Setting Up Trail Cams

[adamds22]

Last year I found a spot that I got a lot of bull activity on camera pre-season, I know now that I probably didn't have the camera set up in the best locations but it was set up on a feeding area with a bedding area all around it, had wallows on the outer edges of the feeding area and rubs above it. Needless to say I was pumped for the archery season to start and when it did I basically had nothing come by. I kept the cameras up and even the camera's only sporadically got elk on them.


I know finding bulls pre-season isn't exactly what you are looking but with all the rubs and wallows around I thought it would be great, there was one other hunting group (group of 2 I believe) that were hunting the area as well but never got them on my camera until the season started so I don't think they pressured them out.


Do you think that is still a good area to scout out this year or would my time be better spent trying to find the cows in the area? The area I am referencing is just around 10k feet.

[WapitiTalk1]

"Do you think that is still a good area to scout out this year or would my time be better spent trying to find the cows in the area?" Yes!

A couple of things come to mind. Pictures of bulls in JUL thru mid to late AUG are really cool to have but if that's the majority of the shots you're getting, it's probably just a bachelor group in their summer range. For the most part (not always) summer wallows don't do you much good as a SEP hunter unless they're also well used watering holes; wallow use dramatically decreases as SEP rolls on. Most of the rubs you see in the elk woods are velvet rubs and have minimal bearing on where the bulls will be come rut time. I'd relook your hunting area layout and try to determine where the cow herds are at in AUG (for the most part, that is where the bulls will gravitate to come very late AUG/early SEP). By trailing camming the cow herds, you'll see the ladies moving from feed to bed with a handful of young spikes mixed in. As the end of AUG, early SEP rolls around, you'll start seeing the bulls frequenting the spots the cows have been, sniffing the ground for signs of estrus. This is a process that tells a story as you'll see.

Check out the date stamps on the cam pictures I've posted. Nothing but cow/calf pics from early AUG tru the end of AUG (tons of them). The top three pics are the same area and the bottom two are from the same area. See what happens towards the end of AUG? That's the story you want to capture with your trail cams .

WGI_0053.JPG (165.83 KiB) Viewed 2199 times

WGI_0212.JPG (137.42 KiB) Viewed 2199 times

WGI_0259.JPG (194.79 KiB) Viewed 2199 times

[Charina]

When I'm marking waypoints on my GPS I call those kind of spots bull hangouts. Kind of an elks man cave. Very active pre-rut, and I suspect post rut as well but pretty darn devoid of any elk September through mid-october. When there are cows to chase nobody is home to hang out in the cave.

[Swede]

Sure I would scout out the area if you can. I would try to figure out what is happening with the elk. From what you have told us, it is impossible to say if you should hunt the area or not. I hunt two different areas where there is significant preseason elk use, but as soon as the season begins they leave almost entirely. Usually they come back few in number with cows later in the season, but it is different than preseason. This is where some experience will help a lot.

[adamds22]

Thanks all, I'm sure I'll put a camera up in the area again this year but unlike last year I put all my eggs into that basket as I had been seeing bulls almost daily, so I thought for sure they would be there come archery season. This year I have a few more spots to scout out in hopes of finding the cows.

[stringunner]

This happened to me and my dad last year, nearly every spot we scouted and had cams at last year were with bulls and come opening week every camera, 11 cams, went void of elk. And really never got hot again even as the season went. In years past however some of these spots have been likely producers with both cows and Bulls. So, I think it still is worth your time to have a cam there so you can begin to see if last year was just an off year (this is what we experienced) or if in fact that spot is void most years during the season.