My Cellular Game Cameras are So Much Fun!

[Lori]

In Iowa it is illegal to use radio or cell phones to tell other hunters about deer travel. One of our game wardens considers transmitting cameras to be the same violation and would like to see them not in use during hunting seasons.

[GCook]

On private land I don't see how anyone has a say.  Public well . . .
Friends who have them like them but often it seems they get discouraged at lack of the deer movement or that of a certain deer and don't go.
Me, I'd rather go and hope this is the sit I'll be surprised.

[string bean]

I really like my Reveal!!  Looking back, I wish i would have also bought an AT&T version along with the Verizon.

[SlowBowKing]

Roy, I’ve only got the one Reveal, but I plan on subscribing year-round. Sometime after season, I’ll move it up to our side yard so I can keep an eye on the driveway while I’m not at home.

I remember almost 20 years ago when my dad and I thought we were hot stuff because we got 35 mm trail cams…waiting for that roll of film to finish and then taking it to get developed was a highlight for sure! 

[MCNSC]

Yea , I remember quite a few years back a fellow I worked with had one of the film roll cameras. He took the film in to Walmart I think he’s said and when he went to pick them up they were all pictures of cows. Well the policy was if you didn’t like the photos you didn’t have to pay for them ,,,so he handed them back and said he didn’t want them. Not very honest on his part , but funny.

[Dave Lay]

I’ve got really mixed feelings on game cameras in general . I do use a couple regular cameras but think I may quit using them. Just a personal thing.  There’s a YouTube channel where guys hunt Atlanta suburbs and rely heavily on cell cameras, so much so they sit in the truck and wait on a pic to see where the target buck is so they can get ahead of it. They kill some monsters ….  I saw where Boone and Crockett has disallowed the use of a cell camera and a kill within a day or so, not sure how that’s enforceable .   I did great before messing with cameras, I just want to get back to basics. But I can sure see how it would be fun to see what’s going on in the woods when your not there

[Bowwild]

I could see how these instantaneous pictures could tempt someone to do something most of us wouldn't support. 

My biggest kick is getting pictures while I'm busy at the house, in the car, grocery, etc.  While running around the house this morning my one remaining on-line camera "dinged" my phone about 12 times in less than an hour. A doe and fawn are within recurve of my blind. I hear the ding and I wonder; buck, doe, raccoon, opossum, bobcat, dog (rare), person (more rare - although a non-hunting neighbor rode his ATV by my blind last week), or a much hated coyote.

I suspended one subscription yesterday and I'll suspend the other this weekend as our season winds down.

I will say, I've been surprised to learn of some of the movements between stands.  My son and I have favorite blinds that are at least 600 yards apart (crow flying).  We get some of the same deer on our cameras, but not on the same day.  I can't report that my cameras have picked up any large bucks that I haven't seen with the naked eye, but a lot of smaller ones (next year) have shown up that I've never seen.

I see where AZ and UT may have recently declared game cameras illegal?  I have written, proposed, and defended to pass many hunting regulations during my career.  I have also killed some proposals and replaced some regulations.  I am especially offended by regulations targeting a very few violators at the expense of the majority of hunters, the honest ones.  Having to case a bow while traveling to and from one's stand is one such law that is meant to be a hurdle for a poacher but impacts (however slightly) all hunters. 

If my cameras were outlawed, it wouldn't be a big bummer for me, I'm new at it and I will live on.  However, I see such a move designed to target a very few undesirables while impacting so many honest people.  Law enforcement (some) are very sophisticated these days.  They can use online data (check-in, FB, etc.) to prosecute.  They could possibly also use time stamps on cameras, check-in data and the old standby, "word of mouth" to put the hurt on some poachers.

[LookMomNoSights]

I've never been a huge trail cam guy, mostly for fear of them getting stolen.  Ugly,  but a reality.  Up until this past season,  I have primarily hunted public land,  where it seemed there was no ground untouched.....and nothing was sacred.   I would use a camera early in the year here or there.  I personally had never had one stolen,  but I call that pure luck.  Anyway,  I recently moved and now have land that I am the steward of,  allowing my approach to things to be a bit different and I have more options.  Unless someone is trespassing,  I should have no issues with cameras or any other gear (stands) being messed with.   This season concludes my first season using a few Tactacam Reveal X's and I gotta tell ya,  it has really given me some insight as to what is going on on the new property and how the animals move through with the surrounding farms as well.  I used them from early spring to mid August before I pulled them to sort of test my theories of how there where moving and how I could set up.  I did not shoot a deer on this piece this season, despite lots of time in the stands and  even though I had many pictures or some really nice bucks.   A farmer select cut a good deal of oaks on a portion of the abutting property (red and white!) and I think it changed things a bit for me.  I do love not having to going into certain areas to mess with the cameras, other than a battery change......which I have not had to do yet.....they seem to be very good on batteries.  I think if you are going to use a camera period,  this is the no brainer way to go.   And I can say the enjoyment my little guys get out of looking at the pictures of what they have crawling around in their back yard,  makes them worth every penny.   Like anything I suppose, it's all in how it is used.   A trail cam has never helped put meat on my table .......  I put the camera there in the first place because I know its a place they come through,  by observing sign putting miles on the boots. These animals are not coming into a feeder or mineral site or the like and a deer is gonna do what a deer is gonna do and as evident by the time stamps on the pics,  there is often little method to the madness it seems ...... at least the part of the country I hunt.  We have deer and some really nice bucks but I wouldn't call it target rich.  Even all days sits,  there's far from any guarantee of seeing anything,  except a grey squirrel ......no shortage of them.   Maybe it validates any set up ideas I come up with.  I'm sure they can be abuse and misused.  Not this guy.  I've got lots of deer, black bear, coyote, bobcat, fox, coon, fisher, turkey, even moose.  And when I walk through the woods with my kids which we do routinely,  I can show them the track of a coyote or bear that left it there just 12 or so hours before if I want to, and they have the face to go with the track......it's pretty cool.