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Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

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Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby Swede » 03 20, 2016 •  [Post 1]

Tell me about your trail cameras for tree stand hunting.

How many do you have?
Do you look for great pictures?
Do you want a camera with a fast trigger?
Do you go cheap so you can have more?

Why?
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby Elkonthebrain » 03 20, 2016 •  [Post 2]

Every spot I put a camera I make sure there is a spot for a tree stand or a ground blind. Depends on the year, but I run between 6 and 10 cams. Between hunting buddy's we probably have 25 to 30 throughout two hunting units. We look for a camera that takes both good day time and night time pics. Trigger speed for us isn't real important because we put attractants out, so the animals hang out in front of the cams. As far as price we look for the best bang for your buck. We've all lost cams to thieves and bears hell cows even took one out. Last year the fires got a couple. So we try not to spend to much but you still want a camera that will preform. The pre 2014 moultrie m880 has been the best performer. This year the coverts held up well if they make it one more year I might start switching over.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby stringunner » 03 21, 2016 •  [Post 3]

Between my dad and I, we run up to 12. We don't spend much, no more than $100 because of the fear of theft, breaking, bear/elk/cattle destruction. I look at all the reviews I can find on cameras under $100. Trigger speed isn't as important as our cameras are always on water. Picture quality is of some importance. I look at battery life more than anything else. We currently run mostly primos 35 cams, old models that are big in size (the major draw back of this cam) but will run on 1 set of 4 D batteries from June through when we take them down the end of September with thousands of pictures taken. My dad is a sheet metal man by trade and makes custom boxes for all the cameras that we have and so far these boxes have kept them pretty safe. We have been running cams for 4-5 years now and have had only 1 in these 4-5 years stop working correctly.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby Swede » 03 21, 2016 •  [Post 4]

How much do you consider the distance the camera is sensitive to when you purchase a camera? I have found there is a big difference in day and night distance. I can usually about double the advertised distance in the daytime on my cheapos.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby stringunner » 03 21, 2016 •  [Post 5]

Swede I agree, the distance during day times makes no difference to me as my cameras are usually within 30-40 feet of the water, there are a few that sit further, out to 60 feet and it makes no difference during day light, most cameras advertise distance during the day that work fine for how I use them. I do see a significant difference in night shots however and the distance advertised with the cheap cameras I buy.

Do you see much difference between your cheapies and the reconx (spelled wrong), in any category that would lead you to purchase expensive cameras more often?
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby Swede » 03 21, 2016 •  [Post 6]

The Reconyx is a great camera and used by pros, but it is too expensive. I buy MalWart trail cams on sale, and they are fine for what I use them. If they are stolen or damages, I am out about $60. That does not hurt near as bad as losing a Reconyx. My cheapies are good out to about 50 feet in the day. I don't think they have enough flash to reach near that far at night.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby rowdycwby1 » 03 22, 2016 •  [Post 7]

We run about 10 cameras on our lease in Louisiana and it's usually where we hang a stand but sometimes we put one where we might be able to get a blind in. Now out here in NM between about 5 or 6 guys we have about 30 or 40 cameras out on waterholes to see what's in the area where hunting. We use from all kinds of cameras ranging in price and all of them get security box's and locks. The most expensive one I run is a Covert black ops it runs about $349 and $10 a month for the sims card I love it cause whiten a minute of it taking a pic I get it via text and email..we've caught a couple of guys trespassing on our lease with it. I try to find camera's that have at least a 40' night range on them. I really like the stealth cam p12 they have good night pics but if you want really good night pics go with a white flash and not inferred. I always test my camera at night to see how far I can really set them before I ever take them out to set so I'm not disappointed when I go check them and realize I set it to far and I usually take a card viewer and test it to make sure it's at just the right angle before I walk away from it. It always suxs to find out its at the wrong hight or angle after a few weeks of anticipation on the pics you're hoping to get. That's just my 2cents.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby Northman » 03 22, 2016 •  [Post 8]

I run (4) browning dark ops that I like because they are small, light weight, and have a durable but small lock box. Kind of mid range on price, quality pics, and functions. I can throw two in my pack when I go out scouting/prospecting. So when I come across a likely ambush location I can put one out. Then as the season gets closer I trade out my two best locations with Moultree 150 deg trail cams with lock boxes. That way I can get a better idea of what approach the elk/deer will likely take coming in so I can set up my shooting lanes. I do have some cheap cameras (2) with lock boxes that I set up along hiking trails and gates to see who is coming in and out of areas I hunt, to get a feel on how hard a area is being scouted/hunted.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby ishy » 03 29, 2016 •  [Post 9]

I go cheap because of the abuse they take from animals. Hanging them higher has slowed it, but not eliminated it. I have had old wildviews, wildgame innovations and moltrie. They all did what I needed, nothing fancy or fast but will tell me the size of animals and time. Speeds no issue on bear baits and wallows. I would definitely go with AA battery types to get more life.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby Scoutman » 07 22, 2016 •  [Post 10]

I put out 4 cameras in May on scouting trip.I use cheap cameras and they work great so far, good pics, great battery life. Bears will destroy them on occasion, elk will rub their heads on them as will wild horses. Got some great pics of elk and horse faces rubbing on cameras. I hang them on available trees etc and some are low but it is what it is. All cameras over seeps,wallows. Kinda cool that I got velvet pics of my 2014 and 2015 bulls. I hope my 2016 bull is on camera as I type this, hopeful thinking.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby lamrith » 07 22, 2016 •  [Post 11]

1st year here actually prescouting and setting cams and I am excited to see the results. We went in thinking about spots for tree stands, but most of the sites ended up looking better for a ground blind due to the trees themselves. I want to say we put out 8 cams in 6 separate locations.

I picked up some CHEAP primos cams many months ago, $25is each shipped. Field use though I see/saw issues immediately as you have to open up the entire unit so batteries can fall out just to be able turn it on, and the OE straps are TERRIBLE, you also have to program the date/time with a text file on the SD card which means a laptop at camp/truck if you are in a remote location. That said testing at home and they were quite responsive! I want to say ~1sec response time. They are completely unprogrammable for shot delays, burst, etc. so you get what you get for settings but they took nice pictures, can run on 4 or 8AA and take 32GB SD cards.

I just grabbed a pair of Stealthcam P14's on Camofire a few weeks back. So far not that impressed. Pros are they have video, lots of options for custom settings on delay, burst more, res, etc. and you can change/set them without having to open the battery compartment and have batteries flying everywhere. Picture quality seems decent, though video does not have any sort of time stamp which makes it impossible to know when they are really showing up other than timestamp on the file. However the response time to this point has been an absolute JOKE, on the order of 5-10 to take picture from triggering.? I can walk a relaxed pace directly at the cam from 25yrds and it will only catch the side of my leg as I get next to it to remove the SD card. Crossing my fingers that they perform ok in the field.

Checkout Slate River Game Cam mounts. The EZ-Aim model is really nice. It will let you get those camera's up off the tree and set any angle you need to. you can also use your climbing steps and get them up higher in the tree to make it harder for the 2 legged animals. I might modify my cheap cams with a waterproof switch so that I can at least turn them on/off while closed and then put them up on some of those mounts, $50 for a cam and good mount seems
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby Swede » 07 22, 2016 •  [Post 12]

Those cheap slow trigger cams are fine at a water hole. The elk are usually standing there long enough to be photographed. Just don't place them along a trail where the elk just pass by.
My son has made some great secure game cam boxes out of air conditioner electric switch boxes. For larger cameras you could use a bigger steel switch box. He cuts the appropriate sized hole in the face and if is secure from damage be critters. They will keep honest people honest, but any determined person could break in.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby Scoutman » 07 23, 2016 •  [Post 13]

Great idea, Swede.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby lamrith » 07 24, 2016 •  [Post 14]

Swede wrote:Those cheap slow trigger cams are fine at a water hole. The elk are usually standing there long enough to be photographed. Just don't place them along a trail where the elk just pass by.
My son has made some great secure game cam boxes out of air conditioner electric switch boxes. For larger cameras you could use a bigger steel switch box. He cuts the appropriate sized hole in the face and if is secure from damage be critters. They will keep honest people honest, but any determined person could break in.

Yeah I was just rather surprised and dissapointed that the P14 performs so poorly.While it is not a $300 cam, it is also not a $25 cam, I ecpected it to have a similar 1second response time like the uber cheap and obsolete Primos cams I bought. I did a side by side test, in fact the primos cam was higher on tree and had more of it's view of the yard blocked by branches, yet it caught 4 different pictures of kids/dog during the day and the P14 caught NOTHING. at all, even though some shots were crossing left/right so plenty of activation time within sensor range.

I am debating now picking up more of those $25 primos and mounting some sort of waterproof exterior switch to them. That way I can program/etc at camp and just flip switch once mounted with an EZ-Aim.
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Re: Trail Cameras At Tree Stand Locations

Postby Scoutman » 07 24, 2016 •  [Post 15]

Never used primos, use wild game now, been great for the money.
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