Author Angelo Nogara’s 157 3/8-inch Pope and Young Club non-typical blacktail had an outside spread of 26 inches. Photos by Rob Rowland.

Trail cameras are effective and efficient scouting tools that you can use year ‘round. For a modest investment, their high-resolution photos can help you understand the behavior and patterns of wild game -- and boost your odds of taking a trophy deer.

We bowhunters are always looking for that extra edge to help improve our success in the field. With a bow, the deck is stacked against us from the moment we enter the woods because for an accurate kill, we need to get so close to our quarry.

To compensate, bowhunters like myself seek out new products each year to give us advantages. We’re constantly on the lookout for faster, smoother-shooting bows, more accurate and durable arrows, range finders equipped with Angle Range Compensation, clearer and more powerful binoculars and deadlier broadheads.

Some might now accuse technology of making it too easy for bowhunters to fill their tags. But I welcome the new improvements of technology that has soared in the last decade. Why not take advantage of the new products that technology has to offer to improve your accuracy and make you a more efficient hunter?

A STATE RECORD
You have to understand that I’m the type of guy who eats, sleeps and lives bowhunting. Weeks before the season starts, you’ll find me out in the woods scouting for days at a time.

But a few years ago, suddenly my work schedule became much more complicated. As I tried to scout multiple areas, I was faced with time-management issues. It’s a common dilemma many hunters face when trying to juggle time among family, work and hunting.

One day I saw some promotional clips of trail cameras in action. The idea of being able to scout an area 24 hours a day, seven days a week, appealed to me. If this would save me time in the field during my pre-season scouting, I thought it was worth a try. What did I have to lose?

So I purchased my first trail camera. Little did I know the impact it would have upon my upcoming deer season.

While scouting an area prior to California’s 2005 A Zone archery season, I noticed a great deal of deer activity in a canyon. A natural funnel led to and from a feeding and bedding area. I set up my trail cam there.

Within days, I had a number of photos of various bucks using a well-worn game trail.

Knowing that I was on to something, I followed up with a regular routine of downloading photos from the camera’s SD card to my computer every few days.

While checking the memory card one day, I almost fell out of my chair. On my computer screen appeared the photo of a tremendous blacktail buck. I’d never seen a blacktail with such a big rack. His main beams were extraordinarily heavy. I guessed his spread to be about 25 inches.

The problem I faced was that every photo of him had been taken at night, just after dark. He was nocturnal.

Even so, I decided to set up a tree stand to give it a try. I thought that if he was to make one mistake, it would be his last: I’d be there waiting to take full advantage of it.

For 20 consecutive days, I sat in that tree stand, waiting for him to show himself, watching many nice bucks pass within yards of me.

Finally, just before dark on the 21st day, my prayers were answered. He stepped out from behind a large oak tree, only 13 yards from my stand.