Top 5 Trail Camera Tips for Manitoba Archery Whitetail
Summer has blown by, and we are less than four weeks away from archery whitetail opener here in Manitoba.
Archery Whitetail Trail Camera Tips
This time of year, when whitetails are following very predictable patterns and, in many situations, sticking to just one food source daily, it is very important to have as low an impact on this property as possible. This is where trail cameras come in. In the following, I am going to cover my top five archery whitetail trail camera tips to help you get the step on your archery whitetail this fall!
How to use a Trail Camera for Scouting
When it comes to scouting, after I have found the whitetail I’ve chosen to pursue, my number one scouting tool at this point is my trail cameras. When a bachelor herd of whitetails chooses their summer feeding grounds, they choose it for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons are the quality of feed as well as proximity to water and bedding. Those three are very important aspects for deer. Taking these into account when searching for deer throughout the summer months will prove to be very beneficial.
Another reason a whitetail deer chooses their food source is correlated to their relative safety in that location. The safety of a location can consist of the deer's proximity to shelter for an easy retreat if necessary. If there is a road near the field, the location where these bucks will feed and feel the safest will often be as far and secluded away from that road as possible - minimizing the disturbances they will face. Safety is a very important aspect when it comes to where a mature whitetail will feed. Their safety is also something that is in your control. Ensuring they continue to feel safe and unpressured as they feed will help ensure that their patterns remain the same as archery season approaches.
Setting trail cameras on these food sources allows your human impact on the area to be as little as possible. However, it is still very important to be as calculated as possible when entering the property to set and check your cameras. What I will do prior to entering the property, is put in time e-scouting the land with satellite imagery. I will try to identify any probable bedding areas surrounding the food source.
Once identified, I will wait to enter the field until there is a favourable wind direction to keep my scent from drifting into these areas. Then, when I enter the property to set the cameras, I will make sure to do so mid-day. This best ensures I won’t bump any deer off the field. When it comes to checking the cameras, it is important to enter the property as sparingly as possible and follow the same steps used while setting.
What Kind of Trail Camera do I buy?
Today, there are seemingly infinite amounts of trail camera makes and models. Deciding which one to purchase can be difficult and confusing. The truth is that trail cameras have come a long way over the years. The majority of trail cameras made today do the basic task of capturing what is in front of them very well. However, a number of features and settings on various cameras set some apart from others.
Depending on your budget, you can spend as little or as much on a trail camera as you want. I’ve found that the biggest sacrifice with a cheaper trail camera is the quality of the photo or video, with little sacrifice on the actual capturing of the event.
Over the years, I have used a number of different brands of trail cameras, and today, my favourite, far and away, is the Browning Trail Cameras. I have a few different models now and have been extremely impressed by the Recon Force Edge model. Although a little pricier than some brands, the video quality is unmatched in this price range. Other more inexpensive options that I have used are SpyPoint and Stealth Cams. Both these brands have cameras with very low price points, and they do their job very well. However, you do get what you pay for.
There is an abundance of innovations in trail camera technology each year. In the last few years, a new wave of cellular trail cameras has hit the market. Recently, I acquired a handful of Tactacam Reveal Cell Cams and have been extremely impressed with their ability to acquire a cell signal in areas with limited service. These cameras have proved to be an extremely valuable tool for completely eliminating my impact on the area I am hunting/scouting while still keeping a pulse on the deer movement.
I have heard great things about most cell camera models, but it is important to note that cellular trail cameras require a cellular subscription to use the networks, so keep that in mind when purchasing. Another thing to note with cell cams is they have various features by way of frequency in which the camera sends photos through the app. I like it when it immediately sends photos through so I can get real-time information. However, the caveat to that is in this mode, the camera burns through batteries quite quickly. I have combated this by purchasing a Tactacam Reveal branded solar panel to ensure the camera stays charged and lessen the expense of constantly changing the batteries out. Another way to combat this is just to have the camera do photo check-in's once a day. This helps persevere your batteries longer.
Trail Camera Tips: Where to set up?
So, you have found your deer, scouted the property, the conditions are right and are ready to set up your camera. When deciding where to set the cameras up, I will always lean on the information I gathered from e-scouting. The IHunter App has revolutionized the way I scout properties. Using the satellite imagery in the app, I will pick out probable bedding areas and corridors around the perimeter of the food source to get an idea of how these deer are likely travelling. Then, I will mark various waypoints in potential trail cam locations. Upon entering the property, I will walk into these waypoints and set up the cameras.
Trail cameras are an awesome way to begin studying the patterns of the deer. I like to start by setting trail cameras along the field edge. This will give me an idea of when the deer begin to filter out and what direction they are coming from. As you learn more about their patterns, you can shift the cameras around the perimeter. This helps me better understand how the deer interact with the entire property.
Perhaps you find that the deer are not coming to feed until just after dark. Another option, if you have access to multiple trail cameras, is to travel deeper into the bush and set cameras closer to their bedding areas. In doing this, you can begin to learn where these deer are during the daylight, which can help you form a strategy to have a daylight encounter during the season. Checking cameras as sparingly as possible is good practice when setting them here. This minimizes the impact on the deer and lessens the chance of pushing them out of the area.
Whether you are setting your camera up on the field edge or the trails leading to the food source, it is important to be cognizant of the sun’s location throughout the day. As a general rule, I will try to set my cameras facing north where possible. This helps to eliminate photos where the sun is shining directly into the camera and overtaking everything else in the image.
When setting up a camera on a trail. I like to set the camera facing down the trail rather than across the trail. This allows more time for the camera’s trigger to be initiated. This will give you a better chance of catching the entire deer in the image. The same is true when setting the camera on a field edge. Oftentimes, deer will navigate along the field edges, where there is easy access to their cover. As opposed to walking right across the middle. Thus, when setting a camera on a field edge. It is good to angle it along the edge of the field.
Trail Camera Tips: Photo vs. Video Mode?
Over the last few years, I have begun almost exclusively running video mode on all my trail cameras that allow for it. Video mode tells a much different story of what’s happening than a still image can. In recent history, the incredible innovation of trail camera quality has allowed for this option to be effective.
Why video mode? I have a few personal stories that should help explain why I have chosen this. For example, a young whitetail buck set off the camera earlier this year. As the video progressed, I watched a deer walk out of a swamp 250 yards in the background. Given that intel from the video, I set a camera in that location. From that, I learned that my target buck was bedding right in that swamp.
Video mode also allows me to see exactly in which direction these deer are leaving and coming from and exactly how they are interacting with the landscape. This also allows me to get a great look at the buck I am targeting from all angles. What I learn from these trail cam events plays a vital role in my set-up come season opener.
There are some cons to video mode. These are certainly not deal breakers but are good to be aware of. In video mode, the cameras' batteries last significantly shorter than in photo mode. The memory cards also fill up much more quickly. To help combat this, here are a few trail camera tips to help maximize your video mode.
First of all, a big memory card is super helpful for the longevity of the camera. On my Browning Recon cameras, I run a 64gb card. To maximize the space on that card, I will set the camera to 20-30-second videos and a one-minute delay between each event. Buying high-end batteries like lithium will also give you noticeably longer battery life while running this mode. The footage captured does take up a large amount of storage on your computer. What I will do is back up all the footage on an external storage device. This helps keep your computer free of many gigabytes of trail camera events.
For me, the pros of video mode outweigh the cons a lot. The value of the intel from video mode can play a key role in helping you pattern your deer before the season and may be why you get a chance at your target deer. That’s not even mentioning how cool it is to play back these videos when checking cards!
Adapting your Trail Cameras to the Changing Seasons
As the seasons change, it is good to keep note of the buck’s patterns. Be ready to adapt your strategy as they begin to shift into their pre-rut ways. Come September, most whitetails will have their velvet shed by the first week. The hardening of the antlers and shedding of the velvet is caused by hormonal shifts in the buck's body. As testosterone levels rise, the deer begin to switch from their patternable summer feeding routine into their pre-rut festivities. This starts around mid-September and through October. As these patterns change, the bucks will begin spending much of the daylight hours within the confines of their travel corridors in the woods.
Buck's will begin making rub and scrape lines to communicate with each other and establish their dominance as the rut approaches. When this happens, successfully harvesting them from the food source becomes less and less likely. This is when I will begin cautiously finding travel routes on the field edge and following them back into the woods. Once into these travel corridors, I will look for the most well-travelled routes. This will likely lead to the whitetail’s rub and scrape lines. I will then set up trail cameras down these lines to get an idea of how well-used they are and the times that the deer use them.
This method will likely lead to a high percentage of daylight whitetail activity, which will give you a pretty good idea of how to set up during this phase of the whitetail's seasonal pattern.
With the Whitetail archery opener fast approaching in Manitoba, I hope these early-season trail camera tips provide some last-minute insight into how to get a step on a mature whitetail this fall!
Check out our Top Spring and Summer Scouting Tips and Fall Deer Scouting Tips articles for more whitetail content.
For more information on hunting whitetail deer in Manitoba, visit our Big Game page.
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