Trail Cams All Year

[RugDoctor]

Anyone keep trail cams all year? Is it worth it? Animals pattern differently at different times of the year, but I suppose you could keep track of who’s coming and going.

[ekul246]

Yep. I keep my trailcams up. I maintain my spot with mineral and salt for the deer as well. I like to get their patterns, timing of velvet coming off, when the rut is, when the bucks are daylighting after velvet comes off, lots of fawns, etc. This spot is a whitetail spot.

I also have blacktail cams out all year. Much harder to find and pinpoint where they’re living. And videos in the tens instead of thousands per year. Best way to piece together the puzzle. I actually had a bear help me out on what the deer were doing lol. I had a cam up that only caught a deer a couple times a year, it had been up for over a year. Then a bear pushed it down again and it recorded the deer going behind the tree constantly. I ended up putting a cam further back looking at the first cam. Finally caught the bucks that were in the area and their travel corridor through the ferns. It’s such jungle in region two, finding their trails can be difficult. Never thought bear would help me out lol

[RugDoctor]

Lots of coyotes on my cam in summer and fall….I just set it again today so I’ll be able to keep an eye on that as well. Good excuse to keep hiking up the mountain as well!

[Sitkaspruce]

I used to, but the cold and bears in the spring were hard on the cameras and batteries, so I now pull all mine (the ones I can get to) in late December and start again in April. I do have three out that I cannot get to, but they are probably dead due to alkaline batteries.

In the spring, I found that when bears first wake up and are wandering around for food, they seem to find the cams a target for playing with. Even the ones I hang up high or are in a case.

Cheers

SS

[ekul246]

The last two years I have only done one cam check on my whitetail cams in region 8 in the summer. Duracell batteries have lasted a full year on the cameras. Though I was surprised they were filming. I just get the on sale pack of 40 from Costco. Enough batteries to do the 3-4 cams that are there. Have not felt the need to switch to lithium. With a 5min delay I get less videos of the same deer hanging out. And they both get almost 1200 videos in a year on a 32mb card. That being said, they’re catching nothing but the occasional coyote and rabbit from the first major snow fall of the year until the deer show back up around the 1st-2nd week of May. Last year I had my first lynx on cam which was cool. Showed up a couple of times on two cams.

[TheObserver]

Yes I leave them out year round and its invaluable info for certain species and areas, even if I dont feel I need to for a certain species/area I will, just to see what preds are around.

Only with Lithiums though no alkaline if they are staying out in cold/wet for extended period, could leak and ruin your camera not to mention they will die fast.

[RugDoctor]

Good info on the batteries….I haven’t had any issues yet…..yet.

[HarryToolips]

I leave mine out year round for the most part; as mentioned, valuable info, especially when you're just learning a newer vast area like myself.. for example, I discovered a decent WT spot end of this season- only had a day to hunt it, but now post season I'm learning some of the intricacies of that spot with cams...

One thing I may change however is leaving cams out may through July; so many wind pics due to leafy growth that catches far more wind, regardless of meticulous setup..

[HarryToolips]

I'm also leaving a few pred cams up for the winter... there was a wolf pack hanging around at one point so want to see if they show up again..

[Stone Sheep Steve]

I used to, but the cold and bears in the spring were hard on the cameras and batteries, so I now pull all mine (the ones I can get to) in late December and start again in April. I do have three out that I cannot get to, but they are probably dead due to alkaline batteries.

In the spring, I found that when bears first wake up and are wandering around for food, they seem to find the cams a target for playing with. Even the ones I hang up high or are in a case.

Cheers

SS

Bears are definitely hard on cams come spring time... but you can get some cool footage of teeth etc


This is 7 months from one camera. A bear proof box is a good idea.



SSS