Another sign of spring. I can’t start turning dirt on the property, but at least I can put the trail cams out and mix up a new batch of mineral.
I pull down all my better Trophy Cams for the winter, just to save on wear and tear. I just don’t think the intel gathered all winter is worth the time, theft risk, and wear/tear on the cams. Time to get those cams back on the mineral sites and see when the deer start visiting. Always an exciting sign of spring.
I’m going to put a camera on the wood duck box my son made and see if we have anyone moving in. I think this will be a good use of an extra cam, he should really love it if we end up getting pictures.
This winter, I left an older Bushnell Trophy Cam and a new Moultrie A5 Gen 2 running all winter and both did just fine, although alkaline batteries last only 2 months in the dead of winter. Oh well, I still get plenty of pictures.
I’m very impressed with the Moultrie A5 Gen 2 BTW. This new version came out last summer and for a cheap camera, this thing is reliable as the day is long. The only thing missing is a battery meter, so you have to guess at how long is too long on the set of batteries or you have to carry a battery test meter in your trail cam bag. I believe Sticker also had his A5 cams out all winter and was happy with the performance.
Like the original A5, this is cam is pretty big as far as the physical size, but it does use 8 AA batteries now, so that’s a plus. The picture quality is good enough, not as good as higher end cams, but good enough to see what’s going on. For a site where the camera could get damaged or stolen, these are just the ticket if you can get them on sale as I did. I believe they were $59.99 last summer.
As for mineral, I think I’m using the same recipe as everyone else. I’m going to mix up a batch of this stuff as soon as I can and get it out there so it starts soaking in. I now have 3 sites that have been established, the oldest is coming up on 5 years old and the newest site is 3 years old, so the deer really know where to go.
These are awesome for taking inventory. I understand that there’s no proved scientific link between mineral feeding and increased antler size, but I have come over the past 5 years to believe that in areas like mine where there is a very low level of natural mineral in the soil, the licks are beneficial. It’s not that difficult to see where deer visiting a lick even 3-4 times a week are getting hundreds of times the trace minerals as they would normally get if left on their own.
Grouse
