How often should I check my trail cameras without messing the deer up?

[WesSpivey]

New hunter here.. trying to figure out if I should check my cameras once a week? Maybe once every 3 days? Any thoughts or opinions on this topic? Thanks so much!

 

[Ridgerunner6901]

I don’t use trail cameras, but I’ve watched numerous hot spots get ruined because of guys running to check those things every few days.. remember every time you go into an area your quarry patterns you while you try to pattern it.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Once every couple weeks in remote hunting areas.
During season I only check the cameras when I go hunt in the spot that camera is. Otherwise I stay out of there.
If your hunting in areas not as remote with a high traffic of people, 4wheelers, tractors, farmers, fisherman, school buses picking up kids, etc...check ur cams all you want the deer have acclimated to human activity and ur not gonna blow them out of there.

 

[MikeW217]

I run trail cameras for whitetails on private property starting in July and pull them in January; however, I do not check them with a lot of frequency. This year I checked about every two weeks starting in October and once a month prior to that. I am no expert, nor do I know if there is a right or wrong, but I agree with the statement above. The more your checking them the more scent your leaving behind. Good luck and glad you started hunting! I am new to this site but it offers a lot of good info so don’t be afraid to ask!

 

[Pucky Freak]

It's not how often you check them, it's how you check them.

If you approach so you don't jump deer out of their beds, and go at a time of day when you are very unlikely to spook deer, you can check them a lot with little ill effect.

I don't use cameras myself, but I do frequent my hunt areas to glass. I watch the wind, don't spread my scent around, and approach from different angles depending on the time of day and weather.

 

[SG25]

I check my cameras about every 3 weeks to a month typically unless its hunting season then I check them only when I hunt that spot to see what has been cruising by recently. No matter what I treat them as if it is hunting season and walk in and out as quiet as possible, watch my scent(as much as I can), and leave as little of a footprint as possible in that area. It has worked well for me and get a lot of pictures. I personally think every 3 days or a week is a little pointless and overkill, but that is just me. I like to give the area a little time to settle after I have been in there.

 

[Werty]

Once every couple weeks in remote hunting areas.
During season I only check the cameras when I go hunt in the spot that camera is. Otherwise I stay out of there.
If your hunting in areas not as remote with a high traffic of people, 4wheelers, tractors, farmers, fisherman, school buses picking up kids, etc...check ur cams all you want the deer have acclimated to human activity and ur not gonna blow them out of there.

This guys gets it. Do what he says.

 

[Bowhuntrben]

I typically put my cameras in areas where checking them won’t spook anything. I’m more just trying to see what’s in the area rather than pattern one. As such I will usually check every week or every other week. If I put it a place more likely to spook something I check it seldomly. For example, I’ve put it on a scrape deep in the woods and will check it just prior to gun season to see if any shooters have come through. I rarely do this though.
Admittedly my methods may not be the best since we typically never see or get a pic of the biggest bucks we get before we shoot them

 

[Frazier]

As long as you go midday and don’t bring your dog with you while spitting tobacco in the corn pile after getting gasoline on your boots while fueling up your truck on the way there you should be alright. I’m a once a week guy

 

[midwesterncrosshair]

I may be superstitious but my batteries die after a month and a half of being out in the woods. At about that time frame I look for rain in the forecast, I will do a chip swap and change batteries the day before a rain so my scent will wash away. The deer don't seem to skip a beat for me.

I try to stay away as much as possible.

I get too nervous leaving my trail cams on public grounds due to theft. Those ones I will pick up after 2 weeks.

 

[kenton]

Some good advice so far. I'll add that it really depends on what you're using the trail cam for. Are you using it to truly pinpoint where certain deer are moving, or are you just trying to see what deer are around? I think your answer greatly affects how often you should check cam(s). In the summer, when I'm trying to just see what bucks are out there and how well antlers are forming, I won't check them inside of a month. In early October, I move all cams to scrapes. This allows me to start figuring out what bucks are bedding in specific areas but in order to do this, I want 2 or 3 cam checks before the mature bucks start chasing so I check every two weeks. Once the rut is really going, I check usually every 3-10 days because having the most recent info possible is far more important. In fact, I've checked cams every day waiting for a particular buck but that doesn't happen that often. Late season, Im checking every 1-2 weeks to monitor food souces. Long story short, my scheduled is based off my need for hunting info.

 

[KipCarson]

There are many variables here to take into account. Keep in mind what @Hilljackoutlaw said, that’s good advice. Based on your other post I assume you’re using these cams in Alabama for whitetail. If that’s the case checking them every 3-4 weeks is not doing you any good except to show you what happened there in the past. There is nothing wrong with every 3-4 days, especially in woods where ATVs and are a constant presence. If your cams are on food sources check away, if it’s a cam back in some thick bedding cover where you spook deer all the time back it off to once a week or just when you hunt. Down here deer food sources and behaviors change too often to rely on 2+ week old info. Very often last weeks hotspot is this weeks dead zone. The biggest mistake I see people making is hunting old sign and wondering why they aren’t seeing anything. This week the main area I’ve been hunting had almost all deer activity shut down on camera, that’s an immediate red flag that something changed and I should look elsewhere, after two observation hunts it was quickly obvious why, my white oaks acorns have about run out and the deer shifted over to a flat full of water oaks 70 yards away. Had I been a monthly or biweekly cam checker it would have taken a tad longer to come to this realization. Moved a cam, got some intel, repositioned stands and killed a doe feeding on water oak acorns yesterday evening. Most people down here mitigate that by just hunting where you can shoot 250 yards both directions, but as a bow hunter needing to constantly fine tune things the game camera is a fantastic tool that will save you a lot of time. Just figure out what works for you, personally there are cams I would check every day if I was able too and cams I let sit for a week.

 

[NEWHunter]

If you’ll be hunting the same ground year after year, be sure and have a way to archive some of the data you’ll be collecting. Often, individual deer will frequent an area during a specific timeframe each year. This type of annual pattern can be helpful when targeting older deer. The above is one of the reasons I don’t check them very often.

 

[noharleyyet]

I remember being obsessed with curiosity about what was on my cam. A page turned.

 

[3855WIN]

One season I found a large, active scrape and put a camera on it. A great buck was coming to it at night. I didn’t see him that season, but thought a lot about him during the off-season.
The next season In the pre-rut, I climbed a tree right to young pines. I caught him coming home and killed a 7.5 year old whitetail.
All that to say, I played the long game. I wasn’t trying to kill on the scrape with the camera, but just get recon. It took a year to pay off. I’ve killed camera bucks over the years, but never right at the camera site. I like to know they’re in the area, then come up with a spot to kill em.

 

[Nathan]

I’ll be putting my cameras back out later this week to see who survived gun season. I’ll leave them untouched until late February or early March.

I’ll put them back out in June and then check them once a month until October when I will pull them again.

These cameras are all on public.

 

[cahunter805]

I may be superstitious but my batteries die after a month and a half of being out in the woods. At about that time frame I look for rain in the forecast, I will do a chip swap and change batteries the day before a rain so my scent will wash away. The deer don't seem to skip a beat for me.

I try to stay away as much as possible.

I get too nervous leaving my trail cams on public grounds due to theft. Those ones I will pick up after 2 weeks.

Use Lithium batteries. They are much more effective. I used to have lots of problems with batteries but lithiums solved all of them.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I've never seen any difference in using lithium batteries, except for the cost. I use regular Duracells with no issues. I've learned that bucks seem to have a 3 day pattern on places that I hunt, so it's vital that I know as soon as it starts. I'll check my regular cameras every 3rd day. I like having my cell cameras in hard to get to spots and won't hunt there until I get a pic of a shooter buck. This system has worked very well for me over the last decade.

 

[rjthehunter]

During the off season, check when the batteries are running low. Camera should say how long the batteries will last. Like stated before typically a month and a half. No reason to go more often than that during the off season. Sneak around when you grab it. Act like there's armed guards there. Be sneaky like you're hunting!

 

[WATERMAG]

Not more than once a week unless you are hunting the spot and are already walking past the camera. Although there have been a few bucks I would like to have shot that have been at my stand in the daylight for several days straight and I had no idea until a week later. That's were a cell camera would be nice to have.