Yup, totally digging my very first new cell cam already. Installed the Tactacam Reveal X this afternoon @4:00 p.m. and got my first deer capture @6:44 and they're still coming in. I attached below the very latest.
Last edited:
Not running any cams
- Thread starter NWOHhunter
- Start date
Yup, totally digging my very first new cell cam already. Installed the Tactacam Reveal X this afternoon @4:00 p.m. and got my first deer capture @6:44 and they're still coming in. I attached below the very latest.
Big_Holla
Senior Member
I have always enjoyed running cameras. We are 6 hours away so we don't get down as often as we would like so the cameras soak for a month or several more. It has always been like Christmas morning when I would get to sit down and go through a card. I almost enjoyed that as much as hunting them, especially in the off season leading up to October. Now that we have several cell cameras going it is an added fun to see what passed by them right at that moment. With those going it's easy to forget the regular cameras at times, but they work in the places where cell coverage is limited. I wouldn't say the cameras have contributed to any we have killed other than knowing they had been there at some point. There will always be bucks that show up that we haven't gotten on camera before, those are the one's I hope to see while sitting on stand.
Spencie
Senior Member
Finally have some time to type up a proper response, but as usual, the guys have provided a bunch of great insight and feedback already. I've experienced a wild ride with cams over the years and offer the following as another perspective on this topic. I also offer this as a cautionary tale of the “dangers” of trail cams.
I deployed my first trail cam in October 2004 and a few days before Halloween, that POS Moultrie 35mm took the one and only pic it ever took and it was a buck I’d kill a month later. The “Berry Buck” as I called him, was a 136” 6.5-year-old bruiser that not only hooked me on hunting/killing big bucks, but on running trail cams. The next fall, the “family farm” became a thing, which gave me more ground to cover and in 2006, I got my first “real” job, so I had financial resources that let me ramp up my camera inventory.
By 2008, I was helping launch and run a “Pro-Staff” for a somewhat well-known Ohio-based trail camera company. That summer, I was running two of their wireless units, which captured thousands of images of a 183” legend known as Deuce. That was my first experience trying to pattern a mature buck with multiple cams and it was my introduction to the lower-impact world of wireless/cell cams.
When we launched TOO in 2010, things were about to crescendo and it was the affiliate deal with SpyPoint that landed me at the bottom of the rabbit hole. By 2012, I ran 12 cameras on 80 acres, with another 10 spread out on other farms I was hunting. I was the guy with a neatly arranged File Explore with a folder for each farm; a folder for each buck; and there was a time I was even entering data into Excel trying to determine a pattern. It became work and was fueling the internal struggle I was having over my love for the sport of bowhunting, which I’ve documented in other posts on the forum. If I’m being honest, by 2017-2018, trail cameras were 75% of the reason why I hated the very thing I loved the most.
In 2019, I sold a bunch of cams and totally revamped my approach to cams. I cannot imagine not having any cams in the woods. I still love seeing pictures of deer and other critters, but I needed a new perspective, so I just stopped caring about what cams I had where, or what they were supposed to be telling me, and just started putting them out with “youthful” curiosity. I’ve since added several cell cams, which I really enjoy.
My philosophy now is pretty simple: I’d rather kill a buck I don’t know, then pull a cam and see pics, than visa versa at this point. That’s what happened last year. Since I stopped saving/cataloging pics, it’s now the exception that I have a target buck, than the rule. When I killed my buck last year, I later pulled cams and had great pics of him and was able to review past trail cam threads on TOO to uncover pics from the previous two years. That’s the way I want it to work going forward. I place my cell cams over scrapes situated on well-known travel corridors and they stay there all year. My other cams, get placed in historical locations and are left for weeks/months at a time. During the season, I will check cams on the 4th of July, Labor Day, before Halloween, then before gun season. My cams are no longer hunting/scouting for me and are dedicated to static surveillance for inventory purposes only. It’s much less complicated, still has benefits, and it’s not ruining my enjoyment of the sport.
Life is all about balance. Depriving yourself of something enjoyable only makes sense if you’re incapable of moderation or balance. But if you are someone that can find the middle ground and maintain it, you should absolutely do that when it comes to your use of trail cameras.
ThatBuckeyeGuy
Active Member
Never used a camera . Tried dumping buck jam on a log one year that was as far as my baiting ever went. I have a very small area to hunt and try to be as non invasive as possible. It's a personal thing, I don't want to know if a 160" is running around on camera. That would drive me nuts , I sit in the stand and hope for one like that to walk through not knowing . I don't do any summer scouting as I've been hunting this spot since I was a kid. I adjust my stand when I need to but it sits in a perfect spot for all parts of the season. Other than popping some groundhogs in the adjacent fields I rarely step foot in the woods until season.
Can you say this part in English? I feel like you are trying to tell me something and I don't understand it...
En la vida todo es equilibrio. Privarse de algo placentero solo tiene sentido si no es capaz de moderación o equilibrio. Pero si usted es alguien que puede encontrar el término medio y mantenerlo, debe hacerlo absolutamente cuando se trata de su uso de cámaras de rastreo.
@Dustinb80 can you get the Pennsylvania Dutch version for our Amish friend? 
Het leven draait om balans. Jezelf iets leuks onthouden heeft alleen zin als je niet in staat bent tot gematigdheid of evenwicht. Maar als je iemand bent die het midden kan vinden en onderhouden, moet je dat absoluut doen als het gaat om je gebruik van trailcamera's
I got this...standbyeView attachment 155092
Huh, must be universal. Looks the same.
Huh, must be universal. Looks the same.
Fullbore
Senior Member
I was in the same boat had folders for woods sorted by the years and months. I even had folders for pictures shared with me each year . I got into it and just kinda burnt myself out.
I just feel like running no cams for this year and see about using one cell cam for recon purposes.
More importantly! Your response was worth the wait!! That took some time to write up. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for everyone sharing their opinions and thoughts.
Stressless
Active Member
^This^ but I'm 13 hours away
... I also use cell cams as a secondary security perimeter for the farm. I love getting there and pulling the cards and seeing what critters are roaming - many cams are placed in places of curiosity rather than whitetail intelligence collection. Biggest disappointment so far this year is not capturing any wood duck babies popping out of the nests... next year!
Last edited:
Stressless
Active Member
Big_Holla
Senior Member
Enjoyed watching that. He brings up a few things that got me thinking. The cell cams I have out are mostly on T-posts with solar on them, stuck out in the open. Starting to wonder if that has anything to do with not getting any good bucks on them this past month or so. Perhaps I need to re-think their set-up or perhaps add some "camouflage" to them in some way to break up their outline. On the using them near stands I started trying to do this in years past, however the best set-up view for the camera wasn't always the best access to grab pics on the way to the stand. The idea of going in and fiddling around with the camera overlooking the spot I hope to put an arrow through one just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Talk about a scent post while you are sitting in the stand? Maybe I am overthinking it I spoze (I've been known to do that on occasion
)
I run cams cuz I like seeing deer and knowing what’s around. I’m as minimally invasive with checking them as possible, only doing so every 3 weeks or so during the summer while in the woods doing other chores and only during the season if I’m in the woods hunting. I’ve never patterned a deer with them or killed one that I knew was around based on having pics of them. I know my personality and if I tried to do so or hold out for one I thought was around because of cam intel, I’d drive myself crazy and give up hunting altogether. I enjoy the surprise factor of having a deer get me going when I see it and deciding whether or not I wanna shoot it. I have occasionally been able to verify a deer made it from one year to the next based on unique identifying characteristics but, by and large, I just like knowing there’s deer around and get excited when a good one shows up. Much like other posters have said, the bucks that frequent my area in velvet typically disperse after the go hard horned. So it would be a fool's errand to hold out for a buck that I’d had on camera during the summer. That’s not to say they don’t filter back through throughout the season but I don’t expect them to be hanging close on a regular basis. All that to say, I like getting pics of deer and try not bugger up my hunting in the process
I put cameras out the end of May and still havn't checked em yet..you never know what might show up but if I get pics of a couple good ones and I know they are in my area I will just hunt like I always do and hope to get at least one chance at them. I do enjoy getting pics of deer but I guess it's not that big a deal, time in the stand is what gets em killed.
Dont need to use corn to run a camera...The value of hunting for me is to reduce the cost of the food bill. I prefer to let the farmers feed the deer. Plus the bait piles just announce to any fellow hunters or trespassers where your spots and equipment out. There are some sneakier ways to feed deer if you wish but again, thats money and energy burned that you dont necessarily need.
As far as scaring deer...I think this thinking is a bit backwards outside of educated deer. Deer can get quite acclimated to regular human activity. Even if the deer were educated...you think theyll be more spooked if they see activity every week/every other week or have no activitity all then come hunting season there's human activity in their "safe zone".
As far as scaring deer...I think this thinking is a bit backwards outside of educated deer. Deer can get quite acclimated to regular human activity. Even if the deer were educated...you think theyll be more spooked if they see activity every week/every other week or have no activitity all then come hunting season there's human activity in their "safe zone".