Deer scat-

[charlie 01]

If you can spot mushrooms you surely should be able to spot a shed antler.

Some older bucks regress but some do not. I have sheds from an old buck that one year was a 14 pt, and following year a 16 pt. The next year got hit by a car. He was 3/4 the way in velvet. Had the same 16 pt antler structure. He was so old he had hardly no teeth left, and a stomach that hung down.

Do you us trail cams?

[jonny5buck]

I need a good one for this property @ Charlie 01....i have an old school trail cam..that has a 35mm camera mounted in it...you cant see whats on th film like with the newer ones..and the hassle of waiting till all the 15 pictures are used up..than waiting for the film to be developed and getting back 8pictures of a camera friendly squirrel is frustrating to say the least...this is a spot that they made trail cams for...i just havent commited to purchasing one that has the memory card..and the better functions....money is real tight..work is slow as molasses right now...

[charlie 01]

Sorry to hear your work is slow. If and when you can, you should get one. You might be supprised to see whats roaming around there at night. If there are big nocternal bucks, hunt it diligently, they do make mistakes. Cuddeback is a good reasonably priced trailcam. I've used them for some 5 or 6 years now. If you have a computer and a printer that prints pics, that's the way to go. If not, get some extra SD cards. When you take one out,put a fresh one in and you can go to Walgreens or Kmart and get specific pics printed. I keep 6 SD cards handy for use. If you watch sales, you can pick up cards at a reasonable price. I bought most of mine at Kmart. $9.00 each ( 2 GB). If you do have a computer, You can take pics from the card and put them on a disk and keep them forever. Walgreens or Kmart will put your pics on a disk also but you still need something to play it on.

You might as well toss that old 35mm camera. Those were a pain in the you know what. I was lucky and sold mine while they were somewhat popular.

[jonny5buck]

Thanks - im gonna print this off..you seem a pretty good judge of trail cams and i will look into one for sure...the one you suggest./ and i have a decent computer /monitor,but my printer isnt a picture capable one.

I agree that the ol 35 mm camera one is almost useless..i did burn up one roll on Mr. gray squirrel..he seemed friendly enough...really liked getting his picture taken- -burying some nuts climbing on the tree/playing etc.

I than moved away from the ''mock scrape'' ...and realized the oak tree had more squirrel activity than deer activity at tha angle anyways! So i moved it to a single elm ...in a bowl that had sandy soil and some clover...i hung a drip bag [this was last yr.October]... and when i took the film in for developing i was waiting for more squirrel time... instead i got 4 different bucks checking out the dripper...the nice ten point pic ./i have mounted in a wood frame on my computer desk...he showed up at 8:46 pm of course ...but the the 2.5 yr olds were mid-day late morning... they were there in perfect shooting light and perfect angle and i was hunting other property...since than i have realized how important it is to get the Time and Date stamp...missed opt.---that wont happen again...

The old trail cam is ''Game Cam'' by moultrie..i think it was the very first model...it took 6 aa batteries in the compartment besides 2 ..9volts for the infra red...and another 2 aa in the camera---$$$- i will get a new one before sept.for sure!

[charlie 01]

Cuddeback did have a rebate going on. Don't know if it's still on. Maybe worth checking. I recently purchased another thru Cabela's (making it 4 for me) with the rebate. For me, it is so much fun. Throughly enjoy getting those wildlife pics. It's almost like Christmas time checking that SDcard.

Check out the topic of scouting cameras.