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Trail Cameras and Tree Stands

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Trail Cameras and Tree Stands

Postby Swede » 12 01, 2021 •  [Post 1]

How many of you tree stand elk hunters had trail cameras out near your stands? What did you get photos of? At what frequency did you see elk come around.

I put out my cameras in early July. They were all in the same general area. The elk came around hit and miss but usually days apart. I determined they were in the area about every two weeks but did not go by every camera. Between the two-week intervals I would catch an occasional small bull. I also had an occasional bear and even a few birds go by.
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Re: Trail Cameras and Tree Stands

Postby Lefty » 12 06, 2021 •  [Post 2]

We had one wallow that in years past had been crazy good.

Not this year, one or two elk at a time, generally lone bulls , never the same bull any two days . Way too many moo cows, fox coyotes , Fish and game guys , some hunting acquaintances always swung by and waved.

We had trail cams on our bear bait,, with the blind down hill ,,, a neat pics at the time of the shot . The trail camera saved some shed out/rubbed bears their life, We had two pretty bears, killed em both, Saved the color phase for next year!!
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Re: Trail Cameras and Tree Stands

Postby Elkhunttoo » 12 10, 2021 •  [Post 3]

I just went through the information of my trail cameras the other night…bedding areas were the most visited in my area…the main water/wallows/springs did good…I’m excited to set up the tree stands next year…I’ve been working on a video of all of my good bull pictures to upload on my YouTube channel…I will share it on this site when I get it done
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Re: Trail Cameras and Tree Stands

Postby Swede » 12 13, 2021 •  [Post 4]

Unless you just like watching waterholes, place your stand where you are most likely to have elk come in close. Often that is a spot where several trails come together near a spring or pond, but not always. In some areas water is too abundant to focus on that, but back away from the draw is a good trail where elk pass by. Sometimes a well-used saddle on a ridge is good too.
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Re: Trail Cameras and Tree Stands

Postby ABQ_Chica » 12 27, 2021 •  [Post 5]

Contrary to what we expected during a drought, we had a great year with trail cams and tree stands in New Mexico. One of my partners recently ended up with a collection of cams, so we set 3 on wallows, and 3 near hubs. Saw lots of elk, deer, and bear from mid-July through mid-September. Even though our little drainage was lush and green, the wallows got hit regularly by the same critters.

We saw some cow elk on the cams and when scouting, but not as many as usual. And very few spring calves, also odd for that area. It was a strange year for bulls, too. Usually there are a few big boys loafing in there over the summer, but this year it was more like a junior bull nursery. A couple had dramatic 2-foot long spike tines. Some had well-proportioned 4- and 5-point racks that were just extremely small, almost comically miniaturized. One had a big wide rack with very short tines--we named him Spork because that's exactly what he looked like! It wasn't until the end of our hunt that a big bull finally barreled through and sent the young ones packing.

Although we've seen occasional hunters or mountain bikers on previous hunts, we were surprised that we saw no other people this year, either on cam or during the hunt. Not sure if we got lucky, or if it's far enough off the roads to remain secluded.

I'd been on the fence about cams until this year, but now I'm definitely more interested in investing in them. Even if I didn't hunt, it's just really cool to see what nature does when we're not there!
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