John’s Note: Jeff Lindsey of southern Iowa has been a bowhunter for 20 years and shots PSE bows (http://pse-archery.com/). Jeff and his dad, David Lindsey, hunt and film for Drury Outdoors (https://www.druryoutdoors.com/). You can use Jeff’s tactics no matter what your weapon is.

We use Reconyx Trail Cameras (http://www.trailcampro.com), because, they are dependable, regardless of how cold the weather gets. One of the things we like about the Reconyx cameras is they have a time-lapse mode. In the late deer season, we set-up our cameras on the fields that we plan to hunt to start taking pictures at 3:00 pm and stop taking pictures about 5:00 pm. Then we can monitor when the deer come to the field in the afternoon, the direction they’ve come from, and the direction they leave the field. We usually put two cameras out on the field and will set one of the cameras up using the time-lapse feature. We will set a second camera up on its motion-sensor feature on a trail or a road leading into the field. By using the camera on the end of the field, it takes pictures of all the deer on the field. When we take the card out of the camera and put it in our computer, we can zoom-in on individual deer to see if there is a buck coming to that field we want to try and hunt.

Back in 2009, I took a nice buck we had named Bone Crusher. One of the things we have learned about using the time-lapse feature on the Reconyx camera is that it not only pays buck dividends in the late season but also during the early season. We had found Bone Crusher coming to one of our green fields in the early season. I never would have hunted this field in the early season, if I hadn’t seen Bone Crusher using it. I had pictures of this buck all summer long. Two days before the season, I got pictures of Bone Crusher out in the middle of the field, right in front of my stand. The first day I hunted the field, the wind was wrong, and I spooked two bucks out of the field. As soon as I realized that the wind had changed, I left the stand. I went back to the stand the next afternoon, and I spotted Bone Crusher out in the middle of the field. We had been seeing this deer on trail cameras for about 2 years. Every year, he would have broken antlers due to fighting with other deer. This buck was a 16-point mature buck that scored 194 points on Pope & Young.  I made a 42-yard shot on this buck and double-lunged him, using my bow. However, during the rut, using the time-lapse feature on the cameras we put out in the fields is not reliable at all, because bucks are chasing does. But in the early and late seasons, these time-lapse cameras can be deadly effective to help you find mature bucks.

You’ll learn more-intensive deer-hunting information and tips from hunters in John E. Phillips’ Kindle, CreateSpace and Audible books. Go to https://johninthewild.com/books/#deer to purchase and download to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer. You also can go to Nook Books at www.barnesandnoble.com to buy.

Next: Secret #4 – Don’t Put Away Your Grunt Call after the Deer Rut