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I've been using trail cameras for a few seasons now and over the years I've learned a thing or two about where to place them in the suburbs where I spend most of my time hunting. The first thing I've learned is that winter scouting is a must. During the winter you can follow deer trails through your hunting grounds and really start to figure out how the deer travel through the area.
One of my properties I've had permission to hunt for 3 seasons now, but this is the first season I'm really hunting it. What do I mean? Season 1: hunted property twice. Season 2: hunted property throughout the season, but learned how the deer utilized the land only through hunting. Now it's season 3 and I know how the deer use the property and have extensively scouted the area so I can use this info to help me decide where to place my trail cams.
So far I've been off to a really good start and I've captured "shooter" bucks on every two week camera staging. The main reason for this is because I had a rough idea of where the deer would be traveling through prior experience.
I got the pictures, but then started to notice something - the deer were either looking up at the tree or seemed to be somewhat alerted staring in the camera's direction. At first I though maybe there was another animal behind the camera diverting the deer's attention, but then it hit me. I wasn't wearing any scent free clothing, rubber boots, or gloves and it was hot while I was out in the woods placing my trail cams - the deer were picking up my scent.
Luckily I noticed this about 2 months before the season was set to open so I could remedy the situation and hopefully have the bucks back there by the time opening day arrived.
Now when I go to check my trail cams or move them to another location I wear gloves, rubber boots, a long sleeve shirt and pants and make sure to spray myself down with some sort of scent killer which I also carry with me into the woods. Once I place a camera in a new location, I cover the lens with my hand and spray the camera with scent killer as well as the surrounding area that I have contaminated with human scent. Since then I have noticed that the deer are not alerted when they walk by the camera and act much more natural and I'm sure the reason for this is because I've helped keep the area much more scent free.
Next time you place a trail cam in the woods, make sure to take every precaution you would while hunting deer. At the very least, wear your rubber boots and bring along a bottle of scent killer so you don't kill your prime stand location before the season opens.