While your cameras might be doing you a lot of good during the hunting season, you might think that they have no purpose after that part of the season.
That simply isn’t the truth when it comes to your trail cameras. There are plenty of things that you can use them for during the summer months.
It also means that you’re not going to have to tuck away the cameras into storage. So let’s show you how to really get the most out of your cameras during the offseason.
Our Tips
Pre-Season Scouting Without Startling Game
If you already have your cameras out, then you can simply go through and get some new batteries in them before the season kicks off.
Make sure that you do it early enough that you haven’t spooked any deer away from their usual spots. The point of this is to not be out scaring the deer away from certain areas during the time before the season kicks off.
The benefit to leaving your cameras out there means that you won’t have to trek through the forest and reposition the cameras out there close to the season’s beginning. Having the cameras out there streamlines the process for you and makes sure that you haven’t altered the behavior of the deer that you are trying to hunt in the coming weeks. You’ll know where they’re hanging out and where they’re avoiding. This can all be valuable information for you when the hunting season does start.
Move Your Cameras and See Where the Deer Have Gone
Even though the season is over, you can use your cameras to figure out what the deer are doing around your area. By moving your cameras to new areas, you might be able to spot deer doing things that you hadn’t expected before. You might find new spots to put cameras before the next season as well.
Just because you can’t hunt the deer anymore, you shouldn’t give up on watching what’s happening out there. Learning more about the behavior of local deer means keeping in mind all the new ways that the deer near you can act during the whole year. You can really use this information to your advantage as hunting season gets closer.
Besides keeping an eye on the deer that you know are around, you’ll be able to keep track of the deer as more fawns are born. This will help you get a better idea of how many deer are out there. You can even watch the deer to see when their antlers are falling off. If you want to collect those, this can help you time your trips out to where your cameras are.
Use It to Watch Other Game
Even though trail cameras are often used specifically to watch deer and the like, you can use these cameras to watch for all sorts of game. This is especially true when it comes to watching turkeys. Hunters of all kinds can use their cameras to watch the local wildlife. You’ll be able to see what’s passing through, what animals are frequenting the area, and what’s hanging around.
If you are looking to hunt more than deer, then this can be the perfect time to really start learning about the other game that you can hunt. Even if you’re not hunting those game right at that second, you’ll be able to get a better idea of what’s going on out there. You might want to move your cameras around just a little bit during this time to make sure that you’re watching the right areas for the game that you want to hunt next.
Protect Your Home
While these cameras are great for watching animals, you can also use them to watch for people. By placing the cameras in hidden areas around your home, you’ll be able to see what’s going on around your house. This isn’t always a permanent solution, but it can be useful if you want to keep an extra close eye on who’s hanging around your house.
If you have quite a large property, then the cameras can be placed in areas where you think people have been trespassing on your property. They could be ruining parts of your land that you want to keep intact like areas where you’re trying to grow food or destroying the roads and trails on your property. Having these cameras out there makes sure that you’ll be able to tell when people are getting into what they shouldn’t. It can also mean having the extra little bit of evidence that you need for the police to go and pay your trespasser a visit.
Have A Little Fun
Not everything about trail cameras has to work. During the off-season, you can instead use your cameras to take some interesting pictures of the local fauna as they wander around see relatively calm. If there’s a dead cow on your property, then you’ll be able to get some good shots of the local scavengers. But regardless of whether or not there’s bait near your camera, you’re likely to see something interesting.
You might see animals that you didn’t know hung around the area, so it’ll teach you about just what’s visiting your property. You might even catch a glimpse of Bigfoot on your cameras if you look hard enough. It can be a fun activity to see what’s out there not just for you but for your family as well.
Conclusion
All of these different ways of using your camera can be super useful or a little bit fun. You can really get the most out of your camera when you’re using these methods to your advantage during the off season. Even if you don’t want to really move them around, using them to at least check in with the local wildlife can really help you when the hunting season returns.
