caddisguy trailcams are out !

[caddisguy]

A little late but better than never. We did a few suicide hikes over the weekend... last time I do this in July, but we managed to pull it off during a couple of 5am-9am shifts. We didn't put a cam where we have been seeing the Region 2 Whitetails, so "probably" no white tails this year.

BUT we did something different. We put all the cams on actual trails, rather than 30 yards from a trail with salt to attract them (less chance of getthing cams stolen by someone who finds the trails) ... They seem to stop hitting the salt in September, so I wanted full season trail disclosure ... we put the cameras right on the trails with a little salt to stop them this year :D

Here's a few of our setups (that I remembered to take pics of!!!) but there's even more lol

http://i.imgur.com/VcOZh7d.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ms7kcgi.jpg

To be continued ...

[caddisguy]

http://i.imgur.com/F11HMXs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AE5ZCgD.jpg

[caddisguy]

http://i.imgur.com/W97QXz8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Gt3Pjk5.jpg

[markomoose]

Looking forward to the pics Caddisguy.

[Shikari300WSM]

Wicked looking forward to seeing the pics! I personally haven't had time to go out and put any of my cams out. Hopefully get out before the end of the month that way I can kind of get a sense of who's hanging out in the area!

[caddisguy]

Will do! It will be all vids and I'll be posting up the highlights. It will probably be a month or so before I go check them out. Hopefully no malfunctions or adjustments from bears lol ... 6 cams total so we'll get something good

[Shikari300WSM]

Will do! It will be all vids and I'll be posting up the highlights. It will probably be a month or so before I go check them out. Hopefully no malfunctions or adjustments from bears lol ... 6 cams total so we'll get something good

Yeah knock on wood the bears don't get em! Your set ups look pretty good so 6 should bring out whoevers around!

[scotty30-06]

I have one up I just havnt had time to check....hoping to get up there this weekend or next...man I hope I got something on th at one.....was gonna set another at one of my Harrison spots....but I think I might wait to see what goes on with that fire

[caddisguy]

I forgot to take pics of one of the setups. I almost went back to snap a pic but it was a lot of back tracking up hill and it was getting hot out. Nice cut out trail with fresh deer poop. I'm excited to see the results. Hoping to see the same animals cruising by different cams, maybe get another glimpse of the 5x5.

Things could be slow for the next few weeks, as there is absolutely no water for about 1km from the closest cam to water source.... despite that I think we might have some weed growers... that will be a first for our cams lol

[Jelvis]

Love it, keep it coming hunter, some blacktail country.
Good idea Cad.
Jel -- will be keeping a close eye ball --

[ajr5406]

Will do! It will be all vids and I'll be posting up the highlights. It will probably be a month or so before I go check them out. Hopefully no malfunctions or adjustments from bears lol ... 6 cams total so we'll get something good

Looking forward to it! Always like seeing what your cams pick up.

What will the surprise be this year? You have pulled out a Moose, a WT - what next???

[caddisguy]

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t644/vaporeyes/P7020024_zpsrqbvy80o.jpg

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t644/vaporeyes/P7020016_zpsn1sbp7lo.jpg


Wow... I am guessing this means all the pics I ever posted on HBC are gone, just like that. I'm not giving them a dime lol

I'll edit and fix the pics in this thread and a few other gooders when I have time.

[Jelvis]

Too late we recognized the spot you posted in the valley haha.
anyways it don't matter now, nice area for deer 4 sure.
Jel -- awesome fraser valley black tail trail into the shale with some avail, we want more ...........

[caddisguy]

I was out flyfishing this weekend and decided to check in on one of my cams. I wasn't too optimistic as I didn't put this one on a trail... it's a fancy high def Bushnell cam with sound and what not... my work gave it to me and I wanted it in a place it was unlikely to see bears or people.

635 videos, 25 seconds each, about 8GB total. Decent for 3 weeks! It will be a little while before I have time to finish watching and put some highlights together, but figure I'd give a few spoilers so far.

3x2 BT buck, 2x2 BT buck, a mule doe with twins, a BT doe with twins, a doe with 1 fawn and a couple solo does.

Something happened with one of the BT does fawns. I've noticed from previous years, the deer are frequently looking and listening in a particular direction. I looked around to try and figure out why... figured I'd find a huge trail but nope. Well, as usual, this doe was looking and listening then bolted. In the background, what I would estimate to be 25-30 yards out I can see 1 or two critters running in. I can't tell what the critter(s) is/are yet (will need to grab some frames and zoom) but guessing coyote, bobcat or cougar. Same doe only has one fawn now.

Also had a doe put her ass right up to the camera, lift up her tail and let out a 5 second fart... twice!! Lol

Hoping to get to the other cams and get some bow practice in this weekend then get some vids up but on Sunday but it looks a bit too hot.

[HarryToolips]

Damn photobucket won't let me view your pics...open imgur acct....

[caddisguy]

Damn photobucket won't let me view your pics...open imgur acct....

I opened the account and uploaded most of the photo bucket pics. I will be relinking this thread soon. I'll be aiming to get some of the clips I described posted up Sunday at the latest. Lots of action and 5 more cams to get to. I'm pretty excited about this season.

[Dash]

Also had a doe put her ass right up to the camera, lift up her tail and let out a 5 second fart... twice!! Lol

Lmao! I hope that's one of the videos you share haha

[Glenny]

Lmao! I hope that's one of the videos you share haha

Yes me too. I need a good larf.

[caddisguy]

Lmao! I hope that's one of the videos you share haha

That one is coming for sure. It's on a high def camera, so I didn't want to edit it together with a bunch of videos from the low def cams. It's also going to take longer to compile highlights from as there are 650 30 second videos from that camera (as of a week ago) to sort though. I have to re-watch them and write down the files/sections that make the cut. Gassy doe and deer getting spooked off by preds, a few decent bucks, fawns doing silly things, etc will all make the cut!! :D

Anyway we just got back yesterday from a 2-nighter trailcam check and bow sight-in. The trailcam hike was pretty rough. We opted to do it in the morning when it was cooler, but that also means we were doing our 3 hour hike while the thermals had all the smoke condensed down low. Visibility sucked and the air quality slowed us down a bit, but we got the job done!

Back home a day early with some time to work on the videos and re-link photobucket links with imgur links (re-linked this one already) ... Here's the first of many videos to come:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60LyvIFcJ8c

[caddisguy]

So the video above shows some clips from 4/6 of the cams from July 1st until August 3rd.

I am working on clips from another one of the cams which cover most of July. I am making it a separate video because it is high def and has sound, so it's weird to mix with the low def ones which don't have sound. It has taken a while as there are 650+ 30 second clips which is 5.5 hours lol ... I have got to the point where I have 50 or so videos that I want to pull footage from to mix into a highlights thing. It's all uploaded to YouTube, but will take some time before I get around to the compilation.

However, I could not resist posting a few spoilers. In this one, we have a deer (she has a couple fawns just off cam as well) bolt when she hears some critters coming in. If you crank your sound, you can hear here grunt before she bolts. Shortly a few that you will see at least 2 (maybe more critters) running in the background. I can't make out what the critters are, but one looks white and the other looks grey. I suspect they are coyotes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtDbhT8Xw-E

Will post some more up soon

[caddisguy]

Here's a goofy one... I am not quite sure what this fawn is thinking. Is "he" umm... practising?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ8OJDdeiwc&feature=youtu.be

[caddisguy]

Doe is either gassy or constipated:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6p1tIL-gn8&feature=youtu.be

Hope to have the compilation done soon. Not sure if I'll check again the cams again soon or not (was supposed to happen over the last weekend) as stomping around in there a week before bow season is probably a bad idea. It's so tempting though as it's been a month.

[Dash]

haha great videos caddis! At this rate you're going to have to dedicate a channel just to trail cam bloopers :razz:

[VFX_man]

So the video above shows some clips from 4/6 of the cams from July 1st until August 3rd.

I am working on clips from another one of the cams which cover most of July. I am making it a separate video because it is high def and has sound, so it's weird to mix with the low def ones which don't have sound. It has taken a while as there are 650+ 30 second clips which is 5.5 hours lol ... I have got to the point where I have 50 or so videos that I want to pull footage from to mix into a highlights thing. It's all uploaded to YouTube, but will take some time before I get around to the compilation.

However, I could not resist posting a few spoilers. In this one, we have a deer (she has a couple fawns just off cam as well) bolt when she hears some critters coming in. If you crank your sound, you can hear here grunt before she bolts. Shortly a few that you will see at least 2 (maybe more critters) running in the background. I can't make out what the critters are, but one looks white and the other looks grey. I suspect they are coyotes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtDbhT8Xw-E

Will post some more up soon

Based on size, I'd vote wolf.

[caddisguy]

Based on size, I'd vote wolf.

Hmm that would definitely be a first for our cameras. I had trouble estimating the size based on the distance, but those "critters" are probably at least 30 yards away. Even a bear at 30 yards with no zoom looks tiny, especially wide screen. It is possible.

I have seen a number of coyotes in that timber, but even the ecological studies for the area suggest wolves are virtually nonexistent. If I recall biologists suspect some tracks were left by wolves.

I am surprised no preds have shown up on that cam yet with all those deer hanging around for hours on end. A couple years back we can a cougar stalking some does.

I might check in on that came this weekend. I probably won't be hunting that spot this season anyway.

[caddisguy]

Finally got around to finishing the compilation for this camera. Funny stuff in this one.

Now I am caught up on everything until August. In over my head lol


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ3ZgD9dsnA

[caddisguy]

Been out of the video editing game because my other video editing PC was less than tolerable... scored a low end but modern laptop from someone for super cheap so I'm back at it.

This one is some Sep-Nov 2017 footage from 4 different cams within a few kms of each other. Only a couple of bucks, but interesting to see the same animals on different cams... and the 4x3 sparring with the fawn is kinda neat lol


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ER9o3fKB2g

Never saw any of the wicked bucks (except that 4x3 that is out passed his ears) after August. Had fun doing the cat and mouse thing with that fork all over the mountain though ... I would went for him. I am within a few minutes of him on some of the clips and I think we might have run into him once but didn't see the little head gear

We couldn't access the cams after mid November due to weather related issues... will be interesting to see what these picked up over the winter.

I'll have one more video to post from the Bushnell cam (nifty cam w/ sound) from August (FYI: never trust a Camera on 4 bars that has taken 900 videos... it goes from 4 to dead in a matter of days) nothing too exciting but sound is cool.

[hunter1947]

A little low for my liking I try to go up hill and than put a log up against the base of the tree than reach as hi as I can to ancore the cam then put a stick behind the top of the cam to angle it down to the ground ,,you might get away with not having a bear repossession the cam but in my experiences with cams if there not up hi bears will alter your cam or take it off the tree,,good luck with all..

[caddisguy]

Good advice Wayne. We have had trailcams get unwanted adjustments several times and have had a couple decommissioned/damaged.

This is the last compilation I have for now. Nothing too exciting, but I am really impressed with the video quality and sound from this cam. I'll post the mid-November to 2018 clips here whenever I get around to the cameras we left out for the winter. It might not be until later in July... way too many ticks to justify it... after that, I'll go replace batteries and put down salt.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnJnFOBLD1A&feature=youtu.be

[tko]

i got 2 i left over the winter, hopefully bears didnt getem

[hunter1947]

A few years ago I had a trail cam taken off a tree from a bear the cam was only 4 feet off the ground I looked for the cam for an hour finally found the cam latter looking
at the cam pictures I saw pictures of the bear that removed my cam from the tree..

[twoSevenO]

Can you post model of the bushnell cam?

[caddisguy]

Can you post model of the bushnell cam?

It's one of the Bushnell Trophy Cam HD series, but I am not certain which one it is.

Unfortunately it is out in the field now so I can not confirm, 100%. I might still have the box at home. I'll check later and if I find it I'll post it up.

Seems like a great camera so far. I really like the sound and the video quality great. I normally stick with cheap cameras, but work gave me this one as 15 anniversary gift along with a pair of binos and other goodies. Pains me to leave something expensive in a tree. I hung the camera in a place where I don't typically hunt, but has deer and not many bears. Might get more adventurous with it this year.

[twoSevenO]

It's one of the Bushnell Trophy Cam HD series, but I am not certain which one it is.

Unfortunately it is out in the field now so I can not confirm, 100%. I might still have the box at home. I'll check later and if I find it I'll post it up.

Seems like a great camera so far. I really like the sound and the video quality great. I normally stick with cheap cameras, but work gave me this one as 15 anniversary gift along with a pair of binos and other goodies. Pains me to leave something expensive in a tree. I hung the camera in a place where I don't typically hunt, but has deer and not many bears. Might get more adventurous with it this year.

Cool. Thanks. I'll look it up. Youre right. Great quality.

Do you deploy cams in that one area only or you have some other spots? Seems like snow hinders your access up there a bit too early in the season which is a bummer!

[caddisguy]

Cool. Thanks. I'll look it up. Youre right. Great quality.

Do you deploy cams in that one area only or you have some other spots? Seems like snow hinders your access up there a bit too early in the season which is a bummer!

I think this was the first time snow was much of an issue. I opted not to hike up that little knob one weekend when there was a foot of snow and there were a lot of tracks lower down, but a week later it was better... the main problem was the week after that warm weather and rain washed out the road big time. I usually don't get shut down until close to season end if at all.

I know based on the cam footage that it is a good early season spot, but I mostly just see does after bow season. The bucks might not be far off, but I have yet to figure out where they go. I'll be moving the cams around a bit and scouting around to try and figure it out. For what it's worth I have only found 1 shed in the area I have been obsessed with. Been pounding one half of that little mountain... probably time to try the other. Maybe they move to the north or west facing side. Definitely some bucks in the valley bottom timber too but so thick it's even tougher unless you are super lucky.

I have another spot about 15km further down the same valley. It's about 5km hike from there and mostly flat old growth. Not too bad just time consuming and no way to set up a base camp close by.

I should probably spend more time looking for other spots and even different valleys, but I invested so many years of failure into this one spot, I am obsessed with "making it happen"... a little insane I know

[twoSevenO]

Blacktail sheds are a needle in the haystack. I know proguide66 does quite well in his BT spots for sheds, but that's pretty damn rare!. But gotta keep letting the cams do their thing to find where the bucks go. Could lead you to a gold mine of sheds both old and new!

I have a couple of areas on the radar that are also about 5km in, but when I think of the terrain and then think 5km, I have yet to convince myself to do it .... lol.

[Salty]

I think this was the first time snow was much of an issue. I opted not to hike up that little knob one weekend when there was a foot of snow and there were a lot of tracks lower down, but a week later it was better... the main problem was the week after that warm weather and rain washed out the road big time. I usually don't get shut down until close to season end if at all.

I know based on the cam footage that it is a good early season spot, but I mostly just see does after bow season. The bucks might not be far off, but I have yet to figure out where they go. I'll be moving the cams around a bit and scouting around to try and figure it out. For what it's worth I have only found 1 shed in the area I have been obsessed with. Been pounding one half of that little mountain... probably time to try the other. Maybe they move to the north or west facing side. Definitely some bucks in the valley bottom timber too but so thick it's even tougher unless you are super lucky.

I have another spot about 15km further down the same valley. It's about 5km hike from there and mostly flat old growth. Not too bad just time consuming and no way to set up a base camp close by.

I should probably spend more time looking for other spots and even different valleys, but I invested so many years of failure into this one spot, I am obsessed with "making it happen"... a little insane I know

Well I think many of us, me for sure, lean too much the other way. The urge to scout the other side, the next valley, the next time zone! win out too much. Much better to learn an area A to Z I think. But after all a big part of it is just entertainment and enjoyment whether we've got the wander lust or the laser focus as long as its fun its all good :)

[caddisguy]

Some more 2017 trailcam footage trickling in. We picked up this camera on June 10th. It has been soaking since September 2017 and it filmed until May 2018. It filmed a nice bear, a pine marten (I think?) and one insanely cranky doe that likes kicking her fawn around.

There will probably be some more 2017 footage coming at some point. I definitely have one more cam to retrieve that is probably still filming, as well as one other cam I am having trouble finding. I can't remember exactly where I put it. I looked for it once but no dice... might give it another try when I have the time an energy.

I am only going to run 1 or 2 cams this year in a new spot rather than 7 or 8 of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB4Cb7sVMdI


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB4Cb7sVMdI

[boxhitch]

Good life on those camera batteries, must not be Kirkland alkaline

[caddisguy]

Good life on those camera batteries, must not be Kirkland alkaline

I'll second that. The AA batteries were alkaline, but either duracell or energizer. It filmed around 600 videos in that time frame, 30 seconds each. It was over 5GB of data.

[twoSevenO]

Where are the bucks!??

[caddisguy]

Where are the bucks!??

Only two bucks in all that footage. One is the small fork with the doe in the snow late December. The other is somewhere in other 5GB of footage that I couldn't relocate while compiling the video and only displayed partial antlers in front of the camera for half a second. There's definitely a few bucks hanging around that patch of timber late season, but it doesn't seem worth hunting. Lots of nice bucks late August but the batteries died right before bow season and I didn't get back in there to replace them until late September... so it's still a mystery whether or not it's worth bow hunting. That doe has quite the personality too lol ... I have met her and her offspring in person a number of times.

Anyway, it's probably one of my favorite places to run a trailcam but not actually hunt. I have seen everything on that cam from deer and bears to moose and cougar. I don't think I'll be running it this year though. I am only going to run 1 or 2 cams around a new spot that I found that looks really promising for deer.

Hopefully there's some good footage from the cam I have up the mountain (I changed the batteries early November so it might still be running) and hopefully I can find the other camera that I seem to have misplaced as that will be it for a while. We definitely won't be compiling new trailcam vids every couple weeks in 2018. Probably 2 cams with 2 salt piles in close proximity.

[wideopenthrottle]

was that what u would consider a mule doe? the one constantly kicking at what look to be BT's near the beginning of the vid

[caddisguy]

was that what u would consider a mule doe? the one constantly kicking at what look to be BT's near the beginning of the vid

I would say hybrid. Definitely a whiter bum on her. The place that camera sits really gets into the hybrid zone. It has BT's, muleys and everything in between. My other cams starting 20km away rarely see anything that resembles a muley and if they do it's winter or early spring.

[twoSevenO]

On dec 2 I was going to put out some more cams in my spot but ended up shooting a blacktail buck on my way up so I never did. Went back mid January and put them up and left them until end of April when i went up to make a salt lick ..... also no bucks. Not even a couple little spikers I know were in the area. Doe activity was OK but no bucks. Did have a cougar on cam so not sure if the had something to do with it or if the bucks simply vacate the area altogether and just show up for the rut ... I haven't been able to figure that out yet.

Was out just last weekend into a new spot and set up a lick there in an area that had some well used trails ame some well used beds. Left this one on video with a 32gb card in it. Hope it captures something good.

The worst part is the wait until you go back to get it. I suppose I wont be back into either spot until early
Or mid november now. 5-6 months ought to be enough time to have some decent footage

[RackStar]

Bushnell cameras have been great to me. I have had one out since November. Just got it on saterday, awesome quality pics. Got moose WT deer big bear and elk. Cameras need to go back ASAP as there’s a big buck growing his antlers and a big herd of elk that needs monitoring.

Thanks for sharing as always! I love blacktails. Never shot one but they are my fav looking deer.

[Salty]

I would say hybrid. Definitely a whiter bum on her. The place that camera sits really gets into the hybrid zone. It has BT's, muleys and everything in between. My other cams starting 20km away rarely see anything that resembles a muley and if they do it's winter or early spring.

That's what I was thinking but didn't want to bring up the H word which has brought lively debate here in the past ;)
But there you have it, mom has a much more mule deer looking tail, skinny mainly white with a black tip. The tip a little bigger than the average muley tho IMO, but not full blown black tail. Then look at the fawns, big black blob of a tail, if I saw one of those on the island I wouldn't blink. If I saw mom there it'd be like WTF????? I've started to find some of these transition zones close to home here too. I did a late winter early spring sight seeing tour with my wife near home to what I was convinced was hard core BT only country but we saw around 7 beefy- no question- mule deer that seemed to be on the move, probably from wintering areas up hill to summer grounds following the green up. Fun stuff keeps you guessing in these areas.

[caddisguy]

That's what I was thinking but didn't want to bring up the H word which has brought lively debate here in the past ;)
But there you have it, mom has a much more mule deer looking tail, skinny mainly white with a black tip. The tip a little bigger than the average muley tho IMO, but not full blown black tail. Then look at the fawns, big black blob of a tail, if I saw one of those on the island I wouldn't blink. If I saw mom there it'd be like WTF????? I've started to find some of these transition zones close to home here too. I did a late winter early spring sight seeing tour with my wife near home to what I was convinced was hard core BT only country but we saw around 7 beefy- no question- mule deer that seemed to be on the move, probably from wintering areas up hill to summer grounds following the green up. Fun stuff keeps you guessing in these areas.

I think those lively debates with the "H" or "B.L." words happen when someone whacks one with a pure looking blacktail bum, but an antler configuration that is square or open rather than pointing inward like a typical blacktail. Though I haven't really seen any of those debates for several years either. Nice dear and congrats are always in order, as hybrids (whether those are or not) are awesome and no picnic to hunt either.

I remember the "there's no whitetail in Region2" debate too. I haven't heard that debate come up since I posted a whitetail with twins year after year on the same cam as a pure 5x5 BT http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

I do enjoy watching that doe. She has quite the personality. We named her "peek-a-boo deer" because the first year (and second) we put the camera up full time, she would randomly pop her head up right in front of the camera (scares the crap out of me when I check out the footage on a big screen) and stare at it like it was a portal to another dimension (I guess it kind of is) ... I have watched her raise fawns every year for about 3-4 years now. Usually twins except one year. She is just as paranoid and stealthy as any BT I have ever seen. Always a tough mom, but the fawns always live. Sometimes I'll see something go down and then only see one fawn for a couple weeks and get nervous, but then I'll see two again... this spot has a lot of coyotes and cougar sign. In her summer colors that black stripe looks higher up the tail but it's still a really skinny stripe.

I really enjoy running all these cams. I am looking forward to retrieving one more cam (last checked late october or early november and is probably still filming) and hopefully one more cam (way the heck up in tick vill in a spot I wanted to cam-scout but didn't take the time to get my bearings or mark it correctly) that I looked around for once but couldn't locate. I always feel like a little kid on xmas morning when I know the SD cards are darn near full... sometimes I will scan through them on the tablet at camp (those late season nights get long) and other times I wait until I get home to watch them on the big screen... always wondering what surprises await. I won't really be doing it this year though. Just a couple cams in a new area we'll be hunting just to confirm it and get my fix. The fact I am still retrieving 2017 footage is an indicator I need to dial it back at least for a year.

Anyway, just for fun. Here is a clip from 2014 when we only ran this cam (about 50M from where we have been watching peek-a-boo doe every year after that) for a week (or maybe a weekend?)so we didn't get much footage. Does this doe getting stalked by a cougar look familiar? I'm not certain myself, but appearance and personality are similar. Notice the cougar is kind of limping as well... maybe she booted him once already lol


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9bLzAx9e8M

[twoSevenO]

How far away are your cams from each other?
I put 5 within 1km circle because I really wanted to learn the area thinking I'd pull the 3 or 4 that show the least activity but then when I went back in April I felt like I wanted max coverage so I kept them all in there.

I also put up 2 salt licks there within 1/4 mile of each other which i think was too close.

It's just that getting there is such a steep and long climb that getting any further up is very difficult lol.

[caddisguy]

The area I have been focusing on is a little mountain / knob thing. I'd guess it is the size of a couple sports stadiums stacked together. I had 4 cameras probably within 1.5km around that, as well as one other up the bigger mountain behind it. I'd dump about a half a ziplock freezer bag of water softener salt on each one (a little goes a long way... almost a year later deer are still digging around and eating the moss) the other camera (the Bushnell can) is a about a 15km drive and 5km away.

Now that I have confirmed to my satisfaction that my area of focus is only good early season I have pulled all my cams except 1 I just need to go fetch and 1 I have to look for.

This year will be two larger salt piles and 2 cams within 1km in a new area. While looking for a new bear spot, we came across an area that is just covered in BT crap. I'm certain I would have found sheds if I looked hard enough.

[twoSevenO]

The spots i have now don't seem to show much buck activity other than during the rut. They go somewhere else. I haven't figured out where. And i'm sure thats where they shed their antlers, because i haven't seen any new or old.

However, having gone to the new spot just 2 weeks ago to set up a salt lick and cam i don't even see how you'd find them if you go in May or later. The greenery is already up to my knees and unless you stepped right on top of one you'd never see them anyways. Not all spots are like that, but the amount of effort required to go find BT sheds would be just too much .... i don't have that kind of time.

[caddisguy]

The spots i have now don't seem to show much buck activity other than during the rut. They go somewhere else. I haven't figured out where. And i'm sure thats where they shed their antlers, because i haven't seen any new or old.

However, having gone to the new spot just 2 weeks ago to set up a salt lick and cam i don't even see how you'd find them if you go in May or later. The greenery is already up to my knees and unless you stepped right on top of one you'd never see them anyways. Not all spots are like that, but the amount of effort required to go find BT sheds would be just too much .... i don't have that kind of time.

That is what our new spot looks like too. The time to find sheds would have been in April. I didn't trip over any, but I was more dialed into watching for ticks, bears and bear sign. Might still be some old chewed up sheds around later in the fall when the vegetation starts to thin out.