Check out your Trail Cam

[MikePal]

Winter Activity:

In the past years, soon as we get a some snow down I take a walk out back to find trails still being used. I then take 2-3 Trail cams and put them on the same tree pointing at the same spot. Sometime I put a mineral lick down as an attractant.

This year I'm going to put out a Bushnell, Stealth Cam and a Wild Game out now. I then take a look every two weeks at the SD cards to see how they compare.

It's actually surprising how many more or how many less pic are captured by each camera when they are all seeing the same thing.

I don't discard the camera if it misses a yote (and the others dont') .....but it still captures a Deer like the other two. I will just make a note for that camera to only be used in certain spots.

Not all trail Cams work as advertised and the only way to check them really, is in side by side tests.

[impact]

The issue in winter is always the batteries. When it gets below -10C the camera may no longer function properly and that has been my experience with different cameras.
An external power source such as a large A/H battery usually helps in increasing reliability.

[MikePal]

The issue in winter is always the batteries. When it gets below -10C the camera may no longer function properly and that has been my experience with different cameras.
An external power source such as a large A/H battery usually helps in increasing reliability.

That's why I'm doing it this week good temps...and I use 'new' DuraCell Optimums..they tend to work a bit better in the cold.

It's nice to know if one Trail Cam works better than another in cold.

Some one here said the Durcell Rechargeable Pre-Charged NiMH batteries work well in the cold, but I haven't tried them.

[johnjyb]

I do the same on feed piles. Will put 2 cams facing about 15 or 20 degrees different directions on the same tree. It is surprising what 1 picks up that the othe doesn't, especially as I usually set mine for 2 or 3 burst pics and then have a 5 minute delay to keep from having a billion pics on a card, especially in high traffic areas. You get the odd candid funny pics when you go with the 3 burst method as well.
John

[rf2]

Ha, I literally logged on to start a thread about trail cameras, but I guess I will just hijack yours Mike .

I have never used trail cameras until now. It sort of went against my hunting philosophy. My wife got me a pack of 4 cameras for Christmas because we recently bought a cottage, and I have been talking about how I will have to do a lot of scouting to figure out where to hunt in this new area. I guess she was getting tired of listening to me, so she figured this would shut me up! I've decided to give the cameras a try, so I am experimenting in my backyard in the middle of the city. I've set one camera up in a few spots where I know squirrels run around. I've watched them run and walk by my camera, but I am not getting any pictures of them. Is this normal? The camera takes pictures of me when I walk by, but not squirrels. I am wondering if the camera is designed this way to reduce nuisance photos. Any opinions?

[MikePal]

I just pulled an SD from a trail Cam that I have watching a trail that cut through the tree line. I put it there a week ago with that snow fall and saw multiple tracks.

I walk by there almost every day and noticed a plethora of different tracks using it ( Fox,yote, rabbit etc et) so I was looking forward to this morning. Disappointing to say the least, pics of me setting up and then coming back...only two 'blank' pics in between.

I saw deer track around, so I figure they were the Deer going by, triggering the camera, but it took to long to come out of sleep mode. It was gone by the time it flashed. By the By ..that's called 'Trigger Speed' and what differentiates a $100 camera for a $300...the cheaper ones take to long to be good for a 'Trail' cam , but still work great over a bait pile.

Why it didn't trigger on the fox and Yote is a worry for me, so I moved it around to a spot that will give it more time to detect something in front. That was a Bushnell Cam and it was picking up everything at a different location last month, so I think it has just need a better placement.

As Impact says though, the cold does adversely affect cameras, especially the 'sensors. '

[rf2]

The ones I am using supposedly have a 0.7 second trigger speed, which I understand is pretty quick. After no photos in one location, I tried a location where the squirrels would be walking or running down the fence post on an angle to the camera. I figured this would give enough time for the camera to trigger, but the only picture I got other than the ones of me appeared to be a blank 3 burst photo.

[fratri]

I picked up 2 of these off amazon....

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For roughly $60 they do a pretty good job..... The batteries seem to last forever and takes decent pictures with a very good trigger speed..... The biggest problem is camera trigger range.... Testing it (walking up to it) shows me that it's range is less than 10 yds and that is stretching it. unless it is my truck driving by then it picks it up at 15 yds ...... It captures pics best up to 5 yds, 10 yds seems like a big stretch but for 60 bucks, it is pretty good.
I still have 2 cameras out.... And probably leave them out for a while longer just to see what animals are still around. Almost like opening a Christmas present when I go to view the cards

[gbk]

Trigger speed is one factor, but a running squirrel likely will be caught with almost nothing.
Unless the camera is triggered by something else(another animal or a raising sun)so it takes pictures while the squirell happens to be there.

For trail watching do not put the camera square to the trail,do like 45 degree,or almost along the axis of the trail-othervise you may never capture nothing.
The animal may just simply walk out from the camera view by the time the camera takes the picture.

Aslo if you slant it a bit down from like 5-6 feet,would give you better chances of not being detected,and more "space"to monitor/have chance to reach out to.
I think also-other then bait piles-you should do burst,and the shortest intervals you can.This allows you a hope to take at least one picture of the animal,if waking by at the wrong moment/or to fast.
Yep-you may may have to many pictures-but it is easy to delete the non wanted ones............

[smitty55]

Trigger speed is one factor, but a running squirrel likely will be caught with almost nothing.
Unless the camera is triggered by something else(another animal or a raising sun)so it takes pictures while the squirell happens to be there.

For trail watching do not put the camera square to the trail,do like 45 degree,or almost along the axis of the trail-othervise you may never capture nothing.
The animal may just simply walk out from the camera view by the time the camera takes the picture.

Aslo if you slant it a bit down from like 5-6 feet,would give you better chances of not being detected,and more "space"to monitor/have chance to reach out to.
I think also-other then bait piles-you should do burst,and the shortest intervals you can.This allows you a hope to take at least one picture of the animal,if waking by at the wrong moment/or to fast.
Yep-you may may have to many pictures-but it is easy to delete the non wanted ones............

Good points there. Also if you put the cam too high it won't pick up movement on the ground as well. I've never had probs picking up squirrels and bluejays at bait sites, they seem to trigger just fine. IMO if you can't get the cam to trigger over 20 ft there's a problem with the PIR or motion sensor sensor, cheap cams are known for that. Also some cams have a sensitivity setting, my coverts have 3. As for cold conditions, just use the energizer lithium batteries, they're fine in very cold temps, have a great power curve and the prices have dropped dramatically over the last few years.