Tracking Your Hunts, Preserving Your Memories. Journal With TrophyTracks. https://nitter.gq/t.co/lTtdrhkIov
Pennsylvania, USA
Joined October 2011
- Tweets1.5K
- Following1.8K
- Followers1.1K
- Likes1.8K
Pinned Tweet
Need some tips for navigating the TrophyTracks Home Screen?
WE GOT YOU.
youtu.be/s8vw5OkiHzU?si=NSWm…
For years I sat the fresh rubs and scrapes in November and wondered why the big boy never showed. I was hunting where a buck had been instead of where he was going to be. Two seasons ago I slid my stand off the sign and onto the downwind edge of a doe bedding area, and that's where I finally saw a mature buck cruising at noon with his nose down. This time of year they're not feeding or sleeping much, they're checking doe groups. Find where the does are bedding, set up where you can see and smell that downwind side, and plan on staying all day. Where are you setting up this week, on the sign or on the does?
ALT For years I sat the fresh rubs and scrapes in November and wondered why the big boy never showed. I
8
I used to wait for the perfect day to burn one of my best stands. Problem is, by the time conditions felt perfect, the front had already come and gone and I'd missed the two best hours of movement it created.
Last week a fifteen degree temp drop blew through two days before I had planned to hunt, and I almost sat on the couch instead of climbing up. Glad I didn't. Watched three different bucks on their feet in broad daylight, something I hadn't seen all bow season.
Cold fronts this time of year aren't something to wait out. They're the signal. Pressure dropping, temp falling, that's your green light, not a reason to stay home.
Next cold front that rolls through your area, are you climbing up or sitting it out?
ALT I used to wait for the perfect day to burn one of my best stands. Problem is, by the time conditions
11
"Every time I went out, my dad would always say: 'Write down on an index card what you saw, who you were with, the date and time, and the weather.'
He taught me that every hunt teaches you something, whether you fill a tag or not."
That’s how TrophyTracks started. Long before it was an app, it was stacks of handwritten spiral notebooks sitting on the table at deer camp in northcentral PA.
Brian Whipkey with the USA TODAY Network just published a full feature on our story, our roots in central Pennsylvania, and how we're taking that camp logbook tradition into the modern era, without selling out your private honey holes to the internet.
Give it a read:
goerie.com/story/sports/outd…
How many of you still have an old camp notebook or index card tucked in your pack?
ALT Two hunters glassing a clearing in the Pennsylvania woods
I checked my cameras this weekend and about fell out of my stand when I saw a scrape line that wasn't there a week ago. Late September always sneaks up on me like that. One week it's still hot and buggy and you're just topping off minerals, and the next the bucks are already laying down sign like the rut's right around the corner. Easy to stay in summer scouting mode too long and miss it. This is when the real information starts showing up on your cards. Curious where everyone else is at right now. Found any fresh scrapes or rubs yet, or is your ground still quiet?
ALT I checked my cameras this weekend and about fell out of my stand when I saw a scrape line that wasn'
14
I blew a good stand three years ago and it had nothing to do with the stand. I got lazy about my entry route, same trail every single sit because it was the fastest way in from the truck after work. By the second week of season, every deer using that field switched to full dark. Took me embarrassingly long to admit the spot wasn't the problem, my feet were.
Now I scout at least two different ways into every stand before I ever climb up, and I pick my route off wind and visibility, not how tired I am. Costs me ten extra minutes. Saves the whole season.
What's your rule for getting in and out without the deer knowing you were ever there?
ALT I blew a good stand three years ago and it had nothing to do with the stand. I got lazy about my ent
1
21
I made this mistake three seasons running before it clicked. I'd leave cameras out right up until the week before opener, then pull cards and hang stands in the same afternoon. Every time, I'd have a good buck moving daylight all summer on camera, hang a stand right on that pattern, and he'd go nocturnal within 48 hours.
Turns out walking in with a chainsaw and a climber the same week you're checking cards is basically ringing a dinner bell.
Now I pull my cameras at least two weeks out, hang everything I need in one clean pass, and then I stay out completely until it's time to hunt. No more cards to check, no more excuses to walk the property just to look. The best scouting move you can make right now might be leaving the woods alone.
When's the last day you're going in before you let it rest for opener?
ALT I made this mistake three seasons running before it clicked. I'd leave cameras out right up until th
180
I used to leave my cameras hung on the same summer food plot right up until opening day, then wonder why every good buck disappeared the first week of September. Took me three seasons of getting burned to figure out why: food sources shift, acorns start dropping, and bucks split from those bachelor groups the second velvet comes off. If you're still trusting pictures from July like they mean something in October, you're scouting a deer that doesn't exist anymore. Pull a couple cams now, move them to the travel corridors between bedding and the new food, and give it two full weeks before you trust what you see. What did late summer scouting teach you the hard way?
ALT I used to leave my cameras hung on the same summer food plot right up until opening day, then wonder
28
I ran mineral sites into September for years before a guy at the co-op set me straight. Most whitetail states want mineral supplementation stopped 30 to 60 days out from your archery opener, and early August lands right in that window for a lot of you.
Pull the site, let it leach out of the ground, and put that energy into picking apart your trail cam photos instead. You already have the intel. Time to stop feeding and start reading sign.
What's your state's cutoff date, and did you already miss it this year?
ALT I ran mineral sites into September for years before a guy at the co-op set me straight. Most whiteta
21
Drowning in Trail Camera Photos? Turn Data Overload Into a Game Plan
Read more: trophytracks.com/blog/drowni…
ALT Drowning in Trail Camera Photos? Turn Data Overload Into a Game Plan
1
26
Save Days Scouting for Deer This Archery Season
Read more: trophytracks.com/blog/save-d…
ALT Save Days Scouting for Deer This Archery Season
12
Never Miss the Whitetail Rut Again | How TrophyTracks Predicts It
Read more: trophytracks.com/blog/never-…
ALT Never Miss the Whitetail Rut Again | How TrophyTracks Predicts It
14
Soil Testing Your Summer Food Plots is the Best Off-Season Move
Read more: trophytracks.com/blog/soil-t…
ALT Soil Testing Your Summer Food Plots is the Best Off-Season Move
8
End of Turkey Season Recap: Log Your Key Lessons With TrophyTracks
Read more: trophytracks.com/blog/turkey…
ALT End of Turkey Season Recap: Log Your Key Lessons With TrophyTracks
1
1
4
I remember when trail cams were just a way to catch a good picture for the wall. Now half the country is arguing over whether they should even be legal to use.
Utah banned them for hunting a few years back. Arizona and Nevada followed. Montana has cracked down hard on cellular cams specifically. The argument is always the same, that it turns hunting into surveillance instead of skill.
I get both sides honestly. I have leaned on cams too hard some years and felt like I cheated myself out of actually learning a property. But I have also patterned a buck off cam pics I never would have found just sitting blind all September.
Where do you land on this one. Should more states follow Utah's lead, or is this government overreach into how we hunt our own land.
ALT I remember when trail cams were just a way to catch a good picture for the wall. Now half the countr
1
2
140
I skipped minerals two summers in a row and convinced myself it didn't matter. My neighbor, hunting the same ridge, started putting out a site every June. By the time September came around, his trail cam looked like a petting zoo and mine was a ghost town. Turns out velvet bucks build a habit — they pattern onto food and minerals during antler growth and come back to those spots all season long. Now I put mineral sites out the first week of June, every year, without fail. Two to three spots on the best travel routes between bedding and food. Camera over each one. I've killed two of my best bucks within 40 yards of a site I started in June. What's your mineral strategy look like this summer?
ALT I skipped minerals two summers in a row and convinced myself it didn't matter. My neighbor, hunting
56
We all buy something that looks great in the store, only to get three miles back and realize it's just extra weight we don't need. Now it just sits at the bottom of your pack or in the back of your truck.
For me, it was a heavy glassing chair I carried for days and never actually sat in.
What was that piece of gear for you last season? Let's hear it.
ALT What's the single most useless piece of gear you packed last season?
11
Antlers are 50% minerals. During the spring green-up, bucks actually "borrow" calcium from their own skeleton to grow their rack.
Don't make them choose between survival and antler inches.
The science of deer mineral sites: trophytracks.com/blog/deer-m…
ALT Antlers are 50% minerals. During the spring green-up, bucks actually "borrow" calcium from their own
10
Most free hunting apps are barely functional. GPS cuts out, the journal is two text fields, and you hit a paywall by day three. TrophyTracks gives you real maps, unlimited journals, trail cam logging, and weather auto-tracking — for free. 👉 wp.trophytracks.com/free-hun…
1
48
18,000+ journal entries. 4,000+ personal markers. Built by hunters who started with index cards and couldn't find anything better. Log turkey season now — those observations train your deer season predictions in September. trophytracks.com
12
May is the window. Roe bucks are out of velvet, marking territory, and moving on a pattern — if you've mapped your high seats right. Here's how to find your master buck before the rut locks things down. 🦌 wp.trophytracks.com/roe-buck…
9