Smarter than you think !

After they have soaked up the early morning sun and watched you depart from your morning sit in the blind, they check in.
Now they have all the time in the world to feed undisturbed until you return later to freshen up the bait.
Knowing that you will only return again around 4 in the afternoon, they even have time to take a nap at noon, right under the bait.
Later in the day after they have slept and fed well, they hear the distant but famliar sound of your truck and depart for the night.

Just before dawn they return under applause of baboons and other wary animals to watch you check out again.

" Stalking 'Old Spots' in braod daylight still beats everyday life "

Very Interesting Photo Documentation. Thanks for shareing.

Seloushunter

Nice cat! You should try staying in the blind, and having some people walk back to the vehicle. I hope you get him!

Most highly hunted animals dont get old and big by being stupid. I am not surprised a bit.

I have seen big bucks quite a few times by staying on stand until 1:00 or 2:00. They know everyone is back at camp eating lunch. Around 3:00 they here all the activity of people going back hunting and they lay up until after dark.

looks like you need have the truck come in and refresh the bait but stay in the blind when they leave.

Awesome pictures!!

I would rather see these photos than trophy pictures

Do you often hang leopard baits that low or was that a lion bait?

Your trail camera pictures are very interesting and remind me of a hunt I was on.

We were hunting a leopard in Botswana and were able to determine the time of day he was under the bait by his body prints in the dust under the bait tree. He was lounging in the shadow of the bait tree much like in your pictures.

As the shadow from the tree trunk moved with the changing sun position the leopard moved to lie in the shadow of the tree. After driving up to the bait we could measure the movement of the tree trunk shadow and pretty accurately estimate the time of day he was there.

There were three prints of where he had moved with the shadows movement. One print was still in the shadow so we knew he was just there as we drove up.

We would go out to hunt Kudu and then stop by the tree just to check for sign. After two days of checking that I shot him within half an hour of being in the blind.

We had him accurately timed. I am not sure that would always work but it did that time.

Of course the clock feature on trail cameras would do the same thing as the old fashined method I described above.

Good pictures Helgaard!
Peter.

Very cool phots.

Jeff