IS IT TOO EARLY FOR TRAIL CAMERAS?
May 24th, 2023
By: Alex Comstock(@whitetail_dna)
As spring is starting to wind down and summer looms, a frequent question I get is “Is it too early to start getting trail cameras up?” It’s an interesting question, and one that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no. Trail cameras have become an essential part of the whitetail hunters tool kit for near all hunters. If you utilize them in the summer, here’s my thoughts on when you should be deploying them.
Where is The Property?
The first thing that’s important when discussing this topic is figuring out what hunting property you’re thinking about. For me, when I get trail cameras up changes from property to property, mainly because a lot of them are out of state, and it depends when I can get there. For example, one of our team members, Garrett, may draw Iowa this fall. Given that knowledge, Garrett did a scouting trip this spring in Iowa and placed a handful of trail cameras. Garrett knows at the bare minimum he won’t be back until late summer, and he wanted to at least have a baseline knowledge of what’s in the area when he showed back up.
Conversely, for my local hunting properties that are nearby where I live, I’m not getting trail cameras up this early. I typically shoot for the 4 th of July timeframe, as when I get my trail cameras up around home, I want to immediately be able to get an idea of what buck is what with antler growth, and that’s not something that you can obtain as easily right now. The point that I want to drive home with this sub topic is that based on where your hunting property is in relation to where you live can have a large impact on whether or not right now is too early for trail cameras.
What Will You Learn?
Another question you’ve got to ask yourself is what will you learn or benefit by getting cameras out right now? For some people, you may want to monitor new fawn numbers or just deer numbers in general. For others, you may only be paying attention to antler growth, and checking out bucks. With this in mind, if you aren’t as worried about the other ancillary things outside of bucks and antler growth, you may just be wasting battery life and sd card space by getting cameras up right now.
If on the other hand, you are placing a bunch of “normal” trail cameras and let’s say you want them to soak as long as possible to gather as much information as possible before fall or even throughout the fall, you could gather a little additional information by getting them up early. For me, a lot of my trail cams have shifted to cell cams, making this time of year not quite as important for trail camera usage.
Conclusion
The title of this piece, “Is it too early for trail cameras?”, doesn’t have a straightforward answer. Like most things with deer hunting, there isn’t a black and white answer. What you need to do is assess how you like to use trail cameras throughout your different hunting properties and evaluate if having them out right now is going to benefit your hunting at all. For some, it may make sense to get some trail cameras out asap, whereas there are hunters like me where I am not going to worry about my trail cameras until late June/early July. I don’t receive any benefit from having my cameras out in May and early June, unless I’m placing them out of state where I won’t be able to visit them for months.
I hope reading this blog has helped get your mind churning on the trail camera topic and can help you make your evaluation on when to get trail cameras up in the deer woods!