By Alex Comstock
Do you know what my wall would look like had I harvested every mature buck I've gotten trail camera pictures of? I wouldn't have any room for more bucks. Or even if I had harvested every mature buck that I've gotten over 100 pictures of...that would still be a long list! The point I'm trying to get across here is that getting pictures of a mature buck and harvesting him are two things that can be worlds apart. I think to some hunters, this point is obvious, but to some, it might be a helpful reminder that there can still be a long way to go to harvesting a buck even after capturing many photos of him. The challenge is how do you go from pictures to a blood trail?
Analysis
The biggest problem I see from others and I as well am surely guilty of this over the years is taking a trail camera photo, or a series of photos for face value. That means you don't look into anything further than where a buck was at what time based on a trail camera image. You can gather so much information from trail camera images, but it can take some leg work to do this. Try and figure out where a buck is coming from and where he is going to based on an image. Is he consistently showing up in the evening always coming from the same direction? In this case, you can probably place a bet that he is coming from his general bedding area. Can you take to a map, and hypothesize where he's bedding? Is he showing up on camera just after dark? In this case, can you backtrack a little bit, and get another camera up to see if you can get him in daylight in another spot? These are all questions you should be asking yourself.
Another thing you should be looking at is conditions in which a buck is moving. A great tool for this is DeerLab, a photo management software that can help you organize how and when a mature buck is moving. Using a tool such as this to help educate yourself on when a buck is moving in daylight based on conditions could be a deciding factor in how you hunt him, and ultimately, if you get a shot at him.
DeerLab is a great tool to help understand what conditions bucks are moving in daylight.
Take a Look in The Past
One of the most underrated trail camera strategies that I've hit on before is understanding how bucks have annual patterns that can be much more reliable to hunt compared to trying to get a pattern on a buck based on data from a couple weeks before. I've seen it first hand, and have heard a multitude of stories of a buck showing up on trail camera in the same spot as the year prior on the same day, within minutes of his appearance the year before. Below, I'll outline two different scenarios in which annual trail camera data can help you tremendously.
Scenario 1: So let's say you've had a buck on trail camera for the past couple of years, and this coming season is the one you want to send an arrow through him. In this scenario, we'll say the buck is primarily nocturnal in your area, but if you look through pictures last year and the year before, you notice that this buck showed up in daylight the last week of October both years, and then disappeared until late season. He likely doesn't move far early in the year, knows when the first does will come in heat in the immediate area (hence why he is showing up in daylight the last week of October) and then travels during the rut to find more does. So what does this tell you? In this certain scenario, I would hold off on hunting him until that last week of October, and then based on conditions, and where you got him in daylight last year, I'd make my move. This will easily be your best time to kill him. Odds are he will show up again in daylight within a day or two of when he did the last two years.
Scenario 2: In this second scenario, we'll say once again you are after a buck this year and you have trail camera photos of him throughout the season last year. But in this scenario, the buck showed up sporadically during daylight throughout last fall. In this situation, I would go back to check the weather forecasts for every time he moved in daylight. This is where DeerLab particularly comes in handy, because if you input your trail camera photos, it will do all of the work for you, create nice looking graphs, and will help aid you in this process. Either way, if there is any type of pattern, hone in on it, and use it to your advantage this season. Opposed to waiting to get him on trail camera in daylight, and then trying to make your move, you can be one step ahead. If the buck in this scenario showed up last year in daylight 75% of the time on a NE wind when the barometric pressure was above 30, if you get conditions like that this fall, you know what you need to do.
Conclusion
Getting trail camera photos of mature bucks isn't the easiest thing in the world. And then to put them on the ground is exponentially tougher. But if you can take the information from the trail camera pictures that you do get, and make a solid game plan, you never know what could happen.
By Kaleb Comstock
I believe scouting is the single most important thing a person can do to help themselves be more successful in the fall. In this blog I am going to dive a little deeper into scouting and what I’m exactly doing and looking for as I scout. I am going to talk about how important and how to use online maps as well as discuss what I am looking for when I have my boots on the ground.
By Jeremy Lopez
Elk hunting is an exhilarating experience that challenges both your physical fitness and mental fortitude. Hunting elk with a bow in hand in the Rocky Mountains of the West is on every bowhunters bucket list. And if it’s not, it should be. But for first-timers, it can be a daunting task. But don’t worry, whether you’re chasing the thrill of the rut or hoping to bag your first elk, there are a few key tips that will help make your first elk hunt more successful and enjoyable. Here are my top 5 elk hunting tips for beginners!
By Alex Comstock
When it comes to bowhunting, there are countless releases on the market. Deciding what one to put to use can be somewhat intimidating. For a lot of people, testing all the different kinds of releases isn’t practical due to time restraints, etc.
By Alex Comstock
When it comes to saddle hunting, a question I get time and time again is how I set up a saddle and do it in one trip up the tree. One of the things I particularly love about saddle hunting is the mobile nature of it, and I can get up trees quickly and efficiently.
By Alex Comstock
When it comes to scouting, there are numerous things you should be thinking about and looking for. When it comes to scouting flatland, it can be rather challenging to not have terrain features to use to your advantage.
By Kaleb Comstock
The 2023 season was shaping up to be far different than I expected/hoped it to be. This past summer in Nebraska, we encountered our third straight drought year, a deer hunters worst nightmare. With a drought, you always run the risk for EHD. Despite a drought, my summer trail cameras looked beyond promising at the river farm with multiple shooters including bucks I called Splitz and Half Rack. Two 5.5 year olds pushing 160” and a handful of great 3 year olds. The anticipation was high going into the season.
By Kaleb Comstock
Running trail cams is such an exciting thing for me. The anticipation of a new giant showing up on a trail camera never goes away. Trail cameras can make your hopes as high as the sky and can also leave you feeling pretty much hopeless for shooting a mature deer depending on what your camera is catching. Late September and early October, in my opinion, is one of the most frustrating times to run trail cameras and my cameras slow down significantly. I think this happens for a few reasons, one being deer have now shed their velvet and are moving into their fall ranges. Over the years, I have learned some things that have helped me get more pictures during this time period.
By Kaleb Comstock
As we turn the calendar into late May, many states still have their turkey seasons open. Here in Nebraska, our season is open until May 31st. Hunting late season birds is a complete 180 compared to hunting early season turkeys. In the past week, I was able to fill my second, and last tag in Nebraska as well as having multiple close calls.
By Kaleb Comstock
Growing up in Nebraska, I’ve been blessed to be able to hunt in what I believe to be one of the best turkey hunting states in the country. Every year, the anticipation ramps up to start chasing gobblers in the spring. It is one of my all time favorite things to do. Over the years and hundreds of hunts and too many encounters to count, I have learned a lot when it comes to chasing turkeys. In this blog, I am going to dive into three turkey hunting tips that will hopefully help you be successful in the woods this spring season.
By Alex Comstock
This winter, we filmed and produce a three part video series covering numerous topics revolving around saddle hunting. In case you didn’t catch them on our YouTube channel, I wanted to share them with you here and provide a thought on each video on what I find to be most important when it comes to saddle hunting.
By Alex Comstock
As we’ve entered into the month of March, for most of the midwest, it’s peak shed season. I would venture to say that March is the most “popular” shed hunting month for most avid antler seekers. By now, most bucks have dropped their antlers and March is typically a great time to walk for antlers because the woods haven’t come close to greening up yet, and in a lot of places there’s little to no snow.
By Kaleb Comstock
Archery can be one of the most rewarding and frustrating things to get into. I have been shooting a bow for as long as I can remember and even shot my first turkey with a bow at the age of 8 years old. I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t shoot a bow. In this blog, I am going to dig into three tips to help beginner archers. These things will only help you out as you progress in your archery life.
By Alex Comstock
It’s crazy to me to think that in my neck of the woods, whitetail season has already been over for a month and a half. As I sit here in the middle of February, my mind is already racing and coming up with plans to make the 2023 whitetail season one of my best. The 2022 deer season was in large part one of my worst seasons ever and if you want to read more in depth on my 2022 reflection, you can HERE.
In this blog, I’m going to focus on this upcoming year and go over a month by month synopsis on what I’ll be doing to hopefully have more success than ever in 2023 and hopefully you’ll be able to glean some information from it that can help you as well.
By Kaleb Comstock
When it comes to killing big, mature, bucks, we need 150 plus acres of prime ground surrounded with unbelievable food and bedding, right? While that’s certainly my dream property, that’s definitely not the kind of property I have permission to hunt. Instead, I have access to less than 80 acres of nasty, thick river bottom that many people wouldn’t think would hold a big buck. That couldn’t be more false. I am going to dive into three things that I have learned from hunting this small property that has led me to kill four mature bucks in five seasons.
By Kaleb Comstock
Many people around the Midwest say that November 7th is their favorite day to be in the deer hunting woods. While that might be true for a lot of people, my favorite day to be in the deer hunting woods is December 4th. All jokes aside, December 4th has been a very good date for me when it comes to killing mature deer.
By Kaleb Comstock
Cellular Cameras have truly changed the way we hunt. There are many benefits of using cell cams, as well as some cons. In some states, cell cams aren’t even legal. In today’s blog, we are going to dive in and discuss the pros and cons of using cellular trail cameras.
By Kaleb Comstock
One of the most important things that I have learned as a hunter is how to internet scout. What I mean by internet scouting is I have learned how to read maps, topography, and food sources. Being a teacher, I need to maximize the number of opportunities I get to hunt which is why I rely so heavily on OnX Maps and internet scouting. OnX Maps is a piece of technology I utilize religiously, all year long no matter what I am hunting.
By Kaleb Comstock
As the calendar flips over to a new month, that means one thing, we are down to the final month before the season begins. In that final month, there is still a ton of deer work to be done. Trail cameras, treestand work, glassing and shooting my bow is what the next month has in store for me as we inch closer and closer to September 1st - opening day in Nebraska.
By Kaleb Comstock
As we turn the calendar to July, that means one thing. We are one month closer to opening day. In Nebraska, archery season opens up on September 1st. Time is ticking on finishing up our summer prep work to get prepared for the season. This year has us excited as we are tackling another new piece of property. A property we have high expectations for, the property we call “Plan B”. I picked up permission on Plan B in December of 2021.
By Kaleb Comstock
When I first got into hunting as a little boy, turkey hunting is where my roots laid. I can remember being a little boy going turkey hunting with my dad and following his every move, not really knowing what I was doing, I was just happy to be there. I will always remember the first bird I ever shot with my bow at the age of 8 years old. I remember that very first bird I called in all on my own. Turkey hunting has provided me with countless memories that will last a lifetime. As I have gotten older, my passion for turkey hunting has only grown. Throughout the years as I’ve gotten older, I have learned how to use what I learned from turkey hunting and put that towards becoming a better deer hunter. To me, watching a big tom coming straight down the pipe, full strut, spitting and drumming is equivalent to that 150” buck reading the script and walking straight down the trail.
One of the biggest mistakes people make shed hunting is looking for big full antlers with tines sticking up in the middle of deer trails. Truth is, that’s not reality 95% of the time. You pretty much have to “train” your eyes to spot antlers.
By Alex Comstock
As I write this blog post in mid-July, I’m coming off a few days of vacation. During vacation, I make it a priority not to work, as it’s easy for me to work on “vacation” as all I need is my phone to work in many cases. One thing I still found myself doing though throughout the last few days, as I do it almost every day this time of year is to open up my OnX hunt app and pour over maps all over. This past week, I was spending most of my time looking at our new property in Nebraska. Team member Kaleb Comstock and I have gotten access to quite possibly what could shape up to be the best deer hunting property I’ve ever had access to. Time will tell for sure, but based on what I believe, it’s going to be really good.
By Alex Comstock
It’s been awhile since I’ve come out with a new blog post. When WhitetailDNA first started 5 years ago, I had been publishing multiple blog posts per week. As the years went on, I transitioned to focusing most of my attention on YouTube, and publishing as many new videos as possible. As I did that, blog posts fell to the wayside for the most part. From here on out, I’m aiming to get back into publishing new blog posts weekly while I continue to pump out YouTube videos. So, whether you enjoy to watch videos or read (or both!) there will be the best of both worlds. Today, I want to focus on five summer tips for deer hunters and some things you can be doing over the next few months to help benefit what you accomplish in the fall.
By Alex Comstock
Today, I’m going to cover some underrated spots to locate antlers. In the last blog post, I covered some go-to shed hunting areas (which you can read HERE). The go-to spots are great, but these underrated spots can surely produce as well. So let’s jump into them.
By Alex Comstock
Wow, it’s been roughly six months since I’ve written a blog post here on WhitetailDNA. That’s pretty crazy, given that at one time, this was a site where I produced almost daily blog posts. Recently though, I’ve been giving most of my attention to my YouTube channel, where I’ve been producing weekly videos. If you want to go check those out, be sure to visit the YouTube channel HERE. This year, I’ll continue to produce weekly videos on the channel, but I’m going to get back to written content as well. You can look for new blog posts weekly.
By Alex Comstock
It’s amazing to me just how much trail cameras have developed over the years. From film, to digital, to now where a trail camera can snap a photo and seconds later you can be viewing that photo on your cell phone. If you take a second to stop and think about it, it’s fairly mind blowing. There can be some controversy though, over cellular trail cameras and for good reason. We’ll talk more about them this upcoming season, but today, I wanted to focus on three benefits of using a cellular trail camera and how they can help you.
By Alex Comstock
Spring scouting is no doubt important, and it’s a part of the puzzle you must put together to help you be more successful as a deer hunter. I want to make that clear from the outset. But, with that said, I also feel that some hunters out there put too much stock into spring scouting. How? Well that’s what I’m aiming to explain in today’s blog post.
By Alex Comstock
Being that we’re now into April, for most people, shed hunting is just wrapping up as your minds are probably turning to Turkey hunting. For me personally, as I look out my back deck window, all I see is snow still covering my backyard. Up here in Northern Minnesota, I’m typically a few weeks to a month behind most of the midwest when it comes to spring and April is usually my best month for finding sheds. So with that, today, I’m going to bring you ten of my favorite shed hunting tips.
By Kaleb Comstock
April is here, the weather is getting nicer and you might be thinking to yourself what could I do this weekend? A lot of people say your bucks are killed in the off-season. Whitetail season is 365 for us here at WhitetailDNA. We are constantly thinking about whitetails and putting in work to make our falls as successful as possible. In today’s blog we are going to dive into three things you could be doing in the off season to make sure your fall is as successful as possible.