You Woke Up Too Early
When you've been waiting since last season for the first day of the new one to begin, the last thing you want to do is stay in bed. However, if your sights are set on arrowing a mature whitetail buck maybe you should sleep in. Here's why?

 

During the early season most mature bucks aren't experiencing the rush of testosterone as they will in a few short months. This means they are less likely to be on their feet during daylight hours and if they are, it will probably be during the last few minutes of light.
Applying unnecessary hunting pressure during early season only increases the chances of spooking the buck you are hunting and ruining your hunting area before the rut even begins.
The safer tactic would be to pattern your target buck on an evening food source to predict where and when he will be feeding. Focusing on evening hunts will keep pressure at a minimum and let you catch a few more hours of sleep. Of course, you also have to get in and out of the hunting area undetected.
You Forgot About the Bugs
Can bugs really disrupt your chances of whitetail success? Sure they can. If your time in the treestand is spent swatting at pesky gnats and flies then you're just asking to be spotted by the keen eyes of a whitetail.
This is especially true when you are dealing with large, adult does. The wise, old ones that usually pass by your location before the older-class bucks show up.
Old does are notorious for busting even the most docile hunters and they do it with ease. So, it only makes sense that you can't spend your day flailing your arms in an effort to survive an onslaught of pesky insects.
The good news is that technology offers a simple solution to this dilemma. It's called ThermaCell and it is the most effective way to rid your personal space of unwanted bugs. Even better, the ThermaCell unit is completely odorless so you don't have to worry about counteracting your other scent-control measures.
You can sit motionless until the time is right to send an arrow downrange into the chest of a trophy buck.
You Dismissed Scent Control
The early season is typically accompanied with high temperatures and that means you are going to work up a sweat no matter what you do.
This is even more evident while walking to your stand. More sweat will translate into more game spooking bacteria and odor. Therefore, it is imperative that your scent reduction efforts be on point during this time. That means keeping not only your hunting gear washed and clean but also your body and breath.

When it comes to personal scent control I typically use chlorophyll tablets to combat internal odors. I have taken them for several years during hunting season and have found chlorophyll to be completely safe and effective. When combined with my daily use of scent-free soap (not just before the hunt), I can really knock my odor levels to a minimum even on those hot days of the season.
You Didn't Do Enough Situational Practice
When it comes time to dust off the bow and start shooting in preparation of the upcoming season a lot of folks head to the back yard. And that's fine. The back lawn is the perfect place to get reacquainted with your gear and make sure everything is in working order.
However, once sight pins have been set and shooting strength is regained, the back-yard target sessions should end. In their place should be something that will better match the conditions you will face while hunting.

For most bowhunters this means elevated shooting. After all, what good does it do to practice flat-footed in the yard when your next shot at a whitetail buck will likely come from 20 feet above the ground? The answer is it does you no good.
Every bowhunter should immerse themselves in what I call "situational" practice.
In other words, if you're a treestand hunter then do a good deal of practice shooting from an elevated position. If you're a spot and stalk hunter then you should be shooting over uneven terrain at unknown distances. Likewise, ground blind hunters would greatly benefit from practicing from a seated position and shooting out of the actual blind they plan to hunt from.
You Didn't Range Your Shot
Like most deer hunters across the country your early season shot will likely take place across an open food plot or agricultural field. Open space has a unique way of tricking the eyes into believing the shot is closer/farther away than it really is.

During your practice sessions, take a quick second to range the shot before drawing back your bow. Or, at the very least, have a number of pre-ranged landmarks you can reference when trying to determine shooting distance. This small but valuable discipline will pay off during season.
You Neglected Pre-Season Scouting
It's easy to get caught up in the type of pre-season planning that has nothing to do with whitetail deer behavior. Gear, conditioning and shooting can take up a lot of time and in the process scouting gets pushed to the back burner. That's a mistake; especially in the early season.
The reason scouting is so important during late summer is because you will be relying on the whitetails urge to feed to fill your tag. You will also be working with a limited amount of daylight in which to encounter a shooter buck.
If you haven't done your homework and scouted before opening day then you are likely going to be playing catch up when the season starts. With no knowledge of travel routes and food sources the odds are high you will bump the very deer you are trying to find. Snooping around the woods for a decent stand location during the early season is a great way to ruin your season.

Effective scouting can be done in many ways depending on the type of area you are hunting. There is a vast difference between scouting and hunting agricultural food plots and trying to locate a shooter buck in heavily timbered areas.
The bottom line is, understand what type of scouting you need to do and how to determine the early season behavior of the whitetail in your area. Only then will you be ready to tackle the task of filling an early season whitetail tag.
You Have No Idea What the Favored Food Source Is
Unlike the rut, when bucks are prone to be anywhere at any time, the early season is ruled by one factor — food. Outside of the rut a mature buck will never be as vulnerable (or visible) as he will be during early season.
No hunting pressure and a need to feed has left the deer in a lackadaisical state of mind.
The best way to capitalize on this fleeting condition is to know what the deer are feeding on and when. However, special care must be given not to disrupt their daily routine with your scouting efforts. Otherwise it's game over.

This can be accomplished in agricultural settings by glassing bucks from afar during the last hours of daylight. However, if you're hunting in a mountainous backdrop then the odds are stacked against you. The use of game cameras becomes even more important as well as how and when you check them.
The bottom line is no matter where you're hunting, if you're hunting during the early season then you must find the food. Do that and the bucks will find you.
You Hunted On Top of the Food Source
So, you located the groceries and you hung your treestand right over them. That's fine if all you want is some meat for the freezer because that is likely what you are going to end up with.
Mature bucks will be the last deer to enter the field or visit an acorn-spewing oak tree in the early-season. Most mature buck movement occurs under the cover of darkness.

The best strategy is to move back from the food source (50-75 yards) and locate the travel routes that deer are using to access it. This will increase your chances of seeing that shooter buck when there's enough light left to make the shot.
The key to making this strategy work will be your ability to remain undetected as a number of younger bucks, does and yearlings make their way past your stand site. Do that and you just might encounter that early season, nocturnal buck.
You Have No Entry or Exit Routes
The best stand location in the world won't do you any good if you can't get to it without disturbing the deer you are hunting. This is true no matter what phase of the season it is.
However, during the early season it is important to know how to exit your stand site without spooking deer.
The reason an exit strategy is so important is because every time you hunt an area you educate the deer. If you're hunting over an early season food plot or agricultural field and every deer but the one you want walks by you've got to get out of the area undetected.

Otherwise, you will tip your hand to the ones that did show up and the next time they decide to visit that feeding location they will be even more cautious. And their actions will undoubtedly alert any mature bucks in the area that something simply isn't right.
If you can't find a low-key exit route then perhaps you should consider having someone drive in and pick you up after dark.
Sure, this will send the deer running but the damage will be minimal compared to them watching you slither down a tree like the boogie man and enter the field they are feeding in.
Another option is the use of a predator call to clear the field of feeding deer. Yes, it's going to spook some deer but they won't equate it with a human threat and that can buy you a little more time to fill your tag.
You Checked Your Trail Cameras Too Often
There is nothing quite like retrieving the SD card from your game cameras and finding a photo of that buck you've dreamed about all year. And, once that happens, it's almost impossible to fight the urge to go back to your trail camera every chance you get.
That's a mistake.
You've got to resist frequently checking your camera no matter how bad you want to. The deer haven't experienced much contact with humans during the off-season and they will easily notice any change in their environment.
Limit trail camera checks to several weeks apart or during a rain when the odds are low of leaving scent and bumping deer going or coming to your camera. If you can't do that then maybe a cellular unit is better suited for you. This will allow you to monitor your camera without ever stepping foot near it. Overall, cellular is the best low-impact option but might not be available to everyone. If that's the case then self-control is the next best thing.
You Hunted With Your Old Arrow Nocks
Slapping arrows all summer is a great thing and will build shooting confidence like nothing else. However, if you want that accuracy to carry over into the hunting season then you need to swap out those old nocks with a set of fresh, new ones before heading to the treestand.
Arrow nocks take a lot of abuse over the course of a summer and even though you might not be able to see it with the naked eye, there is always the chance that a nock or two is bent or damaged enough to throw your shot off. This is especially true when shooting at further distances under the stress of a live-animal shot.

Also, consider that you might not even notice a difference in accuracy when shooting field-points. However, broadheads can have a mind of their own and when you throw in a nock that doesn't sit just right you're asking for something bad to happen. Murphy's Law is always waiting to strike. Even if that means using something as insignificant as an arrow nock.
You Didn't Test-Shoot Your Broadheads
Speaking of broadheads, it should be common practice to never enter the woods without having first shot the head you plan to hunt with. It's just the ethical thing to do.
Furthermore, if you've never experimented with different broadheads, you might be amazed at the differences in flight that various broadheads will deliver.

Sometimes the bow is the problem and sometimes it is the broadhead. The only way to know is to test the broadhead you plan to hunt with using a well-tuned bow. And don't make the mistake of thinking that just because you are shooting a mechanical broadhead that you don't need to test it.
I have shot plenty of mechanical heads that did not fly "just like my field points." Sure, the adjustments for accuracy were smaller when compared to a good number of fixed-blade broadheads but the fact still remains that they were not "field-point" accurate.
Conclusion
It's the start of a new season. New hopes and dreams weigh in the balance and every decision you make will either bring you one step closer to them or one step further away.

 

3 Ways to Thief-Proof Your Trail Cameras

Possibly the only thing that hurts worse than losing a trail camera to a thief is losing the information it contained. Here are three ways to minimize your losses.

The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach soon turned to anger as I stood there looking at the tree my scouting camera had been attached to the previous day. I hate losing a trail camera to a thief, but trail cameras can be replaced. What really made me angry was losing the information contained on the SD card. I was hundreds of miles from home on a DIY deer hunting trip.

 

 

The cameras I put out were a huge part of my decision-making process regarding where I would hang my stands and hunt. I had just lost an entire 24 hours of information about the deer in this area. That really hurts. But I won't let my anger derail my hunt, so I get over it quickly. I look at scouting cameras as if they are overhead expenses in my hunting. You have to use them, and using them is a risk. You will lose a few, and you'll have to go buy more. But what do you do when your truck gets low on gas? You go get more gas. Same with scouting cameras.

The information gathered by these cams can be extremely valuable, and I refuse to use cheap cameras that don't have the features I need just because of the risk of losing them to some sticky-fingered low life.
I run a lot of good quality scouting cameras; it's almost like a sport in itself for me. I use them not only for deer hunting, but for bear hunting, property surveillance, wildlife viewing, even predator monitoring and control. I put some in areas where I don't expect anyone to ever find them, and at times I put some in areas where I figure others will see them and I hope they leave them alone. The number of cameras I have had stolen over the years could be counted on my fingers. It's not a huge problem, but it really can throw a wrench in the gears of your hunting plans. I have begun to take some precautions to avoid losing them to thieves. Here are three ways to minimize your losses.

Go Covert

One of the easiest ways to cut losses is to simply use cameras that are harder to see and hide them better. There are three primary kinds of flashes for night photos: white flash, infrared, and black flash. Black flash cameras do not have a flash that is visible to the eye. Both white flash and IR cameras have lights that can be seen by anyone who happens to be looking the right direction when they take a photo. I use mostly cameras with black flash because they are less likely to be discovered. There are a lot more than deer hunters using public lands, coon hunters come through in the night, squirrel hunters, ginseng hunters, and even metal detector enthusiasts can come across your cameras on public lands. I have the photos to prove it all.
One of the things that draws your eye to a camera strapped to a tree is the webbing. That dark vertical line stands out amongst the rest of the environment. Use a camouflage strap and put the camera in a place where the strap is hidden by brush whenever possible.
Larger cameras are easier to spot than smaller ones. Many companies are making very small camera bodies that are not much bigger than your hand. Small black flash cameras are difficult to detect, but I go one step farther. I often glue small plastic leaves and moss to the face of the camera to break up its outline. You can get this material at any craft supply store. Of course, do not cover the lens, the sensor, or the flash with anything.

 

The likely location of the animal you are trying to photograph will largely determine where you mount the camera, but if you can choose a spot with lots going on around the camera, it makes the unit much harder to see at a glance. Both foreground and background cover helps. Use care when choosing a spot with foreground cover as waving branches and leaves can fill up your SD card with unneeded photos.

Put Them Out of Reach

One of the most effective ways to thwart thieves is to put the camera up where the bad guys cannot reach it. I like to hang the camera at least 10 feet off the ground and point it downward to monitor the area. Some people might be able to shinny 10 feet up into a tree to get the camera, but most won't. If a thief is actively looking for cameras to steal or a person is an opportunistic camera thief, neither of them are as likely to see a camera that's 10-12 feet off the ground as they are one at belt level to eye level.
There are several companies that make mounts for cameras that work in this way. The two I have used are the Covert Tree-60 and the Stic-N-Pic.

Here's how I go about it. I carry a climbing stick to the location I want to put the camera. Just one stick. I can strap the climbing stick to the tree, climb up it, and reach at least ten feet off the ground to mount my camera. When I am done, I just take the stick out with me. It's not a totally fool proof way to get the camera out of reach, but it works. Remember to carry the climbing stick with you when you check the cameras. This is one of the most effective ways to protect your cameras in theft-prone areas. Plus the photos you get are often unique and pretty cool with the downward angle.
Putting cameras up high comes with another advantage: deer do not seem to notice the flash at all. I have seen some deer become alarmed by a white flash at eye level, but I have never seen a case where a deer reacted in a negative way to a flash 10 feet up.

Lock Them Up

Most camera companies are now making lock boxes for their cameras. This was at first a response to the fact that bears like to chew on scouting cameras, but it works equally well to discourage the camera thief. These steel boxes can be bolted to a tree and then the camera is locked securely inside the box.
The disadvantages of this strategy include the extra weight of carrying the steel boxes with you and the extra tools needed to fasten it to the tree. But the disadvantages are far outweighed by the fact that it's really difficult for even the most determined opportunistic thief to steal your camera. And I have never seen anyone walking around the woods with a bolt cutter, although serious camera thieves might be dumb enough to risk that.

I have a separate backpack that I use which contains these boxes, lag bolts, padlocks and a cordless screwdriver with a socket. (Putting a screw in a tree on public land is not legal in some states; it is your responsibility to know the laws.)
I use the cordless screwdriver to fasten the box to the tree with lag screws, insert the camera, and then lock it up. It's really not that much extra work and makes it very difficult for any would-be
With a little extra effort, you can protect your cameras from thieves and get the photos you desire to help you learn more about the deer in the area. Each of these three methods has its time and place.

5 Tips to Kill a Fall Turkey

Hunting camera

Who says you can't be in two places at once? The right cellular camera system will let you keep tabs on your deer woods even when you're nowhere near.

Until we finally crack the code of Star Trek teleportation, we hunters will have to be content with plodding along between places at standard human speeds. Which is no big deal, normally...but it can be when you’re not in the deer woods but are desperate for information on what’s happening there. Then the need for TV’s 23rd century technology to become reality early in the 21st is a tad frustrating.

 

Ah, but what if we could be in two widely separated places at once? Or close enough to “at once” that a slight lag was no worry at all? That presumably would make a lot of things in life simpler. And yes, whitetail hunting and management would be among those things.
Well, thanks to the ongoing development of cellular scouting cameras, we now are close to bridging this gap. We can in effect be in the deer woods even when we aren’t.
We’ve had stand-alone scouting cameras for over two decades now, and they’re popular. But today’s growing interest in the use of cellular-enabled cameras has sprung from four realities: (1) It takes time and often a fair bit of fuel and effort to physically check any camera; (2) every time you visit a camera site, you risk spooking deer — thus offsetting some of the practical advantage offered by acquiring photos of them in the first place; (3) by the time a camera has physically been checked, even the most recent capture image is likely to be somewhat dated; and (4) if you have trespasser/thief issues, a cellular camera offers better odds of identifying the perpetrator. Add up these facts and it’s easy to see the advantage of being able to monitor a spot in real time, even when you’re not around.

The newest approach to doing so comes from the folks at Moultrie. Their app-based cellular camera system - Moultrie Mobile - allows for quick, easy, affordable and disturbance-free camera monitoring, as well as handy storage/retrieval of captured images.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been putting this system through its paces, and it’s performed as advertised. The unit I’ve been using is the XA7000i, which is built around a 20MP camera.
The camouflaged camera and its neutral-tone strap are really hard to see on most trees, which is great. Not only is the camera well hidden from human eyes, I’ve captured no images of deer looking at it during the day or at night. The invisible flash (80-foot range) thus seems to be undetectable by deer. All these attributes are key advantages, in my book.
Of course, stealth doesn’t much matter if the camera won’t reliably capture images. But this one has done so for me. Using the 7000i in a spot that has a fair bit of daytime and nighttime deer activity, I’ve found it captures clear images and lets you see them within only a few minutes of the event.

 

Easily controlled via a free app on a smartphone - and with extremely affordable service and storage plans - this system seems a solid option for anyone wanting to enter the cellular camera game without first getting an engineering degree. And that’s helpful. Hunting, management and/or security concerns have many folks wanting a better connection to the deer woods. If you find yourself in that situation, give the Moultrie Mobile XA7000i a look. It could open your eyes to more of what’s out there when you’re not — and let you know about it in close to real time.

The Best Way to Hunt Ducks on Public Land

How to take advantage of the mid-week lull

Most of my duck spots are public, just like most of my bowhunting spots are public. What this means is that a significant portion of my fall is spent on ground open to anyone. And because of that, I've gotten awful good at ferreting out the spots others won't work to get to, or simply don't know about.
Now, that comes with a caveat considering I live in the Twin Cities – there are just some areas where there aren't any secrets left. And if there are enough willing hunters around, a certain percentage of them will work just as hard – or harder – than you to get to the good hunting.
With the playing field leveled in such a way, it becomes a lot more difficult to work around the competition, but not all hope is lost. There are still some ways to hedge your bets while hunting ducks on common ground, but you'll need to plan ahead.

Wednesdays Are Best

The reality is that most of the hunters will be out on Saturday and Sunday. Hunting pressure for ducks – and pretty much all game – flows into full volume on the weekend and ebbs mid-week. What does this mean for you?

 

Well, you'd better go to your boss and your spouse with your cap in hand and eyes cast downward and plead your case for some time to yourself during the middle of the week. This will do a couple of things for you.

Hunting camera

First and most obvious, you'll have fewer sky-blasters out in your spots. The fewer the hunters in your immediate area, the better your hunting will be. Now, there is an argument that more hunters out in general puts more birds in the air, and that is true in certain situations, but it doesn't mean they are going to fly over the public ground you're on. They will, more often than not, suss out as only pressured ducks can, the water where no one is hunting.

 

This effect, which brings to mind no-hunting refuges with rafts of greenheads flipping off distant hunters, can also push birds into places that can be hunted but just aren't being disturbed currently like public land in the middle of the week. This is the beauty of migrators, because they don't get to know the local hunting pressure the same way resident ducks do. The places these ducks settle are best hunted on a Wednesday or Thursday morning when those lulled-into-a-false-sense-of-security birds are yours for the taking if you can find a few free mornings while the rest of the working stiffs are suiting up and heading to their cubicles and job sites.

Operate Correctly

A few years ago, a buddy and I tucked into a wooded berm near some flooded backwaters hoping to catch the last of the wood ducks or a random greenhead passing overhead. We knew the best in our setup was to pass-shoot them as they cleared the treeline and most likely, spotted us. The hope was that it would be too late by the time they figured out their waterhole was being guarded by a couple of dudes holding 12 gauges and an eager black Lab.

We did manage a drake and a hen wood duck in the spot, and we also got to witness what not to do duck-wise. Two hunters had slipped into a pond 400 yards from our setup. Instead of tucking into the brush at the edge and trying to hide, they stood at the top of a hill and sent three shots apiece at any duck within a football field's distance of where they stood.
Even if you get out mid-week, you've still got to figure out the best way to hunt your spots on public. The ducks that cruise through the airspace overhead will undoubtedly be a bit cautious, because that's just how they operate. How you should operate is to figure out each spot and where you should be set up. Maybe you can build a sweet blind in the brush, or maybe you've just got to count on getting the jump on them when they finally clear the closest trees and give you those few precious seconds as they try to flare out of the way of your pattern.

Really Camo Up

This is a simple one, but so many of the duck hunters I run into on public land seem to take a half-hearted approach camo-wise. It's as if they either don't know what they are doing, or have given up most of their hope for a decent hunt long before they actually go. Honestly, there is probably a lot of both going on.
Either way, camo up. Use a facemask or face paint and make an attempt to keep hidden if at all possible. Don't give those common-ground ducks the extra advantage of a poorly-hidden or poorly covered hunter unless the spot just doesn't allow for much else. You're working hard to earn the birds in this situation, at least make them work somewhat hard to survive any encounter with you.

Conclusion

Public-land ducks can be tough, but there are plenty of ways to hedge your bets and ensure that you'll have better hunts than most of your competition. You might not limit out on greenheads every time you step out of the truck in the dark, but you'll have a good chance of having a better-than-average hunt and just might end up with some of the most satisfying ducks any hunter can take in any given year, and that's not nothing.

Will Wireless Trail Cameras Make You a Better Hunter?

If you dig into the rules and regulations of your state, you’ll probably see no clear wording on the usage of cellular-enabled cameras. It’s a gray-area technology in most places right now but could be considered illegal if one of your cameras sent you a picture of a buck and you happened to shoot it a few hours later.
In-season usage in many states is up in the air, so be aware. As far as pre-season usage of cellular cameras, you’ve pretty much got the green light in most regions where whitetails reign supreme.
The question is - are they worth the money? Do they really provide an advantage over traditional cameras? The answer is a resounding - maybe.

Benefits of Cellular Cams

The obvious benefit to using a cellular-enabled camera is that once you’ve set it up, you can leave the woods alone. It allows you to sit back in the comfort of your home without wondering if your batteries are still juiced up, if someone has stolen it, or if it inexplicably went the way of the dodo - all while gathering intel in an undisturbed woods.

 

Throughout the summer you can gather info on the comings and goings of the local ungulates, and with most cameras, adjust your settings and check battery levels remotely. This means you’re aware and in control, without doing much more than messing with your smartphone.
It’s incredible, really. And this wave of cameras is crashing hard on the industry right now - to the point where pretty much every manufacturer is in the game. That tells you something about demand, which if you’ve ever used one, you probably understand.

These cameras are addictive, and it’s exciting to see new-image notifications showing up on your phone. I honestly believe that if any hunter wants to see his day-to-day productivity at work or home go right off of a cliff, cellular-enabled cameras are the way to do it. They are fun - no doubt about that.

 

Cons Of Cellular Cams

As mentioned above, the biggest downfall of these cameras might be their legality in your given area. If using one means you’re on the wrong side of the law, then it’s obviously no good.
But there is also the ethical conundrum associated with this level of technology. I can remember when they first hit the scene years ago, and a fellow from one of the camera companies told me how he used it during turkey season to check in on what fields had strutting birds in them.
If they hit the 9am lull, they’d go to where the cameras showed longbeards were at right then. He thought it was amazing, I felt differently.
And I still do. I’ve used celullar cameras for deer and bear on properties that were at least a couple hours from my house. My reasoning was that I couldn’t use real-time intel to try to gain an advantage because, at best, I’d be at least 24 hours behind the most current images if I decided to go hunting.
Eventually, they became something of a novelty for me. I put one or two out each summer and then pull them before the season or switch off the cellular function. I still really enjoy getting images from them during the summer and probably always will.

The Trail-Cam Trap Continues

Now that I’ve laid out my confusing personal strategy for using cellular trail cams, I’ll say this - if you do choose to use them during the season, they might only prove to be marginally more beneficial than non-cellular options.
This is because trail cameras are only a tool, and while it’s nice to know where a deer walked today when we weren’t there, that is far from a sure thing that a deer will walk there tomorrow when we are.

What’s worse is that we often use trail camera intel to not hunt, reasoning that if our cameras are not catching daylight images of bucks, it’s better to wait until they are. That’s dangerous ground. The reality with all trail cameras is they give you a little snapshot into one small place in the woods.
That, theoretically, might be the best place in the woods by your opinion, but even so, the deer simply might not be walking there. If you are off by 20 yards, your intel is bunk. When you’re getting real-time images of squirrels and nothing else, it’s very easy to believe you should wait until the hunting will be better, and trust me when I say this, that’s probably not the best decision.
All that means is that the deer aren’t doing what you expected in one tiny area, nothing else. So be aware that while they are extremely fun to use, cellular trail cameras probably won’t be the ticket to tagging Booners year in and year out, at least not any more than traditional trail cameras were for you.

Conclusion

They are fun, they are addictive, and in the right situations they probably do offer a clear advantage over traditional cams. Cellular cameras promise a lot to the whitetail hunter when used properly, but don’t expect them to be the shortest path from no taxidermy bills to taking out a personal loan for all of your new mounts. At the very least, they are a very enjoyable tool and that’s a good enough reason to deploy one while the bucks are in velvet and you’ve got some time before opening day kicks off.