Spring Bucks with IR Leaf River

[NorthJeff]

Not a bad picture for a black and white IR:

http://www.whitetailhabitatsolutions.com/copper/albums/userpics/10001/normal_DSC_0126.JPG

This one is already getting some decent growth:

http://www.whitetailhabitatsolutions.com/copper/albums/userpics/10001/normal_DSC_0114.JPG

I've run about 1500 pics through my Christmas present...a Leaf River IR. I have run 1000's through my non IR Leaf Rivers with no problems and I've greatly enjoyed the photos I get. I'll probably be selling a bow soon, and when I do I'm getting a couple more IR's. I wish all were IR!

I replaced all the batteries last night after about 5 weeks in the woods. The batteries had not run out, but I don't like waiting for them to do so and wasting a few days of pics or more. About 6-7 weeks is fairly common with around a 1000 photos.

[Bucky]

nice pics

[ROSCORack]

I really like the first picture, Why is the blue sky the only color it picks up? I understand that IR is black and white basically, thats why I ask.

[NorthJeff]

I have no idea...but it sure makes for a distinct contrast with the almost "white" vegitation. I get a lot of those "blue-sky" pictures in that spot and they look very interesting.

[bawplank]

were these taken at night?

[NorthJeff]

Both pictures were taken during the day by the black and white of the IR. I have 7 other cameras from 35mm flash to digital flash to this IR digital, and it has been amazing to me to keep getting these daytime photos with the IR. I've been taking photos in this exact spot for 6 years and it happens every year....I get daytime photos for a week or two (lots of them), and then the photos turn almost exclusively to night time. Not this year! The photos during the day just keep coming and I'm getting more photos in daylight, than night. My other camera locations with a flash have already turned the deer to mostly night photos and I'm looking forward to a couple more IR's by the end of the year. In fact, by Labor Day I'll only be using the IR's on the property. I've seen trails form around flash camera sites, running tracks after a deer fed towards a flash camera, even hunting videos where a buck was spooked by a flash in front of the hunter, and whether it be in WI or here in the U.P. I have yet to get multiple pictures of a mature buck after he has been flashed, for the past 7 years.

[Ansel]

That's pretty interesting. I too have an IR Leaf River and on my Gaylord property I took over 80 trail pics in the last two weeks. Every photo with the exception of one was during daylight hours. Even more interesting is the number of bucks I got photos of. About a third of my photos were of bucks in different stages of antler growth.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/3041/medium/Maybuck2.jpg

[mich buckmaster]

I have pictures of bucks that were of the same buck multiple times and some even came back looking right at the camera. Two of the bucks we shot and one scored 143, and another scored 122. I know the flash will spook some deer but they dont spook to make them nocturnal, or run out of the section. If the deer are going nocturnal, then they humans have been around two much inthe daylight.

just my 02

[NorthJeff]

I've noticed huge differences between ag land areas, and wilderness settings. Ag land bucks you can get away with a lot...wilderness bucks are unforgiving and much of it has to do with the availability of bountiful cover and at the same time the absence of humans, or frequency of humans.

Also, it's not that it makes the deer nocturnal...it just makes the deer nocturnal to that site, that camera location. I even have photos where I place a camera in a spot for 3 weeks (flash) and receive a couple hundred photos. As the 3 weeks progress, the daytime photos becomes less and less, as well as the number of photos. Then, I switch the camera to the other side of the funnel and watch the same thing happen all over again. It's not that the deer leave....they just become used to the presence of the camera and re-locate. The funny thing is to watch the deer walk by in that same situation...LOOKING AT WHERE THE CAMERA USED TO BE!

The flash doesn't spook all deer...just enough for me to take extra care in where my cameras are located relative to stand sites, and funnel areas I count on daytime movement where deer can actually be blocked.

Again though, big difference between ag and big woods/wilderness deer.