Lots of potential variables here and many potential discussion angles...but here is what we do nowadays. We usually have 7-8 cameras up on 180 acres. You could get by with fewer, but it has also been very intriguing to see just how certain bucks show up on certain cams...and not on others very much...that are only 150-400 yards apart...on the same 180 acres. While there is definitely territorial overlap between bucks...it is also very apparent that a given buck will be "all over the place" on one area of the farm and hardly ever show on cams on the other end of the same modest sized farm. Our observations of this phenomenon have been accentuated over the years as we have often compared notes with neighbors and over time you can often get a real clear picture of whether a given buck "goes north" at night, "heads east" in mid-October, etc. There are frequently very discernible patterns for daily and seasonal movements.
Many times one neighbor will not even know a given buck exists, even though their nearest cam may only be 100 yards off of our property...yet another neighbor will have many pics of the same buck on a frequent basis. We'll start with cams over mineral sites predominantly in late July/August and then move them in mid-September to scrapes, natural travel routes/trails and usually a couple in open food plots. We are most active with our cams during the August-October time of the year. We mainly want to see what bucks are present and also get a sense of their preferred "zone" on the farm.
Once we know just that basic info, we are so familiar with our place that we often know right then which buck(s) we will shoot that year, which treestand and usually about when it will happen. We will hunt October cold fronts pretty actively, but otherwise, we kind of lay back until later in October and then get much more focused in early to mid November. (No real secrets there!
) We have stands that we might only hunt once per season...one place I can think of is a westerly wind only, Nov. 15th to Nov. 30th only and you know when you go there you are likely to see 1 deer only that morning...but he is also likely to be the oldest buck still surviving in our neighborhood.
We have developed that amount of specificity due to trail cam observations over the years AND of course actual sightings. But I cannot imagine having this level of understanding back before trail cams were a thing. We don't check cams often during the season, some, but not a lot. We then are eager to get them back, in predominantly feeding areas, after the season to see who has survived, or moved in. But truly, we get relatively few move-ins, 85%+ of "our" bucks are ones that we observe frequently over 2 or more years. They may not be on our farm all of the time, but they come around often enough to be considered "regulars".
If we do get "move-ins" it is during the rut, but then they are usually "one and done" type of deals where it seems like they have fairly obviously been lured out of their normal lairs by a hot doe. And the other scenario is when we have really good food, standing corn/beans, etc, we will see bucks show up in late Dec. through spring green up. BUT...we have had multiple situations where we pretty much know that a "late season food source move in" will then return "home" that spring. Oh, we also occasionally get "one time" pics of a given big bucks in Mid-July...and then never again. It is almost as though they go for a "big walk" once per summer...maybe they are on vacation.
