Every year there are stories of some guy getting a pic from his cell cam, immediately going out to his stand and killing that deer. This is not very common though and definitely not the norm; of all the guys I know, none have had this happen to them personally. What usually happens is you get a pic, you establish a pattern and you can capitalize on that pattern before it changes. It's usually 24 hours between pic and kill. Even with a cell pic, I'd say it only works out less than 50% of the time in these situations. Like was said before some bucks don't like cell cams, after one trigger, some bucks avoid that trail imo, some bucks are bothered less, but nothing is guaranteed.
If their argument is fair chase I think it has to be applied evenly across the board and not different rules for public and private. I don't get how it's not fair chase though, you still have to hunt the wind, get in clean, execute your shot and get lucky that the deer will cooperate. Everything about the actual killing of the deer is done in a fair chase method. Information and intelligence on the deers whereabouts is an aid you can use to your advantage if you're smart. What's the difference between the farmer telling you he saw a huge buck come out in that corner field 3 nights in a row or your cell cam telling you that? It's usually a 3-5 minute delay on my cell cams and I don't monitor my cell phone 24/7. Change the rules to getting pics sent at midnight and I'd be perfectly fine with that and just as effective.
Fair chase is a funny thing, as hunters we're constantly looking for an edge; ozone emitters, scent blockers, decoys, attractants, box blinds, tree stands, range finders, smokeless muzzleloaders, food plots. All these things are meant to aid us in the hunt and give us a tactical advantage greater than what we would have naturally. None of us want a fair situation, we all wanna stack the deck in our favor. What's the combat quote, "if you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck". So wouldn't actual fair chase be man vs beast on the ground with no manipulation of the surroundings?
We literally justify blocking our scent, manipulating an entire property, hiding in a box blind, luring a deer into a manicured food plot straight into a kill funnel where we smoke it with a single shot smokeless muzzleloader (let's be honest it's a single shot rifle), but cell cams is where we draw the line in the sand on fair chase? Lol Guys out west call us midwesterners deer farmers and they're right to a degree. I'm sure in 30 years I'll be grumbling about whatever the new fangled tech is being used.
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