Here is a question that I am sure has been asked before.

[HoofsandWings]

In looking at the trailcam pictures, how often do you see the same animal that you know he will be around come opening day?
If you see the same animal only once a week, I am not too sure you can time it so you are there when he is.
Also, if you only see the same animal in the middle of the night, what are the odds of seeing him during the day?

[Watimberghost]

I used to get a couple hundred pics a week of a big blacktail buck. He usually only came in the dark. I hiked those hills for countless miles. I found multiple years of his sheds.... Never once laid eyes on him.

Cams do a great job of showing you what's in the area, and can help with patterning but... Sometimes there has to be a little luck involved. Some animals just know how to stay alive, especially those big mature ones.

[Mark251]

I agree.  Trail cameras are great for showing you what's in the neighborhood but seeing a big buck in July doesn't mean that he'll be there in October.  I took this pic of a nice buck on a trail cam a few weeks ago but he may be long gone when the season opens.  Big bucks don't get to be big bucks by being stupid....

[HoofsandWings]

Come September, I am going to find out what is in the area too. I believe I will put my cameras about 200 yards apart. Maybe I will see something. 
I am a little worried that bow hunters will find the cameras. There are only so many trees around in the area I am looking at. Hard to place a camera on an Artemisia.

[Tbob]

I think Blacktails are a little different that whitetails or mulies in that, they don't go far. I remember reading an article that most Blacktails live there entire lives in only a couple square miles..

[HoofsandWings]

Yeah, I read that too. I think it is much less than a couple square miles. That is over 800 acres. I think it is closer to 600 acres.
In my opinion blacktails rather hide than run.
Around here I see bucks standing at the side of the road and cross after I go by.
A white tail would never wait around. It would run for it.

[huntnnw]

depends on specie...whitetails I almost always see bucks that I have on cam come hunting season. If I get them on cam thru july and august they more than likely do not move

[fishnfur]

I'm beginning to think that those blacktail that you get on cam in the middle of the night on many occasions may be bedding farther away and ending up in front of your cam well into their nightly circuit of browsing.  The ones you see on cam closer to dawn and dusk are possibly more local inhabitants.  Then again, it could just be a change in feeding habits based on moonlight cycles waxing and waning that makes them feed deeper into the night.

Certainly, as you get closer to the end of October, you'd expect to start seeing some new faces that you never saw in July.  My guess, and I do mean guess, is that the only blacktail you can pattern well enough to hunt with an expectation of seeing them on a given day would be those that are routinely feeding in Ag fields, orchards, or similar food production lands/neighborhoods.