How often do you pick it right?

[Hatchetman]

So you find a new piece of public.
You get in there, scout your tail off, hang a few cameras in promising locations and walk back to the truck already ranking in your head, which one of your sets will produce the best quality deer.

So... how often do you hit the nail on the head?
Or, how often does the camera you just threw up at the end of your deploy mission in a what you thought, a so so spot, end up being the camera with the best looking bucks on it??

Note I called hanging a camera, a "set" cause to me, it similar to trapping in so many ways.

Regardless of ones skill level at each...
You hang more cameras, you have a better chance of getting a pic of the biggest buck in the area.

You set more traps, you'll up your odds of catching more critters, its that simple.
The other similarity to trapping is many times the set you thought was a slam dunk remains empty day after day, and the one you just threw in at the end of the line is the real producer.
At least this happens to me more often than I'd care to admit....

[Boogieman1]

I like the trapping analogy. Probably cause I never had anyone mentor me in bowhunting. The only outdoor stuff I had access to was trapping books from our small town public library. I use many of these tactics to this day. I like to think I learned how to get close because of it.

But I will say you got some serious differences between trapping/trail cams and sitting perch on ambush for a buck. 1 being you don’t have a steady scent stream blowing around. Another is they work 24/7. Now run your traps or cams just a few hours while u sit 20 yards away and get something. To me that’s more relatable.

To answer your question about how many times have I deployed some cameras in a new public and strolled on in and killed a biggen right out the gate. Never! Not that some can’t. But I’m just being honest it takes me time. Time to plot the best tree, time to figure out when and time to figure out how to get in there undetected. On average feel it takes me 3 years to get dialed in on a spot for a good odds chance of success on a first time in.

[dan]

If a location shows sign of a big buck enough to make me hang a camera it almost always captures pics of at least one good buck. Reading your post gives me the impression that your focusing to much on cameras. Are we trying to hang pictures of big bucks on the wall? or shoulder mounts? I Drop a camera if, and when I need certain intel about what a buck looks like, how and when a buck is using an area, etc. But not to find a hunting spot. Nothing... Absolutely nothing will beat boot leather and hours of scouting and knowing where bucks bed and move in daylight. For me cameras are a small tool in a giant tool box. I scout many properties I plan on hunting and never place a single camera.

[brancher147]

It’s very rare that I put a random camera up and get anything good on it. Most cameras I hang are spots I have scouted or have history with and almost always get some good bucks because I don’t just hang cameras hoping to find something I hang cameras where there is sign of something I’m interested in.
I did hang one once way back a few miles on public. I was hoping to find some bears for early bear season but found two of the biggest bucks I ever got on camera, and quickly forgot about the bears.

[Bio1]

I often hang cams in good looking spots that I likely won’t have time to hunt. Let them sit all season and pull them after season. There are almost always a good one or two on them and sometimes a true giant! Great intel for next season. I assume you aren’t just hanging them in “random” spots? I won’t hang one if I don’t see the sign or some type of terrain feature that will put them in front of the camera. I can’t remember the last time I hung a cam that I didn’t get a good one on.

Bio1

[G-Patt]

I'm a little confused. Is the question about getting pictures of bucks or picking a specific hunting location/tree/ambush spot to kill bucks? Sometimes it is the same thing but other times it's not.

[hcooper84]

A thing to also include is that you may have picked the right spot but just picked the wrong time to hunt it.

Trail cameras can be deceiving with that as well as you only get a limited view. The buck could be walking right behind the camera all the time.

[Moose]

I think understand what your trying to say, but you would be better off doing more scouting to learn what signs to look for instead of setting a bunch of trail cameras to take the place of scouting.

[Chuck B]

Every time, never get it wrong!