Smart hunters won’t wait until the leaves begin to change to think about the fall deer hunt. Even as summer heat sets in, they will start their prep work. Scouting, monitoring food sources, and learning deer movements all lay the groundwork for a successful season.
Many enthusiastic hunters will use the summer to visit their favorite sites, glass hillsides, and learn about travel patterns. Savvy hunters will let a tool like the Reveal Xtra package do a lot of the hard work for them.
What Is Reveal Xtra?
Xtra is an affordable add-on to Reveal subscription plans. Paired with a Reveal wireless trail cam, Xtra offers hunters deep insight that can produce a competitive edge when scouting.
- Xtra is an optional add-on plan available that can be paired with any existing Reveal plan
- It costs just $9 a month, and it covers all cameras active on your plan
- Xtra is packed with benefits, including unlimited HD media, on-demand photos, and multi-shot photos
- Enhanced mapping: More than just basic maps, Xtra provides enhanced visibility of land boundaries, landowners, acreage, and public access areas as well as camera and map integration.
- Advanced navigation: Easily drop pins, track paths, and calculate land area to optimize your hunting experience.
- Never miss a detail: Enjoy unlimited HD requests for both photos and videos, ensuring that you always view your images in the highest quality.
- On-demand photos: Trigger photos or videos exactly when you need them, capturing the perfect moments in real-time.
- Multi-shot: Access valuable context with multi-shot images, helping you make informed decisions during your hunts.
- Exceptional low-light pictures: Enjoy TactaColor, delivering full-color, low-light images for improved identification and visual clarity in low-light conditions.
- Activate Xtra by tapping on your Account icon, selecting Plan, and toggling the Xtra Add-On to "On"
- You can cancel at any time
Why Summer Scouting Matters
Think of summer scouting as pre-season training for your favorite sport. It sets the tone for your entire hunting season. Since bucks are somewhat predictable, it’s easy to pattern them, meaning it’s easy to identify their bedding areas and favorite food sources and the travel routes they take in between. In the summer, you can:
- Identify specific animals
- Locate high-traffic trails
- Track antler growth and velvet shedding
- Monitor fawn development and doe patterns
- Track deer inventory
Tactacam Reveal cameras, coupled with the Xtra plan, allow you to skip frequent trips into the field, which risk scent contamination and will spook deer. Xtra supercharges your cameras with unlimited HD photos and videos, while Tactacolor adds color to night-time imagery and enhanced mapping provides better scouting–all so you can prepare for the season ahead.
Summer Scouting Success With Reveal
Here’s how to use Reveal to dial in your fall hunt:
- Choose high-value locations: The advanced mapping with Xtra helps you identify high-value areas so you can plan your camera deployment accordingly. Ideal camera locations include water holes, bedding areas, pinch points on popular trails, or the edges of fields or roads.
- Optimize camera height and angle: Aim for chest height (3-4 feet) and angled down slightly. Avoid direct sunlight and position the camera away from branches that could trigger false captures.
- Use the solar panel: With a rechargeable lithium battery and solar panel backup, your setup could stay powered for months, eliminating battery swaps.
- Fine tune with the Reveal app: Use the app to adjust camera settings, monitor battery life, and receive images in real time–all remotely.
Patterning Deer with Data
Summer pictures from your Reveal cell cam can create a store of valuable data points that can inform your fall hunt. Careful study using Reveal and Xtra can help you:
- Identify individual bucks and how they move
- Recognize activity trends day and night
- Track weather correlations
- Decide where to place stands or blinds
Important Considerations for Summer Scouting
Using your cellular trail cam and the Xtra plan can be a powerful combo tool for those who want to get the most out of their fall hunt. That said, keep these special considerations in mind:
- Access/exit routes may seem obvious on a map but play out differently on the ground–check yours before setting up cameras.
- What natural summer food sources might animals use? Over the summer you can gauge if natural food sources like oak trees or apple trees are producing.
- Try to place your cameras when the winds are optimal, or even when it is raining. And try to refrain from checking your cameras during the summer and early fall.
- Travel patterns will shift as fall progresses and bucks shed their velvet–keep this in mind and think ahead to where bucks will relocate once the velvet is off.
The work you put in over the summer can reap huge rewards in the fall. Pair Reveal with Xtra to get the most data available from your cameras and build a full-season advantage.