BigGameHunt.net Hunting Forums

[moderator]

June 2004 Feature Article:

An Introduction to Trail Cameras

Please use this area to post comments or questions about this feature article. By the way, forum members have been posting trail cam pictures for some time.

[donmillion]

Well written article with a lot of useful information. I have to admit, however, that I have very mixed feelings about trail cameras. There's a part of me that feels they cross over the line of excessive technology use. I suppose it depends on just how they're being used. I don't know. Like I said, mixed feelings.

[fuzzybear]

What part of using a trail camera is hunting? I don't see the value of hunting with the use of a trail camera. Are they supposed to give an advantage? If so, why would you want an advantage as such? Where does the hunting come in to play if you don't have the challenge of seaching for the game? Why not just pen some animals and when you have enough time, go out to the pen and shoot one that fills your requirement.
Sounds to me as though they would make great targets for that final sight in before the HUNT.

[Quicksilver]

I've never used a Trail Cam, but I like supersider34 pictures, and if it helps fill a bear, buck, or bull tag, I don't see a problem!

Hell, using a trail cam is kind of like trapping, and trapping is sort'a like hunting, therefore using a trail cam is, in a roundabout way, like hunting!

It's all good....

Fat Black Bear

Bear with a Personality

[fuzzybear]

When I purchase a game tag. The tag allows me to be in the field and have the game animal in my possession. How I'm allowed to go about getting the game is clarified in the regulations.
These regulations are established to maintain some sort of control over the control and management of the game and allow a specified number of hunters an opportunity to participate in the sport.
The purchase of a tag is not a guarantee or a permit that says I'm deserving of filling it. There seems to be an "I paid for it" attitude among " hunters" nowadays.
I don't get out as often as I use to. I still buy a license and tags. If I get the opportunity, I go. If I don't, I don't.
If I get the opportunity and don't see any game. Then I got the chance to go hunting but, I didn't get one this year.
I'm not owed a game animal because I purchase a tag. I'm given the chance to get a game animal because I purchase a tag. Where's the sport.

[donmillion]

But fuzzybear, we already do take advantages. Mostly we use the advantage of our superior intelligence to fashion tools that allow us to hunt. When was the last time you went out into the forest buck naked and barehanded to hunt? Even pre-historic man was using technology to give him an advantage over the game when he first invented the bow and arrow.

So, there's no question that we all make use of technology to give us an advantage over the game. The question is, where do we draw the line of excessive technology? Is it excessive to use the latest, scientifically developed camoflage? Scents? Optics? Trail cam? I hunt with a muzzleloader. I could probably argue that the use of a modern, scoped rifle is an excessive use of technology to give an advantage!

In the end, the trail cam is just another one of the technologies that we use. The debate is not whether we are trying to gain an advantage--we are--but at what point the advantage becomes so great that it takes the sport out of hunting.

Personally, I think a trail cam gets pretty close to that point, if it doesn't cross over it. I don't know, though. Once again, like I said before, I have mixed feelings.

[cowgal]

I've never used a trail cam, but I'm intrigued enough that I would like to give it a try, simply for the fun of getting the photos. I've enjoyed seeing supersider's photos.

It appears it would take some skill in trying to figure out where to even place a cam.

Fuzzybear part of hunting is learning all you can about the animal you want to hunt, so why not use a trail cam? I don't see how it would give anyone an unfair advantage, other than to record when a particular animal has passed by your cam. How is that any different than spending days scouting an area? Why would you compare to a penned hunt? Its not even remotely similar.

[fuzzybear]

Hey, guys and gals. I never said anything about the cams giving an advantage. I asked if they did and if they did, what is it.
A cam would be a terrible tool to scout an AREA. Maybe if you had thirty or forty it would make some sense. Besides scouting and surveillance, aren't they different. How about a wire across all game trails in the area. To count movement. Every time the wire is tripped 4 time it counts a head. There wouldn't be any knowledgable threat to the animal so they wouldn't have a reason for caution.

If I needed to feed my family. Is one thing. As a sport, not I.

I also enjoy watching animals in their habitat.

As far as hunting, I fail to see how a cam could help, unless your looking for a particular animal. Then were is the sport. Part of the hunt is outsmarting the game in their environment.
These animals don't get old by walking out in front of someones weapon and I stay alive by not walking into their weapons. If threatened, any one of the game animals could take a hunter out or certainly make him wish he had stayed home. The difference is we (the hunter) are the aggressor. In some cases, as with a hungry cat, we may be the game.

Intelligence has nothing to do with advantage. Every creature on this earth is given the tools they need, whether it be intelligence, instinct, speed, color or whatever. For the record. I don't think us humans are as smart as we think we are.
Try Blacktail or cougar hunting without dogs, if you think your smarter than the game. Someone determined that hunting cougar with dogs wasn't proper and now we have an excessive cougar situation up here. Where is the more intelligent situation.

I'd like to have a cam set in the area that I brought an animal down. To prove it was my kill if there was any question or maybe bag a few poachers or game thieves.

I weigh in at about 200 lbs. Going hand to hand with a 500 lb bear certainly wouldn't be a show of my intelligence.

[donmillion]

My mistake, fuzzybear. I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you were saying that using one wasn't "hunting" because it gave an advantage. Obviously that was not your intention. My apologies.

[fuzzybear]

Hey Donmillion, it's not that big of a deal. I went on my first hunt in 1967 and have enjoyed many hunts since. I'd like to see the sport stay a sport with some challenges left to judgement, calculation and instinct. If the challenges of the hunt are eliminated, what would be left of the sport?
The need to feed a family is different than the sport. If I needed to feed a family, which isn't the case for the majority of the hunters, I would use any means available to me. Fair or not.
If I'm looking for a rack to hang on my wall and a little meat in the freezer. I'd like to think that I used the learned skills that I've been taught.

I'd just like to add one more thing.
"Just because I can doesn't mean I should"

[ipscman2]

Hello,

I used a sensor (without a camera) one year on a series of trails in Oregon for Blacktail Deer. What I learned didn;t help me hunt much, but it did help me understand the deer better. What was clear after weeks of testing was that these deer had NO pattern whatsoever. They would use a trail one day and not again for 2-7, all times of day etc.

Where I can see it would be helpful is with black bear. I drive almost two hours to where I hunt them. There is a small trail that has sign every time I go there. But the sider webs are up across the trail when I go in the early morning. So the bear scat was from at least the night or day before. After three trips to the area, and spending all day, I still have no idea when the bear is coming to the area. Is it daily, every few days, is there a pattern to when - mornings etc? A camera would help answer these questons, OR do what happened with the Blacktail and indicate there is NO PATTERN. That IS the pattern.

I am plenty willing to drive, spend the time (I've stayed overnight many a time) but if the bear is noctural (my suspicion) I'm totally wasting my time here and should go another direction. The camera will answer that question and I suspect I will purchase one to aid in finding out the answer soon.

[Wey]

My Opinion , I think it was a great Article , About a week Before Bow season I picked up 2 Of the Stealth Cams 35mm Camera's . I put them out at my stand and My Cousins stand , To see what we had in the Area The Pictures started to Happen . You could not wait till that film was gone . So you could get them Developed .So anyway both Films Ran out the same Day , It was like Christmas to me when I was Little to see what was on the Film , We knew we had atleast deer in the Pics . It reminded me when I was like 5 and it was Christmas Eve , You could not wait till that Next Morning We got Some Nice deer Pictures , So I went out and Got me the Digital of Stealth cam . I got it 3 days Later from Buying it from the Internet , Was testing it here in the Garage . Took Great Pics ,Then I wanted to test the Flash and it did not Work . Wow what a Bummer , So I called Stealth Cam and they asked me if I had a Local dealer around my area , And I do They called them and allowed me to Exchange it . I was so Excited , Stelth cam stands 100 Percent Behind there camera's and they are so Helpful. But Anyway I have Observed Bear with my Camera and also Deer . I like to see what is Coming in .I know Scouting would be the same But Do you have Pics to show Your Friends ? Fellow Deer Hunters ? Fellow Land Owners ? My cousin Owns the Land I hunt on , And have 3 Other Adjoining land Owners That we have right to there land also . I live about 40 minutes away from the Property that I hunt on .My two Girls Hunt there also . So we Scout and Find the Best Location to set the Camera's . So That Im educating them also How to read where the Deer are . And by the way there are 8 and 11 Years of age . And they can Usually tell from a Buck or Doe by the Print . I"m hooked bad on the Camera's . I will also use them year around not just at Hunting time . I love to see deer,Bear the Wildlife around us . I think it is Just so Cool . But I think we are allowed to our Opinion on what we think . If you don't enjoy it I think it is your right to express your feelings that you Don't for those that do we have a right to express our feelings also . Just trying to get other People out there as excited and Happy with a Purchase as I am . Thanks sorry about Just going on and on . But I hope that this Helps I hope that you have a great ThanksGiving . Wey Benway Happy in Vermont :)

[jonesy]

good article, i was thinking of investing in one, thinking digital rather then flim, but just not sure which one to buy.

[twag]

fuzzybear wrote:
As far as hunting, I fail to see how a cam could help

Imagine yourself being in two different places at the same time? CAN you see or imagine an advantage? If you do not...you do indeed FAIL to see how a cam can help you as far as hunting.

[redrider]

I use trail cams and would say it's more of a tool to see what's in the area. As far as being an advantage I believe you can gain all kinds of useful information from them. I had an area that at one time was a great location and for 2 years after I killed a nice buck there I sat on stand and saw nothing. I was about to give up on this spot and placed a cam, got my pics and had 6 large bucks and numerous does using the spot. What did I learn? They went mostly nocturnal. The advantage? Quit hunting the field and back up toward the bedding 300 yds to catch them before they hit the field at dark. Plus the adrenaline rush of seeing pictures of trophy bucks in your stand area makes it a lot easier sitting on stand for long hours knowing that buck could come around the corner at any minute. Does it always work the way you dream about it? Rarely but it's fun to dream about it. Do I feel less of a sportsman? Not at all. Just because you got a picture of a deer using a certain area doesn't mean that deer's going to be there when you are or ever again. Just another useful tool.