Video: Do Trail Cams Spook Deer?

[Ben Sobieck]

Do trail cams spook deer? Click here to watch this video and decide for yourself.

[69Viking]

My guess is it was a combination of the flash at point blank range, the scent, and maybe the click of the camera because he was so close. I have several pictures of mature bucks taken over a scrape with the flash camera 15 feet away and the bucks don't spook. If I can find the pictures later I'll post them so you can see for yourself. The camera that took my pictures had been in the woods over a month so there was no human scent I would guess at the time the pictures were taken.

[gunther89]

Many factors could have contributed to that buck running away after the flash went off.  The scent from the hunter could have been there, the buck could have seen the hunter in the tree and was about ready to bolt and so on.  I also feel that some deer react to cameras while some don't.

[fasteddie]

I have had deer stand in front of the flash camera and get second pics on the trail camera . I have also had deer in a flash picture come back another time and have gotten them again .

[Danharps]

After watching the video I can only guess what happened. He could have smelled something left there by the camera installer, heard something he didn't like, or saw somthing it didn't like. Maybe thats the first time he saw that camera. I hear they are very intuned to their areas so maybe just seeing something out of place was enough. The camera may have made some noise which he was close enough to hear, I notice there was no flash used in the picture.

What I want to hear about is whether a flash camera scares them more than an IR no flash camera does.

[billcurry]

What a great debate-flash vs IR...  I talk with friends about this all the time.  I have used both and both have proven to be effective and both have proven IMO to scare and educate deer.  I started with the 35mm+flash cams and again IMO I think I educated deer more with the sound of the camera moving the film and by adding the flash that gave them more reason to not stick around.  Unless I was using bait, I never had a buck more than 3.5 years of age visit a camera site more than once with the 35mm+flash cam (unless it was over bait or some other man placed object). 
 
My hunting partner and I switched to only using digital flash and IR cams after a couple seasons of poor results with 35mm cams.  We used Leafyriver digital flash and M.A.D. Wildlife Eyes which are IR video cam units.  IMO deer didnt spook as much and came back more often with the leafy river verses 35mm flash.  The M.A.D. Eye is a "huge unit" compared to most cams of then and now but that seemed to scare or educate deer even less than the digital flash cam.  However, I have video on more than a handful of occasions that the mature bucks (3.5 yrs old IMO) pinpointed the M.A.D. IR video cam with its 10+seconds of IR "red glow" and they head bobbed back and forth and at times spooked.  Now when we had bait over the cams deer would frequent the cameras without much regard to the cameras flash or IR glow.
 
I currently use 2 IR cams now in a county where baiting is prohibited completely.  I have a number of pics this year from mature bucks that walked by the cameras during the day and nite.  Most of my IR pics of mature bucks are looking right at the camera which leads me to believe they are noticing it and are not coming back to that specfic spot, especially the pics taken at night. 
 
Now I totally believe that the camera is not the entire problem by itself.  By walking anywhere in the deer woods I am leaving scent of all kinds, making noise, leaving a camera that is not 100% scent free.  And then I do this whole process on a weekly/bi-weekly basis to check the cams themselves and not to mention the hunting I am doing as well is leaving a trail behind that might be educating the deer too. 
 
 

[billcurry]

Danharps, i think i saw the flash from the camera in that video clip-watch it again and see if you see it too.

[Wandering Woodsman]

I have been using a Cuddeback IR for three years. I always run a 10 second video after each photo. When leaving the camera at eye level I have noticed that the deer do not spook when the picture is taken (camera triggers too quick for them to respond), but the 10 second video shows me that they run away almost every time. I have also noticed that once the camera spooks a big buck he never returns. I leave my camera in the woods and do not check the card for up to two months at a time, so I know it is not human scent that is scaring them. For the last year I have been using a trail pod and have the camera mounted 10 feet off the ground. Not one deer spooked while trying this set up. Keep the camera out of the deer's line of sight and all problems are solved. (Not sure if the same is true for a flash camera).

[Wanderer]

Why, if it's light enough to be shooting color video, did the flash go off on the still camera? Why did the deer have to move his head around two or three times to trip the trigger? That camera should have gone off long before the deer got that close.

[DeerCamp]

ORIGINAL: Wanderer

Why, if it's light enough to be shooting color video, did the flash go off on the still camera? Why did the deer have to move his head around two or three times to trip the trigger? That camera should have gone off long before the deer got that close.

 
I think that the deer could have gotten a pic taken already, thats why the camera didnt go off when the deer was moving. Also if thats the case then the 1st flash did not scare the deer. But why is the flash going off during the day time? If you notice the deer is scent checking the area, licking his nose and so on.. It could have been a number of things. I have a LOT of photos of bucks with the flash on them, and I have seen them all during season. So I really dont think that the flash scares the deer at all.