Fun with trail cams
When it comes to scouting for deer, nothing beats a good trail camera. For the serious deer hunter, trail cams, as they’re more popular called, serve two critical functions. For one, they’ll let you know what kinds of bucks are frequenting your hunting grounds, particularly if that includes the potential record book trophy you’ve set your sights on to the exclusion of all others. Secondly, trail cam images record the temperature, date, and time the deer passed by the camera lens and pinpoint the specific location where you might want to erect that tree stand.
Like some outdoor lighting, trail cams are motion activated, triggered by anything from a trophy buck to the neighbor’s cat or even a leaf blowing in the wind. Trail cams will take photos or videos at pre-determined intervals, most commonly five or ten seconds apart. While rudimentary motion-activated trail cameras first became available back in the late 1980s early 1990s, the technology involved, and the quality of the images produced, has advanced by leaps and bounds since then. They’re one of the most popular items on the outdoor market today.
And like other such technological gadgets, trail cam prices have fallen at the same time the product’s quality has risen. Most models today incorporate infrared flash for lowlight or nighttime conditions. Prices range from as little as $25 to as much as $200.00 or more, all depending on the features and image quality each unit offers. There is no shortage of manufacturers with Browning, Moultrie, and Bushnell, among others, leading the way. I currently own two trail cameras, an old and rather clunky Moultrie and a compact Browning BTC-5HD Game Camera. I’ve had the Browning for about three years now, but in terms of trail cam technology, it’s already an obsolete antique and no longer in production. Like their competitors, the folks at Browning already feature a new generation of more advanced, state of the art, trail cameras.
But my old model still works for me on a number of different levels. First and foremost, it can provide some data on the number of deer that frequent my hunting grounds as well as the quality of the bucks that pass through. Many hunters use numerous cameras as important tools in preseason scouting. They’ll position them at likely trail crossings, food plots, and, here in our Southeast Special Regulations area, feeding stations. Later in the fall trail cams can be effectively placed near rubs and scrapes that indicate rutting activity.
Trail cams have become so popular that many outdoors oriented magazines feature pages or even entire sections of photos provided by these cameras. Most of those are of game animals like antlered whitetails and elk as well as bears and turkey gobblers. The current February issue of Pennsylvania Game News boasts a centerfold with the title “Big Buck Trail Cam Contest” and a montage of 36 photos (featuring some spectacular bucks) spread out over two pages. A Game News story that appeared in the December issue chronicled the author’s pursuit of a huge whitetail buck that he captured on trail cam images for three years before finally bagging the big bruiser. The story, by Tyler Brown, features four different trail cam photos taken in 2014, 2015, and 2016, that document the buck’s maturation.
But you don’t have to be a deer hunter to enjoy other trail camera applications. Nature lovers can position them outside just to see what kind of wildlife inhabits their neighborhoods (the results might surprise you). In the past year I’ve primarily set up my trail cam targeting the feeder in our back yard, knowing that corn would draw any number of critters. In addition to the scores of whitetail deer caught on camera (including a few respectable bucks), images of other visitors included plenty of raccoons, opossums, cottontail rabbits, crows, doves, and gray squirrels -pretty much anything that had a hankering to munch on corn.
Sometimes the images can reveal interesting aspects of wildlife behavior. One of my photos show a yearling whitetail cowering submissively during a confrontation with a young buck. Another shows a hungry raccoon chased up a tree by a whitetail doe covetous of her corn. Another shows an intolerant doe smacking her unruly fawn with an upraised hoof. In any case, when positioning the camera, be sure to clear away any brush or branches that could trigger the sensor when the breeze blows.
Last year, following a successful goose hunt and after breasting out three Canada geese, I took what remained of the carcasses and placed them on a wooded hillside. I then positioned a trail cam nearby to learn what predators might help themselves to a goose buffet. The result? Plenty of omnivorous raccoons showed up to dine as did a few red foxes and at least one red-tailed hawk. I would not have been surprised if a bald eagle (they love carrion, don’t you know) and a coyote or two had made the scene, but if they did, they evaded the camera’s lens.
Trail cams can also help solve some mysteries you A trail camera photo shows a standoff between young buck and yearling.
might encounter when dealing with the natural world. What kind of animal is living under our
porch? What’s digging that hole in the garden? Do flying squirrels visit my bird feeder after dark? Did my teenager get home before curfew last night? All of these questions and others can be answered with the proper placement of a trail cam.
One unfortunate problem posed by trail cameras is their tendency to grow legs and disappear if placed anywhere they might be spotted by an unscrupulous opportunist. While today’s trail cameras are fairly small and unobtrusive (and almost all of them feature camouflaged covers that help them blend) it’s still best to position them where potential thieves are unlikely to find them.