Sweetwater

I was at the gym this morning talking to an avid hunter I know about the anticipation we both feel about the upcoming fall. I was telling him about the pics I was getting on my camera & he claimed he was not putting out his camera this year b/c he was certain it spooked all his good bucks. He said he saw several good 8' s & 10' s and after his camera took photos at night with the flash, the bucks never showed their hide again.

I have a camera I use on our 300 acre family farm in the deep south. I love it & have never really noticed that is necessarily spooked deer. However, I can see where it may startle them with the flash. The deer on our farm may react a little different to such things because they see tractors & off road farm vehicles all the time - so they may be a little less " jumpy" as other places.

I just wanted to get some input from any of you with a game camera. Any proof of deer being spooked and as a result showing up less? Or, do you think it does not affect the deer? I am concerned & need a little input here.

Thanks!

Sweetwater

springhill farms

I don' t think it' s a problem, though can see how if you use the camera in an area too often, particularly if you check it frequently or use it in a spot around scrapes during rut and leave your scent trail on each visit, could impact the movement of deer.
I' ve certainly had pictures of deer that were spooked by the camera, but on balance I would say that happens in probably less that 10% of my pictures. That said, since I' ve also seen the same deer many times (big bucks, not just does) in a series of pictures, clealy the camera isn' t causing the deer to leave an area after repeatedly getting famous in my picture collection.

Tree climber

same here as far as getting trhe same deer on pic' s at different times.I would say the flash wpuld be just like a flash of lightning.how would the deer know the difference??????????
JMHO ; I don' t think it makes that much difference.

Angus74

I dont think it effects them much, Ive got a lot of pics of the same deer over and over again, they keep coming back. Last winter I got two different rolls of film of a couple nice bucks hanging around one of my stands, and took the middle sized one the next week on the same trail,scored 125.

Sling

I think it depends on the camera. I had one of the ealier Deer Cam models, and it had a noisy auto focus, a " red eye" light and noisy film advance. I would say it was spooking about 25% of the deer in the photographs. Here are some examples taken over a scrape:







Today' s cameras are much quieter and I do not think they spook as many deer. However, because I was having so many problems with that first Deer Cam, I ending up switching to a digital camera now with an infrared flash. Picture quality is sacrificed for stealth, but I have not had any deer react to the camera at all and I can take/store more pictures this way.



I would not recomend that everyone switch to an infrared flash, but I think they can be effective.