The Whitetail Hunting Season Trail Camera Calendar

In this video we are talking all about where to be focusing your trail cameras throughout the whitetail deer hunting season. As the season comes, things can get hectic in a hurry, and staying organized can be something we all fall behind with. So, hopefully this video will help you get ahead of your trail camera shifts.

We start in the early season. Most deer seasons throughout the midwest come in around the October 1 time frame. So, we will call the early season October 1 - October 20. During this time, bucks have started to range out and find where they will call home for the fall.

For standard SD card cameras in the early season, we like to focus our cameras around non-intrusive food sources. That may be fall food plots, exterior ag fields, or white oak stands along the edge of a field. Also, where legal, bait stations.

For cell camera locations, or standard SD card locations with long term objectives, we will be a little more intrusive because we do not plan on returning to the sight after the camera is hung. In these scenarios we focus our cameras in bedding areas, staging our transition areas, food sources close to bedding cover, and any other destination close to bedding.

As the fall rolls on, we come into the pre-rut time. For the purposes of this video, we allocated October 21 - November 4 to pre-rut trail camera locations. During this time, scraping activity has really ramped up and bucks are becoming more active during day light hours.

For standard SD card cameras during the pre-rut we are still monitoring the fall food sources, but also adding cameras to travel corridors, pinch points, perimeter scrapes. We are still being cautious with our intrusion and how often we are checking cameras during this time period.

For Cellular cameras or long term SD card cameras, the strategy doesn't change a lot from the early season. We are still focusing on more intrusive spots close to security cover. However, if camera numbers are limited, we will shift those cameras to scrapes close to security cover. Primary scrapes, and community scrapes close to security cover will be a key inventory indicator for what bucks are traveling through during day light hours.

Now, we are in the rut. The Mecca of Whitetail Deer Hunting. We are calling the rut November 5 - November 25 for all intents and purposes. Human intrusion is less of a deterrent during the rut so the trail camera strategy changes quite a bit.

For standard SD card cameras with short term objectives, we are focusing our camera inventory on doe bedding areas, pinch points, funnels and cruising travel corridors. This information is time sensitive during the rut so check your cameras as you feel needed.

With that being said, Cellular Trail Cameras can be deadly during the rut. We like to run our cell cameras on down wind edges of doe bedding, scrapes near doe bedding, and in heavily used funnels. Again, the MRI can be what makes the difference between killing that buck, or being one step behind.

Once the rut winds down, deer are back to the Bed to Food patterns of the late season. By this time deer are heavily pressured and are much more susceptible to human pressure. So, it is important to be non-intrusive with trail cameras.

Standard SD card cameras will be focused on destination food sources, and cell cameras will be shifted to primary or community scrapes to monitor when the does that have not been bred are coming back into heat.


We hope that helps! Be sure to shift those cameras a couple days ahead of the time frame to stay on top of what is going on in your area.

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