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Does the flash spook the deer?

1K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  mn5503 
#1 ·
I posted a thread about a scouting camera, which lead me to this question ....... does the flash on the cameras spook the deer? What are yalls thoughts on this?
 
#3 ·
Depends on the deer. Some don't seem to mind it, others will shy away. The older the deer the more weary they can be although I have had some decent bucks not care too much either. If they do shy away it sure doesn't scare them to the next county, they might just avoid the area directly associated with the cam....
 
#4 ·
It definitly spooks some deer, but I don't think it spooks all of them. I have lots of pics where the deer stayed there for several pics and then I have had deer turn inside out trying to get away. They are great tools for scouting and I don't think they it will spook deer into the next county, so I would not worry about it to much. My .02.
 
#5 ·
funny story for ya...a buddy of mine, who is a serious bowhunter, knows his stuff and kills some great animals with his bow. well this year was the first time he got a trail camera and he had it over a scrape and decided to hunt that area. Well here comes this 140 inch buck with split G2's right to that scrape. the guy comes to full draw and just about to shoot and the camera snaps a picture and the buck bolts from the flash in his face, although he got a good picture, he didnt get the shot. so it did spook that deer but i would bet it does not spook all of them.
 
#6 ·
So maybe the best thing to do is just get the No Flash camera and not have to worry about if it really does or does not scare them?? Thanks for the help guys.
 
#7 · (Edited)
funny story for ya...a buddy of mine, who is a serious bowhunter, knows his stuff and kills some great animals with his bow. well this year was the first time he got a trail camera and he had it over a scrape and decided to hunt that area. Well here comes this 140 inch buck with split G2's right to that scrape. the guy comes to full draw and just about to shoot and the camera snaps a picture and the buck bolts from the flash in his face, although he got a good picture, he didnt get the shot. so it did spook that deer but i would bet it does not spook all of them.



Good idea to pull cams from scrapes you are currently hunting unless it's a silent cam and has an IR flash.

I watched this buck pose in this mock scrape, bow in hand, for a bunch of pictures. It was dusk and still legal shooting hours. He should be nice in a couple more years. He never saw the cam go off once. I wouldn't try this with a regular flash, 30 yards from my stand but I do keep regular flash cams out during the season I just put them on trails away from stand locations.









Here he is at another location about 300 yards from the same stand on a foggy/drizzle morning. Set up on one of the many trails that crosses pathes with this particular stand. He stuck around for three pics at this location, even with the regular flash and no attractant of any kind (other than natural browse) to keep him there. He's more than likely sniffin the ground where I was breaking the brush and smellin some mn5503...

 
#9 · (Edited)
Sony homebrews. You can get some super pics with regular flash at night but like I said earlier if you're going to have them out during season I would go with infrared near any stand location.

Here's an example of a Sony s600 with "white" flash, clear weather conditions, this guy stayed for only two pics. But I do have many more pics of him at a natural scrape using IR....



 
#10 · (Edited)
Once I got a picture of this guy, I shut the camera down. I didn't want to take any chances of him getting "flashed" as this trail was only 20 yards from a stand. I had not seen a picture of him since July. I was expecting wolf pictures from this location and didn't bother hunting it because of the wolves. Go figure......

Bottom line some will spook, some won't. Near stands I'm not taking the chance. Away from stand locations, I like the color pictures much better...

 
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