[Predator]

Just mounted the trail cam early this evening. will pick it up in the am to retreive the nights activity. and set it up again tomorrow evening. incidently, there has been a notable increase of activity in my hunt area. I found tracks of a bruzer at the base of my tree.
If its worth seeing, Ill be posting it here.

 

[timberghost]

hope you get some good pics....maybe leaving it out there longer will get good results

 

[Guest]

if you keep going in and out everyday to the camera you will change the deer pattern. the old smart ones will start to avoid the area or at a minimum come through only in the middle of the night and on edge. i don't check mine less than a week and 2 weeks is more the norm until the season is in. hope you get some great picks

 

[Predator]

I hear you, and you are absolutely correct. and I would be very concerned if I where planing the same schedule for any extended period of time. but the activity I plan to exert in the area wont be any more intrusive than what is normal for the area. and I expect the patterns to change somewhat ayway, especially from spring to fall. I really need some familiarity test runs to give this thing a thorough test before it really counts.

 

[Guest]

yup. the things are going to change in the fall but no need to run him out of the county. i run about 10 cameras most all year long trying to see whats in the neighborhood and have been for about 8 years. i made the mistake of checking them to often the deer just disappeared or just started showing in the middle of the night. its fun to see what you got on camera. no mater what we leave scent in the woods. during the season i check the cameras in the woods i'm hunting to see if i'm getting the movement and check the others mid day to see if i should relocate.for that eve or the next morn. they are a great help no doubt. can't wait to see what you got.

 

[Predator]

Nothing to report for friday night and I just didnt get out there tonight. I did get an image though to give everyone an idea of the image quality. see below...

By the way, just so everyone has an understanding on the area I am hunting in and how my presence or lack of interacts with deer and there movement. I hunt in a forest preserve/conservation district. there is a lot of human and human and canine presence in these woods all the time. there is even the occasional mini bike or snow mobile during the winter months. so allthough not tame, the deer are subjected to constant bombardment of human and or unnatural scent.

 

[Guest]

those type places can be tough to hunt. timing seems to be very important. i hunted a place like that and it seemed during the week i'd see something but weekends nothing. i came to the conclusion it had to do with the usage by the non-hunters and the deer knew what days saw heavier the foot traffic, dogs, bikes and what have you. your camera should be a great help in there. thats a good looking pic. is it an ir? did you get the bear box with it?

 

[Predator]

Yes it can be tough there at times, usually when the crops are still up in Oct is the toughest. The area I hunt is a little more didicult for the general public to access as you need special permission of a private property owner to drive to the back side of the CD. there also are not too many trails in close proximity. but caution to the wind, first time you let your guard down the trail cam gets missing.

I didn't get the bear box cause I just didn't even know it existed till I read the enclosed docs.

And yes, it is an IR type camera. that was a main consideration in the choice of the particular cam. I didn't want flashes going off in the night alerting anyone to the presence or the location of the camera.

 

[Predator]

I just got back from the woods. set up the trail cam on one of the predominent trails. and I feel pretty good about not having it smashed or stolen as it is being protected by about 3.2 million mosquitoes. no one in their right mind will be going out there without a purpose or to spend any time lollygagging around.
I did see one doe crossing the field but was too overcome by skeeters to get the camera out of the backpack let alone snapping a pic.

Got the cam set for 3 shot bursts this time, will set it for 60 second videos next time.

 

[Southern Man]

What camera did you get? And how do you like it? Easy to set up? LOL I'm always lookin for reviews on cameras...

 

[Predator]

I got the Bushnell trophy cam in realtree ap. so far I like everything except the price, wish they were about half the cost. setup is not too bad, but its my first trail cam so I have really nothing to compair it to. I posted a pic in this thread to show image quality. judge for yourself.

 

[Southern Man]

Yea I seen the pic. Looks good. I have all Cuddybacks, except one and it's a moultrie. Cuddy backs are great trail cameras except the cost. $200 each and I don't even buy the IR ones. I would like to find some a bit cheaper that work as good. I tried a couple of those Wild Game Innovation cameras, they were trash in my opinion. But I guess you get what ya pay for......

 

[Predator]

The Bushnells run on average around $240 and thats without a SD card and batteries. add those and you are at $300. easy. Thus my reluctance to just hang it anywhere, anytime. Right now, I got vampires protecting it. And we just got Tstorms this morning.

 

[Southern Man]

Holy Cow! :shocking: I paid 200 for the Cuddybacks and I thought that was high.

 

[Predator]

I really need to get some cheaper ones, but you sacrifice so much to get the price down and/or maintain reliability. What would really be nice is the cellular trail cam systems. which I will post on here just as soon as I make my first million. or half a million cash.

 

[Predator]

72 hours later

Well, I was pretty excited when I checked the cam and it said it had recorded 51 images.
That was soon turned into, OH well, learning experience.
In an effort to conceal the cam I had placed it too close to moving foilage. As a result I got a lot of nothing but evidence of wind.I did get a couple of does though. The first 3 pic(upper left corner)

 

[Southern Man]

Yea moving limbs and weeds will get you every time. I set one 2 years ago and thought everything was great. As far as the weeds it was. I set the camera facing a road, maybe 60 - 70 yards away. I thought the trigger was good only to 50', not so. I got almost 900 pics in 3 days. I won't do that again. I will tell you tho, the school bus was right on time everyday :biggrin:

 

[Guest]

the other thing to watch out for is things in the foreground that the camera will focus on giving you blurry pics. oh and avoid pointing it east or west because of the sun

 

[Predator]

the other thing to watch out for is things in the foreground that the camera will focus on giving you blurry pics. oh and avoid pointing it east or west because of the sun

This one dosent have auto focus, it is set to infinity. so all items in the veiw will be in focus at all ranges. East -west isnt too much a concern this time of year because of the canopy. now come late October, that all will change really fast and will be a major concern.

I will try another location soon. I kinda want to keep moving this thing around a bit for short periods of time to get more familiar with it. I think this last setup taught me that until I have run it through all the loops I should limit the length of time it is in the field. keeping the failures to a limit.

 

[Predator]

Ticked off

I went out into the field again today and hung the trail cam in a new location. and away from moving vegetation. The vampires are still out in force along with the other bloodsuckers, TICKS. during the tick check when I got home, I pulled 13 off these suckers off my clothes. the most I have ever found at one time. I knew it was going to be a bad year for them when I started finding them in April.