Enjoying Trail cameras to the fullest

September 27, 2010 51d Comments

 

I don’t know about you, but using a Trail Camera to monitor wildlife movement and activity has become one of my favourite past-times. 

In a way it’s a lot like hunting or trapping except with no firearms or traps involved. When you return to check your camera for images, it is like a treasure hunt as you never know what you might find! 
Here are some of my favourite trail camera photos taken over the years. I invite all of you to send in your favourite trail cam photos.

Keep in mind, I have no real way of modifying the images, so be prepared to have anything you send appear on this Blog just the way it is.

Here’s a little six pointer from 3 years ago, I later got to see in person and choose to pass on:

 TC

Here’s a big boy from last year I never got to see in person and hope is still alive!

TC

Here’s a picture of my Dad and our hunting partner Ken…not realizing they’re on camera.

TC

Here’s my old friend Grand daddy from last December. I know he made it through the winter I just haven’t seen him recently.

TC

Another side view of Grand daddy’s rack..which I have estimated at over 24″ wide!

TC

Ok, now its your turn!

Click on ‘contact the Outdoors Guy’ or simply email your trail cam image to [email protected]

Outdoorsguy

51 thoughts on “Enjoying Trail cameras to the fullest”

  1. We put out two trail cams at the hunt camp a week ago last Friday. Went up on the weekend and I got video and stills of a racoon, a fisher??? and a lot of different birds, my buddy got a fisher, a grouse and 4 racoons at once and one of the members who has been hunting there for a long time said he’s never seen nor heard of anyone seeing a racoon. Sneaky devils
    No deer…yet, I got lots of deer pics last year in the same spot

  2. ahh Iggy, don’t talk to me about racoons!!

    For every 1 or 2 deer pics I get, I’ve got 8 pictures of bloody raccoons! At our hunt camp last week, my Dad was telling me how a coon dug a trench under our woodshed to eat an entire case of apples I had stored in the there..as well as an almost entire bag of powered Acorn Rage..which cost $20 at Bass Pro..the old man wasn’t too happy about it!

    At home, the raccoons have eaten easily half of my deer feed!!

    Outdoorsguy

    P.S. Weird that you didnt get any deer pics though…

  3. they completly cleaned out both of our piles of deer feed but no deer. What was really neat was the video of the fisher. Don’t they eat coons, I know they eat porkys

  4. As far as I know fishers dont eat raccoons..I dont beleive anything will eat a raccoon and if you’ve ever skinned one you’ll know why…its too bad really, without much trapping these days, the things are out of control!

    Outdoorsguy

  5. i just wanted to let you know that the acorn rage you were talking about a few posts back, the one that screws into the tree is available a little closer now, i saw them at that hunting and fishing store in Richmond last week

  6. i have a few pictures of a fisher at my apple pile . i will have to dig them up… trapping or raccoons my have dropped but there is a surge on coon hunting with hounds .. there are now 6 guys around my area that now do it and we have seen the drop in coons over the last two years

  7. Chess, If they don’t want the carcasses keep me in mind will ya. Nothing better than a smelly greasy ole racoon fart……

    1. Hey, look what just crawled out from under a Peterborough rock!!

      Where you been man?

      Outdoorsguy

  8. Hey Chris..thats awesome, I know that store…my sister lives in Richmond

    Im happy to hear that..closer to home and you get to support a local business.

    Thanks for the tip!

    Outdoorsguy
    P.S. Did you notice if they carried the powdered version by any chance..the one my raccoons ate?

  9. Chessy, Im glad to hear that…too bad coon hunting wouldnt catch on in other areas as well!

    Please send me those pics if you find them

    Outdoorsguy

  11. i like your deer feeder Jeff, I’ve been thinking of building some but never seem too get to it. Anybody ever hear of coyotes eating apples? the last few weeks at our feeding stations we’ve been finding dog like scat with apple peels in them. last saturday night we had two of them under the apple trees by the house barking and howling, by the time i whent onto the screened porch they quited down and i could hear them crunching on some of the windfalls. I’m curious if this is unsual or common for coyotes.Jeff you gonna post trail cam pics people send in?

  12. as far as coons go 12 gauge is the best predator. i get a hay mow full of them everyfall / winter. gets very hard on tin roof.LOL they’ve cleaned me out of chickens and ducks a few years in a row.

  13. McDan..I most certainly am going to post people’s pics…so send them in!

    Thanks, my feeder is pretty good…although I thought I had the raccoon problem licked by wrapping sheet metal around the uprights…problem is, the coons can still climb it with ease! Maybe I need barbed wire?!

    I have never heard of coyotes feeding heavily on apples, but I would imagine they’d eat almost anything

    Outdoorsguy

  14. At my camera,in a 3day period i had 2 does,1 spike buck, a large fisher, 1 raccoon, and a broadside of a coyote and the head of another. This disturbs me because it seems that the yotes have figured out how to use baits as a starting point to chase the deer the same way dogs use a bait as a start for bears. And yes Jeff, using a camera is as much fun as the hunt itself

  16. Every spare moment is spent on the trap line where there is no internet, no phone, no television, no citiots, no Drunken students, no cars, you get the idea…….As for the coon hunting, I hope it doesn’t take off, my reasons are selfish however……..

  17. nice pics Jeff! I set up a cam for my buddy where we hunt and an hour later, pics of a doe. Gotta love the cams! They bring a different type of anticipation to the hunt.

    As for the coons, we’ve been trying to bait them to come close enough to our camp, but nothing yet.

    1. Keebler and everyone else, just a reminder to get those trailcam shots into me asap….a few of you have submitted already, but many haven’t.

      I will be creating a new post(s) to show our entire collection…including captions…so get moving!

      Send me a pm at: [email protected]

      Outdoorsguy

    2. Keebler said “we’ve been trying to bait them to come close enough to our camp, but nothing yet.”

      Hey Keeb…so far I haven’t found a food that raccoons dont like….but if you’re still having trouble, perhaps you could try Chessy’s Cmere Deer!

      Outdoorsguy

  18. do you hunt coons with a small game license, and another dopy question, I know they are hunted during the night, but can you shoot them during the day if you see them?

  20. ya they have the powder version as well…. not the big bags like i saw at bps in vaughn but they do have it.

  21. Thanks Chris, thats great!

    Did you happen to notice what they were charging for the screw-in Acorn Rage block? It might even be cheaper
    to buy it there than from BassPro.

    Outdoorsguy

  22. don’t know how to get the pics off the SD Card and send them, but I’ll try.

    Cheap food for coons, marshmellows

  23. don’t know how to get the pics off the SD Card and send them, but I’ll try.

    Cheap food for coons, marshmellows

    1. Hey Iggy….lemme guess, you looking for moose hunt gear a l’autre côté de la rivière?

      Outdoorsguy

  25. Iggy, you’ve never uploaded your trail cam image to your computer? You just need a USB cable and, depending on the model, hook it up directly from the trailcam..or do like I do and have 2 SD cards for each trail camera. When you arrive to check your pictures simply pop out that SD card and replace it with a blank card.

    That way, you can take the images home with you…another way to upload the images is by putting your card into a digital camera and upload them that way…then you don’t need to remove the trail cam from the tree.

    Just small tricks that I’m sure most people use already.

    Outdoorsguy

  26. i bought the screw in one at bps 3 weeks ago for $24.99, that hunting and fishing store had it for around $30, once you factor in gas to toronto (in my case) or shipping (in your case) i’m sure it works out to be cheaper, and they had the acorn rage and the apple rage too

  27. Hey Jeff…sent you some BEAR, DEER, COYOTE, and TURKEYs…one pic of ONE Turkey is staring right at the Cam…LMAO…it looks really Pizzed Off….Looking for the pic of the Two Headed Fawn i got last year…Had posted it to NAHC.

    Iggy, you can buy a Digital Card Reader for about $ 18.00 or so at Wal-Mart. Multi Slot, so is good for all cards.

    As well, I found easiest way to check for pics without buying a reader for $150. + is to take along my little Canon Digital Camera, put the trail Cam SD Card in it and do a Slide Show….Much quicker and cheaper. you can delete or save right there on the spot. And yes Jeff, is always good to have a couple extra SD Cards…their prices have some way down, and right now, a 4 GB Kodak at Wal-Mart is on sale for $10.00 (saw them this morning)
    Saving money for our passion of Hunting and observing nature is always a good thang Martha!

    LOL

    Cheers!

    1. Holy crap Billy…a 4 GB card for $10? Damn, and I just ordered some from China!!

      Are you serious about the digital card reader? I have a Bushnell one but it doesnt work with my new Trophy cam images for some reason…

      You are the bearer of great savings…me likey!

      Outdoorsguy

    2. Thanks Billy for the images…I’ll be putting those up next week along with the rest once they roll in…I love the turkey shot btw!!

      Outdoorsguy

  28. The Card reader is a replacement. Instead of bringing your Trail Cam and/or Pluggin in your Digital Camera, you just put the Card in, which is plugged into your ‘puter via the USB Port. It’s about 1/2″ thick and the size of a business card. It DOES NOT show you the image. greatly simplifies thangs, is a fits all…and YES 4 GB Kodak SD Cards for $10.00

    Cheers!

  29. oh sorry forgot to tell you.

    SD MULTI CARD READER Model I have it made by DIGITAL CONCEPTS

    1. Ok Billy, I got you now..I’ve been calling that thing an adapter..I actually have one but never use it.

      Outdoorsguy

  30. A 4GB how many pics will that take? My cheapo camera says no bigger than 1GB but i have gotten more than 200 pics on it in two weeks.

  31. mcdan it all depends on the format your camera takes pictures on . JPG is often used on digital camera memory cards, but RAW or TIF format may be offered too, to avoid it. The JPG file is wonderfully small, often compressed to perhaps only 1/10 of the size of the original data, which is a good thing when modems are involved. However, this fantastic compression efficiency comes with a high price. JPG uses lossy compression (lossy meaning “with losses to quality”) … with all that said .. what type is your camera

  33. you lost at mcdan LOL its a bushnell i don’t remember model but its the cheapest model and bought last year to see what they were like. found out a lot of little things i wasnt doing right with it last year but its been good so far this fall .

    1. McDan, I know all about Bushnell trail cams..I’ve owned and field-tested a bunch of them over the years. The one issue they did have with some models was SD card compatibility. If you Google it, you’ll see you’re not alone. They have since fixed the problem and the new Bushnell Trophy XLT, I’m happy to report, is completely bug free…and completely awesome!

      Depending how old yer cam is, you should have the choice between 3 mg, 5 mg and 7 mg settings..in my experience, you’ll never need to use anything except the 3 mg setting; unless you’re taking photos you want to print out later in high quality, there’s no need for such a large file.

      As far as SD card compatibility goes with last year’s Bushnell Trophy models, its kind of hit and miss. One trick is to’re-format’ the card after each time you take it out – that seems to work – you’ll notice that option on the menu. Besides that, some card brands simply do not work in it..I’ve had good luck with Kingston cards and some nomame ones. And yes, the older models limited the size of your card to 2 gb’s as was pointed out, and finding those smaller 1 gb and 2 gb cards is hard nowadays. That’s why I ordered mine online from China for my older cameras…I found a place selling the 2 gb cards for like $7 apiece!

      Also, if you have the model with the game calls on it…don’t even bother using the calls as they eat up battery power like a dog at dinner time..and they took ‘D’ batteries back then. Most of the new one use ‘AA’ from what I’ve seen, and last a lot longer!

      Ahh, the fun you can have…..

      Outdoorsguy

  34. the reason i asked is the 1Gb cards are hard to find, it seems they are not that common. Ill take a look at it this weekend to see if i can change format but pic quality seems alll right.

  35. mcdans.. the kids at the university put me on to factory direct… they have even 64 mb cards and 512 mb cards ….

  36. I didn’t grab the pic before I left – doh! (so no pics from me 🙂

    might just try that cmere deer 🙂 could make for some fun ambushing times 🙂

  37. Yes mine takes 4 D batteries thank you for costco! the biggest problem i’ve had was getting landscape pictures but i think i have that fixed now. thanks for all the good info. maybe santa will drop off a new one under tree this year.

  38. yup leaving next week and need to pic up a couple things first. I’d buy my beer across the river to but it’s already flown in ahead of us. Won’t be long now, they guys are phoning each other every night making sure on things, today I phoned one of the guys to make sure we had enough cheesecloth, I have 4 quarters but we need to bring 12

  40. So, if my math is correct, you’re allowed a maximum of three moose…what tags do you have??

    Outdoors

Comments are closed.