Is there a way to do a trail camera survey without any bucks on camera?

I suggest getting a plane jane cheap camera. I started with moving a camera around the lease ,,,maybe 4 different spots to cover the lease. The most important numbers will be the buck to doe ratio. My procedure is kinda lengthy and involved but try to take pictures every 10 minutes and trip 5 seconds.
If ya need more info let me know.

Some bucks this time of year when the range conditions are good many bucks do not roam around much staying in a small home range. That home range may or may not be an area they use much in the Winter. If a buck has all he needs this time of year, cover, food, Water safety... they might stay on just a few acres if all that is met and they are not bothered.

Dry year camera on water sources gets many of them. If you got good rain and plenty of water food sources and trails/funnel/pinch points....

I collected data for censes around water and thick brush for the fawning areas that I fed with corn. If ya have only one water source I would surround that water with cameras every 50 acres. I would come to refresh the corn and change out sd cards every two days. Running a census will keep the deer around year after year. When ya count bucks keep a picture of each one. After you bring your sd cards in, count deer by bucks and does every 10 minutes and any that come in during the 10 minute segments but if the same deer comes in during the 10 minutes only count them one time, others ya will add to the count. When you are finished count the individual bucks and total bucks and total does. You get the number for the does you will use this calculation....(total individual bucks/ total bucks counted) X the total number of Does counted = individual Does. Now this gives ya Bucks and Does. Now for the buck to Doe ratio divide the total Does / total Bucks . I also keep track the number of 8 pt.s and greater, 7 points, 6 points, 5 points and smaller groups.
My opinion is this will be fairly accurate. Do not use feeders at the census locations. If you use feeders and want a count you need a pen around the feeder. I used 65 X 95 ft..pens. which can be smaller. For every pen ya need another camera location about 100 yd.s away ....this will help count does in the area. For fawns I count early as it is easier to identify each fawn when they have spots.
This is called a census as all the deer are counted and not a sample of the herd and calculated to include all the pasture.

First post so welcome to our forum. I dont understand your question, or beyond a yes or no answer Im not sure your intent with the question.
Feel free to elaborate.

I've done trail camera surveys in the past. The lease I have this year only has does and fawns on it. I was wondering if there was a way to do a trail camera survey if you don't have any bucks on camera.

You can do one but, assuming you have bucks on the property, it woudnt give you much valuable information if it showed no bucks. Theres a lot of info available about surveys with game cameras but I assume they require a lot of camera time at various times and places in order to get any kind of an actual "accurate" number. And then its value is mostly in comparing to some type baseline developed over several years of doing like surveys. In other words, the numbers will not be accurate but theres value in comparing similar inaccurate numbers from year to year.

I disagree freerange, trail camera census is the "only" accurate way of counting your deer. You have to put in the time it takes for sure but the time is well worth it. Even just to fine what you have on your lease without a formal count. I've done them for years...itis still the best way to get good numbers. Surveys count only a part of the pastures...a CENSUS counts all your acres and all your deer in an accurate manner. I recommend camera census. Yes you have to correctly follow a precise procedure. There is no other way for an accurate measurement.(that I know of).

By the way there .... there is no such thing as comparing to some basline over several years..each count is an individual thing each year.

I don’t think you can say cameras are the only accurate way.

redchevy ..you are right...cameras may not be the best way...its just I don't know of one that is as good. Thanks for keeping me straight. LOL

okie...how many acres do you hunt?

I only place cameras on trails other than a single camera that I put near a pond and very seldom get photos of bucks. And yet, once the rut kicks in and deer start feeling hunting pressure on surrounding properties, I often see more bucks on the property than does. But my partner and I also do our best to keep the noise down and leave the ATV's parked until there is meat on the ground. We both park near the gate and always walk to our stands. Apples and oranges to compare deer behavior inside and outside of hunting season.

Keep in mind too that mature bucks often prefer their own travel routes for better safety from predators, including during the rut. They tend to take routes that are parallel to heavily used doe trails on the downwind side of prevailing winds to better scent check for both does (during the rut) and the predators that follow/track them.

Even if you’re not catching any bucks on your trail camera, you can still get some valuable info. Try setting up your cameras in different spots and angles to see if that helps. Sometimes tweaking the camera settings, like motion detection or sensitivity, can make a big difference. If you want to draw in some bucks, using attractants or bait might do the trick. Even without bucks, paying attention to the other wildlife can give you useful insights into the area. Just keep experimenting and adjusting, and you might start seeing those elusive bucks soon! Good luck my friend

I’ve never used cameras. Thanks for the education. Quite a bit of science involved. I just may pull out the one stored up in its package this year for the fun of it. Generally, I watched with binoculars at dawn and dusk to get into their patterns during my hunting opportunity hours. Won’t be hunting in the dark, so I never thought I ever needed to. Also; never hunted deer commercially. Learning it’s quite a process.

I should add that hunters who only use cameras to watch their feeders have no idea what other deer are living in or passing through the area. As a general rule, does stay within a relatively small area as compared to bucks. And this is especially true during the rut when a buck might range for several miles in search of hot does. And as the case when young bucks look for more distant core areas from where they were born, it's the bucks that Mother Nature tends to scatter most to ensure greater genetic diversity.

Here's a phot of a buck that showed up just once on one of my trail cameras. I never laid eyes on him or got another photo of him. Most likely one of those more mature bucks who has gone totally nocturnal and will eventually die of old age if he hasn't already.

What area are you hunting? What are you trying to accomplish with the survey? Just population estimates of the doe?

The reason I ask is that when I have hunted Oklahoma and Kansas, I rarely got any pictures of bucks on the trail cameras. Feed is irrelevant so it doesn't draw them in like it does in some places in Texas and the bucks didn't seem to move far at all during the summer and early fall.

I would monitor the fields, trails, pinch points, bedding areas, etc and would be lucky if I had 3 pictures of bucks before mid to late October. I would take a scouting trip and see a couple of bucks at first and last light in the fields or edges of brush lines but even moving the cameras, I couldn't catch them on it.

From mid October through Thanksgiving, I would have 35-45 different bucks on camera in Kansas.