buck on trail camera
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Watch: Trail Camera Captures the Perfect Shot of a Big Buck Harvest

A perfectly-placed trail camera captures the thrilling moment a hunter makes the shot on a big buck during rifle season.

Filming your hunts is no easy feat. If you've ever tried it, you know it's like cranking up the difficulty on your hunt. You've got to wait for the animal to step into just the right spot, and then get the camera rolling on them before you can pull the trigger or let an arrow fly. Sure, it sounds easy enough, but in practice, it's a whole different ballgame—and the pros really do make it look too easy. What's even tougher? Capturing a clean harvest on a strategically set trail camera. And that's exactly what you'll see in today's video.

The team at Leave It to Beaver Outdoors nailed it with this amazing footage from the first day of Pennsylvania's rifle season, one of the best states to hunt whitetail. You see the hunter positioned at the top of the frame, shifting smoothly as a buck comes into view. Then, without missing a beat, the hunter takes the shot—and it's spot-on. This isn't just cool; it's one of the best trail camera captures we've ever seen.

 

Setting up this shot might look easy, but trust me—it takes a whole lot of luck to pull off a camera capture like this. This time, the camera kicked in just in time, all thanks to a doe that strolled through the sensor mere seconds before the buck showed up. Give the footage another watch, and you'll catch a glimpse of the doe exiting the frame right before the buck makes its entrance.

I've been playing around with setups like this myself for years. I've bagged three bucks within spitting distance of my cameras during that time, but I've never managed to get the actual shot on film. It's tough to be sure if the animal is in the shot when you're about to make your move. Major props to the hunter for nailing the perfect setup on what looks like an escape trail for this buck. This kind of trail camera footage is something special—the kind you save and watch over and over again before every opening morning!

READ MORE: BIG BUCK SHOWS UP ON TRAIL CAMERA WITH LARGE WOUND