00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyon, and this is episode number ten. Today we're talking about trail cameras and everything you need to know to get the most out of them leading up to the hunting season. This should be an information packed episode, so kickback, relax, and enjoy. All Right, Well, I am fresh off of a very nice, long and sunburnt Memorial Day weekend and joining me as my counterpart and co host Dan Johnson out in Iowa. How's your weekend, Bud? Well, I'll put it to you this way. I ate a lot of grilled meat, I drank a lot of beer. I did some deer hunting stuff. I went fishing. I got to spend time with friends and family. So I crammed as much to do type of things into three days as humanly possible. Man. That uh, that sounds about as good of a weekend as you can get. Yeah, yeah, I was. I was happy with it. How about you? That's awesome. I I had a good weekend too, Like I said, got a lot of sun um. We spent a couple of nights at the campground doing some canoeing and you know, some chilling out, eating some burgers and brats, and had a cook out at a friend's house, and then did a bunch of yard work and a little bit of deer a deer related prep as well. So I got some stuff done, which is always a good feeling. So I can't complain at all. I bet, I bet in three days, I ate brott Werst. Now, are you being serious? Friday, Saturday, Sunday and yesterday not. I'm not joking. I bet you I ate close to worst. I don't even know how to respond to that. That's just ridiculously impressive meat sweat, you know, Like I remember, I was like Friday night, I was just I was hungry for some reason because I didn't eat a lot that day because I was trying to get out of work. And I just remember sitting there going next bun loaded up, next month, saur kraut, uh, mustard and uh, and it was just like one went down, then another one, then another one. So yeah, I was I was happy with my performance. This is that's pretty impressive. This is gonna be perfect for the episode we're gonna do later this year where we talk about um, being healthy and working out and stuff and how that can help you as a hunter. This is a great example. I was. I was protein loading for the weekend. Yeah, exactly. Oh that's funny. I can't claim to have eaten anything that much recently, but like you did, I drank a few ice beverages. So if that counts for anything, that's good stuff. Um. Well, I'm glad you have a good weekend. And we wanted, uh, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the deer stuff that we did this weekend, So we'll dive into that in just a second. Um, but I had one more serious question I wanted to ask you before we got into the beating potatoes here all right, and speaking of potatoes, here, here's what I got for you, Dan. If I don't even know if I can see this up losing a straight face. If you were a potato, would you rather be a baked potato, a mashed potato, fried potatoes, or scaloped? Give it to me straight here. If my father, if I followed in my father's footsteps, I would be scaloped potatoes. Do explain, but but I'm not my father. Okay, I'm gonna have to go with fried potatoes like you slice them and then you furry them up, because in my opinion, there's nothing better than a good steak or dear wine with some fried potatoes and a little hot sauce. Yes, I love that. That is good stuff. So that's my answer. Now I'm curious, a what brought this on? And be what's your answer? Well, the answer to part A is isn't really good. I have no idea, but we don't have a lot to no. Literally this is I'm I'm kind of strange. I guess I was driving down the road and for some reason I started thinking about potatoes and I was like, man, if you were a potato, And then I got to think, hey, i'd be a good question, asked Dan. So here I am. I hope I gave a good answer. I thought it was pretty good, better than what I've got. I think i'd be a fried potato as well. But what I started thinking is I'd be a fried potato because I love the sun and I love getting a good sunburn. So I was thinking I'd get fried in the sun. Um, so that's best I got. I was kind of expecting you to make a joke about being a baked potato. But I don't have any potato jokes. No, no potato jokes, nothing about being baked. No. Maybe in college, but that's neither here nor there right exactly exactly. Oh geez, Okay, So we better talk about trail cameras before you start losing sponsors. Yeah, enough about potatoes and and all that good stuff. We really wanted to talk about trail cameras today, And like I mentioned, we both did some trail camera related work this past weekend, so I wanted to hear a little bit more about what you were doing. Dan in a second, but I thought i'd kicked things off here started by starting with a story about what happened to me this weekend. And it's actually kind of tragic. Um, So if you'll indulge me, I'm gonna share a sad story, all right. So about a little over a week ago, maybe ten days, I put out my first trail cameras on some of my Michigan parties, put out some mineral got the cameras out there, and I figured I'd wait about a week to ten days before going in there and changing them out. And at this point, uh, you know, I'm not expecting to see a whole lot, but there's still that chance of seeing the beginnings of some antler growth. And there's one buck in particular on one of these properties that I've been hunting for three years. Um, some of you might know this buck. I've been calling him Leaner, and I'm just dying to know if he made it through the winter. Last I saw him was December, and I've got no son of him since. But nobody around this area has killed him that I know of, haven't found him dead. I shed hunted and walked all the properties for like a five acre area around here, no sign them, So I'm really hopeful he's still around. But the whole point of mentioning that is that I'm just praying to get a picture of him. He's got a big old scar and blind eye, so I'll know it's him even if there's not much antler growth. And he seems to the past two years. He's disappeared in December, and he shows back up in the very early summer. Oh my hope is is out there? So long story short, had those cameras out hoping to get a picture of a leaner. Yesterday, I decided it was time to go check those cameras, and I had a bunch of other projects I wanted to do. I had to spray a couple of food plots, I was hanging a bunch of no trespassing signs, and then I was going to check two trail cameras, so I headed back there. I pulled a couple of SD cards, put up some trail cameras and trespassing signs no trespassing signs, and motor dun back to UM to the truck to my house, came into my office, pulled out the SD cards out of my pocket and realized there were not SD cards. There was just one SD card. Somehow, some way along my hike and my little for whela ride, I lost one of my SD cards. And it was just like an absolutely crushing feeling because this was the card that was in my best spot to where I always get great pictures. Oh, it was just devastating. You know how, there's two things I hate the most. One losing a card and this happened to me twice now. Or number two getting to a trail camera and finding out that it hasn't taken any pictures or something went wrong and you've got nothing because I don't know about you, but checking a trail cameras like Christmas morning, I get so ridiculously excited. Yeah, that is. That's possibly up there with finding a big shed or actually killing a good deer that you've been after checking your trail camera and finding a giant on it is rapes right up there as far as an excitement level is concerned. For me, man, it's uh, it's the best, the highest of highs, and then when something like this happens, it's the lowest of lows. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would rather get kicked in the junk then than actually come to find out that, you know, user air, I messed up on a trail camera or it didn't take pictures, or I lost an SD card on the walk back. And I'm not joking. There's sometimes I'm so anal retentive about these things that I keep the s D card in my mouth while I walk to my truck, and then I put it into my ashtray of my truck, and and that's where I keep them, yeah, until I get until I get home. Yeah, I'm similar. Usually I put them in a zip up pocket, but this time it was just in my regular front pocket. And the only thing that could be worse is what happened to me. Like three years ago, I pulled a card and it was during the rut. It was a card for the first two weeks of November. Like that would be definitely the best camera pull probably all years, showing me, you know, all sorts of good deer moving through the area and lost the dang thing. Who knows what was on there, So but that's how it goes. So that was my my trail camera excitement for the weekend. I checked the one card and just a handful of doze, nothing exciting. So it's still early the beans. The beans are just starting to pop out of the ground now. So I think on this property where those cameras are, we should start getting some good, some good deer activity here soon and those cameras will start lightening up. But oh, that's the story for me. What about you? What were we up to? Well, let's see three weeks ago, four weeks ago is when I actually put out my mineral stations, and so this weekend I went up and hung my trail cameras over top of those mineral stations. And the reason I waited a couple of weeks is because a to prevent me from going in there. Uh and be because really, unless a deer has a noticeable like a cut in his ear or a double throat patch or some something that you could tell who he is right now, you can't tell tell him apart in my opinion. But so I went out and I hung all my trail cameras up, well not all of them. I forgot one of my cable like my tree cables. So I got one, two, three, four trail camera. Uh four out of my eight hung up. I come to find out something's wrong with three of them, and so I'm gonna have to do some research to find out what what's wrong with them. They're not it's not recording pictures to the SD card. Um, so I'm gonna have to call the manufacturer and find out what what's going on, and hopefully it's just a quick reset fix. And uh. Other than that, did some scouting found an awesome pinch point that I can't wait to get in and dive into. I'm actually gonna write a blog about this specific pinch point in the next couple of weeks. And so yeah. Uh, then you know, then the next step is hanging a couple of tree stands in this little area and uh watch, you know, get an observation stand up and when the season does come around, watch the movement and then make a make a move accordingly. Man, it sounds like a pretty good plan. Yep, Um, that's that's funny. You mentioned the fact that you had three cameras go go down on you too, were both having some pretty bad luck on the camera side of things, I guess so far. Yeah, I mean, they work just fine, but it's just that they're not catching the pick, they're not taking transferring the image to the SD card, so who knows what's what's going on. And I've had some friends who have had some same issues with some of these cameras in the past, and uh, you know, otherwise, these cameras work awesome. It's just that now all of a sudden and last year they worked just fine. So I don't know if I had dropped them or something, or what the deal is. I'll have to do a little work to find out what the deal is. Yeah, well, I wish you luck with that, but uh, that's no good. Missing almost half of your cameras, so that, um, you know, that being the case, I'm curious, Dan, I'd like to explore what your thoughts are on this. And then I've got a handful of ideas that i wanted to share. But since we're talking right now about trail cameras and specifically today, I really wanted to focus on, you know, uses for trail cameras in the off season. And while there's no know, we don't say there's really technical offseason since we're doing stuff all year round, but outside of the actual hunting season, how do we use trail cameras? And what I wanted to ask you was, you know, what your are your goals or uses for these cameras during you know, this couple of months period of time before the season. Well, I get them out right about now, and because the dear the antler growth really isn't you know, anything to really care about right now. I mean, it's fun to see them, but right now I kind of want to see what how many fawns the does had and if they're uh, you know, sometimes the does won't visit these mineral sites this early with their fonds, but sometimes they do, and i'd like, i'd like to get an idea of how many how many doughs were actually bred and how many had fawns, just you know, just kind of because I know in some some of my properties they just get hammered hot shotgun season and the populations probably you know, cut down between every year a lot of those young bucks and young does being killed. So it's always good to kind of get an idea of, you know, what the next crop coming in is. I guess that's that's one of the reasons. Okay, nice. And then as we get farther into the summer, once there's some more antler growth, what are you looking for? Then? Are you just purely return shooters? Um? You know, just like you know, we study these trail camera pictures long enough and that would be specifically putting together a hit list, and what do your made it? What do your returned? Uh? Dear that you hope you see deer that are um like a three year old four year old that you kind of hope you never see within shooting range. It'd be nice to see him from the stand, but you don't want to have to make that decision on a on a big three year old and uh kind of hope nature makes that decision for you by not having them show up and uh, and then basically helping you find out where you start hunting, what where the deer are, and if they're around those food sources come really season, you know where I'm going to be hunting. Okay, all right, that seems like pretty well in line with what I'm looking for and what my goals are this time of year. Two, Like you said number one, I'm looking to take inventory of what bucks are in the area. And you know, part of that is checking out what you mentioned, you know, return shooters, what deer were that I was hunting in the past are back this year. And then also you know what new deer are moving into the ranks. You know, in some cases where I've taken a deer or neighbors have taken a deer, you know, new new bucks, new mature bucks, and moving into the area. So I'm always curious to see, you know, what those deer might be. UM. And then also in some cases I'm hunting new properties and this time of year, I really like to use these trail cameras to help give me a better idea of the overall quality or the general quality of this area. UM. So again, if I get a couple of mature bucks or a lot of mature bucks on camera, um, while you know they may not all be there come fall, it still is a good sign that this general region holds, you know, the type of deer I'm looking for that you know, maybe rolling through there, you know, come the rut. You know. A big thing also related to this, kind of related to what I just mentioned, is the fact that a lot of deer have a different summer range and a different fall range UM, and usually around the time that velvets coming off, maybe the first week in September, give or take, a lot of these bucks are relocating from that summer range to a new area. And you know what I've seen, and you know, from others that I've talked to, I would gues estimate maybe around fifty maybe fifty of bucks are relocating from a new area. So when I've got a property, um, and I've got maybe four or five different mature bucks in the summer, I usually assume that maybe two maybe three of those bucks even might not be there in the fall. That said, it's still important to be tracking those deer because two or three of them mates may still be there. And then those other two that may be relocated, they can always roll back through during the rut. And like you said, it's nice to be able to take a look at those deer now judge them to your best of your ability, age them, um, and make a decision, you know, shoot or don't shoot. I'd much rather make that decision right now, sitting, you know, at the computer screen, and say, okay, the double four G two buck. For sure he's going to get a pass because he's a really great two and a half year old. And now you know, when it comes to November and this great, big split G two buck comes running by, I'm not you know, trying to make this decision in the heat of the moment. I already know right away I recognize that deer. He's a two and a half year old. I'm lett him go um. So I love being able to make those judgment calls now when you can, well, not now, but July and August, when you can make those judgment calls sooner. Make sure you're confident with their decisions. Then you want to get to the hunting season. I've had a lot of I've had a lot of you know, resemblance to what you just said as far as September and watching uh the bucks spread out now, of course they're hitting at that time of year, they start to stop hitting the the mineral stations. So unless you actually catch them on a food source or on some main trail and know they're there, you know, once they stop hitting those mineral stations, it's kind of hard to know for a fact if they're in the area or not right right. That comes a lot comes down to the location where those cameras are going, which which we can talk about in a little bit here, UM. And then to one more thing you mentioned the fact that you know, for those deer that do end up sticking around UM, you know, getting those pictures during the summer can help you start to understand some of the betting areas that they're frequenting, some of their favorite food sources. And of course, you know, food sources and betty years will change between the summer and the fall, but in some cases will stay the same. And if you just kind of bank that knowledge, it will help educate your um your strategies come October and November. Even though in many cases the change, you'll still have one piece of the puzzle that I think is worth having and can help you make those decisions. So I really do pay attention and try to learn as much as I can from these pictures, not just say okay, here is six shooter, he's on camera here. I try to think, Okay, I've got fifteen pictures of him right uh, you know, right before dark in this location. I've got twenty pictures of him in this location an hour before dark, and that's helping me better understand how he's using that property, um, where he might be betted, and then I can make assumptions based on that knowledge and translate that to what it means for me in October and November, etcetera. So I think the only other thing that I'm really looking to do, um when my cameras this time of year, and I haven't done this enough myself, UM, I want to get more serious about it. But something that you know, everyone should really consider, especially given the conditions the past couple of years of d h D and the tough Winner and a lot of people struggling with declining white tail herds and that is doing a trail cameras survey, and the trail camera survey is something that can really help you understand the population of white tails on your property and the surrounding area. UM. So I wanted to just briefly mention this, UM and I'll give you the definition of what a trail camera survey is straight from the Quality Deer Management Association's Deer Cameras Book, which is a really great book UM on this topic for trail cameras. If you're interested in really diving deep into everything you could possibly ever want to know about the subject, highly recommend that book. So, quoting from the book, at a basic level, a trail camera survey involves baiting a number of sites across your property, photographing deer with trail cameras at these spots for about two weeks, and then using a set of calculations to extrapulate population dynamics based on the deer photographed. These surveys can be conducted just after hunting season or more popular just before the season. So what you're doing then is you know, baiting some cameras, getting pictures of as many different deer as you possibly can in those areas for about ten to fourteen days, and then you're going to sort and kind of organize those pictures. You're gonna break it down by here's all the bucks we have, here's all the fonds we have, here's all the doughes we have, and then you put together this whole kind of analysis and then with a number of different calculations which um I'll link to a couple of articles in the show notes which detail exactly how to do this, or in that book I mentioned, there's a ton of information about how to properly run one of these surveys. But with a few calculations based on this sample of data that you get from those pictures, you can start understanding things is what's the estimated white tail population, what's the buck to dough ratio, what's your age structure, your population density. A whole lot of really interesting important information you can get from these calculations. So highly recommend you know, looking into how to do that, and again full instructions will get you links to that so that you can give that a shot. And I think you know most people like I mentioned or they're doing it right after the season, but the majority of folks are going to do that maybe that August time frame when you can see those fawns are clearly still fawns, but you've got that population or those funds include in the population, and it's a great time to get an idea of, Okay, how many dough should be harvesting this year, how many bucks should be looking to take if possible, and just having a better idea of what you want to do that hunting season. So I don't know, have you ever done or looked at anything like that day? Um, not not to that standard. I know I've kept track one year and I don't even know. I had a little booklet where after the hunting season was over, I kept track of how many does visited my trail camera in a twenty four hour period. But I think my numbers were skewed because there were the same group of dose hitting the trail cameras more than one time a day. So, you know, I don't know fat calculation counts that into uh the mix. But because there's snow on the ground and there's easy accessible food for these deer, they're gonna go to the bait piles before they have to go digging through the snow. And they, you know, they're pulling those bait piles in the wintertime, are pulling in deer from uh you know, it could be a long ways away that typically don't live in that area. So I'm pretty sure the survey that I took, if you want to even call it a survey, would have been skewed in the first place. Yeah, and I can see that being the case too. But it's interesting. Nonetheless, um, the when running one of these trail camera surveys by the books, it's it's interesting. Research has shown that if you make these calculations with a large enough sample size, um, it's actually very statistically significant and accurate. Um. Once it's all kind of worked out. So something to look into, and I think I probably will try doing that on a couple of properties around me here, just better earners stand how to do that and get an idea of what exactly these populations are like, and you know how I should be hunting. So it's something to consider. But moving on from that, you know, now that we know this is how we're using our cameras during the summer and those months leading up to the hunting season. I'm curious, Dan, where do you like to place your cameras this time of year and leading up to the season. Yeah, right now, they're specifically over mineral sites. And that's just because the deer hitting hitting them right now, um, you know, and I think we talked a little bit about this on a previous podcast, but um, you know, the mineral is beneficial for the uh, for the fawns, you know, for the does and their lactation cycle, and then also um, I guess produced positive impact when it comes to the growth of the antlers. Now how this is proven, I don't know. According to the according to the brands of mineral that I've used over of the years, you know, guaranteed bigger bucks, you know what I mean, Mark, so of course. But yeah, right now, they're specifically over trail cameras. As the crops start to come up in in July and they start, you know, especially the bean fields where the beans start um potting and the corn starts getting those soft little UH kernels on them that they like to eat. I'll transition probably somewhere in July too, you know, early August, depending on you know, when when I think they're hitting those food sources, I'll be transferring over them, um and even main trails going to these food sources. So you know, and it's different every year. I just I find it out during my scouting. Nice, yeah, that makes sense. That's pretty close to what I do as well. UM. I'm using mineral sites and some attractants, but I'm also right from the get go, I'm placing these cameras and creating these mineral sites near those food sources that are gonna be hot in June, July, and August. UM. So in the cases where I've got a property with beans on it, all my cameras are pretty much somewhere near the edge near those beans. And then I add the mineral site or the different attractants. UM. I've used a number of different mineral products UM. When we'll actually talk about this a little bit later to UM. But then I also use some different attractants. UM. I've used the big in j attractings as well. That seems to pull them into the mineral site, and then the mineral site will keep them coming long after that. UM, after that feed and attracting or corn or whatever it might be, after that's gone, they keep hitting the minerals. UM. So I'm usually placing right now all my cameras are pretty near the bean fields. And then eventually they moved from hitting just the mineral right now too, they're coming to the soybeans, and then they'll stop by the mineral site for a few minutes and then move on to the soybeans. But in general, that's what I'm doing, and I think it's also not only is it you know where the deer are right now, but also by having these food or having these cameras out near the edge of those food sources, I'm able to get in there and check easily without you know, bumping any more dear than necessary. And even though hunting season isn't you know, for a long time, I like to keep things as low pressure as I can um and that's just gonna help me get more pictures to The more low pressure I can put, the less pressure I can put on that trail camera site, the better chance I've got of getting pictures of a big deer. So right, and I guess I have one of my trail cameras. It's over top of a mineral station, but it also is over top of a water hole too, so you know, kind of a double up there. Yeah, that's a good one. I've done that a couple of times to have, not too recently, but that's a great place for summer pictures for sure. Right, And I just get nervous now when you know you got these ponds on these farms, um, and some of them are some of these ponds I have are they're real old, you know, so basically they're just mud holes, frogs, mosquitoes. So I was kind of hesitant to put a trail camera there to get these deer to come up to this. But you know, there was tons of tracks before I even got there, so they're still drinking out of it, you know. I just I just feel those are e h D prone areas and uh, I don't know, it's for some reason, kind of makes me nervous. Yeah, especially after two summers ago, A lot of people are nervous. I got pretty lucky when it came to this is this is off topic, but um, I was pretty lucky and most of my properties, I think it was the summer of two thousand and twelve of that that horrible h D upbreak kit, I didn't get affected too much. But how about you? What what happened on the spots you hunt, you know, to be honest with you, other than those ponds, and those are closer to the road, so there's not a lot of deer activity up there anyway. But the properties that I had hunt have a consistent and you know how hot it was last year last summer and dry, I had consistent water running through my properties the entire year. It was slow, but there was moving water, which from my understanding helps right, keeps that those midges from reproducing in that standing water. Yeah. Yeah, I, like I said, I got lucky. But I do know some friends and kind of related to what you just said, some spots where those big standing water swamps or ponds. Um. I know a couple of friends that had some properties that lost seventy or eight deer. And and you know, when there's properties with big water sources like that, it's attracting deer from around the area that are all coming there to die. Um. Since those deer that have e h d UM, for whatever reason, they are attracted to water sources like that. But I sure hope it's not something we need to talk about this summer, but we'll continue to We'll continue to track what happens uh summer twos fourteen, and hopefully h D isn't nearly as bad as it has been the past couple of years. But man, I know some people really got hammered by it. And it can really do it can do some damage, that's for sure. Yeah yeah, Um, all right, So we talked about, you know, where we're putting those cameras. Both of us. We've got our cameras over some type of mineral, maybe some kind of tract in and we're usually near a food source or water source or something like that. How often are you checking your cameras for me, Dan, I'm checking them every on average, about every two weeks. UM. Last summer, I was really good about it and I checked him only once a month, and I think that actually helped. In a couple of spots, I got a lot of mature buck pictures more than I do usually, and I think that's because I was being particularly careful about just leaving it alone. And on one of my spots, I even was able to access it by just walking a creek and I just walked that creek, pop up the shore, check the camera, pop back down the creek, and I was just especially careful, even though it's the off season, I was trying to be especially careful about, you know, that movement I was making into the property. And I think that might have helped UM. But probably do an average it's it's maybe every ten to fourteen days. I'm checking this time of year just to get an idea and see what's going on. But what about you, well, one like I always I think I've said this almost every podcast. Now, I live about an hour away from my hunting properties. So last year I was forcing myself to go down every two weeks and that just got kind of kind of hard to because I was finding myself at like four o'clock on a Sunday night driving down to where I hunt, checking cards and then coming back. So now I upgraded my SD cards to eight gigabytes or excuse me, from two to four. And so now I'm just I'm gonna let him sit a month this year, probably three to four weeks, or any time that I'm back in town, I'll throw it, you know, do a check. But my goal is to do four weeks. So um, you know, as far as pressure is concerned, I'm not putting out a lot of pressure. And you know, I know that I have cards big enough to handle all the images because I've had times where even though even though you have like, uh, I don't know what the what on my trail camera, it's called rewrite. So once the cards full, it starts rewriting over the oldest ones, and mine was doing that. But you kind of miss kind of missed the whole growth cycle, or you miss you could miss something, and I don't like that. So I just got bigger SD cards. Yeah, that's the way to go, for sure. You don't want to. I mean, it's it's nice that they'll rewrite and they'll keep taking pictures, because I guess the one thing worse would be, you know, the pictures at all, exactly for the last two weeks no pictures. So at least you get the most recent pictures. But but yeah, I, um, I can definitely see it. That'd be nice. I you know, when it comes to checking my cameras, like we've talked about, I try to as minimal as possible. But man, when I'm at least for the properties where I'm close to these properties, it's just tough. I want to open my Christmas gifts and I want them now, you know. But um, similar to you, I do have other properties that I hunt out of state where just by the nature of the distance, I'm forced to wait longer, which is a good thing. Um. So, like my spots down in Ohio, I'll be checking those just once a month. And I actually put a camera up down on our Ohio property like two or three weeks ago, so I think maybe mid to late June, I'll be making another trip down there to check that camera. And I'm excited because there's a couple really nice dear that I think made it through. So excited about that. But next I thought, this is a perfect segway too. You mentioned you have eight cameras, and um, so I was I'll share a little bit about how many cameras I have. But I'm curious, you know, how are you spreading these cameras out About how many cameras per property or per let's say, maybe a hundred acres are you putting out there. It's funny because us I have learned that on a couple of these properties. I'll give you an example. I have a river bottom egg field that and along the river the creect system down there. There's probably twenty I would say, maybe a thirty fifty yards strip of timber between the river and the egg field, and a lot of these deer like to bed there. Now, I've had trail camera in mineral stations right there and had a good amount of deer show up. Now, this past year, I put a mineral station across the big egg field, probably two fifty three d yards on the the opposite end of this egg field that butts up against the main draws, and all the timber. Completely different set of deer hit that one. So even though it was relatively close, they were close geographically. The deer just traveled in different areas, so I'm getting different deer. So it all depends on the geography of the properties um I have. I would say roughly fifty acres maybe for one for one mineral station one trail camera. Right now, now when the hunting season, I know over from experience that I'm gonnah, there's there's gonna be a spot this year. And I talked about the pinch point that I found out where I'm gonna have a trail camera on a fence crossing and I'm gonna have a trail camera down at the bottom and they're gonna be probably yards away from each other, covering two entry and exit points coming out of the same location on this pinch point. But it's gonna catch every year that's gonna come through. But it's a it's a lot for me, it's based off the geography. Yeah, that's a great point. And there's sometimes those almost like blockades that aren't like natural blockades, like a like a creek or a ridge or a road that even though you know you might be in a ten acre area, one group of deer, like you said, one group of deer only works the one five acres, and one group of deer only works the other forty five on the other side of it, and you'll never see the same deer on the other side. Um. So there's no perfect answer, like you said, UM, I probably. I think it also depends at the time of the year. So this time year, during the summer, I probably have less cameras out um per property or per hundred acres um. You know, for instance, take for example, um, one of the main properties in Michigan I have, I'll have two cameras hanging in the summer, and then during the hunting season I might turn it up to three, maybe even four, because I'm trying to better understand movement in certain areas or daytime usage. While this time of the year, you know, I'm just trying to get pictures of a few select deer, and you know you're drawing them in from that larger area where you're attracting. So um, but like you said, it all depends. Um. I guess I'd probably averaged maybe in the summer one per acre maybe like you said, one per fifty acres. I guess, um, But it's it's a fluid answer. There's no perfect answer to that, right, and then come come hunting season, it all changes. Because when I had I had a giant, an absolute giant. I don't know if I ever showed you pictures of him, but showed up and in this fifty acre piece that I had permission to hunt. And then one let's see, yeah, I had, I had five five trail cameras on a fifty five acres and I he was He's worth it to to have that many cameras there, you know. Uh So I only had three other trick cameras for the rest of my properties, but this year was worth it. So you know, I may have sacrificed in other areas, but I wanted to. You know, if I had the opportunity to kill a typical ten, I'm gonna do it. Yeah, I can. I can understand that that kind of deer would warrant some special attention from anyone. Oh man, I can't. I just that's the one, dear, I'm hoping shows back up this year. But typically he shows up in the winter when I dropped corn, and he didn't this year, so I'm kind of nervous. Yikes. Yeah, yeah, it's uh gosh, that's the best thing about this time of year though, in June and July getting the answer to that question hopefully you know, did he make it? And I know exactly what I'm looking for. Uh, he's got two slices out of his left ear, and I know who I know who he is, and I just I hope, I hope he shows back up. Man, I'm pumped to see what see what kind of conspires. I sure hope, so hope it happens for you too. That'll be some exciting summer podcasts if are if might have to have you might have to have a podcast where I'm from the field checking my trail camera to get the live reaction. Oh man, I could geek out about this all day. I've got a couple of friends of mine that we'll just meet up and talk, dear, get breakfast every once in a while, and I'll just talk like probably every time we meet up. It'll be like, oh, man, what do you think Leaner is gonna look like if you made it this year? And we'll just sit there and oh and about it for ten minutes. It doesn't get old. I can just dreams. I can just dream about it. Man. But um, let's jump to something we've kind of touched on a couple of times already. Um, we've we've half answered this question. But what about what exactly are we putting in front of our trail cameras. I sort of already covered for me. I'm putting out a combination of mineral and attracting. So for minerals, I've used a couple of different things. I've used trophy rocks, I've used a mineral from the White tailents to in North America UM, and I'm also looking forward to trying a couple of new mineral products from Big and j this year. So those are the things that comes to mineral I'm using. And then for just an attracting, I'm either using Big and Jay's UM a long range attracted essentially a fee that you're pouring out there on the ground. And then I'm also usually mixing that with corn so I putting out maybe ten pounds, depending on where I'm at and what the legal limit is. Um. So that's what I'm putting in front of my cameras to draw those deer and to get the pictures during the summertime. What specifically are you using? Well, over the past years, it's literally varied, and a lot of it has to do with price of the product. Um. Now, when I was with a hunting team, I guess you want to say I had I had some stuff at dirt cheap prices or I got for free, So no brainer, that's what I used. But in the past from a from me purchasing it myself. I you know, lucky Buck always comes to mind. Um, it's it's a really good attracting And I tell you, a deer come to that stuff. We have monster rack I've used the past couple of years. We've seen good results this year. I have a good friend who started a business and the name of the company is called Whitetail XTC. And uh, um that's a fairly effect. It's the middle of the range as far as price is concerned. And uh when I went and hung my trail cameras this weekend, it looks like they're hitting it very good. So you know, I think a lot of these, uh, these products do the same thing. But you know, it's all the marketing on what what you want them, you know, what they want you to believe as far as bigger bucks or if it's a pure attractant, if it's you know, we've talked about that a hundred times now as far as official attractants last year and a little bit this year. Um, I've used something from Monster Rack and it's they it's like it's almost like a syrup. It's uh, they have cherry flavors and a whole bunch of different flavors. Um, that's that's just the real potent smell. And I guess the deer attracted to it. UM don't know how much it actually works and if it works for longer than up until the first rain washes it all away, who knows, But it seems to catch some attention. I don't know if I'm going to be using it that much this year, but I can see how it would catch their nose. Yeah. Yeah, that's a big thing that I that I look for for. That type of thing is that scent. So that's a big reason why I like the Bigger and Right Big and Jay projects because it's got a strong scent. Or if I'm gonna use anything else, I'm looking for something that's going to catch the deer's nose from a distance and bring them in and then they can discover that, hey, I've got a consistent mineral source here, or a consistent source of corn or whatever it might be. Um, it's nice to be able to catch them from a distance. UM. Quick mentioned on the Lucky Buck thing. Lucky Buck is actually out of an area right near where I live, and one of my best buddies down here actually was on some of their I think they're packaging and some of their advertisements because he killed a state record Michigan buck back in the day. So cool, kind of fun story about Lucky Buck. I've actually never used Lucky Buck, even though their local. UM, but like you said, I've heard good things. So I just want to have a quick reminder, like a quick tip for you mentioned laying corn out this time of year and throughout the summer. Just make sure you that corn pile is getting plenty of sunlight throughout the day because and this is what I've learned the hard way you dump out a corn pile in August September in inside the timber, that humidity is going to create mold on that corn pile, and then the deer won't touch it. They'll actually stay away from it. So if you're gonna do it, make sure it's on a field edge where sun can dry it out the entire time. Just kind of a quick tip, I guess I like that quick tips from Dan Johnson. That's a good one, right there. That's right, that's right, all right. We are very quickly running out of time. It's gone a lot faster I thought we were going there. Hey, time flies when you're having fun. That's the truth. That's the truth. How about real quick we touch on the types of cameras were using. UM. I've used a handful of different cameras over the years, but probably the last four years or so, I've fine tuned my purchases down to Bushneil Trophy cams. UM. I've used probably four other brands, but I've had so many darn issues with different cameras where they just die on me, or something's flimsy or something's not working. And the most consistent one I've found so far has been the Bushneils. I originally tried them because they were the back five years ago, they were the only cameras that were really small. Now everyone's small, um, which is great. But for me, I just have built that trust with them over this past four or five year period, UM and I've just grown to to feel comfortable with them the time I know I'm gonna get pictures, I know they're gonna look half decent, and I don't need to worry about them crashing on me. So so I've stuck with them because of that. And you know, they also when it comes down to other important features, they've got one of the fastest trigger speeds out there, which is importance you're catching deer if they're moving across the frame. And they've got all, you know, all the other features that most camera manufacturers have, the fancy stuff like uh, you know, the plants plot scanner or the different types of flash modes and etcetera. So for me, that's what I'm using. UM And I have I think nine cameras that I've accumulated over the years now, UM and I've had a handful that have died on me. UM and all those nine that are still alive right now. I think seven of them are are those trophy cams. So that's mostly what I'm using. But you know, that's what I choose to use. That's what worked well for me and what I believe in. But you know, there's there's other options. Um. And I'm sure you've been using different cameras too, So what's worked for you, Dan, Well, back in the day when I bought my first show cameras, Um, they're fairly cheap, and they were Moltries, and they took the double D batteries. They were heavy and they're about the size of a sheet of paper, it felt like, so they stuck out their big Uh. They had flash so but you know, they they had an SD card and they seemed to work since then. Um, and again having the benefit of being on a the hunting team, if you want to say that, I got some pretty good prices from Covert trail cameras, and to be honest with you, they're they're right in the middle of the line. They're not the cheapest and they're not the most expensive and when and they work really good. It was just this year that I had some issues with them. Um. The Moltries of the past. Uh, they they did not work after below freezing for some reason. They just would take black pictures. And uh so anytime it was below freezing outside, it would just it was like thirty two degrees in the camera would it would work, take pictures, but the pictures would show up just black. Um. You know, my my coverts worked really well and other aside from just a couple issues with them, Um, very very dependable. And I also have one of those trail cameras by Covert that sends the pictures to your cell phone. Oh yes, and uh that's pretty cool. I'm not gonna lie. That is very cool. But the issue the issue is you gotta you know, you gotta have cell phone reception too for him to work. And I if I do get cell phone reception, it's very minimal where I hunt, and that that can be a problem and something to definitely take into consideration if you're going to purchase one of those cameras. Yeah, that's a that's a great point. I've never used when those in the past, but um, you know, Bushnell has came out with them this year or so. I'm excited to try that this summer and it's gonna be really nice for me, um, because you know, I hunt some properties that are five hours away from home, so it's just it's not realistic for me to be able to check those too often. So I'm really excited to try that out seeing how that works. And like you said, there's some, um, some qualifiers, some things that you need to have cell phone service, et cetera. But I think overall, it's a trend that we're gonna we're gonna see consistently growing. More and more manufacturers are gonna put that out because it makes all the sense in the world. Why wouln't you want them? And it's only gonna Moore's law. You should know what Moore's law is, right, is that the one that anything that's gonna go wrong will go wrong. Uh, it could be wrong, but you's the technologies cuts in half every year, right, Yeah, every eighteen months technology the price of the technology increases, but the price decreases. So as more of these show camera manufacturers come out with these, you know, send a cell phone options, you're gonna see the price go down and the technology is going to become cheaper. Yeah, it's it's a good thing for consumers. Yeah. Yeah, And I think the one I was thinking of the law I was thinking of was Murphy's Law. Too many dang laws that keeps straight alright. So last question then for our episode here on off season trail camera use, and this one is from a reader over at wire hunt dot com. This comes from Derek and he asks, you know, how do you organize your trail camera photos? Um, so I'll let's take a stab at first, had and then I'll share what I do. Yeah, it's pretty easy. I just create, Um, however many properties I have. I create a file on my computer and let's say a property one, and on property one, then I have it broken down by year, so two thousand nine whatever, And then every year I create a new file and then I have it broken down by buck like the buck that I'm chasing. So by property, then by year, then by a buck. Now if I have a cool picture, I I you know, that's just cool or neat to look at, not necessarily helping me with any type of putting together a hit list. I'll save that in a different different spot. But yeah, property by property, than by year, than by dear, so every one of those is a new fuller. Nice. Okay, that's pretty close to what I do as well. I've got a folder system as well on my computer. I do by property and then by year, and then I break it down a little bit differently. Here. I've got a different folder for each um, each different trail camera location, and then within that, I'll dump each new poll, so it'll be back scrape August, backscrape October one, backscrape October twenty nine or whatever, and I'll just dump those in there. But I don't really reference those too often because that's you know, will be a thousand pictures in the folder. That's kind of it's just a backup just in case I want to reference these files again. What I what I really am looking at the most is I have a buck folder, so it'll be you know, property number one, two thousand thirteen, and then I'll put my two thousand thirteen bucks folder, and then within that I will save every picture of a two and a half year old buck or bigger or older. Because you know, even though I'm not targeting two and a half year old bucks, I you're they're they're definitely recognizable at that point, and so that the following year when they come back, hopefully is a three and a half year old. I'll be all say, oh, yeah, this one's a shooter now, or is a four and a half yearld he's a shooter, and I've I can go back and look at his pictures back when he's a two and a half year old and probably build to identify those. So the deepest I've gone is by the you know, shooter bucks or two and a half year old bucks are older. And I'm starting to you know, have bucks that I've I've followed for several years. So I'm gonna start breaking that buck folder down into folders for those different shooter bucks too, so that I'll have you know, four or five folders hopefully for mature deer that I followed for a couple of years, and and keep breaking it down. But that's the plan for this year. Um And you know, there's also a couple of neat websites that have come out in the past year or so, um or we'll be coming out soon with features that help you organized trail camera photos. UM. I know a site that's uh that's going to be relaunching here soon. Hunt soft dot com is going to have some features like that, I believe soon, as well as hunt Force and deer lab Um. All these different three services offer different ways for you to upload your pictures and analyze them in different ways. So we'll probably be talking about some of those in more detail in the future, because I think it's pretty neat um different ways that you can organize your photos online, sort through them, filter them, and learn some different things based on looking looking at your photos at an aggregate level. So something to think about. Cool beans, Man, Well, what do you think anything else that you want to touch on? Well, just real quickly when it comes to trail cameras. Now, I you know, I wrote a blog earlier this week or last week actually about you know, some tips and tricks about trail cameras on the nine finger Chronicles dot com. But I'll just want to cover one of those real quick and that is to be to be anal retentive about your trail cameras. And that just means make sure you have enough battery of life, make sure your trail camera is actually taking pictures and transferring them to you the SD card, make sure that they are in the right location. I mean, just be anal retentive because nothing is worse than going in and finding out that your computer or your your trail camera did not take pictures that pisces me off, especially when it's my fault. Yeah, so just be anal and even if you're checking it three or four times, you gotta do it because it's worth it. Awesome tip, so true, so valuable. And uh, I gotta pay attention to the details. That's something that I'm always hammering and talking about is the paying attention to the small things. Um, And that's a perfect example of it. So excellent way to wrap this episode up. Thank you, Dan. So with that said, I'm gonna take a one quick step back here. Now. I actually had a listener of the podcast send me a message on Facebook that said that, and this is only for people of age, but he said that he's started a drinking game every time that I say that being said, because I guess I say that a lot, so he's taking a drink every time I say that. So I just you know, I just gave him another sip right there. But maybe I will when you say that, maybe the next podcast, I'll take a shot and we'll see how how I'm speeching or speeching. I can't even talk now how I talk. By the end of that, by the end of that podcast. Well, you know, this is a family podcast. I don't know, Maybe I'll just do it with grape juice. There you go. No, I think that's pretty funny, and I've caught myself saying it a handful of times now already today after he mentioned that, and Guilty has charged, Guilty has charged. So all right, So with that being said, I don't know how to transition any other way but that okay. I'm gonna try this though. Thank you, thank you so much to everyone out there listening today. Yeah, of course, we're thrilled that you joined us and for dealing with me saying thing is like that being said and all that. So big props for for staking with us for almost an hour here. Um. I know that might not be easy sometimes, but if you have enjoyed the show, you know, we would really, really really appreciate it if you could leave a rating or review on iTunes. You know, this of course helps us get the word out about what we're doing, but it also helps other hunters find the show and hopefully, you know, that can help give them an opportunity to learn a thing or two more about becoming a better deer hunter. You know, hopefully we're helping you a little bit, and I'd love to be able to help more people as they grow as deer hunters. And we've actually had twenty one incredible folks leave us a rating already, and man, we really really appreciate that. And I thought i'd share one of those reviews here today. And this comes from quote unquote Big Country, and I don't know if this is a he or she, but Big Countries reviewed is titled Awesome Hunting Podcast exclamation Point exclamation point, and here she says, packed with tons of great info, will definitely change the way I hunt in years to come based on all the great tips and strategies provided. It's also a lot of fun listen to and hear all the stories from different personalities. Keep it coming so huge thanks to you a Big Country. We will definitely keep it coming, and you know, we really appreciate you saying that, and everyone else out there who's left to review big thanks um. You know, if you'd like to leave a review of your own, which maybe will someday read on the air too, you can head to iTunes right now and search for the Wired Hunt podcast. Click on our little Wired Hunt podcast image and then select their ratings or review tab and there you'll see a little button that says right review And you know, from there you can go ahead and write whatever you want about us for the podcast. Maybe something about how you don't like the fact that Dan only has nine fingers, or or maybe about how you don't like the fact that I say that being said all the time. You know, whatever it is you'd like to say, we appreciate it. And uh, speaking of thanks, we'd also like to thank our partners who help make the show possible, huge, huge help. You know, we wouldn't be able to keep the website running or this podcast on the air if it weren't for great hunting brands out there that believing what we're doing and are supporting us so big. Thanks to Sick of Gear, Bush and a Lot Optics, Trophy Ridge, Bear Archery, Redneck Blinds, Carbon Express Arrows, Lacrosse Boots, Big and J, long Range Attractings, and the White Tail Institute of North America. That being said, be sure to visit Wired hunt dot com slash episode ten and that's the number ten, and that's where we'll be able to find our show notes from today's episode. I'll include all the links for different things we mentioned today, as well as a handful of other articles or links to articles um that we've written on Wired to Hunt about traill cameras and will also link to that article that Dan mentioned on his blog The Nine Finger Chronicles. And if you're new, please head over to wired to hunt dot com to sign up for our white Tail Fixed newsletter. That's where we'll get different updates and news on what's going on in blog, exciting things coming up, and um you know we'll keep stuff interesting if you sign up there. So thanks again wire hunt Nation. Until next time, have a great week, get out in the woods and do the work, and never say never and always always stay wired to Hunt. J