2025 trail camera adventures

I have to admit it, I’m hooked on trail cams. What started out as a moose scouting experiment with a borrowed Lil Acorn trail camera in 2011 has blossomed into a full blown hobby. I think I’m up to 12 cameras which are cell-capable and 4 that are not

This spring, I set up 10 cameras in various locations around my deer camp. My purpose is to get a sense of the deer population and verify the presence/absence of mature bucks. An intersecting tidbit to come out of surveys is the high numbers of brown-phase bears in the area.

In the next week or so I plan to put out the remaining cameras around my moose hunting area. Unfortunately only 1 of them will be in an area with a cell signal and I won’t check the SD Cards until September. Last fall we got a nice bull that I had photos of. It’s interesting to see how far animals will roam!

Of note this year was 3 deer in one image, a brown-phase bear, and a couple of bucks that are just starting the antler growing process. As spring rolls into summer, I’ll be looking forward to seeing some fawns and how well the antlers grow out.

I run limited cameras because I don’t want to take out all the mystery.

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

I have to admit it, I’m hooked on trail cams. What started out as a moose scouting experiment with a borrowed Lil Acorn trail camera in 2011 has blossomed into a full blown hobby. I think I’m up to 12 cameras which are cell-capable and 4 that are not

This spring, I set up 10 cameras in various locations around my deer camp. My purpose is to get a sense of the deer population and verify the presence/absence of mature bucks. An intersecting tidbit to come out of surveys is the high numbers of brown-phase bears in the area.

In the next week or so I plan to put out the remaining cameras around my moose hunting area. Unfortunately only 1 of them will be in an area with a cell signal and I won’t check the SD Cards until September. Last fall we got a nice bull that I had photos of. It’s interesting to see how far animals will roam!

Of note this year was 3 deer in one image, a brown-phase bear, and a couple of bucks that are just starting the antler growing process. As spring rolls into summer, I’ll be looking forward to seeing some fawns and how well the antlers grow out.

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Got to admit I am pretty hooked on the trail cameras as well, I am only running four right now but its always rewarding to view what they have captured. What I have learned is how many different animals will use the same pathways, prey and predator, I guess that makes sense. How you will get a unique looking deer a few times and then they suddenly never come back. Keeping the cameras in batteries is interesting and my usual source now is COSTCO , Kirkland brand which seem to perform good at a decent price. Bucks especially mature ones are always harder to catch on camera and if you do get them its almost always after legal hunting times.

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Originally Posted by glen

I run limited cameras because I don’t want to take out all the mystery.

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That’s understandable. Knowing too much can lead to disappointing if you don’t capture many deer or larger bucks. On the flip side unless you have a lot of cameras covering the same general area, you don’t always get the complete picture of what’s actually out there. Although i deploy several cameras, they are scattered over several townships so I’m only getting point samples of what’s there. If I relied on my cameras to determine the wolf or coyote populations, I would think there are few around as I never get images of them! In actuality, the wild canine populations are abundant!

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Originally Posted by glen

I run limited cameras because I don’t want to take out all the mystery.

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I run about 10-sometimes to check new spots, sometimes to pattern the area, sometimes to take"inventory"(or so i dream to do)of the deer in the area, and sometimes just for fun.
Once i had a camera on the same tree for 11 years.
Lots of info.Lots of encouragement to hunt the area.Little success ....

For "mystery"...since i do not bait and hunt over bait(or food plot),my camera pictures are "pretty much " useless for patterning bucks.

Just an example-OVER 20 years of running cameras-i have well over 50 pictures of good bucks(for my area) and at least another 50 " i would take it any time" bucks-yet,harvested ONLY one of the "any time buck" having correct info on the buck pattern.
Even that was "unintentional "sheer coincidence. I was in the tree when the buck walked by. I learned about him walking by the previous day at the same time, same direction-just after the fact.

But-i also hunt public ,so no surprise here.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

Got to admit I am pretty hooked on the trail cameras as well, I am only running four right now but its always rewarding to view what they have captured. What I have learned is how many different animals will use the same pathways, prey and predator, I guess that makes sense. How you will get a unique looking deer a few times and then they suddenly never come back. Keeping the cameras in batteries is interesting and my usual source now is COSTCO , Kirkland brand which seem to perform good at a decent price. Bucks especially mature ones are always harder to catch on camera and if you do get them its almost always after legal hunting times.

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Gilroy-next time try:GardePro A3S Trail Camera - No Glow Night Vision.

Amazon has them ocassionally on sale for less then 70 $(plus tax,of course).If you have Amazon Prime-no shipping .

They are excellent cameras in all properties expected from a good trailcamera.They are no cellular though(if that is your desire.)
Especially i LOVE their wide field of detection -gets the camera up well before the deer walks in front of it.

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Originally Posted by glen

I run limited cameras because I don’t want to take out all the mystery.

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I used cameras a lot for about 10 years. The last 10 years or so basically completely stopped for this reason. That being said where i deer and bear hunt i know the lay of the land pretty well and have a good handle on what's around as i own the property(s). That being said without cameras all i know is they are around - exact numbers and sizes are a surprise. I like it this way but totally understand the allure of monitoring via camera.

I have a bunch, mostly for security reasons around our camp. None the less, my wife and I greatly enjoy sitting down and seeing what is around that you don't realize. Have some great pics over the years. They don't affect my deer hunting at all, but are a lot of fun and nice to know that there is wildlife around on those days where it seems like your the only one in the woods. Nice for monitoring bear baits though. Saves trips if the bait hasn't been hit, and gives and idea of what time of day bears are showing up. The answer to that is all times of day, with very little pattern.

I love my trailcams around my home farms. I don't really use them in a way that benefits my hunting. They're non-cellular, and only checked a few times a year. But I like having a record of interesting bucks over the years.
Example. This spring my neighbor found the skeleton of buck that i've had on trailcam since 2016. Every year I would get a few pictures of this deer. But in all these years of hunting I had only seen him with my own eyes twice. Once on Dec 31st 2016 when he was a young deer, and then 6 years later in early November 2022 at 20 yards when he was a giant 8. Without the history of pics over the years it would have been an exciting encounter with a mystery deer. But instead, I recognized him right away and it was that much more special to finally see the animal that only came around just enough to let me know he exists.

I've started to move away from using cameras for hunting, I do appreciate the cell cam for baiting bear so I can judge when I need to rebait but I definitely find it gives me an excuse to not go sit if I know there's not much chance of seeing anything. I will say without camera footage I wouldn't have ever tried morning hunts for bears and never would've shot one last year. Deer hunting I don't think it has given me any advantage. I like to use them at home so I can see what wildlife comes creeping around when people are sleeping and it's pretty amazing the amount of activity I get.