Patterning Buck Movements with Trail Camera Photos: Introducing Buck Profiles

But patterning a buck’s movement is difficult. Especially a mature buck. While we know they mostly move at dawn and dusk, they are still elusive. And unique. One buck’s daily movements might be completely different than another buck’s movements.

There’s been some fascinating GPS-based whitetail research that highlights these facts. Matt Ross, a wildlife biologist with QDMA, summarized some compelling mature buck movement findings, which are a must-read for the avid hunter.

While we might not have GPS collars to pattern bucks, we do have trail cameras. But even so, tracking a specific deer is time-consuming and—quite frankly—a royal pain. Add numerous trail cameras into the mix, and you practically need a degree in White-Tailed Deer Biology and Management to do an effective analysis. (Something, a lot of us hunters, don’t have.)

When we set out to build DeerLab’s trail camera photo app, creating an easy way to pattern deer was one of our top priorities. After building a strong foundation of features over the past 9 months to support this goal, we are excited to announce that all DeerLab plans now have the ability to pattern buck movements with your trail camera photos. We call the feature Profiles.

See it in action:

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Simply put, Profiles uses your trail cam photos to tell you when and where specific bucks are most active. You can also use Profiles to pattern any game.

DeerLab tells you the following about specific bucks:

• the times he’s moving based on groups of cameras on which he’s appeared
• the times he’s moving at individual cameras
• where he’s been most active
• where you have the greatest likelihood of seeing him

Trail camera photos of a particular buck are automatically grouped in 15-minute increments giving you the most accurate stats available.

Along with easy-to-read pie graphs, you can filter stats by date as well as individual trail cameras. This comes in handy when comparing activity during and after the rut or viewing different times of the season.

And you’ll always have a reference of that particular deer’s photos, grouped by month, in one convenient spot.

It’s a whole new way to view your trail camera photos, and it’s straightforward. You identify a buck; DeerLab provides his patterns.

Here’s How Buck Profiles Work:

After uploading your photos, name the deer or other animal using our tagging system. Tagging multiple photos at once is a breeze. Just select the photos for a particular deer and name it.

Once you have the deer tagged, you can create a Profile. This tells DeerLab to start tracking every photo that has that same tag. So if you tag a buck with the name “Roscoe P. Coltraine," DeerLab updates his profile--automatically--every time you tag a new photo with his name.

Tagging is the most effective use of your trail camera photos to pattern bucks. Of course, there’s still the hunting, so you’ll have some work left. While we can’t guarantee you’ll take that Pope & Young, DeerLab’s Profiles, if used properly, can increase your odds and help you select the right stand at the right time.

We hope you enjoy this feature.