trophy cam – The Outdoors Guy

Oh, the beloved trail camera, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

Perhaps the most exciting part about fall and hunting season is getting to play with my favourite toy; the wildlife surveillance camera, otherwise known by hunters simply as the ‘trail cam’.

Here I’m adjusting the settings on my trusty Bushnell Trophy Cam – Bone Collector. This particular trail cam has been in that same tree for more than a year now, and I’ve only changed the batteries once. Once!!

Not bad for an estimated 15, 000 photos.

Certain trail cams like this one, which gets lots of action, I set to low res. image (3 MB) to allow for the 300 -350 photos it captures each week. Other cams I may opt for ‘HD Video’ instead, keeping in mind the amount of space an HD vid occupies on the SD card.

These little Trophy Cams are not only reliable, they’re about as user friendly as it gets. Scrolling through the menu and changing settings with this model can be done with ease, and Bushnell remains consistent with their new models as well; keeping menu options and layout pretty much the same across the board.

TC4

Trail cameras with Invisible/Black LED’s like these two models are great for those ‘camera shy’ critters who don’t enjoy being photographed at night.

Since the LED Glow is obscured, they also make a better ‘surreptitious surveillance’ system for around the house, or to monitor your hunt camp for break-ins.

Checking-on already established trail cams or setting-up new ones is about as close to actual hunting as it gets.

(Warning – blatant product plug coming…)

Wow, what fantastic looking footwear! Do I look good, or what?

These new Merrell’s I courtesy of Shoeme.ca, made this week’s trail camera set-up an even more enjoyable experience. I felt like I was floating on air!

Thanks to the good folks over at Shoeme.ca for the opportunity of trying-out a fantastic pair of new shoes. I’ll be wearing these puppies to hunt camp next weekend when I set-up another series of trail cameras.

For more information on the latest in trail cam footwear: http://www.shoeme.ca/collections/merrell

Happy trail-camming one and all – may your SD cards runneth over with big game images!

Outdoorsguy

With the advent of modern technology came a flood of leading edge digital trail cameras. For today’s astute big-game hunter who takes ‘scouting’ to a whole other level, the trail camera market is chalk full of quality new products.

Gone are the days of the primitive wildlife surveillance cameras with molasses slow trigger speeds, grainy images and no night vision capability to speak of.

Enter the new Bushnell Trophy Cam XLT – a prime example of what modern day trail cams are meant to be. The Trophy Cam XLT is more versatile and powerful than any trail cam I have ever used.

But it didn’t just happen all at once….

Bushnell took great lengths, over the years, at perfecting their trail camera systems from the days of the Trail Sentry, Trail Scout, Trail Scout Pro, Generation 1 Trophy Cam and now the new Trophy Cam XLT. It is what I would describe as the natural evolution of wildlife surveillance technology.

If you’re looking for a trail camera that fits in your hand, and offers such features as lightning fast trigger speed, fully automatic ‘flash free’ Night vision infrared technology, unbelievable battery life with a full colour built-in image display, then look no further.

On September 4^th of Labour Day Weekend, when I first up set-up the new Trophy Cam XLT in my deer woods, I had concerns about battery life; since I knew it would be a month or more before I could return to check on it.

As it turned out, a full two months had passed before I made it back to the deer woods to check on my trail cam. To my great surprise – and 600 large format (8 Mg) images later – the batteries in Trophy XLT were still going strong and remained at nearly full power! According to the Manufacturer’s specifications, battery life is up to 6 months depending on the conditions.

Here are some of the wonderful day and night time deer images I have captured over the past couple of months:

If you’re concerned about safety with your new Trophy Cam XLT, Bushnell has another new product on the market called the Bear Safe. – It’s an indestructible security box to house your trail cam. Combined with a Python lock, the Bear Safe provides both protection from theft and damage from a potential bear attack.

After having used the Trophy Cam XLT under a variety of conditions, I can tell you that it functions as well in warm weather as it does in sub-zero temperatures, and has yet to foul up.

The new XLT has also been upgraded from 24 to 32 Nightvision LED’s which means brighter and clearer night time images. The Passive Infrared Sensor coverage area is also three times larger than any cam Bushnell has ever built.

Another wise upgrade is the XLT’s ability to use up to a 16GB SD card for greatly increased image capacity. The new built-in 2″ colour viewer also makes quick viewing in the field a breeze. All that for around $200.00 makes an already great product even better!

But hey, don’t just take my word for it; check out Bushnell.com for more information:

http://www.bushnell.com/products/trail-cameras/trophy-cam/

Tag: trophy cam

Trail camera preparation in comfort & style

Testing Bushnell Trophy Cam XLT