42 replies to this topic

[Braz]

This could be a poll, but I hate polls, so will just let everyone post. It would be great to hear from those that have Trail Cams what kind they have, why they like it or dislike it, what they would buy if doing it over, and what they suggest someone get.

[Robs223]

Ya I for one am surprised I haven't seen more of this trail cam stuff in here since I joined, or maybe photos just haven't surfaced, anyways I stole the idea from ehd and wished I had done it sooner in my hunting days. Airman and myself figured since we're about 1 month out from deer season it gives us alot of time to scout the area which is only 10 minutes roughly from out homes. From what research I have done it seems to me you dont have to spend $400-$500 to get an effective trail cam, airman and myself spent $92 each and then another $40 on a good SD card (4 gig) and we're starting out with them, ours is the Moultrie Game Spy 4.0 Megapixel Digital Camera. Real curious to see if we get some NICE quality day time photos of some coyotes or deer, we know there in the area due to seeing scat EVERYWHERE! Hope to see some other folks trail cam photos show up in here, great idea Braz

[woodog]

I have a Bushnell Digital Scout 119930 that I bought at Cabela's about a year ago. Most of the new trail cams are cheaper and better now. I haven't had it out of the front yard, but is is great for getting stills or videos of the night critters including neighbor's dogs who are let out to dog poop on someone else's lawn. No coyotes yet.

[Cranky Farmer]

How much are you looking to spend?

[Braz]

Well that is one of the reasons I posted this. It would be good to get an idea of what was available, cost, and hands on evaluations from folks on here. I like that better than the reivews on the web site.

[Cranky Farmer]

Mat and I are running two of the Cuddeback NoFlash cameras. So far they work great. The only things I don't like about them is that they run on d-cell batteries (4 of 'em) and put that darn Cuddeback logo on every picture.

[Robs223]

Mine runs 6 D cell batteries, and the life of it is pretty good, airman and myself just put ours back in the field my 2nd time and his 3rd and we still have more then 85% life left in the batteries. They not only can take still photos but also 15 sec. video, also comes with a strong IR flash for those night time critters. My only complaint so far is the time my camera keeps, after a 4 day sit in the field its about 5 hours off actual time, other then that im happy so far.

[A17Shooter]

Have the Bushnell Trail Sentry. Bought it on sale for about $110. Uses 4 D cells, for a claimed 30 days. Does stills or 15 sec video. Works OK. I'm kinda surprised at how well it does for an el cheapo. Has an IR flash for night stuff.

[Shoot-it]

I need one of those no flashers so I can point it at our diesel tank. I already caught on guy stealing watch out people that you trust sometimes can surprise you sad thing.

[lilwes278]

I'm glad you asked this question Braz, since I've been thinking about putting up a couple cameras at my place. This month's Oregon-Washington Fish & Game magazine has a trail cam article that I flipped through while I was at the store. There were about 5 or 6 cameras in the article that they recommended and gave the specifications for each one. I'll pick it up next time I'm over there and share the details.

[Cranky Farmer]

I want to try the DigitalEye on this site next time I buy a camera.http://www.pixcontroller.com/

[lilwes278]

Went back to get the magazine and saw they had one Moultrie 4.0mp Game Watcher left on clearance. Normally $100, it was on sale for $74 so I grabbed it. It has the IR sensor up to 45' for night shots, does 10 second videos, 1, 2, or 3 pic modes upon detection, has a TV-out and USB port, and has a memory card slot for added pic storage. I've read some complaints that Moultrie's clocks do not keep time accurately so we'll see how this one does... I know it's not one of the fancy no-fla$h model game cams but it's a cheap way for me to try one out. I mounted it by my driveway tonight & put out a large scoop of apple flavored pellets. Should bring in a deer or maybe some raccoons.

[Robs223]

Thats awesome! Post the photos that you get lilwes278

[ehd]

moultrie 4.0 Ir has been working good for me..The coon is checking out the chicken house!!

[Robs223]

SA WEET photos ehd! love how yours keeps time, temp, date, good stuff Airman and myself are retreiving our trail cams tomorrow evening so I'll be posting my photos.

[ehd]

Good luck to you.!! It is as fun as hunting seeing what you get a photo of. i am amazed at the quality.

[Braz]

Yep, gotta get me one of them.

[fakawee]

Braz, just be careful where you put them up. Sometimes your fellow hunters are the worst thieves. I've had 5 of them stolen before in my hunting areas up in the mountains. The only people that would go into those areas are other hunters. It can get pretty expensive to replace them so I've stopped using them. I went to infrared counters that don't give out a flash but record how many times they've been tripped. I just estimate the size of the animals I figure use the trail and set it to that height. They also don't make any noise so the thieves won't know it's there. Those "no flash" trail camera's sound great but they are too expensive for me to leave out in the woods.

[lilwes278]

Boy, am I happy! I didn't get any pictures while the camera was right by the driveway, so I decided to move it to a spot on my northern fenceline where there's an old, half-fallen down homemade tree stand. The barbed wire fence has fallen down at this point so it acts as a funnel for the critters. I did a quick mount with the camera at about 6pm last night, then checked it about 4pm today just to see if it was even working. 72 pictures!!! I had it set to take 3 pictures at every trigger, 6 pictures were of myself leaving & returning, plus 3 more had nothing on them, but I still ended up with 63 pictures that included 3 bucks. Two of the bucks are VERY nice! The wind has been blowing today and yet there were only 3 blank images so the camera isn't overly sensitive which is great. After playing around with it and 2 days of pictures, it still shows 99% battery life. I'm impressed. Here's a pic of one of the larger bucks and a pic of the small buck (the other buck had his head down eating and you can't really see the antlers through the weeds after I downsized the pic, grabbed my brush cutter this afternoon and took care of that problem):EDIT: Images moved to the Game Camera Pictures area.

[Cranky Farmer]

Great pics. Any chance you could get a mower in there to knock that grass down? I bet you'd get more/better pics.

[lilwes278]

I'm 2 steps ahead of ya'. As soon as I saw the night pics (especially those of the 3rd buck), I jumped back on the ATV with my brush cutter and knocked the weeds down. Should get some better ones now...

[Cranky Farmer]

Fantastic. My brother learned the hard way ... he had a BRUTAL rain storm one night with a lot of wind. We had over 700 pictures of the grass, small trees and limbs swaying in front of the camera.

[airman]

Ya my camera got 600 pics of weeds blowing in the wind. Those are some great pics!!

[ShooterJohn]

But truthfully that's awesome Wes. It's always fun to find out what's right outside that you've been missing.

[Cranky Farmer]

Personally I really like the IR flash. If I had a camera here in CA on public land I wouldn't even for a second consider something with a normal white flash. As Fakawee mentioned it would likely turn up missing once man saw the flash and went to investigate.I have both now and I still can't prove the deer or other critters are spooked by the flash. We can see multiple pictures of the same animals at night over a period of a few minutes.

[ShooterJohn]

Well for the price I paid I got the Moultrie from Walmart. They are closing them out which is why the price dropped so much. I got them to throw in a 2GB SD card for the $74 so I got one to play with. I want to get an IR camera but for this price I'll play with this.

[Braz]

Yea John, I got the camera today also. I, unfortunately, had to buy my cards. However, I bought 2 1gig cards so I can change them out. I think that will work well for me. I'm going to my cabin tomorrow for about a week, so hopefully I get some good pictures.

[ShooterJohn]

Very cool Braz. I thought about smaller extra SD cards but i have several and I just like trying to get a deal. I'm terrible but I hate to pay retail for anything.

[lilwes278]

Images moved to the Game Camera Pictures area...

[ShooterJohn]

Nice, I think you like that camera. Pretty neat to see what's out there.