Using trail cameras in the spring.

[deerbasshunter3]

Am I wasting my time putting up a few trail cameras a little bit before spring hunting season, or can it be beneficial? I feel like wherever I may find the birds in February or March will no longer be productive come the opener, which I think is now the last week in March.

[sonofabuck]

My cameras have a plot watcher feature that takes a photo at intervals that I can change.  I set 4 cameras up on food plots.  Check them the day before season to see where they've been strutting the most and at what times.  Sounds like a slam dunk right?  I've been doing this for 2 years and it hasn't really paid off yet.   

[silvestris]

The only downsides would be a possible loss of time and money and a loss of confidence in an area that holds birds that didn't get their picture taken.

[FL-Boss]

If you have the camera.. run it. It's doing no good just sitting in the house. I run 5 cameras.. all year.. they never turn off. 

[davisd9]

Sc private land starts March 20 this year, WMA stays April 1. Cameras can he give you patterns. Birds where in this spot at this time and so on. Of course nothing is definite.


Sent from the Strut Zone

[wvlimbhanger]

I run em over fields or food plots as well.  Good info to have, pay special attention to the weather.  I typically find more activity on rainy days and save those spots to hunt for days like that.  Also helps give you a good bird inventory early because in my area not every bird gobbles from the roost once a pecking order is established.  Gives me more confidence in knowing how many may be silent on a given day.

[RS]

What is a good camera to use for time lapse purposes?  I don't have camera, but was thinking about getting one for this scouting in the spring.

[Dtrkyman]

I love running cams, put them where they are easily accessed, I check em daily during season and killed my final bird on the last day of season a couple years ago after getting pictures of 2 toms between 11am and 12 pm a couple times that week, they both came in around noon that day!

Browning cams have a nice time lapse feature and software! 

[wvlimbhanger]

I'm a big fan of covert cameras.

[shaman]

Am I wasting my time putting up a few trail cameras a little bit before spring hunting season, or can it be beneficial? I feel like wherever I may find the birds in February or March will no longer be productive come the opener, which I think is now the last week in March.

It depends on what you're looking for. A trail camera can give you excellent eye candy.  However, a camera providing you actionable intelligence may not happen.

Your ears are probably going to give you more info than anything else.  I have turkeys roosting within 200 yards of the back of the house.  All I have to do is go out and sit with a cup of coffee and listen. I can usually tell from that a whole lot of things, not only about that flock, but about all the other flocks on my ridges.  My turkeys have been roosting in the same general location for the past 15 seasons-- as long as I've had the place. Probably they were roosting there for the past 50 years.  Very little changes year to year. However, nobody plants field crops around me, so I don't have to worry about things like crop rotation.  It all pretty much stays the same.

I have a trail watching feature on my camera as well. It takes pics every 5 minutes from sunup to 10AM and 4PM to after sundown.  If I set it up at a known choke point, I regularly get turkey pics. However, I already know the choke points.  I already know what corners of which fields seem to attract gobs. I even know which pastures are more likely to hold gobblers on  a cold blustery clear day versus in the middle of a 3-day rain.  The potential for eye candy is good, but the camera is not going to be able to tell me a lot of what I need to know.  Scouting and 15 years' experience on the same plot provides that.

[Cove]

I like running a couple on a small private piece over a little feed before the season. Lets me get an inventory on exactly how many I will be whooped by when I get a chance to hunt it.

[turkeyfoot]

To me it depends on where your setting them if its out in woods at random place probably not much help but if its near field/food plot or other place where you know they are strutting I would put it up 2 weeks before season will give you idea of population numbers times they are showing up and when the are splitting up

[tomstopper]

I like running a couple on a small private piece over a little feed before the season. Lets me get an inventory on exactly how many I will be whooped by when I get a chance to hunt it.

^This. Love running mine all year long just to see what's in the area.

[cornfedkiller]

I usually run a few cameras in the spring.  When I go on an out of state trip, I will even put a couple trail cameras out at some of my "spots" right when I get there and then check them a day or two later to see if anything has been going on there.

If nothing else, I just like getting pictures of strutting toms on my camera!

[deerbasshunter3]

Do cameras not spook the turkey like it can/will do with deer?