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The Archery Project
Trail Cam Tactics That Kill: Whitetail Scouting, Scrapes & Data
Ever feel like your trail cameras are running you, not the other way around? We sat down with outfitter and taxidermist Joe Kolaszewski to turn scattered photos into a system you can trust. Joe runs 65 cameras in Kentucky and spreads more across the Carolinas and Virginia, so we dug into what actually moves the needle: e-scouting smart, placing for terrain, and adjusting with intent.
We start with the map—pinch points, funnels, hard transitions, inside corners—and use cameras to confirm the plan instead of chasing random pics. Joe explains why community scrapes matter in pre-rut, how to spot them at trail intersections, and why offset angles beat “in-your-face” placements. We unpack height vs. angle tradeoffs, false triggers from sun and brush, and the small tweaks that change everything: facing north/south, micro-moving five to ten yards, and shortening delays as chasing heats up so the buck doesn’t get missed behind the doe.
If you’ve ever bumped a deer and bailed, you’ll like Joe’s aggressive but thoughtful approach—kneel, wait, sometimes call, and keep wind, entry, and exit routes tight. We walk a real 69-acre scenario with a hidden field and a deep ditch to show how to prioritize ditch ends, crossings, inside corners, and clear-cut edges. We also cover brand reliability, battery life, resets, and note-taking to turn images into patterns you can hunt. The takeaway is simple: cameras are scouts, not oracles. Woodsmanship is still the edge.
If this helped you see your camera strategy in a new way, follow the show, share it with a hunting buddy, and leave a quick review so more hunters can find it. Got a question or a tricky setup you want us to map out? Send it in and we’ll tackle it on a future Q&A.
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All right, ladies and gentlemen, trail camera strategies. We're diving into it deep today. Uh, because I got Mr. Joe Kolashewski back on the podcast, um, and probably one of the most aggressive individuals I've known as far as one hunting strategies go, uh, and then two, your camera strategies. Because we've talked in the past, right? And this it's talking about Kentucky.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Right. Because, you know, you put Brian on a deer. Brian shot a killer velvet deer earlier this year. Yeah. And I was talking to you about it. And, you know, you you brought up cameras. I'm like, oh, how many cameras do you run on this property? 65 up in the in the state of Kentucky.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, in this entire state of Kentucky, about 65.
Zakk Plocica:65 cameras, which blew my mind. Yeah. Right. Um, you know, I'm cameras are one of those things, man. People can either use them to their advantage or they can be detrimental to their overall season.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah. I think.
Zakk Plocica:From what from what I've seen from people.
Joe Kolaszewski:I I would agree 100%.
Zakk Plocica:Uh, and I think some people, uh, if you don't have an actual strategy for cameras, like I said, you can just be chasing your tail. I mean, you're just hanging cameras, uh, and you know, you hunt based solely off what you see. Yeah. Uh, and it takes away from, I mean, potentially opportunity because you're only basing on what you visually see from a camera. So it can definitely be detrimental to some people. But I wanted to kind of dive into, you know, your thought press on it because you're more well-versed in cameras than probably anyone I've ever talked to, just solely based off the volume that you run and then the years of experience doing it, right? Because you don't just hunt for yourself, you also guide um very successful in all of your hunting ventures. Um, whether it's whitetail, bear, turkey, doesn't matter. You kill stuff. Always. So that's what we're gonna get into. So how many states do you have cameras in currently?
Joe Kolaszewski:Uh this very moment, there's South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky. So only four states, right?
Zakk Plocica:So four states, right? But they're loaded with cameras. 65 just in Kentucky.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, so the majority are in Kentucky. Um I think down in South Carolina there's two. In North Carolina, I might I maybe run in like 10. Um, Virginia, there might be five or six, and then Kentucky. Kentucky is solely where a lot of the cameras are currently. Um, and that's just where it's that's where I primarily white tail hunt is in Kentucky. So that's where I have the majority of them.
Zakk Plocica:Okay, so you got a total of probably over 80 cameras out though. Yeah. Roughly. Yeah. Which is a lot.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah. So they're I want to make this clear. They're not all my cameras. Right. I'm not paying 80 cameras per month. Um, that would be astronomical when it comes to a bill.
Zakk Plocica:Right, but you're still involved in the process of where they go and how they're deployed. Absolutely. So that's what we're gonna get into a little bit and kind of understand this a little bit more because after we talked about it, it made me think a little bit, because I haven't run cameras in forever, right? Um, one, probably because I'm lazy with them. Um, and I've never really sat down and kind of put together a strategy based off property and cameras, uh, and obviously just my own ignorance. Sure. Uh so we talked about it and it really intrigued me. So I got into my cameras and then I went out and I hung cameras, and I'm like, okay, here we go. We're we're on the start of something. Um so when it comes to like the role trail cameras play in hunting, um, they've evolved pretty dramatically over the last few years.
Joe Kolaszewski:Absolutely. I mean, I remember this is when I was in high school, and it was I believe it was a Moultrie um camera, and it it actually had uh Joey would know the name of it, it's just a regular camera where you have to develop the film. So you would get 30 shots wherever you placed this camera, and then you'd have to go out there, take the film out.
Zakk Plocica:Seven of them were you setting them up.
Joe Kolaszewski:Oh, 90% of it was just nothing. Yeah, and um, we'd go to Walmart, and Walmart would develop your pictures. And at the time, I I feel bad for saying this, but this is what I did. And I'll be honest, at the time, you know, if there were one picture out of the 30, you'd only have to pay for the one picture. You'd be like, I don't want these other 29, though, it's not what I wanted. So it it it was that's how I got started with cameras. Um, that was me not having a clue what I was doing with cameras, you know, whether just throw it on a bait pile or just throw it on a random scrape, you know, a rub line, really not knowing how to attack it with using cameras. So it's been a huge learning curve. And and this has been going on for you know 20 plus years trying to figure out and how to use cameras to our advantage. And I think what people need to understand is cameras, they're great. It's a tool in our tool belt, it's not the end-all be all. And a lot of times cameras, they're not telling you everything. You know, they tell you you gather great intel from these cameras, but there's a lot of things that these cameras can be missing. If it's slightly off, you know, two, three degrees at an angle, it might not pick these deer that move uh the uh the movement of the deer up. So constantly adjusting them as well.
Zakk Plocica:Yeah, and that's kind of what I want to get into. So, like, how does like when it comes to scouting, right? Um, I think it's easy to get lazy with things, right? And you like you talk about, it's a it's a tool in your tool belt, yeah, and you got to use it as such. You can't become reliant on it. So, how does it work as far as your scout your scouting strategy goes? Like, how do you deploy them whenever you're scouting a property?
Joe Kolaszewski:Yep. So we'll say a brand new property, brand new track. For I always start first with doing e-studies, you know, map studies, trying to find pinch points, trying to find these funnels, um, just natural terrain features that are gonna kind of bottleneck these deer or bear, whatever it is you're hunting. Um, these natural features, and this is not running off of, you know, say we're not baiting or anything. This is just solely hunting the land. Um, and there's no egg fields, it's just open woods. So trying to find natural funnels, trying to find any type of natural food source, and that's gonna be dependent on the year. I'm not gonna keep a camera on a oak tree that's dropping, you know, in late December. I'm gonna move, I'm constantly moving cameras.
Zakk Plocica:So that's you don't find that as a problem, like where you're in there too much because of cameras.
Joe Kolaszewski:So with the cell cameras, I I I think that can date back to with the SD cards when you had to go out there and physically check as far as you know that increased amount of pressure, the increased amount of scent you're putting down. But when normally when I place a camera, I'll leave it out there for a month or so, try to gather some kind of data, and then if I have to adjust, I can adjust from there.
Zakk Plocica:So do you so that's that's a good point. You leave it out there for like a month before you start making adjustments. Oh, for sure. So it's so easy to put a camera out and then say, nope, nothing. Yeah, go move the camera. I think I think a lot of people do that.
Joe Kolaszewski:I I would agree with that. And you you have to you one, you have to learn from your mistakes. And if you're not learning from your mistakes, you're gonna keep making that mistake. But you have to be confident in yourself in the decisions that you're making and understand that the the pattern of deer, it's always shifting, it's always changing, whatever their patterns are. You know, early season coming closer to the rut, um, food, water, all these things factor into it. So you have to understand that there's gonna be times like right now, my cameras in Kentucky, I I'm getting very little, you know, as far as buck pictures, like they've completely changed their patterns, and I just haven't been back there to you know, move my cameras around. So be it just be okay with not getting pictures every single day, right? You know, sometimes I'll go a week, a month without pictures, and that's just part of the game.
Zakk Plocica:So, how much data is too much though? So, like when does it start hurting in people versus helping them? Like, is there do you see that at some point? Like they're they were they're too reliant on camera data and and it keeps them from actually getting in the woods and actually hunting?
Joe Kolaszewski:I'd say yes and no. I don't think if you process the the data that you're gathering properly, I don't think it can hurt you. But if you're looking at solely what your cameras are providing and making decision like decisions, hunting decisions based off of that. Say if you had a a buck show up consistently for two, three days, and then all of a sudden he's not there for two weeks and you don't hunt at all during that two-week time frame, he's still probably in that core area. He's just not walking in front of your camera. He's not walking in front of your camera, or that camera's just not going off. Yeah. Because there's times where I'll watch your walk in front of my camera, or I'll walk in front of my camera and there's no picture sent to me. So don't get so focused on making a hunt, making a decision based off what your cameras are providing for you.
Zakk Plocica:Yeah. So I when I look at cameras, my thought process behind a camera is it should answer questions, right? That you can't visually see yourself, maybe, right? It's the whole goal of it is to answer questions that you have about a property or about movement. I think that's a good way for people to look at it versus just seeing animals on it, right? The goal is to pattern the animal.
Joe Kolaszewski:Absolutely.
Zakk Plocica:And using it effectively to pattern it and understanding how to read the data. Because I think that's where there's a big disconnect, is actually learning how to read the data, because that's where I have issues with is like, what is this camera actually telling me? Like, what should what am I learning from this? Yes, versus these are great pictures. Yeah. If I were to, you know, win the award for best pictures, yeah.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah. I mean, do you want a a a picture of a nice buck hanging up on your wall from your cellular camera, or do you want the actual deer on your wall?
Zakk Plocica:Exactly.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah. So and and that and and that's the thing, you really got to kind of you don't have to dive deep into it. You just have to, I look at it as applying common sense to it. I'll use them, I'll use them for every animal I hunt. Yeah, I'm running cameras basically 365 days a year. Um, we'll say, for example, for turkeys, if I'm hunting a new property, I'm not familiar with the property, you know, I'll I'll try to find these points again. I'm looking for certain features different than what I'm looking for for deer, but I'm looking for you know possible roost areas, um, looking for those major, you know, strut zones. And then I'm putting those cameras out there because what that allows me to do, say if I'm hunting, I don't know what we'll just say 500 acres, you can only scout so much of that property. So I look at a camera as a tool and almost as another man who's scouting for me. So if I deploy 10 cameras on that 500 acre property, there's essentially 11 of us out there scouting.
unknown:Right.
Joe Kolaszewski:You know, I'm looking at the directions of the birds, the direction of the deer, you know, where are they coming from? You know, are they coming from the bedding? Are they going to bedding? Are they going to food? How are they approaching this ridge? Are they consistently, you know, moving in this direction? And that you you have to really decipher that data that it provides.
Zakk Plocica:Yeah, no, I think that's a big point of it, is understanding how to digest what it's actually telling you versus just looking at it as a great picture. You've really got to break it down. And and that where that's where understanding a basic delay of that land comes into play, right?
Joe Kolaszewski:Absolutely.
Zakk Plocica:You know, if where are they coming from and where are they going to?
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:So how early do you start deploying cameras? You say you run them 365?
Joe Kolaszewski:I I run them 365 days a year. Um, certain tracks where we won't run them that that you know consistent. Um, but it I'm not running as many cameras for Whitetail, 365 days a year. You know, come hunting season, I bump that up, and more cameras are deployed for Whitetail.
Zakk Plocica:When do you start bumping that up?
Joe Kolaszewski:Um, close, I'd say about a month or two out from hunting season.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Joe Kolaszewski:But as far as all my mineral sites, all you know, if I got a feeder out, um, inside corners of egg fields, you know, I'll be running cameras on those basically year-round. Got it. And then for pigs, I'm running pigs, I'm running 365 days.
Zakk Plocica:Because you're hunting pigs.
Joe Kolaszewski:I'm hunting 365. Well, trying to hunt you know as much as I can.
Zakk Plocica:Anytime you have downtime, that's where you're headed. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. So we are in where are we right now? October. Yeah. The middle of October. Yeah. Almost. So early season has kind of come to a close, right? How does the pattern shift now for your camera strategy? Are you are you like, okay, it's time to change cameras?
Joe Kolaszewski:Oh, 100%.
Zakk Plocica:So you're you're back in the woods and you're shifting them around.
Joe Kolaszewski:I'm moving cameras.
Zakk Plocica:So where so initially you were focused on on food, right? And betting with your cameras?
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah. Food, betting, major runways and you know, kind of pinch points, finals.
Zakk Plocica:So now we're moving into like pre-rut, getting close to it, right? When where are you focusing cameras now?
Joe Kolaszewski:So during the pre-rut, that's when I start moving them. I'm looking for you you have to think like a deer, in my opinion. If you want to kill a big deer, you gotta think like a big deer.
Speaker 2:That's what my that's my problem.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, you think like a button buck.
Speaker 2:No doubt, man.
Joe Kolaszewski:So if you want to kill big deer, you have to think like a big deer, in my opinion. So what I'll do is I'm looking for hard scrape lines. You know, I'm not deploying, you know, 15 cameras on every single scrape.
Zakk Plocica:If I find 15 scrapes, dude, I find myself like I'm walking through, I'm like, oh, there's a good spot. It's a good thing I've only got two cameras on me. Yeah, exactly.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Have a row of these things laid out.
Joe Kolaszewski:You gotta think, if you find 15 scrapes, it's their scrape line, they're gonna eventually come that scrape where you have your camera. So trying to take that to my advantage, and you know, I'll put things that I'll put drip bags out, which is just you know, a buck urine. It's supposed to only drop during the daytime. Um, I'll put uh I forget the name of it. It's basically it's uh dope on the rope. Okay. So it's just the rope that's hanging.
Zakk Plocica:So you you do a lot of creating habitat or and improving upon the habitat for the deer in order to capitalize on what you're doing. Would you apply that to for the same thing for like public though? Like certain aspects of that?
Joe Kolaszewski:Um I I haven't hunted public in a very long time. Okay. I mean, I hunt on base. Yeah, which is kind of pretty much but you don't have the same, there's more restrictions. Yeah, you can't run cameras or anything on base. Um, but as far as if you find hard scrape lines, like try try to focus in on that area because that's uh a core area for the deer. Um, but for the cameras, you know, putting them on the scrapes, putting them, you know, making you know, finding the community scrapes is really what I like to do. So define a community scrape. So, and I could be completely off if Google or someone wants to correct me, go for it. Um, but a community scrape is something that they're using it year-round. Okay, it's not necessarily used just for running purposes, it's normally a larger scrape. There's you know, nine times out of ten, I find there's intersecting trails going to this area. So every deer, not every deer, but a lot of the deer are using this scrape. It's just not your bucks. So, and that's just how they communicate, you know, with the different glands and you know, oils and the stuff that they put on the branches, down on the you know, on the grass or dirt and everything. So trying to find those, put in the camera there. I have found that gives you a really good indicator once it that shift of if new bucks are in the area, what bucks you still have in that area, and kind of how to shift your hunting you know presence around that.
Zakk Plocica:So are you keeping a camera on that particular scrape majority of the time? Or are you shifting to that scrape as we get into like pre-rut rut?
Joe Kolaszewski:I'll I'll probably I'd say a week before pre-rut kicks off. Okay, I'll throw a camera out there and I'll start modifying some things. If I gotta you know make a mock scrape, put a licking branch, you know, put a dope on the rope type thing out there. So I'd say like end of September.
unknown:Okay.
Joe Kolaszewski:Trying to move cameras to those community scrapes, which I think are community scrape areas.
Zakk Plocica:That makes sense. So what about as far as like your presence in the woods? Right? So when it comes to like moving cameras, are you like I'm basing it around when I'm hunting, or I've got its its own day set for moving cameras, or I'm looking for inclement weather when I can move into wear when it's like raining and stormy. Like, how do you plan to shift cameras with keeping your impact minimal, or does that not really, in your opinion, matter too much?
Joe Kolaszewski:Some will say yes, it's a huge factor, but I think it's how you go about it. Um, it's again applying strategy to it. There's times where I go out there and I just gotta move cameras, and I'll move 10, 15 cameras if I have to. And then there's times where prior to going to a sit, you know, I'll pull one camera and move to another area. The the biggest thing in eastern North Carolina is difficult because I put all mine in bare boxes and I and I run an impact, so it's it's pretty loud. So I I normally won't hunt and move cameras here in eastern North Carolina. That's gonna be more of a designated day.
Zakk Plocica:Okay, so those are fixed cameras. You're yeah, so with that being said, you know you're setting these up in areas that are highly likely to have deer coming through. Yeah, so then what makes you key in onto those features for those? Because you're not they're not mobile at that point anymore.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, and that's just having boots on the ground. Yeah, you know, you so what are the primary features you're looking for for that style of like I'm looking for those the scrapes, the community scrapes, the scrape lines, um any type of I I call it more of a historical rub line, just because there's a you know a couple of rub lines. I'm looking for you know years prior rubs as well in that area, because that's telling me okay, this is a core area for multiple bucks, most likely. It's not just you know fresh rubs and there's nothing else around, you know.
Zakk Plocica:So you're looking for that history.
Joe Kolaszewski:100%.
Zakk Plocica:So they're gonna so for for the most part, deer are gonna continuous continuously return to that area.
Joe Kolaszewski:I say yes. Yeah. I I say 100% yes. And and that's where you know, if you look at, you know, say you have a track of land and you have all the deer there in the summertime, early season they're there, then they just disappear. You know, so I call that kind of you know summer staging, and then they have their their core rut area, or it might be two miles, it might be ten miles away, or for whatever reason, that's just where they venture off to. And it it's pretty common that deer will stick to that same pattern I have found of hey, this is where I'm moving to, and then I'll come back to you know, we'll call it home base after the rut's over.
Zakk Plocica:Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, so there's a lot to consider when it comes to deploying cameras. Like you I think so you've got to be pretty methodical about it in your approach.
Joe Kolaszewski:Absolutely. And I look, you can't try not to just throw a camera on a tree.
Zakk Plocica:That's so that's the hard part, and I think that's what a lot of people struggle with is like why why am I even putting this camera here? Right. Um, so I'll give you an example. I went in the woods the other day, and I have a rough idea of like betting, but betting seems pretty hard to define here still. Yeah, like there's so much opportunity for betting. But you know, it was a clear cut, it was all grown up. I know that there's doze betting back there because they ran out, about ran me over, you know. Um, but further back, deeper in the woods right now, which everything seems to be is pretty like nothing is coming out in open fields right now. Like everything seems to be pretty deep in the woods right now, kind of hidden in cover. Got back there and bumped a buck. Um he saw me. He didn't win me or anything like that. Kind of popped out of there almost like he didn't really wasn't sure what it was. Kind of didn't rush out of there, but kind of got up, heard him get out. Yeah, cool, hung a camera there. Yep. Is that a good decision? Sure.
Joe Kolaszewski:Absolutely.
Zakk Plocica:Because then I look further down, you know, I'm I'm walking this transition, right? Where it was clear cut, it's real thick, yes, and it starts to open up. So there's that transition line. I start kind of following that. So there's a little bit of a rub line down there. I'm like, okay, good to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:I go further down, I come upon the first scrape that I find. Should I have hung my camera over the scrape, or did it make more sense to where I saw that general area where that buck was bedded down? Um, or does it different approaches to it?
Joe Kolaszewski:The approach I would have taken, I would probably had three or four cameras out there then.
Zakk Plocica:See, yeah, that's what I was like.
Joe Kolaszewski:And and I just I look at it as the more cameras you can you know deploy, the the more you know data that you're gonna gather. And yeah, he may have been betting there, but it may have just been, hey, I'm I'm chilling here for a couple hours.
Zakk Plocica:Which makes me think because right when we were talking about this, though it was the weather was nasty. It was super high winds, it was raining.
Joe Kolaszewski:And that might not be like his typical betting area. He's really trying to escape the elements, so I'm gonna find a little bit thicker underbrush stuff.
Zakk Plocica:And that makes me think. That's where I come into and I I start that like uh analysis by paralysis. I start to overthink and I'm like, you know, I shouldn't, maybe I should go back and get it.
Joe Kolaszewski:But the good thing is is you thought about it, you know, whether it's you thought about it at the time or you thought about it after, so right there, that that tells me, you know, you're learning from what you're doing. You're not just throwing something out there and hoping.
Speaker 2:Right.
Joe Kolaszewski:You know, so you're analyzing what's going on. And I I'd leave it there for a couple more days. And if nothing, you know, go back in there, you know, stalk back in there, move your camera, you know, push it. There's times when I have cameras that are spread out maybe 30 yards apart.
Zakk Plocica:So and that was so that was kind of leading to my next question. Like, how many qu how many cameras is too many cameras in an area? And I mean, at what point do you like I've oversaturated this and I'm almost intruding and creating pressure by having too many cameras in here?
Joe Kolaszewski:I I don't think it's um creating you know like too much pressure or putting too much pressure on the deer. If you're going in there one time, and this is cellular cameras, not the SD cars, right? So you go out there one, one, you know, I I try to always go when I'm using anything with my cameras, whether moving them, putting them up, I always try to go midday.
Zakk Plocica:Okay, that's exactly what's what my approach is.
Joe Kolaszewski:I don't go early morning, I don't go late in the evening. Um just I'm trying to do my best to hope that the deer are already bedded down, not moving around a bunch. But if you go out there midday and you throw out, you know, three, four cameras, you're really you're going out there one time. Right. And then you're collecting that data over the next you know week, two weeks, whatever it is. So you're not putting a whole bunch, whole bunch of scent out there. Um, and there's different ways to approach it as well. In bear country, I won't do it. Um, but in just whitetail country or hog country, we'll call it, I'll spray my cameras with some type of scent eliminator. Whether it's nose jammer, it's uh you know, just scent-free, just to try to you know eliminate that human scent on it. The problem if you spray nose jammer on your cameras here in eastern North Carolina, bears gonna eat that thing. The bears go after it because they're attractive. There used to be a disclaimer like, do not use if you're in bear country.
Zakk Plocica:Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah.
Joe Kolaszewski:And I've had it happen. Not to me, but to my camera. Yeah, yeah. I'll spray my camera and all of a sudden you got a bear right in the front of the camera.
Zakk Plocica:Yeah, you just see a snower and then you don't see anything.
Joe Kolaszewski:And then you got a busted antenna.
Zakk Plocica:Yep, yeah. Always, yeah. That thing spun around the tree.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Okay, so that makes good. So you don't think you can really, I mean, obviously you can overdeploy cameras, right? You don't need to put them every, like we were talking about, every single scrape or rub that you see, but within reason, yeah, if you have at a general idea, and I'm assuming you're utilizing that to capitalize on his movement, how he's moving through the absolutely.
Joe Kolaszewski:It's you're you're putting that puzzle together. You're trying to figure out, you know, it's a chess match, trying to figure out where he's moving, how he's moving, what time of the day he's moving, you know, and the cameras can also tell you a lot what's going on as far as is you know the pre-rut here. And again, looking at those pictures and you know, kind of diving deeper into that picture that you're getting. It's not just, hey, I got a buck, yeah, let's go get him. Right. You know, what time of year it is, you know, what's the the the shift pattern of the deer, you know, what direction is he coming from, going to type thing.
Zakk Plocica:And utilizing it for wind too, because you can kind of wind map and then you can log that and say, okay, hey, this is a northeast wind through here. He's moving this direction on this wind. So there's a so really being, I think, good hunters, there's a lot of data that's got to be interpreted, logged, and then reviewed, and then understand how to put that into play.
Joe Kolaszewski:And that's what with Onyx is great because every camera I deploy, I'll mark it, and then there's the notes section in there.
Zakk Plocica:So, okay, so that was what I wanted to ask next, too. So, right, so I've got all these marks on on an Onyx, right, for one of these properties. So when you click on it, you can go in and you can label um that particular waypoint or whatever, and you go in and you put notes. So, what's an example of how you label your cameras? Like, is it based so that you because you let's let's let's look back, even if you just have 10 cameras, yeah, right? Realistically to keep up with that on a property is a lot. Sure. So, how do you take and like set your one your onyx? How do you label your onyx? And then how do you internally set your cameras so that you know exactly which spot it is?
Joe Kolaszewski:So every camera that I deploy, and I'll name the camera. Okay, and this is running the Spartan camera.
Zakk Plocica:How do you what do you name them based off? Like give me an example. Do you name Kentucky one?
Joe Kolaszewski:Kentucky two, all the way to Kentucky 15.
Zakk Plocica:Okay, and then you have all these cameras, you've got them labeled. Where do you store that data at? Is it all in Onyx or do you have like a notepad where you long stop?
Joe Kolaszewski:I'll put it all in the notes on Onyx.
Zakk Plocica:Okay.
Joe Kolaszewski:So you can on Onyx, you can um name that waypoint or whatever. You can say, hey, Kentucky one. Yep. You can save images on there if you got a certain book where this is nice when it comes to the outfitting side. Is if you know you say you put someone out there, it's like, hey, this is the the one that we're after, so they have an actual physical picture of it. You don't have to scroll through all your pictures after 30 days. I think it does like a cachet dump on my cameras.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Joe Kolaszewski:Um, so I can save all the pictures to the onyx. If they have onyx, I can share that with them so they can look at it, but okay, this is the shooter, like this is the one that he said don't shoot. So you got a hit list. 100%. Um, and then you know, like you're saying, you're looking at, okay, that this buck came through on this particular day. This is the wind. And it's not always accurate with the wind, but you can set the wind setting on there.
Zakk Plocica:So, yeah, and uh for one thing that I've noticed is like I like whenever I read the wind on a weather app, it says one thing, but like you're saying, it's not always correct, right? So whatever Onyx says doesn't necessarily mean that that's the wind in that area. So that's where having a little bit of boots on the ground scouting is so important, so you can wind map that and have an idea saying, okay, we it's supposed to be a northeast wind, but we're blowing in from the east based off terrain. Yep.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, even setting cameras a little like little things like I try to have all my cameras facing to the north and to the south. So east and west, you know, the sun's rising, the sun's setting. And you're gonna get random. Exactly. And you'll get random, you know, false settings, we'll call it, you know, false pictures that, you know, it's the sun, the shadows that are making it go off. Um, making sure that there's no, you know, vegetation, any branches in front of the camera. Um, I try to find bigger trees. I don't like putting on a smaller tree. So and it's not hiding them from people, it's more so trying to just so it blends in more on the tree. Um, there's times where I'll I'll put vegetation, I'll you know, slam it back behind my camera just to kind of break up the pattern of it and everything.
Zakk Plocica:So, so okay, good point. So I I brought this up to Brian. Brian laughed at me. I I saw it on Instagram or Facebook, and I thought it was interesting. I'm not saying this is the right approach, but it made me think a little bit. We're so big on your whole goal to blend it into the environment is to break up your silhouette, right? The head, the shoulders, especially, right? Because it's very easy to identify an individual or a human based off head and shoulders.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:So you break up that silhouette a little bit, you use your camo, hat, whatever it is to face mask to break up that silhouette. And I got me thinking, um, and then I saw this on Instagram about breaking up the silhouette of a camera, because a camera sticks out like a sore thumb. Yeah, it's very obvious. And I think an animal that lives in that particular area knows what's going on around is very in tune with that environment, right? They they see those trees every day, they walk by them. And when you just slap a camera on at eye level with a deer, there's no, and you've got a um, you know, an IR flash, which is still pink that goes off, or you've got the click of the camera for the aperture or whatever it is that goes off. Those are all alarming. Yeah, it could potentially run an animal off. So I saw on Instagram or or whatever, they took and they masked the actual sensor and the camera itself, and they sprayed an adhesive and they just dipped it in like leaves and stuff. And I was like, that's interesting. I'm not saying that's the right approach, but it got me thinking a little bit more about you know, maybe you need to do a little bit more, put a little bit more effort into hiding the cameras to minimize disturbing the deer or whatever it is you're hunting.
Joe Kolaszewski:I mean, that's basically what I do with some cameras. If it's uh you know closer to a bedding area, right? I'm putting as much veg as I can. If it's on the edge of a field, you know, I'll cut branches and I'll put veg in there. Um, it, you know, spraying that adhesive on your camera, I I think it's a pretty clever idea. I thought so too. The only reason I wouldn't want to do it is because I wouldn't want to deal with a sticky camera at the end of the season or when I'm trying to move it around. Right. I I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Zakk Plocica:Yeah, I thought it was kind of cool, even if you took a different approach with like stealth tape or or just painting it or whatnot.
Joe Kolaszewski:But I paint all my boxes, my security boxes, the bear boxes. Yeah. I'll spray paint a woodland pattern on there just so it blends in with the tree more. Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:No, that makes sense to me. I mean, one theft prevention, too. Right. So especially if you're hanging on public land, like you that's a common thing. Cameras getting stolen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Um, so breaking up the silhouette, I think, is a really good idea, and there's a bunch of ways to do that, whether you're just using natural vegetation or you know, you're putting some kind of tape or something. But the other thing is hanging high too, right? What is your approach to hanging a camera? Do you always hang it high?
Joe Kolaszewski:Uh no, I don't.
Zakk Plocica:Really? Okay.
Joe Kolaszewski:I'm normally I'd say three to four feet off the ground. Really? Um, the only cameras I tend to hang high is one if I don't have a bear box in ancient North Carolina. And that's just sole prevention trying to, you know, a bear stuck and climbs trees. Um, and that's just trying to deter the bear from you know getting the camera. We're down in South Carolina where I Hog hunt because it floods so much. I'll hang them about 10 feet high. Um, you get a slightly different, you know, kind of a picture. I feel it's uh you have to have a pretty decent um sensor on your camera to pick that up. You do, and the the picture won't be you know as clear, I found when when they're higher.
Zakk Plocica:I've noticed too that's so I I typically hang mine high because everyone I talk to says hang them high. And I'm like, that makes sense because I want to get them out of eye level from the deer, right? To me, logically, that makes sense. I'm like, okay. So I hang them a little bit high, six to eight feet, depending on where I'm at.
Speaker:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:But one thing I did notice about hanging them high at the angle is sometimes the camera won't go off.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, your your sensor zone, I feel kind of is going to be a lot well a little smaller. It's not a lot smaller, but I feel like the zone will be a little smaller instead of if you look at an angle here with your your zone, it's straight across. If it's up here and down, right, you're only getting that you know further out distance of it.
Zakk Plocica:That cone. So that's one thing I noticed. So you have to be a little bit more picky when it comes to tree selection. So, what's your thought on hanging it at eye level um that where deer can see it?
Joe Kolaszewski:I I I don't think I and I agree, you know, that there's some of the like the no flashes that there's still something going off in that camera that can you know trigger the deer to let them know, hey, there's a camera here. Um and and I think that comes down to where are you placing that camera? You know, I'm not placing it, you know, five yards from a food source or five yards from a trail. I try to back that off as far there, you know, as far as I can. So you're recessing that camera so it's not just trying my best to. That makes sense. Um, but I I've I I don't think big deer will avoid a camera. I think they're just not walking in front of that camera. Like deer don't know. Just like, you know, say say if you're in your tree standing and you have to use the restroom, you know, I'll just pee out of my tree. Like they don't know, they don't understand that's human urine compared to you know deer urine or bear urine, whatever it is.
unknown:Right.
Joe Kolaszewski:Um, so with cameras, they know something might be different, but I don't take the approach to if I put this camera here, you know, that big 180-inch deer is not gonna walk in front of it because he's educated that cameras are in the woods. Um, so I I I've always hung them three, four feet.
Zakk Plocica:Hmm. I might I might take that approach. Just be a little bit more strategic as far as how far off I hang them from whatever I'm trying to identify.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, and then you know, like I said, veg them up. Yep, you know, try that the the self-adhesive stuff.
Zakk Plocica:These cameras are expensive. I'm I'm scared too.
Joe Kolaszewski:Well, yeah, I got mine in security boxes here too.
Zakk Plocica:So no, that makes sense. Yeah, but I thought it was it was a cool concept.
Joe Kolaszewski:No, I think it's it's cool. I like trying these things like that.
Zakk Plocica:I do too, and it made sense to me because everyone's so big on well, I mean, not everybody, but I'm big on like disappearing when I go into the woods. Like I like the idea of like even my bow, I like to set my bow down and I could lose it. Yeah, I'm like my stuff to be too so do you. Yours is all painted up.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, yeah, I spray paint my bows, yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Um, which I think is good. Anything you can do to give yourself an advantage, because let's be honest, hunting deer, you need it.
Joe Kolaszewski:Oh, for sure.
Zakk Plocica:Right? They they key in on everything, everything matters. You got a lot of variables against you as a bow hunter. Yeah, so stack everything you can in your favor. Absolutely. Um same thing with cameras. So as far as like cell cameras go, when do you even run standard SD cameras anymore? Like SD card cameras.
Joe Kolaszewski:The only time I run an actual SD camera is when I run out of my cell cams and I got my old SD ones. And I I more so use those as deterrence for humans. Um, and and this is if I'm, you know, I got a lease that I'm hunting, or if I you know there's trespassers or something. And nine times out of ten, they probably don't even work. I'll be honest with you. I got cell cameras that you know they got flooded out down in South Carolina, but I keep them and I'll just put them out somewhere on a known, you know, path where I know humans are possibly gonna walk. Because what's the first thing you see, you know, you're walking past something and you see a camera in the woods, it's like, oh shoot, they got cameras out here. Yep, I'm out. And they back out. Or even when you're supposed to be there. Yeah, so it's it's one of those things. I'll use them as like an SD card camera, more as a deterrent for other hunters and other you know, trespassers, whatever.
Zakk Plocica:That makes sense. Um, so have you had any issues as far as reception go with any of your cameras based off where you're at? Yeah, absolutely. So does that make you like you still want to run cameras out there?
Speaker:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:So how would you change your approach with that? Would you run an SD camera for that?
Joe Kolaszewski:Or do you um and this is gonna be dependent on what camera you're running? Yep. And uh the ones I I mainly use are Spartans.
Zakk Plocica:Spartan, that's the one I was I was talking to somebody about.
Joe Kolaszewski:So Spartan makes this base, it's uh I don't it's like coax cable, and there's this huge triangular piece antenna that you can put up on the tree like 20, 30 feet up, so you you can get better reception and better. Yeah, and I've only had to use that once. Um, and it's gonna be dependent on your carrier, Verizon, ATT, wherever you are.
Zakk Plocica:Do you use Verizon pretty much everywhere you go? I do. Verizon, ATT.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, Verizon seems to work pretty well. Yep. Um, but there's certain areas where this the cameras won't work even with that antenna on there. Um, so one, you can put an SD card camera out there, or just don't run a camera. Yeah, but there's always gonna be those spots where you you just can't get reception for your cameras, or you know, it's poor reception and you just kind of hit or miss on whether they're sending you pictures. That makes sense.
Zakk Plocica:Yeah, so how do you distinguish between so like your mature bucks? Yeah, right. So, for example, I see all kinds of like young bucks. I got a good young six, he's got a lot of potential. Um, got him on camera, a bunch of other smaller ones. Would you say that there's still a mature buck in that area? Like, or do some places just not carry mature, real mature animals like that? Because that's one thing that I noticed. I actually had a question um uh from Lindsay Davis. Um, she messaged on the Archery Project Instagram, I think, and or maybe it was Extreme Outfitters, I can't remember, but she was just she's very interested in like getting on mature animals, right? It's hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Like, how do you distinguish, like, when do you like realize, like, hey, this is younger, younger animals here, younger bucks? I need to continue to push further. Like, what's the difference?
Joe Kolaszewski:Um, so geographically you have to understand, and we we've talked about this. Geographically, you have to understand, you know, we'll say eastern North Carolina, for example. You're not gonna have it's not common to have 150-inch deer. Right. They're here, but it's it's not as common.
Zakk Plocica:Um what's what's an average good deer in North Carolina, where we're at, would you say?
Joe Kolaszewski:I would say uh an average good deer, you know, 115. Okay. 120. And you should be you should be proud of any deer you harvest, dough or buck. Right. Um, but I would say the the most common that I will see around this area, eastern North Carolina is, you know, for a good deer is 115 to 120.
Zakk Plocica:Okay, and how old? Like what are we looking at age-wise? Are they on?
Joe Kolaszewski:I'd say that it they're probably around, you know, three and a half, four and a half years old. Okay. Um, there's some deer that I've saw where you know they're five and a half, six and a half years old. Um, but it again, it's gonna be the genetics that you have in that area, the the minerals that you have in that area. You know, some some tracks just they won't grow big deer. Um it it's just it's not gonna happen. You know, whether it's there's too much pressure, you know, all the young deer are being killed, so they don't have the chances to, you know, mature into bigger deer. Um so that's where you have to be selective. If you want to chase big deer and you want to kill big deer, you gotta let the good deer walk. Right. If you want the wall hangers, which you know we'll we'll say a 150 and whatever, but if you want those big deer, those the small baskets, the the younger you know, bucks, you have to let them walk. As tough as it may be. You know, I I take the the I approach where if you know if I got 160 on the wall, my next goal is 170. So if I see a 160, I'm gonna let them walk. Because you're not gonna get that next, you know, 170 if you kill a 160. But it it's just it's however you want to what are your goals when it comes to you know harvesting animals?
Zakk Plocica:That makes sense. So, so what's what's different about those really mature deer versus the younger ones, like habitat-wise, like are they typically more um like secluded, like run on their own? Like, like how do you how do you key on in on them versus like I'm all I'm seeing is young deer. I want to see these more mature ones. What do I need to do different? And how does my camera strategy need to shift?
Joe Kolaszewski:I I I I see both sides of this where sometimes you'll see mature deer still hanging out with younger deer, and they'll they'll I feel that they'll use them almost as like uh almost like a test deer, like hey, you go first. I'm gonna hang back and see what's going on. I'm gonna assess the situation while you go out there, you know, you expose yourself. If you're not alarmed by anything, then I'll come out. Um, then the other side is these these mature deer, they're by themselves. Right. It's you very seldomly you'll find them traveling with other deer. And I have found eastern North Carolina. I try to get into the spots no one wants to go to. The spots that are wet, the spots that are thick, and the spots that have really hard, solid transitions.
Zakk Plocica:Um and when we talk hard, solid transitions, give me a give me an example.
Joe Kolaszewski:You got a thick pine row or a recently, we'll say uh clear-cut area. That's real grown up. It's it's grown up, it's thick. Like you gotta basically, there's areas where I'm you know belly crawling through these areas to get to the open part of the transition. Because they're probably, I would say, they're betting really close to that transition line. You know, they got the thick cover to their back, but then they can see that that open area of the transition where it opens up into whatever that transition is. Um, so trying to focus in on those areas because a deer betting, I feel a mature buck, they're gonna they're gonna play it just like we would. They're gonna play things to their advantage. They're gonna play the wind, but they also want to use their eyes. So they're not bunched up, you know, in the middle of the thickest of the thick where they can't see, you know, 10 yards in front of them. They still want to use their sight, you know, to help them, you know, as far as predators go.
Zakk Plocica:So do you think that you're gonna have to push past those younger deer and like sometimes bump them out in order to get to the mature deer? I think so. And like, and then I'm talking like like trailcram strategy with this. Like you realize you're gonna have to go a little bit further and push in a little bit more and put those cameras in more remote areas.
Joe Kolaszewski:I I do, and that's where your your um entry and exit points are gonna be important.
Zakk Plocica:Well, which was what seems so hard, right? That's the hard part is how do you access?
Joe Kolaszewski:That's where I'll use Onyx and it has the track mode. So as soon as before I you know go into the we'll say this thick stuff, I'll uh I'll hit track, start tracking my you know, whatever you know, path I'm going, and I'll have my veg clippers, a saw, whatever it is, and I'm just slowly walking through there, clipping branches, making my path so it's an easier infill and you know exfil route for when I go back in there to actually hunt it. Um, but you you have to push in. And well, this is me. I guess I I'm more aggressive than most people, but I I push into the thick stuff. I I don't care if I bump deer. Um if you bump them once, you you can get away with it.
Zakk Plocica:Now, if you continue to bump them, so and when we talk about bumping, we we're talking about you've you're utilizing the wind in your favor to get back to these areas, right? The wind's not blowing over you as best you can.
Joe Kolaszewski:Because there's times like I don't know if there's a deer that's downwind of me. Right. You know, I I don't know exactly where these deer are betting. I don't think anyone can tell you that deer is right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nope.
Joe Kolaszewski:You know, so there's times when you have to push in or I push into these areas, you know, whether it's to deploy a camera or to actually hunt, like you have to push into that stuff.
Zakk Plocica:So you gotta see, you gotta, I mean, essentially you gotta risk it for the biscuit. Oh, I guess.
Joe Kolaszewski:That's how that's my approach. And I'm not saying it's the right approach.
Zakk Plocica:I think there's a lot of different ways you can approach this personally, but I think you can also, there's a lot to learn from guys who consistently kill good deer every year. Uh, and you being one of them. I mean, not just good deer, but good animals every year. You've got a lot of experience with it. Um, so when it comes to like, is there a difference in actual, I would say, um, like sign for your mature deer versus like your stand, your younger, like one, two and a half year old bucks versus your you know, three and a half to four. Is there a big difference in sign that you can key in on, or is it something you've got to, all right, I'm gonna deploy here, deploy camera here, I'm gonna watch the sign. Nope, it's just a I need to, it's a young buck, I need to shift. We need to, we need a different approach to find that mature one.
Joe Kolaszewski:I I think that that's a a tough, a tough question, one, because I've saw, you know, I've witnessed, you know, very mature deer rubbing on saplings.
Zakk Plocica:Really?
Joe Kolaszewski:I've witnessed, you know, very immature deer rubbing on larger trees. So I I don't look at a rub unless it's just a ginormous tree. I'm like, okay, that that has to be a big deer. But what I'll try to do is, you know, we'll say if there's a sapling here, there's one here, there's one over here. I'm trying to see how much of these trees to the left and right of that main rub are tore rub. To me, that's the the big indicator of okay, that's a bigger deer, that's a mature deer. So if you we'll say if this is the main tree right here, yep, and you have you know some other saplings here and here, you know, we'll say so.
Zakk Plocica:The main tree is gonna be the bigger tree we're talking about.
Joe Kolaszewski:We'll say if it's the big tree or a small tree. Okay, size really doesn't matter. But then if you have a tree here and a tree here, and we'll say it's six, seven inches to the right, six, seven inches to the left, this one's rubbed hard. These ones are tore up a little bit as well. So it's it's telling me, you know, this deer's a little bit wider, his tines are probably a little bit longer because it's hitting these, you know, peripheral trees here. So that that's one indicator that I can say to to find, you know, hey, maybe I got a mature deer in here. But just solely going off scrapes and going off a single rub, I think is very difficult. Um, now you can look at the tracks in the scrapes, you know, tracks on the you know, trails wherever you're on. You know, a bigger track's gonna indicate a more mature deer. Um, but yeah, I think it's tough to read sign and be like, that's a big deer.
Zakk Plocica:So you've got to take so so realistically, you've got to take a lot of different factors into account in order to look at it. So you're looking at one terrain, I'm assuming you're looking at two, the features of the terrain that are around you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:And then you have to look at the sign, and then realistically, you need to get eyes on with a camera or visually with an observation sit in order to know what you're after.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, and we'll say we'll we'll say it's on a hard scrape line or hard rub line. I'm not putting that camera, I'm trying to get it offset.
Zakk Plocica:Right.
Joe Kolaszewski:I don't want the animal, the deer to see, you know, I'm coming here to rub this tree or to hit this scrape, and all of a sudden there's a camera right here. Like I'm trying to offset it, like I said, kind of trying to make it hidden.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Joe Kolaszewski:Um, the best that you can. But then there's times that a deer are gonna see your cameras, you know, bear gonna see your cameras, anything will see it. Um but then you you look at the as well, is there's times I'll put a camera out, and the next day I have you know, deers, like a face right in front of my camera. Like, so it tells me like, okay, these deer aren't necessarily afraid of this camera. Curious. They're unsure what it is, but exactly they're curious. I've climbed trees. This was uh, I think three weeks ago or so. I was climbing the trees, I got my first stick set, and I'm in saddle hunting, so I got my lineman belt on, and all of a sudden, you know, I hear all this crunch, and it's a nice eight-pointer walking right up to the tree where I'm making all this noise, I'm climbing. So I unhook, you know, and trying to get a shot opportunity. But so that they're curious animals. They want to know kind of, hey, what's going on? Like we've never heard this back here, or we've never saw this back here. So they they start kind of, you know, curiosity will get the best of them at times.
Zakk Plocica:Right. So, and and we talked about it too. Like, you talk about you get in and you bump some deer, right? And you're not exactly sure what you bump. Maybe you see them just kind of take off. And you bumped them as a soft bump, you'd say, right? Like they heard some something, they saw something, they get out. Typically, curiosity gets messed up and they circle back around. Yeah, so so and this is so this leads back to when I was out the other day, right? And I was I was in this kind of a dilemma. Um, I had bumped that deer out, I hung a camera, I backed out about 80 yards, right? And because my thought process on that was he's probably gonna come back in the evening or even in the morning, more likely, but he's gonna circle down wind to try to get to wind, whatever me being there. I mean, what is your approach on something like that? Do you take, you know, back out a little bit and and if you're gonna hang and hunt, right? So you bump something, you you deployed a camera because you know you're in there, you're like, okay, this is a core area for them. I've bumped him, soft bump. Do you back out from that area X amount of yards and then like sit and observe if you wanted to hang and hunt, or like how would you approach it?
Joe Kolaszewski:I'll start looking at trees right away. Okay. Right where I bumped them, I'll start looking up. I'm looking at trees, like, what tree can I go up into right now? Um, and sometimes you have to back up, sometimes you got to keep pushing a little bit because it you just you know it's not an advantageous position.
Zakk Plocica:Yeah, um, because my thought was I was like, oh man, I bumped him. He's 15 to 20 yards is where he was bedded down. Yeah, he had the wind blowing over his back, he had everything in his favor. Wind was blowing over his back, nice, consistent northeast wind. Yeah, he saw me, yeah, kind of saw me busting through there super thick. He got up, so I'm like, okay, I didn't want I I right right there. I froze. I was like, oof, do I want to go any further? And I was so curious. I almost did, but I didn't. Yeah, I was like, there's there's a bunch of travel through here. I can see there's a bunch of um trails in and out of this area. I'm gonna hang it up on an intersection, essentially, is what I did. And I was like, I'm gonna back out 80 yards. I'm gonna because I imagine because the way this property is, he can only go so far around me. I was like, I bet if I cut this in half, he's gonna circle down when if he does, he's gonna circle down when try to win me and come back to that area, maybe. I don't know. Was I right? What would you have done in that situation? Did you see the deer? I saw him initially, but I didn't see him again. I backed up, I I left, I pulled out completely for the hunt.
Joe Kolaszewski:I was like, So what I would do with that situation is learn from that, I'm not gonna call it a mistake, right? But learn from that approach. So next time, if you do that, do something completely different.
Zakk Plocica:Just take a different approach. I I should have stayed in hung.
Joe Kolaszewski:A lot of times, what I'll if I bump a deer, I'll just take a knee and I'll sit there for 25 minutes. That's what I did. I was texting Levi. I'm waiting, like, is this, you know, what is he doing? Or I'll grab my grunt tube right away and I'll grunt at him, or I'll snort wheeze him. You know, there's so many times where I'm walking through the woods and you know, I bust something up, they start blowing, I snort wheeze them, they stop. They stop down their tracks and they just start me and around again. They're not necessarily gonna come back to me. Right. But they think that alertness they think I'm a deer now.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Joe Kolaszewski:Um, like I said, I'm very aggressive when it comes to calling, when it comes to you know, any form of calling, whether it's you know, grunting, rattling, snort wheezing. Um I don't think you don't need to be uh, you know, a magician when it comes to how you're rattling, how you're blowing your grunt to, how you're snort wheezing, you know, because every deer sounds different. You know, I've heard hundreds of animals, hundreds of deer grunting. You know, they all sound different. So it doesn't have to be a perfect tone. Uh I've heard ones that sounded like a pig. Like they just rip one off. It's like a butt growls with primos. I think it was probably 25, 30 years ago. I heard one just it sounded like a pig running through the woods. He was just going crazy. I was like, there's no way this is a deer. And he pops out and has a nice eight-pointer. Uh huh. Okay. So just be uh take the approach of just trying new things when when it comes to that situation. Um, so next time, you know, maybe push forward 40 yards, you know, east-west, whatever.
Zakk Plocica:See what else, because I still don't know what's back there.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Right. It's a it's in a it's he's in a very he's almost like where I found him at. He's at the corner of the property, um, but he's like in the center of this big block of woods. But on the back side, um, you know, super, it's cut, clear cut, super thick grown up. He's right on the edge, like you talked about. He's right there on that, that, that line, that transition line. And then he's got access to, you know, a field back this way, but he's also got access to a field this way, whether he goes, you know, 100 yards this way or that way. So he's pretty central.
Speaker:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Um, but yeah, I was just kind of like, where do we go from here?
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, and it's it's tough. And that's what's really you know fun about hunting. It's something new every single time. But maybe maybe you don't harvest that deer this year. Right. So maybe take the approach for next year, come you know, January. Now you're gonna cut, you know, a clear defined pathway so you can sneak in there, you know, you can remove all the leaves, you know, the sticks, so you can sneak back in there and get to a different you know vantage point to hunt that deer.
unknown:Yeah.
Joe Kolaszewski:And always changing it up. There's very some that hunt the same tree.
Zakk Plocica:Right. So that's one thing that I I do take a uh that's kind of my approach, is I never really I don't have any pre-hung sets.
Speaker:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Um, and I never really hunt the same tree. Um, rarely, right? Maybe two or three times in a season at most. Um but I I like being mobile and I like, you know, honestly keep myself guessing.
Joe Kolaszewski:And and the same thing with cameras, you know, don't always put it. There are certain areas where I'm where I hunt where it's going on the same tree because I have so much, you know, history in this area. Um, and it's just I know the deer are gonna be there. Um there's so there's certain areas where I'll hang on the same tree, but very rarely am I doing that. You know, I'm moving cameras, you know, all the time. Um, it's just like I'm hunting, I'm I'm moving all the time. And using these cameras, you know, uh again as a tool to make you a more successful hunter, I think is um the best way to approach it. Don't don't get so spun up on, oh, there's nothing here.
Speaker 2:Right.
Joe Kolaszewski:You might have to just shift that, you know, four or five degrees to the left or something, you know, on a different trail. If it's not on the main trail, bump it off 10 yards where, you know, because deer deer are gonna move randomly throughout the woods. They're not always gonna be on a deer trail.
Zakk Plocica:And that's the thing I've noticed about some of these bigger deer, yeah, um, is they don't seem to follow the main path.
Joe Kolaszewski:No, yeah, I'll I I could be wrong, but this is the way I approach it. Those main, like beat-down trails, those are gonna be your doughs and your phones working those. Right. And a lot of times I have found that the bucks are gonna be moving, you know, 10, 20, 30 yards parallel to wherever those main runways are. Um, so sometimes putting that camera in the area where there's not a whole lot of sign, but that's where that buck's moving is is a good way to approach it.
Zakk Plocica:It's so hard to identify here, it seems like.
Joe Kolaszewski:It is, because it it's hard to identify, you know, runways for one in pines. Um, but that that's where if you can't identify those hard runways, you know, I'm big on transitions. I'm really big on hunting transitions.
Zakk Plocica:So would you say like new property? Yeah, camera strategy. We're starting fresh. We got a brand new property. I've got let's call it um 69 acres. Okay, right? I've got a 69-acre property. It is it's got a recessed, hidden field, right? You've got access all the way around this field. You've got a dried out um ditch that runs through it that's about seven feet deep.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Zakk Plocica:Um, and then you've got on the far right side was a clear cut that's all grown up. What was your what would you your approach be for like just theoretically on a property like that? So 70 acres roughly, you've got uh you've got access to a soybean field currently, it's either soy or corn, yeah. Um and then you've got a clear cut over here. Like, where do you start with cameras?
Joe Kolaszewski:Uh my first question would be is that the hidden field? What is the so for this hidden field right here? Okay, so this road. So you got a ditch on both sides, left and right of it. Correct. So that's a funnel right there for in my eyes. That's how I see that. So right in here, I'd put a camera.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Joe Kolaszewski:Um so so you'd run a camera there. I would definitely run a camera right here. Because the deer, they're not necessarily lazy, right? Just like humans, they want to take the the easiest path. And that is gonna be the easiest path to transition from this field to this field. Okay. And they're not gonna, you said it's six, seven feet deep.
Zakk Plocica:Yep, there's that, and that's perfect walking through. There's nothing they've got to cross through. I do know that there's a cross that they do cross the ditch in this area in the bottom.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, I would I'll put a camera here and then I would look, I would follow this ditch, and at some point I'm I'm assuming that this ditch probably shallows out.
Speaker 2:Yep, right where your finger's at.
Joe Kolaszewski:Right where it shallows out, that's where I would put another camera because again, they're gonna take the least path of resistance. So they're gonna they they might walk the field edge here and not use this the main road, but where that ditch stops, they're gonna use that's gonna be uh a pinch point for them.
Zakk Plocica:The same on this side, I would do the same exact thing, try to figure out where that ditch ends, and then uh so we're looking at pinch points, we're looking at funnels, it's not our starting point that we've identified from a map.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, pinch points and funnels, and then trying to figure out those transitions um where you'd say where it's logged off, yep, and it does it butt up to just like pines and stuff.
Zakk Plocica:So it's a hard transition line, like you can clearly see it.
Joe Kolaszewski:I would put a couple cameras, well, depending on how long that transition is, how much property you have access to. I'd put a couple cameras along that transition point, um, and then inside corners of these ag fields, um, you know, up in here. So I throw a camera up in that inside corner.
Zakk Plocica:Yep, super thick back over there. Yeah, disgusting.
Joe Kolaszewski:You know, so trying to you again, you have to think like a deer, and where's the most security going to be when they come out to those fields? Right. You know, typically uh, you know, white telegrams want to come out to the inside corners where they can see what's going on out there, right? And they they have the woods to their left, their right, where if they need to evade the area, they can, you know, break off to that direction and get back in the woods. Um, so inside corners, those funnels, pinch points, you know, easy access at wherever that ditch ends and those transitions. And then if you're walking through some of the pines and stuff and you find some of the, you know, we'll call them community scrapes, you know, throw up a camera there. Um it I think it's tough. As far as rubs going there, I'm assuming the rubs would probably be closer to that those the transition area.
Zakk Plocica:That's where there's a whole rub line all the way down it. But there's also um one thing I notice is that there is to the coming towards that inside corner, there's a rub line that starts to work that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Which is everything you've pretty much identified.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:So starting fresh on that property, that's what you're keying in on basically solely from e-scouting without even boots on the ground first.
Joe Kolaszewski:Absolutely.
Zakk Plocica:Those pinch points, those funnels, those hard transition lines inside corners of the field, that's where you're starting with the cameras.
Joe Kolaszewski:For sure.
Zakk Plocica:And you're going to take and deploy as many cameras as you need for to cover that.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah. Yeah. I I would say on that on six, and you can't, I I you can't look at uh we'll say sixty-nine acres and big five cameras. Right. You know, how aggressive do you want to be with it? And how much as far as how much can how many like your freedom of how many cameras do you have? Right. Um, I mean, you could put 10, 15 cameras on that one track on 69 acres, and there's somewhere you can only put two or three. Yeah.
Speaker 5:No.
Joe Kolaszewski:Um, so how aggressive do you want to be with it? And, you know, what freedom do you have to move around that that area to you know put these cameras out? And then, you know, it's as far as the the timers on the cameras, you know, you can go from one second all the way up to like one hour, depending on what camera you're running. Um, the closer it gets to we'll say hunting season for whitetails, I start bumping that timer down to you know 10 minutes, five minutes, you know, getting closer to the rut, I'm going 30 seconds. Okay. And that's simply because if you know you got bucks chasing, you know, you might just get that picture of the dough out in front, and then all of a sudden, you know, right behind is a nice deer or a buck in general.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Joe Kolaszewski:Um, and your camera won't go off. So understanding the trigger speeds on your cameras and and kind of doing some research just at your house or you know, wherever you have the availability to do that is okay, I walked in front of my camera. Now I'm gonna continue walking back and forth in front of my camera until it goes off. You know, just because your timer says 30 seconds, it might be, you know, a minute. Yeah, it's again it's gonna be kind of or dependent on the quality of your camera.
Zakk Plocica:That makes sense. So when we get into quality cameras, you're you're a big advocate of the Spartan cameras.
Joe Kolaszewski:I I run the Spartans. We got Spartans, Tactic Cams, and Brownings.
Zakk Plocica:Um I've heard so Brownings, I've heard more issues with than any of the other ones.
Joe Kolaszewski:I I've had no issues with the Brownies that we're running. Okay. Um the battery life on Brownings is absolutely amazing. So interesting you say that.
Zakk Plocica:I had so I I told you I went and pulled out. I had a camera out there on that property. It'd just been sitting. I thought it was dead. I had not been getting any pictures or anything. No, it's a cutyback.
Joe Kolaszewski:Okay.
Zakk Plocica:Uh cutyback tracks camera. I go back there and pull it. I reactivate the the account, right? Because I hadn't used it. I just left it and I basically forgot it. I was like, we talked. I was like, I'm gonna go pull this thing. I pull it, dude. The batteries are a year old and it still works.
Joe Kolaszewski:So what I'll say with that is it wasn't taking any pictures, though.
Zakk Plocica:It was taking pictures, it was storing them on the memory. Yeah, okay, which was crazy to me. It's uh it's literally at a year.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Same batteries.
Joe Kolaszewski:And I don't know if well it because it's a cellular camera, right?
Zakk Plocica:Yeah.
Joe Kolaszewski:So it maybe if it will take more juice out of those batteries if it's sending you know wireless pictures.
Zakk Plocica:Which is what I would assume. Yeah, it's gonna suck a little bit more out of there because I don't have solar panels or anything on any of mine.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, and that's again, it comes down to that testing phase is of your cameras, what ones you you know decide to run with. Um, I I can't speak on behalf of Cuddy Back, Spy Point. Um But you like the tactic cams and the Spartans and the Brownings? I like the tactic cams, the Spartans, the Brownings. Um, right now I'm probably gonna slowly transition all of mine to Browning. Um, it's just they they offer better program. Um if you're an outfitter, they give you exceptional prices on everything. Um, they just it's it's a better deal that you can get. Um Spartans, I'd say five, six years ago, I feel are the best top-notch cameras, but with just you know, all other cameras have evolved so much in the price points of Spartans, they're they're a little pricier than it comes to the Browning cameras and the tactic cams as well. But it it's just it's try 'em all.
Zakk Plocica:Um I mean, I I mean, but I think people are looking for reliability. Yeah. You know, what do you I mean like what like what What have are those are the three that you would say have worked best for you? Is just reliable, um, quality images. I know we say quality images uh repeatedly getting images to you, uh just a reliable camera.
Joe Kolaszewski:There's times when, like for the Spartans, for example, you know, I got some in the in Kentucky where they just stop working. Yeah. And you have to physically be there to basically uh reformat the cameras so there's nothing you can do. Um I feel Spartans customer service may have gone down a little bit just because it's not they're a terrible company. I think it's just they don't have the the availability for people. Um so it takes them a little bit longer to get back to you. Um, Browning, you can talk to someone, you know, pr fairly quickly. Um but there's certain times where you're just there's nothing you can do besides you have to be there to reset that camera. Right. Um, so you just got to make a trip to wherever it is.
Zakk Plocica:Um it's on the ground, back in on them.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:And so whenever you do have to do that, and like I say, we're in the middle of the season. What's your approach on that? Is it uh you're like, I'm good with it going in there and and and you know, yeah.
Joe Kolaszewski:And again, I'm not, you know, I'm being cautious going, I'm not just you know ripping through the woods. Right. You know, I'm still being cautious to wherever, you know, these cameras are set up, you know, approaching at certain times of the day, avoiding certain different hours. Um, but you know, if if I gotta change the the batteries or if I gotta you know reformat a camera, I'll go in there and do that. Got it.
Zakk Plocica:So you really need to be familiar. And I think one learning lesson too is it's people get very eager with cameras. I'm being one of them, and I'll deploy a camera without fully knowing how it functions. And then I've just wasted my time because then I got to go back and figure it out. Yeah. So I think a big takeaway too is being it's familiarization with your gear. We say it all the time for everything you do: stands, bows, saddles, lock-ons, whatever it is, be familiar with it. It's you got to take the same approach with your camera because they're very technical. Absolutely. So it's very easy just to get suckered in, throwing it out there, and you're like, why doesn't it work? It turns out you didn't set it up.
Joe Kolaszewski:There's been multiple times because with the Spartans, you you have to, there's three um settings. There's off, there's um basically where it initializes, it gathers, you know, reception, and then you have to turn it on.
Speaker 2:Right.
Joe Kolaszewski:There's been multiple times. I'm guilty of it. We're all you know, initialized, cameras ready, boom, hang it up. And then it'll be I'm like, what's going on? Like it's been like a week. I didn't arm it. And and I know I was getting pictures prior to going out to whatever I had to do to you know change the camera out. And then I'll go out there, it's like, oh you dummy, you didn't even turn it on. Yeah, batteries are good. Yeah, batteries are good, everything's good. You just forgot to turn it on.
Zakk Plocica:Yeah, no, I think that's that's especially important whenever you're you know hanging these out of state, right? If you got a lease or something that you've got access to, you really need to be familiar with your cameras.
Joe Kolaszewski:100%.
Zakk Plocica:Yeah, do everything you can to set yourself up for success. So, but what do you think about is like one of the most um like underrated tips when it comes to utilizing cameras? Like what's a what's a tip that you would offer people uh when it comes to camera strategy? Is there anything that really sticks out?
Joe Kolaszewski:Just just first you have to read the sign. You have to you know scout your maps. You can't just throw a camera out there and expect to get pictures. Yeah. So understanding the terrain, understanding that the key things that can you know help you get on deer, I think is very important.
Zakk Plocica:So this does not eliminate your woodsmanship skills. No, not at all whatsoever.
Joe Kolaszewski:Not at all.
Zakk Plocica:It's an arsenal within the tool.
Joe Kolaszewski:100%. It's like you said, it's just another tool that you have, but you still have to approach it in a tactful manner in order to be successful with your camera deployment. Um, and then also once you if you're not getting pictures, don't be so you know apt to completely move that camera and leave that spot. You might have to move it five yards, you might have to move it ten yards, you know, change the angle of it. It's just not picking up the deer in that direct you know cone that it the sensors are at. So just be okay to change things, but also be patient with what you're changing and then reading the the data that those pictures are providing you. Um don't just like you're saying, oh, there's a buck, I gotta get out there. Okay, so what else is this buck telling you? What is this picture telling you? You know, what what time is he moving? How often is he coming? You know, if it's all nocturnal, you know, movement on your camera, you need to move, you know, maybe keep that camera there, but move another camera 100, 200 yards if you're trying to, you know, get this specific deer. Or, you know, it's you're not close enough to his core area with your camera placement.
Zakk Plocica:So that's just reading that information. It's like, okay, he's here. But I still got I've still got to make a move. I've got to get closer to collect a little bit more information.
Joe Kolaszewski:And and bear cameras, the intel that you can gather for bear is tremendous. And the biggest thing I can say with bear hunting and deploying cameras, if all your pictures are nocturnal for bear, you need to move that bait site. Because that there, it's so far away. You know, if it's we'll say one, two in the morning, that bear's, you know, there's three, four, or five bear there every single night, but you have zero daytime pictures, you're never gonna kill that bear. He's traveling too far. They're traveling, you know, it could be one, two, three miles. So you have to reposition where your bait site is, move that bait site, move that camera, try to figure out hey, what direction are all these bear coming in from? Is it from the west, from the east? Okay, if it's from the east, I need to let's push 400 yards, you know, east if I can, if the track allows you to throw out some bait, put your camera there, keep the camera at that you know, old bait site just to make sure that they're still moving that. You didn't you know booger everything because bear are pretty sensitive when it comes to you know human presence. So just moving around when it comes to specifically hunting bear is very important if you want to get a daytime bear.
Zakk Plocica:So we're gonna have to do a podcast specifically on black bear. I I think I mean I think we're we're gonna have to dive in the weeds on that because you have a lot of experience with it.
Joe Kolaszewski:And the season is I think November 7th and so we're we're very close.
Zakk Plocica:So we're gonna have to bust one of those out too. So because I have to pick your brain on that as well. Because it's another thing we were talking about. Yeah, so lots of good stuff, man. Um, what about so one of my other questions is mounting a camera, right? Like, do you use any special mounts or you just mount them to the tree, put a stick behind them, and angle them like you need them to?
Joe Kolaszewski:Yes, with you know, running the security box, the bear box, I'll use uh what are they called? Tricks, not tricks. Um I can't think of the name. Timber locks. I'll use timber locks, and you know, they're about three-inch timber locks. I'll screw it to the tree. And I'll if I gotta angle it down, yeah, I'll just throw a stick up behind it to angle it down or angle up, left, right, whatever it is. Um, but when it comes to other states where there's no bear, I'll I'll just throw my strap on there.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's how I run it. I just put a stick behind it.
Joe Kolaszewski:Put a stick behind it to get the angle that you need. Yep. Always walking in front of your camera prior to leading, whether it's if it's SD one, you know, have SD core reader with you so you can make sure it's taking you know that area that you want it to focus in on. And there's times where it takes me, you know, seven, eight times to adjust my camera so it's perfectly set up. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
Zakk Plocica:It's good to hear like dudes like you, like I'm over the mess with it, I gotta reposition it, move it again.
Joe Kolaszewski:I mean, it could be off, you know, six inches, like, nope, I gotta move it. Yep. I'll move it too. You'll miss everything. Yeah, and it it's just one of those things. Yeah, I think it's the the A-type personalities that we are. We want it perfect or what we think is perfect.
Zakk Plocica:Turns out he's on the other side of the tree.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah. Exactly. He skirted it the entire time.
Zakk Plocica:Oh, that's funny, man. Um, dude, so what else we got, man? I think we covered a lot. So that's a ton of great takeaway, I think, for listeners. Personally, for myself, that's why I wanted to do this, man, because I'm I'm diving more into the the trail camera side of things because I want it to be a, you know, like you talked about, another weapon within my tool belt, and I want to be uh a little bit more efficient with it and yeah, you know, have more strategy versus what I've had in the past. So tons of great takeaways. Anything else uh we need to consider?
Joe Kolaszewski:Uh I'd I'd say for a directional the direction of the camera, um, what I try to do, and we'll say if and this is going to be very specific to hunting over like a bait pile, any type of food source, I always position that camera away from wherever I'm hunting. You know, I don't want I I more so want the camera to be facing me than to be facing away from me. So if the deer do know it's there, you know, it's not triggering them, but they know it's there. Sometimes they might come in and focus in on that camera. And if I'm hunting here and my camera's here and my bait is here, you know, they're always focusing in because they they know something's there. It's not bothering them, but they know it's there, that the click going off, whatever the flash. So I'll try to offset my stand. You know, cameras facing this way, baits here, so more of a side approach to it.
Zakk Plocica:Oh, that's a really good point. So even if you're hunting, you know, set on like a uh travel corridor or a scrape or something, and you're hanging a stand in that area, you do not want that camera to be distracting to where they're focused in your general direction, which you really limit your shot opportunities. Absolutely. That's a really good point.
Joe Kolaszewski:If they're just constantly staring at the camera, right, you're not gonna get that broadside shot. You might be able to pull back, but you don't have that good shot opportunity. So offsetting your position, your setup from where your camera's facing. Super good piece of advice, man. Yeah, I like that.
Zakk Plocica:Cool. I think that's everything, dude. Yeah, man. Tons of information, man. So, listeners, if you've got questions, I would love to have them drop them in, shoot us messages so that we can, you know, build off these and we can do like a QA podcast, which would be cool if you could answer a lot of questions that listeners have, um, just to really help everybody out. Because like I said, you're a wealth of knowledge with them. You have a ton of experience uh and you run more cameras than anyone I've ever met personally. Uh so I mean you can talk pretty intelligently on just about any of it and have a lot of uh good feedback. Um so Joe, thanks for coming on, man. It is Apex.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, Apex Outdoors and Taxidermy.
Zakk Plocica:Apex outdoors and taxidermy. If you've got questions about it, honestly, it doesn't even matter. Bow hunting. If you've got questions about bow hunting animals, Joe is the guy to talk to. Head over, check him out on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, uh, all of it's there. He does guided hunts.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Zakk Plocica:Um taxidermy. So if you need an animal mounted, um, he's limited though, and he's very talented, so you're probably gonna have to get in line.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, I wouldn't take in so much because I I really enjoy hunting.
Zakk Plocica:So that's what whenever you got into it and told me, I'm like, there's no way this is gonna work. But then you said you limit how many you take in. I was like, okay, that's manageable. That's it. So if you need them, check him out. Um, Joe Kolashewski, honestly, my favorite last name to say. Uh, dude, I like always, I appreciate you coming on, man. Sure man, thanks for answering all of my questions. Uh, hopefully, we'll have some questions for some listeners and we can do another QA episode.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, we'll do our best to answer them.
Zakk Plocica:We will, and then we're gonna have to do a follow-up episode. I want to do one on black bears, man. I want to dive into the weeds on that.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, and I think we're in a the perfect geographical location and all the travels that I do. Everyone, I feel, wants to get on a bear. But everyone thinks it's very simple just to get on a bear.
Zakk Plocica:Dude, well, not only that, then we talked about you get on a bear and you shoot a bear, yeah, you gotta get the bear out.
Joe Kolaszewski:Yeah, and in eastern North Carolina where the big bear are, it's not just go in there and drag them out. It's a nightmare.
Zakk Plocica:So we're gonna cover that in another episode. We'll have to get on it and then discuss next week, man. So as always, Joe, I appreciate you coming on, man. Um, listeners, drop some uh comments, give us some feedback, let us know if you got trail trail trail camera strategies that have worked well for you. Um, you know, we're always looking for tips and advice. So drop them in the comments. And that's a wrap on this episode.
Joe Kolaszewski:Sounds good, man.
Zakk Plocica:We'll see you guys in the next episode. Thanks for listening, guys.