Trail Cam Tuesday - November 5, 2013

With the rut starting anytime the deer are starting to go nocturnal. This along with the time change is all something to keep in mind while trying to plan your peak rut hunts. I have not been seeing a lot of movement on the select days I've managed to get in the woods this fall. However, after checking my trail camera this past weekend, I found at least one reason to keep myself glued to my stand a little longer. 

A new 8 Point that showed up on camera this week!

It does not matter what size bucks they are, they have all gone nocturnal. 

That is unless they are a yearling button buck still hanging out with their mothers. 

Trail Cam Tuesday: Trail Camera Sets & Scent Control

Close encounter with a black bear.

As with most hunters, hunting season never really ends, it just progresses to the next year. That is no different here; even in the “off-season” there are still a thousand and one things to do to prepare for the next season.  And that only amplifies when the spring turns to summer and the realization that hunting season is only a few months away. That means a lot of hunters are starting/in the process of hanging, checking, or moving stand set and are continually scouting their hunting area to become more ready for the fall. With scouting there are many things and strategies to consider. One of my favorite tools are trail cameras. There are a wide variety of brands, types, and uses but mainly this is a tool that can be used to help the hunter find what deer are in the specific areas, what, if any, kind of pattern they are on, and another added feature is it allows you to keep “hunting” all year long.  As is to human nature when it is getting close to the season starting, we begin to take short cuts. But could taking shortcuts this summer while setting trail cameras and checking end up hurting you this hunting season? This is something most hunters know can happen - “blowing out” your hunting area and the corridors that lead to and from it by over hunting or having excessive travel in the areas during hunting season, but have you thought about it in summer while checking you cameras?

There is something that you can be doing that takes very little effort and time to help prepare. I do it and won’t lie – I need to do it more as the season gets closer!  At this point you may be wondering what exactly I am talking about…

Think this buck might have smelled something on the camera?

I am talking about the advancements in scent control technology! Specifically, scent control of your trail camera and surrounding area.  For those you that aren't doing this yet, let me ask you a question. Would you go out opening day of season wearing your t-shirt you wore to workout in last night, your blue jeans that are covered in grease, oil, and gas, and those old pair of shoes that you use to cut the grass in? I wouldn't either! Our trail cameras are no different. Our natural scent is plastered on our cameras every time we touch them and the wildlife can smell that something is/was there.

The hunting industry as a whole has greatly advanced over the last 10 to 15 years in scent blocking.

One of the leading and continual changing products is scent protection and elimination lines. It is agreed upon that the best situation is to know how to read the wind and use it to your advantage, but like many other hunters I don’t always have the time to wait for Mother Nature to help me. This is where I have started to use a simple yet systematic approach to check my trail cameras during this valuable time of the pre-season.

I know as soon as I said systematic that it turned a few of you off, but really I promise it is simple! First off, you already know the area you are hunting and using your trail cameras in. Most of you already do this but if you don’t, map out the area(s) where your trail cameras are to allow for you to enter and exit on the quickest route and with the least amount of disturbance to the area and wildlife. Now that’s the first half of my systematic approach, pretty simple this far, right?

The other half does require a little forethought and/or planning. If you are like me you just need an empty spot in your truck to leave the gear. Now you may be asking what gear you are going to need to check a trail camera. The obvious answer is a new SD card to switch, new batteries, and possibly some minerals and food to refill your feeder(s) if your state regulations allow it. That is a good start but that isn’t everything you’ll need. To help with the scent control, I like to keep a few items in a backpack in the back of my truck for whenever I get the chance to check my cameras. A list of the items and explanations are as follows:

• Rubber Boots - These have been proven time and time again to help reduce the scent.
• Latex/Rubber Gloves (x4) – This to help reduce the transfer of scent when handling your trail cameras.
• Scent-Free Field Wipes - These are great to have if you are randomly checking your camera after work or school and are sweaty, wearing cologne or even if you are just waiting to be cautious, wipe down with these and help mask your scent.
• Clothes - This might sound like a little bit of over kill, but its summer and I like to wear shorts, shorts and briers don’t mix. I have a pair of old light weight hunting pants I can slip over my shorts and a “scent-free” long-sleeve shirt to throw on also. This helps protect you as well as help cover your scent.
• Cover Scent / Scent-Free Spray – This will pull double duty, this will be used to spray yourself down as well as the area the camera is in as well as its strap.
• Tools – I like to keep a small folding saw, pair of handheld pruning shears, and a folding shovel with me while I am checking trail cameras. These are a great help when trying to clear the view for a camera, establish a better staging area for the deer to cross in front of the camera, help with last minute touches on clearing shoot lanes, or lastly when it’s time to start making those mock scrapes (look for this topic to be covered in a later article).
• Backpack – This might have been a given, but I like to have it for multiple reasons. It is nice to have everything together and easy to grab, but it also is great to use while check the cameras. I like to throw in some extra batteries (even with have estimated timelines I like to know I can replace them if need be), extra SD cards, my tools, the Cover Scent / Scent-Free Spray, field wipes, latex gloves, and a bottle of water or two as if can be a length walk at times.

Overall this might sound a little cautious, but it has helped me pattern deer better over the last few years and if this can help anyone this fall I am glad to share it. Does anyone else do this or are you going to start? And if you already do this, what essential gear or tips did I miss?

Trail Cam Tuesday: June 25, 2013

With the first day of summer only a few days behind us and my Facebook and Twitter blowing up with trail camera pictures, it made me want to revive an old favorite of mine. If you have been following this blog for awhile, you know about Trail Cam Tuesday (TCT), a series of posting regarding interesting trail camera pictures I have been taken and am currently receiving from Foggy Mountain and the surrounding areas. Though I had not been writing with the same frequency recently, I have not forgotten about my trail cameras. I still run them religiously; the only difference is they are not getting checked as frequently, yet this could be good thing. Over winter a few interesting pictures had surfaced, but nothing that made me think I have to post a new TCT. This past week, I found the set of pictures that made me think I needed to revive this series.

The potential for checking your trail cameras less frequently gives the animals less of a chance of patterning you and your behaviors while checking your cameras. This lets them move more freely and naturally throughout the given area without fear and or scent of humans. Yet and this this a big one, it also can have a counterproductive reaction if your camera(s) is placement wrong, is not seeing the activity you are trying to capture, the batteries die, or the overall pattern of movement has changed.  That’s where I was over a month ago; I have gone from checking trail cameras from at a minimum of once a week to now possibly once a month. I knew that the pattern of deer movement had changed some due to downed trees and other obstruction in the normal routes since last year’s “Super Storm” and surrounding properties recently being timbered. Finally a few weeks ago I decided I needed to move one of my cameras from a location it had been at for multiple years, since before the creation of this blog. Granted it only moved 50 to 75 yards away, but did it make a huge difference.

As I said before, my Facebook especially has been flooded with picture of potentially great looking bucks in velvet. I won't lie, I was hoping to find a few of those in my pictures since moving my main trail camera set, but that was not the case. As I switched out my cards and threw the old one into my camera to view it, I saw a lot of doe movement on this trail at various hours of the day. This was good to see, but still not what I was hoping for. I did not think much of and threw my camera into my backpack and carried on with my plans for the rest of the day. Not until I got home that night and transferred the pictures to my computer did I look at the pictures again and see what I truly had. One of the does that was walking though had something following it. Something small enough that I couldn't pick it up on the small camera screen. It was a small fawn, with its vibrant white spots. Although this is not a giant buck I can chase this fall, it might been in another few years or it may be just another doe to help repopulate the mountain top and keep the great deer herd thriving.

It’s not always about the antlers, sometimes you have to step back and enjoy the simple things in nature.

Trail Cam Tuesday: June 5, 2012

If you remember a while back I said that I would be altering TCT slightly to incorporate more about trail cameras as a whole, not just pictures. This post will be the first taste of something different. I have done a Trail Cam Tuesday pretty much since the beginning of this blog. I have received numerous questions about trail cameras. Some of the questions I could answer easily, others I would direct them to look at their owners manual or sometimes I just wouldn't know. I don't claim to be an expert by any means, but I do know a good bit about trail cameras from my many years of use, but that still doesn't get all the questions answered. Someone that has a few more answers that I do is Boyd of Moultrie's Total Game Management Podcast, I managed to get a few great interviews with him a while back. For more great information that wasn't covered in those interviews you can change out Boyd's interview on The Will to Hunt Live, I was in attendance and was able to ask many of the questions I haven't been able to answer or wondered about over the years.

Old habits die hard, It wouldn't be much of a Trail Cam Tuesday without at least one picture. This is one of those bonus pictures that was just to beautiful not to share....

The Real Foggy Mountain

Trail Cam Tuesday: May 29, 2012

In comparison to the last few weeks of having some exciting trail cam pictures it slowed down a little this week. With the heat and lack of minerals/ feed I didn't think I would have much luck at all. But I  still managed to be a decent round of pictures. They are actually kind of heart breaking for Cassie, but I'll talk about that later on.

Tune in tomorrow to find out the winners of our giveaway!

This first picture (of a buck) didn't leave me awestruck like the last few weeks did, but it still makes me happy to see the growth of any buck around this time of year! It is showing that the deer are healthy and there are more than a few bucks making to the following year as we try to allow for more mature deer to grow.

For anyone who has followed this blog for any amount of time knows how much I enjoy getting pictures of bears, but this pales in comparison to how Cassie feels about the pictures. In reality she wants to see one in person in the wild, that something she's never done. Everyone told her it is only a matter of time living in this region of WV, but it still isn't true. When we went to flip the cards this past weekend, she was so close to accomplishing this goal without even knowing it. With in a six hour period, we missed seeing not only one, but two different bears in front of the trail cam.

Trail Cam Tuesday: May 22, 2012

Like I said in yesterday's post, there are many things that can make you a bad or good turkey hunter, but sometimes it comes down to dumb luck. I am not sure if it is by pure dumb luck of the turkeys or bad luck on my part, but here they are strolling in just an hour after legal shooting hours.

I'm not to sure why I like this next picture but I do. It's an interesting view / snap shot of a raccoon perched on top of the stump feeding on something.

After last week's pictures I was hoping to catch that same buck on camera again. I didn't have much luck doing so, but I was able to get a nice picture of this one. From the looks of it, it seems that this will be another decent buck. I can't tell, but from the way the brows are growing, I think this might be "Slick" or an offspring of Little Brow but only time will tell.

Trail Cam Tuesday: May 15, 2012

This past weekend I attempted turkey hunting again, I say attempted very loosely, but that's another story for any other time. Normally up until this point, every Saturday morning I just went switched my trail cam cards and then dove into my blind to wait on some turkeys. This past Saturday I decided to take a different approach, head to where I'd been hearing some gobbler coming off the roost. Well, they weren't there but I still held tight there until 7:30ish AM. At that time I knew it was time to head to my blind to catch the hens that had been coming in for the past week or two. Come to find out, by me deciding to head away from my blind, I missed the shot of videoing this great looking deer.  Here is the first shot, that I go tin the series.

As you can see from this picture, this buck already has decent antler growth for this region and time of year, but that's not the interesting part. If you look closely, you can see (from the rear) that the left antler looks normal, where as the right one looks a little larger and club like.

With this next picture I was hoping I would get him to stop. He did, but with his head right behind the stump. At least he was stopped I had one more shot at getting a good picture and it...

... paid off! He stuck his head up enough to get his antler growth into this last picture. By the looks of it, he already has nice growth on the right side with the split for a brow tine and main beam, but the left side is what had me interested. Looking at it closely on a camera in a blind got me to think I was seeing things, but I wasn't. After looking at it on the computer for a few days now and getting a few opinions, I think this buck has the starts of what looks to be a double main beam! Who knows, he could be the offspring of this buck from last year or just another Foggy Mountain Freak!

Trail Cam Tuesday: May 8, 2012

What would Moultrie Week be without a Trail Cam Tuesday? I couldn't let you guys down, so here is a few great shots from the past week or so on Foggy Mountain. From the pictures you might think I'm pulling a few out from this winter, but if you remember a post last week about an interesting opening morning, you'll know these pictures were from that 24 hours period. Yet again, as I said yesterday, without Moultrie this segment would have never made it off the ground. Thank you to Moultrie and their great customer service for helping me with any and all issues.


So I wasn't able to take a turkey on opening day, it was suppose to be a slow day with the weather. It didn't help that I was only able to hunt until 7:45 AM  or so and even at that I was still a little late. Of course, when I check the trail cam, it was only half an hour after I left that this long beard walked in.

A snowy long beard.

A cautious doe and yearly walking in during a snowy late April day.

A beautiful gobbler fanning out his wings.

A slightly blurry shot of a sow and her yearling making an appearance for the first time this year.

Trail Cam Tuesday - May 1, 2012

Normally this time of year you'd expect to being seeing trail cam shots of turkeys. As much as I wish this was the case, it is not. They seem to be a little camera shy this year than last. But no worries, if I can't get some great shots, I'll at least get some funny ones. This collage of pictures isn't anything new to people that have deer and raccoons frequenting the same area, but it is still really funny. The raccoons seems to be infringing on these does turf a little to much and then the deer react.

And of course what would a Trail Cam Tuesday be without a bear sighting...

Trail Cam Tuesday - April 17, 2012

It has been a while since anyone has seen a Trail Cam Tuesday. I have contemplated changing it a bit or even ending it as a whole, but I just couldn't do it. I have decided I will no long be releasing it weekly, it will be directly linked to the active pictures being taken, trail cam pictures that are being submitted, and lastly will be a new twist I am adding. This new twist will have everything to deal with trail cameras still, it will just be more informational, it will consist of new products, information and how-tos/advise, and anything that involves trail cameras. Feel free to leave your comments below on your thoughts about the new change(s) to TCT,  love or hate, I want to hear it. If you have a suggestion of your own leave it and I'll gladly take it into consideration. Now what everyone is really here for though, the pictures. 

Even frozen does need to eat.

Not sure what this fox was looking for but
made multiple laps sniffing around.

This isn't the big sow with the white patch on her chest from
last year, but it is still a decent size bear for April.

Looks like these does are getting a little feisty.

Trail Cam Tuesday - January 10, 2012

Wow, it's back to reality! We got back from a great vacation with a surprise this past weekend and school started yesterday. That means it's time to get back into the swing of things including blogging. After a two week absence TCT is back. I got my main trail cam back from repair this past weekend also so be looking for more pictures again soon. I did have a secondary trail cam running in its absence, it doesn't have the same range at night, but still did a good job in its absence.

And I couldn't find a doe in Doe Season.

Looks like this button buck is getting a little ahead of himself.

Even after a few reports of bucks dropping their antlers early this year, it looks
like there's still a few running around with both sides intact. 

Trail Cam Tuesday - December 20, 2011

With today being one of the first days since the semester is over and tonight being the first night of Hanukkah (Happy Hanukkah!!) I've been a little bit relaxed to say the least. There are no new pictures and I'm actually a camera down at the moment, but that won't stop TCT. It seems like today is the perfect day to do a blooper edition.

Not so much a bloopers, but just interesting pictures.

An up close and personal hello from a young buck.

This doe isn't having any of this coon.

After the doe decided to leave the coon decided to King of the Hill 

with the stump and taunt the doe

Trail Cam Tuesday - December 13, 2011

Just as luck would have it, there are more and more bucks starting to show up now that rifle season has come to a close. Hopefully most of these bucks will make it until next year, all they have to do is make it through this week of muzzleloader season then the select few that are still bow hunting. Here are a few pictures of of the bucks that have shown up over the past week.

Here is a nice looking buck that I wouldn't mind still getting a shot at this year with 

my bow, but he's still on a nocturnal patern. By the picture it is hard to tell

but he is an 8-point that broke it's brow tine early in the season.

Here is a thick main beam 5 or 6 point. We haven't been able to tell from any of the 

pictures if he has both brow tines, but either way for such a young deer

he has decent mass thus far. 

Here is another 8-point that we haven't had any pictures of this year. It

looks like he has one side that is either dwarfed or busted up. 

And last but not least, my little buddy from two previous posts (Rifle Season Review and Doe Season Review). The interesting fact about this picture is that it was taken with me sitting only 20 yards up the hillside looking down on him feeding.

Trail Cam Tuesday - December 6, 2011

As you read yesterday buck season came to an end this past weekend. Here's a preview of a few bucks that have made it this far. Who knows if they'll make it until next year, but here to what I'm looking forward to. That is saying I don't get one of them in front of me in the remaining few weeks of bow season.

This is a new buck to the area, he looks narrow, but tall. 

Not a bad looking deer. He's got some mass and is polished up nice.

This is the same buck as above and the preview everyone got in yesterday's post.

And here's one for the future. A little button buck that hasn't even have his nubs pop through.

Trail Cam Tuesday - Nov. 29, 2011

I've always wanted to get a second trail camera to experiment with, but not until lately when Moultrie ran a special was I able to make this possible. One thing I have always wanted to try was during hunting season and luckily this past week I was able to try it. Around this part of West Virginia gut piles don't last long, but rarely do you get to see much more than a coon running from them. Everyone knows that there has to be more than coons that eat it, but I wanted to know what else would show up. I finally have an answer, well at least one example of this. Thanks to the buck that I harvested last Monday I was able to put my new trail camera over this gut pile and get some great pictures for everyone.

Like I said, I knew there would be some coons, but there where up to seven in one picture.

I had an idea that a bear would show up, but there was only
one bear that showed up for a short period of time.

This one took me by surprise, I never thought I'd be able to get a capture like this, a Red Tailed Hawk.

And the last one, I've got captures of gray foxes, but never a red fox.
Not only did I finally get a red fox, I got a mature adult.

Trail Cam Tuesday - 11/22/11

This is the "Gone Hunting" Edition... 

Between it being opening week of Rifle Season here in WV and trying to finish processing my deer, I am going to forgo this week's TCT. Look for a new one next week. And if you haven't guessed or heard on Twitter yet, I got a deer, but you'll have to wait a little bit longer for the full write up......

Trail Cam Tuesday - Nov. 15, 2011

This past weekend was a little trying in the aspect that one minute that it felt like the rut hadn't even started and then the next that it was in full swing, but I got a some interesting pictures this past week that say that it's here and in full swing. I got a set of pictures of these two bucks sparing for nearly ten minutes. Then after this there is a does scent checking a licking branch and scrape (not pictured).

Also we are starting to get some pictures of a few bucks that we've never seen before. This isn't the best picture, but this buck looks to have an interesting rack.

I couldn't resist posting this picture. Any one have the need for a new coonskin hat? I know where you can find a few coons at.

This bear isn't as cute as the rest, this is one big bear! From what we can tell from the picture and the one encounter someone had with him, we are estimating him to be at around 300 pounds give or take.