Trailcams "tips n tricks"

[dino]

It seems that there is alot of people out there using tcams now so I thought it might be a as a good time as any to start a thread about helpful advise on using them to get the best results.
One tip I have learned is if your tired of getting pics of just parts of animals instead of the whole animal is to use a mineral lick or salt lick to stop them in their tracks. This way they seem to stop and lick, giving your cam time to get lots of pics. The only problem that I have found is that I sometimes get over a 1000 pics of the same animals coming back time and time again. This uses up memory fast but you dont guess anymore at what just whizzed by the cam.

[Wrayzer]

I had the problem with half animals, only seeing the last half of the elk, didnt put any salt down, had the camera in more of a traveling area. Salt is going down today, 1000 pics of one are better than not knowing if its a cow or bull, just need a bigger memory card.

[Elkaholic]

Always make sure to check for long grass or branches that come into your cameras trigger range. You can get alot of pics once the wind picks up. Break the branches and you can also stomp the ground if the spot allows for it. Another thing dont point it so the sun will be shining right into your camera at any point. You will get crappy pics and most cameras have fits with the sun right in their face. Just a few things I have noticed.

[moose2]

When using your camera in winter , ice can form on the lens making pictures blurry or even unreconizable. I was told by guys on this site to put a plastic bucket or tupperware container over the camera like a roof. I did this and it helped lot even when it was -25 you could still make out images. These temps are hard on batteries though . I know some of the guys on here have ideas for this problem as well.
Mike

[Mikey Rafiki]

Strap it down well, top and bottom. Had mine bumped and licked out of positions a few times. When on steep terrain, take a few sample pics and view them on your digital camera before you leave, just to make sure your height and angle are bang on.

[RoscoeT]

I've not used a trail cam before but have been thinking about trying one. I don't live close to the area I hunt so scouting is done on a weekend a couple of weeks before opening.

How long do you typically leave a cam in place on a trail or feeding area?

Would 2 days be too short a time to bother with it?

I thought I could leave it there for a few weeks and pick it up when hunting, but then I would have no idea if that area is good until I was there, rifle in hand.

Any tips on this?

[dino]

Always make sure to check for long grass or branches that come into your cameras trigger range. You can get alot of pics once the wind picks up. Break the branches and you can also stomp the ground if the spot allows for it. Another thing dont point it so the sun will be shining right into your camera at any point. You will get crappy pics and most cameras have fits with the sun right in their face. Just a few things I have noticed.
Good advise Elkaholic. Another thing to add to that is to turn down the sensitivity of the unit to help with fewer pics being taken of moving grass and branches.

[rides bike to work]

This is the first season using my moltrie trail cam.I put it out in january in a spot had a small game trail left it for a month nothing,but when retreiving it there were plenty of fresh tracks just out of view .So i put it in a new locatio left it for 6 weeks and crushed some apples in front of it nothing.This has gone on all year always lots of fresh tracks near by but just out of veiw .There was always good pics of me coming and leaving so thres no dout its working properly .2 weeks ago if did some hiking and dialed in a spot with multiple trailes all merging with fresh tracks every where so I put down a bunch of oats and salt so hopefully I get a pic before opener.So in my expeirience The info Ive gather from hiking in the bush every couple weeks has been more usefull than the trail cam but the trail cam is the reason im hiking so not abad investment in the end .My question is why cant I veiw my pics off the memory card in my camera I end up bringing my laptop every time pain in the ass.

[todbartell]

angle the cam down the trail rather than straight across to get less ass shots

also put the camera where two main trails intersect to double the odds of getting something a pic on cam

[MillBay]

Is it worth paying extra for night Vision, or do the best brands come with it anyway?

[bushpig slayer]

don't use a tree less than 5 inchs round they are weaker and can tend to sway in heavy wind.bad storm one night got 600 pics of nothing but forest the movment made the camera go off by itself.

[Slinky Pickle]

If you have a choice between taking a picture of a shaded area v.s. a sun lit area, go with the shaded one. The cameras use a temperature sensor to detect the presence of an animal and when the ambient temperature surrounding the critter is at the same temperature as the critter itself, the camera won't see it. A moose walking by a camera in 35 degree sunlight is pretty much invisible to the camera.

Also, place the camera so that the critter walks toward or away from it's view and not perpendicular to it. A quickly moving animal near the camera can walk right past it and the camera won't get a picture of it.

Make sure you practise on your own cat, dog, wife, etc. before you take it out and leave it in the bush for weeks on end. There's nothing more frustrating that realizing you forgot a step and the camera didn't record anything. Oh, and if you do test it on your wife.... please post pics. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[mwj]

here's one for ya.
last year i'm sitting in my tree stand waiting for a blacktail to walk down the trail. i know they use the trail regularly because from where i'm sitting i can see my trail-cam. so sure enough just before dark here comes a doe walking down the trail towards me. just before she gets to the camera she makes a detour.....right around the camera's sensitivity zone and then back onto the trail....no picture lol....blacktails!!!

[jeff]

i got 2 bushnell trophy cams one works great the other is constintly takeing pics of nothing its like the senseitivity is to high i turned it down to low on my last visit ill see if that worked in 2 weeks when im up there for opening day for youth season

[.300WSMImpact!]

I've not used a trail cam before but have been thinking about trying one. I don't live close to the area I hunt so scouting is done on a weekend a couple of weeks before opening.

How long do you typically leave a cam in place on a trail or feeding area?

Would 2 days be too short a time to bother with it?

I thought I could leave it there for a few weeks and pick it up when hunting, but then I would have no idea if that area is good until I was there, rifle in hand.

Any tips on this?

I have 6 cams out, I check them every two to three weeks, some are in very tough areas, I find if you check them in a couple days I get very few pics due to the sent you leave behind, after a rain my bait piles or salt get hammered,

[Jagermeister]

Is it worth paying extra for night Vision, or do the best brands come with it anyway?Yes, unless it has a flash.
Night time flash pictures are better than IR, but with flash, when it goes off, everybody will see it unless you are in a very obsure or remote place. I never set the flash to operate in daylight.
With IR you don't have to worry about the flash revealing the camera location.
Bartell's advice is good as this will give you the full animal all the time. I think most people are setting their cameras too close to the area where they expect the animal to be and this narrows the field of view resulting in partial body shots.

[dino]

I've not used a trail cam before but have been thinking about trying one. I don't live close to the area I hunt so scouting is done on a weekend a couple of weeks before opening.

How long do you typically leave a cam in place on a trail or feeding area?

Would 2 days be too short a time to bother with it?

I thought I could leave it there for a few weeks and pick it up when hunting, but then I would have no idea if that area is good until I was there, rifle in hand.

Any tips on this?

roscoe I have left my cams from 2 days to 6 weeks before. You shouldnt need the camera to tell you if the area is good or not, there are many other indicators for that. The cams will only tell you of what animals are there at that time. Most animals dont pattern all summer and fall. I had some cams set up on a ridge during june to november and received lots of gret pics in june and july but didnt get any more until november. I figured the animals were staging at that elevation following the fresh growth up until the snow pushed them back down again in november.
Trailcams are not so much about the pictures but more about how to learn the habits of animals your focusing on before the season opener and during.

[RayHill]

Always use 16 gig cards and fresh batteries every six to eight months. Nothing worse then a full card or dead batteries for weeks of no pics.

Leave it out all year!

I use my cam to get pics of the biggest animals in my area. Then when hunting I will know what I'm looking for, and I won't shoot anything less then the best.

[303Brit]

Lots of good tips already stated, The only thing I can add is cam's are a lot about trial n error. Especially with dusk and darkness, if your bait or lick is too far from the cam all your going to see is eyes and maybe silhouttes. The lay of the land doesn't always permit you to have your camera as close as you like, so be aware of your cam's night time resolution.
Other then that I roll a min of an 8gig card and that typically will outlast my batteries.

303

[dino]

I have another tip especially for guys that are worried about losing their cams to thieves. I have had up to eleven cams but due to weather and wear and tear I'm down to eight. I have never lost one to a thief, When I place a cam I mark the spot with flagging tape, I gps it then I take a pic with my digital camera I carry of the trailcam on the tree its mounted on with the surrounding area in the background. In the beginning I thought that someone had stolen a couple of my cams when I couldnt find them. I didnt give up looking and found them after a couple of hours, thats when I started using flagging tape and taking pics of the trailcam tree. I think that there is a good percentage of guys that just cant find their cams because of poor marking. When it snows it makes it especially difficult to find cams without flagging tape. GPS is only so accurate especially in the timber.

[tash]

Make sure there isn't any flagging tape in the camera's field of view....we learned that the hard way!!
So excited to see that 220 pics had been taken, only to realize that 217 were of that stupid flagging tape!

Seconding (or thirding?) the advice to very securely tie the camera on. We had an elk lick or nudge it off the tree with such force that it flung it about 10 feet and partially cracked the casing...

[SureShot]

I just placed my camera next to a fence by a field. The deer appear to be crawling under the fence to feed on the field.

Last year a bear was playing with my camera. The bear broke my strap and the camera was under the tree taking pictures of the branches and the bears nose.

I find it enjoyable on the off season to hike the paths and hills in search of the best place to put my camera. I have had great photographs of coyotes, elk, and deer. This year I put some apples down and the coyotes were stealing them, never thought they would eat apples.