Episode 237 - Cell Camera Spooking Mature Deer? Don Thinks Maybe So…

Published: 2024-09-01
Episode page
Duration: 75 min

In this episode

blind-access

• Don describes a client in Ohio who built an elaborate buried 36-inch culvert tunnel system leading into his blind, complete with photos Don took of it. 51:07

buck-forecast

• Don proposes doing the buck forecast segment on next week’s podcast once he has more camera intel. 65:39
• Terry explains the buck forecast segment is where Don predicts the season’s harvest and previews target bucks for the year. 65:46
• Don claims their buck forecasts have been pretty accurate over the last few years. 66:14

cell-cameras

• Don observes it becomes more evident every year that bucks are avoiding cell cameras. 10:43
• Don says he has not gotten a single good picture of a good buck from any of his 12 cell cameras this summer. 10:57
• Don states he believes deer can detect cell cameras based on his own experience. 13:06
• Don describes deer activity stopping suddenly at a hidden spot once he swapped in a cell camera. 14:24
• Don plans to stop using cell cameras on his home farm after this year to further improve his hunting property. 14:35
• Don predicts more listeners will agree that deer can detect cell cameras than disagree. 18:14
• Patrick has long claimed deer can detect cell cameras, and Terry, who used to laugh it off, now thinks Patrick might be right. 18:36
• After switching a proven licking-branch location to a cell camera this year, Don got no good buck pictures there despite years of success with a hidden non-cell camera. 19:27
• Don theorizes that a cell camera itself may act like continual intrusion that deer detect and dislike. 19:52
• Terry admits the cell-camera detection idea is just an unprovable theory with no way to confirm right or wrong. 20:24
• Don says every good buck picture he’s gotten this summer has come from non-cell cameras. 20:32
• Don says he genuinely hopes deer can detect cell cameras, since that would take away a technological advantage over hunters. 64:11

deadly-dozen

• Terry recalls trespassers digging up and harvesting turnips from an early Deadly Dozen variety test plot with a wheelbarrow. 25:44
• Don recalls trespassers coming onto his property in broad daylight on Christmas Day with a wheelbarrow and a toddler to pull turnips. 26:08
• Terry warns gardeners not to plant Deadly Dozen too thickly in small garden spaces. 26:43
• Mike asks if Don can help convince his wife that Deadly Dozen is a good cover crop for their garden. 24:38

deer-senses

• Terry muses that deer senses are so elevated beyond human understanding that unknown detection abilities wouldn’t be surprising. 16:29

drought

• Terry recalls a past year when a month-long September drought left Deadly Dozen seed dormant until October rain, after which it germinated and looked great. 2:42

episode-planning

• Terry announces the episode will cover moving trail cameras, fall food plots, and seven listener questions. 0:37
• Terry teases that listeners must return next week for episode 238 to hear the buck forecast and possible target buck reveals. 67:19

food-plots

• Don’s clover plot, planted in mid-early August, is barely popping out of the ground due to dry weather. 1:36
• Don’s Deadly Dozen, planted a few days earlier, still had not emerged from the ground at all. 1:49
• Don says since the weather can’t be controlled, the focus should be on getting seed in the ground and hoping for the best. 6:40
• Logan asks if fencing off part of a food plot could create a safe dead zone to blow his scent into. 27:14

grass-waterways

• Don says his best buck photos this summer came from a grass waterway with corn on both sides, using a camera staked in the open. 41:01

home-range

• Trent asks hypothetically how much acreage would be needed for a deer to live its whole life on one property. 35:27

hunting-advice

• Don complains it’s a pet peeve that people promote hunting ideas they’ve never had success using themselves. 43:02

mock-scrapes

• Steve asks if Don makes mock scrapes and when he switches his cameras to them. 41:47
• Steve asks whether flooding a property with mock scrapes or keeping just one scrape near the stand makes more sense. 42:13

planting-equipment

• Terry describes using an Earned Outdoors eight-foot G Series drill, brought over by Todd Covey, that cut perfectly through hard, dry ground. 5:46

planting-timing

• Don recommends planting food plot seed immediately rather than waiting for a forecasted rain, since a missed pop-up shower wastes the opportunity. 5:22

reseeding

• Terry advises that if reseeding due to suspected bad germination, use harvest salad or a cereal grain rather than more brassicas. 4:46

rope-scrapes

• Don credits Gene and Barry Wessel as the original creators of the rope scrape idea, which he later tweaked and helped promote. 43:57
• Don recommends hanging rope scrapes right after season so they weather all summer before scenting them in fall, rather than using fresh ropes. 48:23
• Terry asks Don to address the person who rushes out to buy and hang a fresh rope scrape this week. 47:37

sanctuary

• Don says he left a sanctuary-edge clover plot unmowed this year, letting nature take over instead of driving through the sanctuary to maintain it. 15:57

scouting

• Wesley asks when it’s too late to scout the right tree for a target buck spotted via trail camera on a new property. 60:43

seed-dormancy

• Don notes many native grass seeds can lie dormant in soil for up to fifty years before sprouting when conditions are right. 3:36

seminar

• Don recounts giving a seminar near Kankakee, Illinois for a private group he consults for on property management. 12:41

stand-access

• Patrick asks if Don has heard of using mulch as a quiet pathway to a tree stand and whether the smell would deter deer. 49:49

summer-range

• Trent asks what makes an area a deer’s summer range versus its fall range. 35:03

topography

• Mike asks whether bucks in steep, rugged terrain reach a higher age class than bucks in flatter, more accessible farm country. 57:53

trail-cameras

• Don states he knows without doubt that deer can see the infrared flash of regular non-cell trail cameras. 13:48
• Don’s goal is to move his cameras to fall range areas before the bucks themselves shift from summer to fall range. 22:38
• Don plans to spend his post-travel time searching for deer, moving and checking cameras that haven’t been checked in a while. 65:12

velvet-shed

• Quite a few listeners reported bucks already shedding velvet by the third week of August. 24:00

wind-strategy

• Terry credits Al Foster’s pie-slice/dartboard analogy for explaining how wind and access angles must favor the hunter by just one slice over the buck’s ideal wind. 29:11
• Don says he first heard Roger Rothhaar discuss the wind-angle concept, which Al then perfected and shared with him, saving him years of learning. 30:04

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 18:57
• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 23:24
• unnamed buck (sighting) 40:05

Listener questions

Question: Mike asks if Don can help convince his wife that Deadly Dozen is a good cover crop for their garden. 24:38 — asked by Mike Stoltzwiss

• Answer: Don says a quarter-acre bag of Deadly Dozen makes a fantastic garden cover crop with turnips, radishes, cereal grains, and clover. 25:04

Question: Logan asks if fencing off part of a food plot could create a safe dead zone to blow his scent into. 27:14 — asked by Logan Waggler

• Answer: Don confirms it works and says fencing or piled brush are good ways to dictate exactly how deer enter a plot for a shot within range. 27:51

Question: Trent asks what makes an area a deer’s summer range versus its fall range. 35:03 — asked by Trent Peterson

• Answer: Don explains does get the thickest bedding cover in summer to hide fawns, while bucks stay in more open terrain with tender antlers. 37:00
• Answer: Don says come fall, as crops are harvested and pressure rises, deer of both sexes gravitate to undisturbed bedding cover near prime food. 39:16

Question: Trent asks hypothetically how much acreage would be needed for a deer to live its whole life on one property. 35:27 — asked by Trent Peterson

• Answer: Don says it’s impossible to answer since even with huge acreage, edge bucks will always range partly off the property. 35:46

Question: Steve asks if Don makes mock scrapes and when he switches his cameras to them. 41:47 — asked by Steve Taylor

• Answer: Don confirms he uses mock scrapes, preferring the rope scrape method, and switches cameras to them around Labor Day. 42:21

Question: Steve asks whether flooding a property with mock scrapes or keeping just one scrape near the stand makes more sense. 42:13 — asked by Steve Taylor

• Answer: Don favors the approach of eliminating all licking branches except one directly in front of the stand over placing many scrapes. 45:37

Question: Terry asks Don to address the person who rushes out to buy and hang a fresh rope scrape this week. 47:37

• Answer: Don says that guy’s fresh rope won’t work because it hasn’t weathered all summer like ropes hung right after the prior season. 48:02

Question: Patrick asks if Don has heard of using mulch as a quiet pathway to a tree stand and whether the smell would deter deer. 49:49 — asked by Patrick Seaton

• Answer: Don says he’s never heard of or tried mulch trails to stands. 50:09
• Answer: Don recommends doing it in spring rather than right before season, and doesn’t think the smell would bother deer. 50:16

Question: Mike asks whether bucks in steep, rugged terrain reach a higher age class than bucks in flatter, more accessible farm country. 57:53 — asked by Mike

• Answer: Don agrees steep terrain is tougher to hunt than flat areas in some situations. 58:50
• Answer: Don explains rugged topography narrows travel corridors, creating more defined funnels than flat, open cover. 59:17

Question: Wesley asks when it’s too late to scout the right tree for a target buck spotted via trail camera on a new property. 60:43 — asked by Wesley

• Answer: Don says it’s never too late; he’s hung and hunted stands the same day he set them. 61:29
• Answer: Don adds that the whole idea of precisely patterning a buck’s timing is misleading; you can only pattern general routes, not exact schedules. 61:40

Prayer Time

Scripture: Revelation
Theme: lukewarm faith
Wes references Revelation 3:16, where Jesus tells the church of Laodicea that being neither hot nor cold in faith makes one spiritually worthless, challenging listeners not to stay lukewarm in their walk with Christ. 69:26

Scripture: John
Theme: radical love
Wes cites John 13:35 to challenge listeners to show a radically different, sacrificial love like Christ’s, arguing that such love is how others will recognize them as Christians. 71:20

Theme: surrender and gratitude
Wes leads a closing prayer thanking God for the day and blessings, surrendering everything to Him, and asking for fellowship among hunters and the strength to become radically different for Christ. 73:59

Sponsors this episode

• Midwest Land Group

Terry and Don covered moving trail cameras and fall food plots, plus listener questions. Don’s clover plot and Deadly Dozen plot were slow to emerge in dry weather; Terry recalled a past drought delaying Deadly Dozen until October rain. Don urged planting seed immediately rather than waiting on forecasts, since weather can’t be controlled. Much of the episode centered on Don’s growing conviction that bucks detect cell cameras, based on activity stopping once he swapped in a cell camera at a proven licking-branch spot; all his good buck pictures this summer came from non-cell cameras. Don plans to drop cell cameras from his home farm and shift cameras toward fall range before bucks move. He also credited Al Foster’s wind-angle analogy and Gene and Barry Wessel’s rope scrape idea. Listener questions covered fencing food plots, mock scrapes, mulch trails, and terrain effects on buck age. Wes closed with a prayer on lukewarm faith and radical love.

Unofficial fan project. AI-synthesized from public episodes; may contain errors.