The Patterning Process
Posted By
Bill Winke
at
10/22/2010 12:00:00 AM
I am not sure my approach to using trail cameras is the best one, but it fits my current thinking. I could change my mind if I learn more and realize that I am missing something. Here is my philosophy on patterning bucks, for what it is worth.
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| This is what the buck I am calling “Big” looked like in December of 2009. |
I don't leave cameras long in one location - about ten days. My cameras are almost always right in food plots or along commercial ag fields, spots I can drive to with my truck (Ideally). I always use corn to concentrate the deer in my food plots and to get the fastest possible inventory of what is in the area. Also my cameras have moderate to slow trigger speeds so I need to stop the deer in order to get decent photos.
I just want to know where the bucks are living as I head into the time when I am going to hunt them. I start hunting on Oct. 25 each year. I want all my cameras out of the woods by then. I start early enough that I can get photos in one location and then I move the cameras to different locations. I typically leave them in one place for ten total days
(1 1/2 bags of corn) and then after the full 20 days are up, I pull them out of the woods before I start hunting.
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Like I said, there may be a better way. I am sure the guys checking cameras all fall know more about their deer than I do, but I just don't want to mess with it once I start hunting. Also, I still like for there to be a little bit of the unknown when I hunt. I would hate to boil it down to a science where this stops feeling like a hunt and starts feeling like shopping. I have been on hunts like that and I don’t enjoy them as much as I do hunts that aren’t quite as sure-fire.
Using corn would not be a good choice if I was trying to figure out which trails the bucks are using. However, most of my cameras aren’t near trails anyway, they are in and around food plots. I am not all that concerned about their routes because I likely wouldn't hunt them on their routes anyway unless they just happened to be spots I can slip in and out of without alerting any deer (not many spots set up well for this). Instead of finding their trails, I focus on stands I can hunt clean - somewhere in their home range (ideally as close to the center as possible). Then I just put in my time, trying to keep it fresh.
If you go straight to their photographed routes without concern for impact, you will likely have one good hunt at best. I just want to know where they are living and then I will hunt them where I think I have an advantage within that general area. I don’t believe you can truly pattern mature bucks. At best, you can figure out where they live and whether or not they have a personality that makes them move during the day. That is about all I am hoping to accomplish with my cameras. As I said, I am not sure my strategy is the best. I may change next year, but right now it makes sense.
