Trail Cam Tips - PUBLIC LAND

What are your tips for hanging trail cameras on public land?  I'd love to hear them!

Also, post your biggest buck pic you've gotten on public land!

I'll preface this with,  If you don't like me don't read.  If you don't like me the hit the "block" button.  

Kohl,  I don't scout now.  I scout between Dec and beginning of May.  Never step foot in the woods after May.  Intrusion,  none.  All the work is done from Xmas to before the woods starts showing green.  You can't see a thing in the woods right now anyway.  In the winter,  you can see everything. One thing i will say is walking in the winter with snow, ( I know most don't even think of hunting after gun season,  they think about it again around labor day )  when you find a beat trail,  that is a primary trail come season.  you walk and look at that trail when the grass is tall and green and most would walk right by it not even notice it.  I'm not saying i'm right,  but off season scouting is where it's at.  when everything is dead and no leaves shows you everything you want to know.

As far as where a deer lives different times of year,  they follow food and during the rut bucks follow the ladies... the ladies are following the food.  you have doe bedding areas,  you have doe on food,  you'll have Mr Big Tracks showing up at some point.  he may not be living there in the summer,  but he'll be back.  

Will a buck be living in that spot during rut you found in spring??  Possible.  Very possible if you aren't in there hanging stands and scouting multiple times in summer. I'd rather know he's there in spring and hope he's living there come the season than walk in 5 times with cams.  Just because a buck lives on a piece at 4.5,  doesn't mean he'll live there at 6.5.  I had a mid 160's at 5.5 living around an area.  He never got shot,  I saw him twice.  disappeared and was killed at 7.5 about 2 miles from where I saw him.  he moved to a spot on 10 acres.  He lived on 2 acres and ever went anywhere else.  The guy killed him the last day of the gun season in 2016.  NOT ONE neighbor had that buck on camera.  The guy that killed it only gun hunted and his land is NEVER walked on but 4 days out of the year.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.

Food, cover, water.  If you have those 3 things,  you could have the making of a great spot.  

That's all I got.  Sorry for not running cameras.  I don't have a hit list for you.  I don't have a picture to send all my buddies.  I have nothing to dream about besides the big tracks I found.  Wait,  anticipation of the unknown is very cool.  

I shot a 5.5 year old several years ago.  the first question most asked was "did you have it on camera".  I said no and they dismissed it like I got lucky or something. I knew he was there,  i just didn't know what he had on his head. kind of funny how the world of hunting has changed.

I run a handful of camera's on my property. Don't really use them for scouting specifically but rather just enjoy seeing what's using my property. Given the repeated pics of mature bucks I typically get, I'm sceptical that they do much in the way of spooking deer. Prime habitat and low human scent intrusion seems to keep them around.

This is in farm country. I don't doubt for a minute that the impact of cam use could be more detrimental in the north country.

To many " pros " here for me. 

Don't hunt public land at all, so no camera out there and nothing to contribute to the topic of the original post.

That being said they should be free to discuss what THEY enjoy or what THEY have learned without anybody telling them they are wrong. Maybe you should start another thread to tell everybody how you breakdown public land without cameras.

I agree with LB,I think trail cameras are dirty pool.Just my opinion nothing more.I do look for big tracks,it has worked for me.

So LB, what you're saying is that "scouting" and finding big tracks is not invasive? Will those deer that made those big tracks still be around come rut?

Fish must have just put out his cameras and getting his hit list ready.

It was about time that somebody started another thread that Long Barrels could tell us all how superior he is to everybody else. 

How about, just once, if you don't have anything to contribute to the topic you just don't comment rather then tell everybody they are doing it wrong.

What's wrong with just scouting a piece of land?  big tracks and big sign means big deer.  I don't need a cam to tell me that.

I love it when people say "I run cams so I don't have to waste my time".  What,  waste your time hunting big buck sign?  Half the bucks people get on cam in the summer won't be there anyway come season and come rut,  you'll see bucks you never had on cam.  good areas will be good always,  find the areas and you don't need a cam to tell you anything you won't know already. 

Czabs - It's much easier to keep em dumb,  especially the hunt the hunters.  I been saying that for many years,  got to pattern the humans before you pattern the deer. .

Problem is,  you are scouting now,  many start scouting two weeks prior to opener.