Hunters: How to Change up Strategy for New Rules

New trail camera regulations are requiring hunters to reevaluate their scouting plans.

September 22, 2025 By Tony Hansen

In days of hunting’s past, a single strand of your grandma’s sewing thread tied across a deer trail told you all that you thought you needed to know about deer movement. The way in which the thread lay on the forest floor explained the direction the deer was traveling when it tripped the “trap.” Soon thereafter came the TrailTimer, which told you precisely when deer were using a particular trail. Thing is, both grandma’s sewing thread and the TrailTimer were one-and-done scouting tools.

Times have certainly changed in the world of whitetail reconnaissance. These days, trail camera technology seems to advance by leaps and bounds every year, and these enhanced scouting tools are certainly helping deer hunters be more efficient and effective. However, not everyone agrees that they have a place on public land, as evidenced by the recent introductions of new regulations in a couple of states I hunt every fall. That’s right, I’m salty about the recent trend to ban trail camera use on public lands. And, no, it’s not because I can’t kill deer without a camera. It’s because trail camera bans seem to have very little to do with anything other than politics.

It started in 2023 when Kansas banned the use of cameras on public ground, including walk-in areas, which are private lands leased for public use. In 2024 Iowa issued (and then tabled) a convoluted set of camera regulations that left many hunters scratching their heads. I’m of the opinion that it’s only a matter of time before other states follow suit.

Regardless of the reasons for the new trail cam regulations, or how I feel about them, I have to adapt my approach when I hunt in a state where they are no longer permitted on public tuf. Here’s what I’m doing.

WALK MORE

The biggest advantage trail cams provide me is the ability to monitor certain areas while I’m actively scouting others. Cell cams have proven to be invaluable for this. I can put 2 or 3 cameras over scrapes on multiple areas in a single morning and spend the rest of the day looking at other areas in person. With often just a few days to hunt an area and limited knowledge of the properties I’m interested in hunting, that advantage can’t be overstated.

Boots on the ground matter now more than ever. I’ll continue to focus my efforts on locating active scrapes but it’s become much more of a guessing game. I won’t have the option of monitoring multiple areas at once. Instead, I’ll have to roll the dice and choose just one to watch over. That means I need to spend more time speed-scouting areas on foot to evaluate areas more quickly.

MOVE THE CAMERAS

In Kansas, the trail cam ban applies only to public ground; neighboring private land can still have cameras on it. That means I’m going to spend time knocking on doors and asking not for permission to hunt but permission to hang cameras on property lines bordering the public ground I want to learn more about it. Sure, if the opportunity is there to hunt the private ground I’ll take it, but I suspect I’ll have much more luck gaining access to private land to hang a few cameras than to hunt it.

HUNT LESS

After several years of refinement, I had settled into a process that I believe maximizes my time afield. I use trail cams on scrapes almost exclusively and, when hunting a new area, I have 2 or 3 locations with cameras and one that I intend to hunt. When hunting that first morning, I’m not only seeing what’s happening where I’m at, but I have the trail cams monitoring those other areas at the same time. It’s proven to be effective and efficient.

Now, I’ll be able to monitor just one location at a time, and that means I’ll spend more time bouncing between areas during the key times of deer movement in an effort to determine which areas hold the most—and most mature—deer. I don’t know of any other way to do so than to cover ground and make the most of those key morning and evening hours.

Rather than hunting in a prime location, I’ll have to bounce between spots and observe before moving in. Sure, that’s how I used to do it prior to the explosion in trail cam technology, so it’s not completely foreign ground. But it’s certainly less effective and eats up much more time. I’ll adapt. I’ll evolve. I’ll revert to some of my old tactics. But I’ll be honest: I’ll be less efficient as a result, and I’ll miss the fun that comes from seeing what images the trail cams capture.