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How to Set Up Motion-Sensor Cameras to Photograph Older-Age-Class Bucks

Editor’s Note: Mark Thomas, vice president of the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA), an organization that Mossy Oak has supported since its inception, is both a registered forester and a registered wildlife biologist. Thomas consults for the timber and the wildlife industries and constantly evaluates and improves properties for hunting. One of the key tools he uses in his daily work is motion-sensor cameras, often having as many as 50 cameras on one piece of property doing various surveys. This week we’ve talked with Thomas about what he’s doing with his motion-sensor cameras and how cameras can help Mossy Oak Properties’ folk improve their lands.

Question: How do you set up to photograph older age class bucks? Thomas: I set up on active scrapes to do a census during the rut. I try and find 15-20 active scrapes throughout the property, and I set up the cameras to take photographs of those scrapes. Using this technique, you’ll photograph not only your older-age-class bucks but also your yearling bucks and a large number of does. If I’m surveying a deer herd that has a really-good age structure where 25% of the bucks are more than 4-1/2-years old, I usually won’t get photographs of those older bucks around a bait station. But when I do a two-day active-scrape buck census, I’ll see many of those older-age-class bucks. Then I can merge the information I’ve taken from my bait station survey in with the information I’ve gotten from my active-scrape survey, thereby increasing the accuracy of my overall deer herd survey by 2-4%. With a normal census, using cameras over a bait station, you’ll have about a 92% accuracy rate. But when you factor in the active-scrape camera survey, your accuracy rate goes up to about 96-98%. But you’ll always have a certain percentage of deer on your land that you’ll never photograph.

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