-By Brandon Wikman
Scouting cameras have been used to capture candid shots of whitetails lurking the woods day and night for years. In my opinion, trail cameras are one of the absolute best scouting tools on the market. They give you an opportunity to actually be, somewhat, 'one' with your herd.
Photographs truly do say a thousand words. You can easily formulate your upcoming hunt with the vital information your camera captures. Such as determining age and health of deer, travel routes, time of day they're moving, a rough ratio of the herd and so much more sweet data that will give you the upper hand on Mr. Elusive.
Not only can you familiarize yourself with the locals on your property, but also photograph a variety of wandering neighbor whitetails or even other wildlife.
I've used cameras in nearly every setup imaginable. I've strapped cameras to my tree stand, along rub lines, over scrapes, in the middle of food plots, over bait piles, along streams, on fence jumps and every other so-called secret spot my hunting partners have tried.
Now, the nice thing about using these high-tech gadgets is that they have more than one use, so I've come to know. Here are a few wild, crazy and, well, amusing scouting camera uses I've heard over the past couple years. They may not be your everyday deer snapshot, but they’re still clever without a doubt.
Different uses for cameras:
- Hide one in your driveway to see what time your son or daughter gets back from their date.
- Conceal one in a stump or bush along fence lines to photograph trespassers.
- Strap a camera across from your deer stand to see if you're not the only one hunting your stand.
- Place your camera near your game feeder to capture snapshots of practically every deer on the block.
- Cram a camera inside your secret candy stash to see who's been burgling your goodies . . . Okay I definitely never tried this one, but it still sounds legit.
- Use cameras to photograph specific deer you do not want harvested to show to your hunting crew.
- Spray acorn scent on the camera unit to get some crazy close photos and possibly a nice tongue shot… I mean, if that's what you're going for...
- Set a unit up near a fresh coyote kill to get some awesome predator pictures.
- If you're really bored or just plain curious about what’s living in that big hole in your backwoods, prop a camera near it to capture a coyote, fox or even badger!
Okay, so there aren’t quite 101 different uses on here, but honestly speaking, there are so many different ways you can utilize cameras other than monitoring your deer herd. So it doesn't hurt to have a couple cameras in the woods for scouting your trophies for this fall and one on the side to tickle your imaginations itch!
Be creative. Be different. Heck I don’t know, be paparazzi-ish! Haha...
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