Trail Cameras
Do you use a trail camera also known as game cam where you hunt? If not, it is something you should consider adding to your hunting tools. Many people use them to do nothing else but to get photos of deer and wild game. Others like the fact that they can actually see what deer are on the property. The fact is trail cameras are good for both purposes. However there is another reason I like to use them where I hunt.
Recently on a scouting trip to one of the properties I plan to hunt in 2006, we placed a trail cam over looking an area that had some good sign. The cam was left out for one week, Saturday to Saturday. That is a total of eight days it was there to take photos.
we managed to get some great photos of the deer that were using that area, confirming what the sign was already telling us. Five out of eight days there were deer using this area. Sounds like pretty good odds of seeing deer if we hang a stand there. Or does it?
One other piece of information I like about trail cameras is the fact that many of them also keep track of not only the date but the time the photo was taken as well. This is valuable information. Although my trail camera captured a vast amount of deer on as many days, The time stamp shows they are only using the area after 8pm.
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Using the information we got from the trail camera as far as date and time, I can now further scout the trails backwards away from this area and try to find a staging area the dear are using during daylight hours. If I find such a place, another trail camera hung for a few days should tell me when the deer are using it.
If the sign continues to show use in the first area, we will save it for later in the season as we get closer to the rut and have a better chance of seeing the buck we want during legal shooting hours. If you are not using trail camera, you should be. They are not just for taking pretty photos.
posted by huntingc @ 1:36 PM
3 Comments:
I just started using a trail camera this past Summer. A kid in our club got one and after seeing his pictures I got one for myself. Very cool idea, in fact three of the deer taken this season so far on our property are deer that I have pictures of on my camera, unfortunately none of these have been some of the large bucks we saw in our pictures but we still have a month & a half left in the season. I have the Gamespy 200 & I've noticed that when I walk by it after retreiving my pictures, it doesn't always go off. It just doesn't seem to always trigger when I think it should. Have you had the same problem with the trail cameras too?
you know these are great little tools to have in your hunting arsenal but they are still pretty new as far as the digital models go.
I have heard good things about the Game Spy but I have heard many different models and makes have similar problems. i use CuddieBack and you will find alot or reading material on the net that doesn't have much good to say about them. Personally I have had no trouble from mine and from what I can tell it has a very fast trigger speed.
Other things that will effect the trigger is weather, warmer days can cause the trigger to miss shots because the cam has a hard time sensing movement. Turn you sensativity to high to help with this problem.
I think as these things get upgrades they will get better but I'm also affraid the price tag will go up too......
With the price of trail cameras coming down every year more people will find them as a tool for scouting for deer. The only problem that I see with the current models is security. Buyers need to remember that a password protected camera does not keep someone from stealing, it only keeps them from using it.
Jeff
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