This is the video transcript. To watch the video for this episode click here.

ANNOUNCER: GrowingDeer.tv is brought to you by Reconyx, Barnes, Eagle Seed, Muddy Outdoors, Trophy Rock, Antler Dirt, Nikon, Outer Armour and Gallagher.

WOODS: It’s July 23^rd, and you may wonder what I’m doing 18 feet up a tree.  Well, I’m checking a trail camera.  Why does Grant have a trail camera 18 feet up a tree?  Well, remember The Proving Grounds is very steep, rugged Ozark Mountains.  This food plot is so steep that there’s no where around the edge we could put a trail camera and cover over 15 or 20 yards because of the steepness. So, we simply came up where we can see much of the slope this way.  Now, we’re missing a little bit on motion detection right here, but as Brad was setting up the camera this morning, the video camera, I put the card out of this camera in my computer and it, gosh, I’m still getting deer and turkey right here.  We’ll show you some of those images and I’ll be able to see the whole field – 80, 100 yards out.  I’m telling you: time lapse options are a tremendous tool to use with your trail cameras.  It’s like your best buddy who won’t lie, doesn’t move and won’t tell anyone else where your deer are.  Time lapse is a tremendous option.

Ooo, here are two shooters on our hit list at 5:50 a.m. in the morning.  5:50 a.m.  Now, that pattern will change, whoo, that pattern will change between now and deer season, but it’s good to know they’re in the neighborhood.

WOODS: We’re going to pull these cameras today and move right into our camera survey.  Brad and I have been thinking and preparing where all our sights are and we’re getting ready to bait those sights.  In Missouri, it’s legal to put bait or an attractant out, out in non-hunting season.  Certainly we’re in July, so that’s no problem.  And I had a, a question this week on “Ask Grant”, the “Ask Grant” feature of our website, says, “Grant, should I do my camera survey now while the bucks are in velvet or wait until they shed their velvet?”  Well, let me answer that one right here on the video.  Definitely before they bust velvet.  This time of year, the physiology in deer is such that they’re pretty tolerant of each other.  They’re grouped up and they’re going food, cover, food, cover. Easy to pattern.  And in a group.  You put an attractant out, they’re starting to switch that metabolism in their body physiology and wanting carbohydrates, not just protein, like they’ve been all summer and they’re coming to corn readily.  Or some corn based product, so, man, now’s the time to survey and count the most of your deer herd.  Now, they’re gonna change that range a little bit come hunting season, but you’ll know what bucks are in your neighborhood and how big they are and your doe and your fawn count.  Now is the time to do your survey.  Stay with us as we work on our camera survey after we pull this camera down.

WOODS: So, we’re just continuing through our morning and we’re looking for ideal places to make our camera survey stations.  And of course, deer sign, or a lot of deer, is one thing we want to see.  And with a lot of heavy browse pressure in this area we know a lot of deer are spending their time here.  But, it’s not where I really want to put my camera station.  It’s easy for a buck to have his head down right here browsing and the camera takes a picture.  Part of his rack is obstructed view by these big soybeans.  Think about a fingerprint.  And if we just get a partial fingerprint, it’s not dead on flat; we can’t identify that criminal or that person.  And those antlers are just as unique as a fingerprint, but we need the whole print, so to speak.  So, we’re gonna go just a few yards over here in the woods and make a camera station where we can get that whole print.

Now, we don’t worry about false events out here with these beans moving with the Reconyx cameras because they have a great system of using both motion – the object has to be detected in multiple motion fragments or sections of the Reconyx view and it has to be a different temperature than the ambient temperature or the air temperature.  It takes too ways to trigger a Reconyx camera.  Two things got to occur simultaneously and that’s why you don’t waste all night on the computer going, dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk, with false events.  Great system.

WOODS: This is a camera site that Brad developed a couple of years ago.  You can tell it’s nice and open, with kind of a solid background.  That big oak tree and that cedar tree just are almost like that piece of paper where you put your thumbprint.  And daytime or nighttime with that great Reconyx covert flash, or that infrared going off, just imagine an old buck coming in here.  There’s nothing, no matter where I am to block the view of those antlers.

WOODS: This is just a great site and of course, we keep a Trophy Rock here year round.  It’s just kind of a natural travel corridor, so even though we know we got deer feeding right over there in the food plot, they come right through here.  And that’s what you’re looking for at a camera survey sight; where deer want to be anyway.  You’ve got a little attractant to slow them down or hold them right there.  And while they’re milling around, you’re getting all different views of that fingerprint; those antlers; to uniquely identify the highest percentage of bucks on the property as you can.  That’s the goal of a camera survey.  This is what the site looks like and we’ll be showing you pictures from right here in the next few weeks developing our “hit list” to get that Z7 out and put the hammer down.