What is the best deal on Trail Cameras?

[koger]

All right fellers, as usual I am the last to come into new technology, kicking and screaming, bout decided to get a  trail camera. I have read several reviews, what is the best buy for the money, dependable, simple, will be set on heavily used travel routes. I accidentally saw 4 big bucks where I hunt the other evening, never  saw them before, got me to thinking what else have I been missing? The 2 biggest ones were easily 140+, 10 pointers, wide spread, long tines and brows, other 2 smaller ones were 120ish+, great looking deer. Your thoughts are appreciated.

[mwmwmb]

I am curious on this one as well. I aint looking for publication quality photos.

[Bush]

http://www.chasingame.com/index.php?id=1

This website reviews them all pretty much.  Unfortunately, you have to read the reviews to know whether or not they liked them, but I did, and the best reviewed one was the the Scoutguard.

[Rick Wiltshire]

Right now Bass Pro has the Moultrie D-40 for about  $70.

[Blackhawk]

I've been using two of those Moultries mentioned above for the past couple seasons and bought both for that price at Sportsman Warehouse on sale.  They are easy to setup and use, but with a couple minor drawbacks.

1. Slow trigger...so just set up facing up or down a trail, not across a trail

2. No on site review...but I have a small digital camera that takes the SD card too, so I just bring it along to review the pics.

3. Short battery life...but this may be the situation with all trail cameras.  It uses 6 "D" size and they do not give these away.

Overall, I'm happy with it considering it's relative inexpensive price.

Besides, you may get lucky and capture a pic like this...


 

[pcappy08]

Just bought the bushnell trophy cam so far happy with it be pulling the card on sunday have a better opinion then but so far so good....btw essentially same camera as the scoutguard with a diff case

[kbetts]

I can only speak for what I've used, but the Moultrie 4.0's are hard to beat.  I've had one so long that squirrels are starting to eat the plastic cover.  A little slow in the cold, but I think they all are.  I check mine every four days or so and they consistantly take 200+ pics.  Battery life is about one month at that pace, maybe a little less depending on the settings.

[Shleprock]

I have heard nothing but good things about the Moultrie D40. Especially for the price. Which I believe is the camera kbetts is refering to. However from personal experiance I can say STAY away from the Moultrie M40.

[string bean]

My wife just bought me a DLC Covert for my birthday and the folks at  www.trailcampro.com  say it's the exact same as the Scoutguard SG550, just a different name on the case.  I'm gonna pull the card Sunday (one week out) and see what been happening.  One more thing the Scoutguard and the DLC have a remote that you program the camera with so that is just something extra you have to keep up with.

[SOS]

The moultrie M40 is overall pretty good for a decent price on a bid site or others.  You can get the infrared for a little more.  The real problem is that at times on an overcast day, it may trip the flash with and open aperature, thereby washing out the picture.  Besides the decent price, the batteries honestly last for ever...or dang close.  I've had mine for over a year, even took it to Africa and had it on my landowner's driveway to his house all summer to see who was coming down his road when he wasn't home (five drivers on that road so lots of pics) - and I am still on my second set of 6 D-cell batteries.  I changed the card last week over a feeder during the previous month - 772 photos and the flash was turned on.  There maybe faster cameras, but they will eat batteries.

[Ray Hammond]

Scoutguard or DLC Covert...I love the ones we got. Uncle Barry was dead on with his recommendation.

I would NOT recommend a Cuddtback Capture IR, I bought one in Feb and batteries lasted 7 days the first time(173 pics) and 8 days the second time (79 pics). Called them up and stayed on hold until the recording said "sorry, were too busy. Call back later." My local archery shop owner got hold of a rep and he said to leave my info and he would get me an RA# to return it for repair because it should be under warrant. That never happened. So I am stuck with a useless $250.00 piece of junk.

Bisch

[metsastaja]

My cuddyback sits on it back in my Trailer. Worked great in my back yard. Same type of problem Bisch had.  I have 5 Moultrie I use consistently in South Florida. I will leave them out weeks at a time.  My record so far is about 1,100 eleven hundred pictures using 1 min delay. Setting was Medium quality flash on using a 2gig card.  the photos showed a group of hogs set up camp under my feeder and stayed and stayed and stayed.

[joebuck]

Colvert II........$186.00 bought through Elders.com........My 2gb card will hold 714..5 sec video's. Infrared also..Compact in size. I already have 3500+ pictures on 1 set of 8 AA bateries

[Onehair]

Bisch I'll give you $50 for the Cuddie to ease the pain.

[trapperDave]

moultrie D-40


and invest in some rechargeable batteries  

I get at least a month out of mine

[Don Stokes]

Camo Scoutguard. Quick trigger, IR, no lights to alert game, long battery life, easy to hide. Around $200. I've tried several makes, and this one is the best of them. I have 6 weeks on the current set of 8 AA's and still going.
 

[hickstick]

It seems you may get a bad egg no matter what brand you purchase.  I bought a Moultrie (cause the store didn't have the brand/model I was looking for) and I've had nothing but problems with it.   I don't remember the exact model name right now, but it takes a big 6v battery which MAYBE lasts a week...and every freakin time I go to check it, it says SD card locked.  which I know it is not, and go so far as to have the camera take a picture of me before leaving the area to make sure its set.

I was more that happy with the Wildview 2.0 extremes that came as a set (2 cams).  my buddy bought them and gave me one to set out on the property we hunted together.  I got hundreds of pics on them.  not publishing quality but I could clearly see size and type of deer etc.  and the batteries lasted for ever.  

I just bought a 2 cam set myself for $129 from cabela's.  I'll let you know what my experience is.....they'll be here tomorrow.

[Shleprock]

Hey Metsastaja. What model Moultrie cameras do you have?

[metsastaja]

The cheapest one they sell. I bought all the ones I have at Walmart or on sale at BP.  Pretty sure it is the no frills 40. Usually sells for about 100.00  Im in Maine right now and cameras are out in a South Florida swamp waiting for my return.