4th of July weekend=Trail cam time

[MichiganMike]

Happy 4th everyone! And happy trail cam hanging. This is the weekend I start to kick it off. I am going to focus on some newly found public near AG areas. Set them up on travel routes in more low percentge/open timber travel routes to the AG. Anyone else getting out this weekend? And what are your focus areas?

[Hawthorne]

I usually start around 4th of July also but got most of mine out last weekend because I was off of work. Most of mine are along transition areas or funnels between bed and food. Some are about 200yds from bedding areas where I plan on hunting. Mostly just for summer inventory. I do some glassing or shining in the same areas. I get bucks on cam that I don’t see glassing or shining and I see bucks glassing or shining that I don’t get on cam.

[Hookslinger]

I got most of my cameras out last month when we had some cooler weather. I put two out on two different public pieces. One I put on a good trail leading out of a swamp into an open field, and the other is on a creek crossing coming out of a bedding area that's about 150 yards further back. Both spots are easy to get to so I can pull them mid/late September with little intrusion. I am just using these two cameras for inventory to see what bucks are out there.

I also have 3 cams out on different private pieces that I can hunt. These are on travel corridors leading to food sources, not close to bedding. These I will leave out all season for both summer inventory and to get direction of travel and timing to give me some intel on any bucks that might show up.

I have one more to put out on a small block of timber and good bedding in the middle of farm country. This property is a little bit of a drive for me. I'm gonna use this camera to help me determine the best time to hunt this place so I can up my odds and not burn out the place at the wrong time.

[Hookslinger]

I usually start around 4th of July also but got most of mine out last weekend because I was off of work. Most of mine are along transition areas or funnels between bed and food. Some are about 200yds from bedding areas where I plan on hunting. Mostly just for summer inventory. I do some glassing or shining in the same areas. I get bucks on cam that I don’t see glassing or shining and I see bucks glassing or shining that I don’t get on cam.

I want to get into shining but MI has some weird rules for it. From what I understand you can only shine until 11pm and then after 6am. Heck in the summer right now it doesn't get dark until 10 and then it's getting daylight at like 0530. So for cost of buying a light and fuel prices I don't know if the juice is worth the squeeze. I am getting in some glassing though and I will continue that.

[Dewey]

Very interesting.

https://youtu.be/ShWCPwyAIhE

[Tennhunter3]

I planned to put mine out yesterday but never got too the woods. Will probably put mine out on Monday.

[Hawthorne]

I usually start around 4th of July also but got most of mine out last weekend because I was off of work. Most of mine are along transition areas or funnels between bed and food. Some are about 200yds from bedding areas where I plan on hunting. Mostly just for summer inventory. I do some glassing or shining in the same areas. I get bucks on cam that I don’t see glassing or shining and I see bucks glassing or shining that I don’t get on cam.

I want to get into shining but MI has some weird rules for it. From what I understand you can only shine until 11pm and then after 6am. Heck in the summer right now it doesn't get dark until 10 and then it's getting daylight at like 0530. So for cost of buying a light and fuel prices I don't know if the juice is worth the squeeze. I am getting in some glassing though and I will continue that.

If you’ve never tried shining I’d recommend it. It’s does kinda suck you can only shine till 11pm. But that hour to an hour and a half you can see a bunch that weren’t out in daylight. There’s a period in mid September I’m starting to notice where you’ll have a great night and shine almost every buck in the area. I think it’s because the velvet has just shed and the bucks are on the move at night

[Hookslinger]

I usually start around 4th of July also but got most of mine out last weekend because I was off of work. Most of mine are along transition areas or funnels between bed and food. Some are about 200yds from bedding areas where I plan on hunting. Mostly just for summer inventory. I do some glassing or shining in the same areas. I get bucks on cam that I don’t see glassing or shining and I see bucks glassing or shining that I don’t get on cam.

I want to get into shining but MI has some weird rules for it. From what I understand you can only shine until 11pm and then after 6am. Heck in the summer right now it doesn't get dark until 10 and then it's getting daylight at like 0530. So for cost of buying a light and fuel prices I don't know if the juice is worth the squeeze. I am getting in some glassing though and I will continue that.

If you’ve never tried shining I’d recommend it. It’s does kinda suck you can only shine till 11pm. But that hour to an hour and a half you can see a bunch that weren’t out in daylight. There’s a period in mid September I’m starting to notice where you’ll have a great night and shine almost every buck in the area. I think it’s because the velvet has just shed and the bucks are on the move at night

Yeah that makes sense. I might give it a go.

[Yoder]

I've been looking for some new hunting areas this year so a few months ago I changed up the way I drive to work. I started taking a slightly longer route that runs through a bunch of public land. I'm on the road at 5am so it's a good time. I run ONX the whole time and when I see deer I pull over and mark the spot with a waypoint. I seen a couple good bucks and did some quick scouting. I just setup some trail cams on the well used trails near the road where they are crossing to go into some crop fields. If I get some good inventory I'll put in some miles on the ground and try to figure out the area. I figured this might be a good way to get on some deer and save some time.