I'm going to put up some trail cams for whitetail in 2016.
Any recommendations on brand or model and advice would be appreciated. CB

Just get one that you can view the cards while in the cameras. Makes things much easier than swapping cards you can't look at til you get home with them. Can be lost or damaged on the way.

George

Great advice. I thought they all could be viewed immediately. CB

I will have to respectfully disagree with George's advice.

There are 2 problems with what George says. These are as follows:

1- Standing around viewing pictures leaves more scent which is not good for obvious reasons.

2- At least on the cameras I have seen, the screen is small making it difficult to really evaluate unless the deer is CLOSE to the camera.

I run about a dozen. My best luck has been with Bushnells. The worst (by far) have been Moultrie products.

A computer or an I pad is the best thing I have found to evaluate the pictures.

Thanks for the additional advice Larry. I especially appreciate the Moultrie warning. The plan is to observe for a few days in January and also again next fall, a few weeks before rifle season.

CB:

Where I hunt, it is nothing to have 2,000 to 3,000 pictures in a 2 week period. It takes a while to review those. Thus my comments about leaving scent.

I have not had a Moultrie last 30 days. I bought 4. All 4 died in less than 30 days.

I have had good pictures and good video from the SpyPoint 7 MegPixel cameras. Excellent daytime immages and very good IR Night shots. Seems to be able to pick up movement out to 50 feet without any problems. Also these are currently being discounted to very reasonable prices. Sometimes for as little as $80. This summer I purchased same model as a replacement.
Just remember that the memory card is not usually included. You will probably need to buy an SD or micro-SD. Cards of 4 or 8 Gig will handle most needs, unless you plan for lots of video instead of still shots.
Secondly, be very careful about where it is placed. My first one was on my farm near my corn feeder and some SoB tore down my gate, drove in and stole my trail camera along with the SD card and supplemental battery.

Excellent info Bob and another thanks to Larry for topping off your original post. This is all invaluable to me. CB

Check out the website Chasin' Game for some real world reviews of cameras. They put them through the paces and make good recommendations. Pay attention to the trigger speed, flash range and trigger area. Fast cameras work well on trails. Slow cameras do not, but do work in fields or on salt licks.

Look for cameras that have cable slots or come with security boxes (often thrown in for free). Cobra cable locks are cheap and work fine for casual thieves. Determined thieves are not stoppable. However two trail cameras will catch determined thieves. One camera is to photograph the deer, the other is hidden to photograph the thief. A sad lesson I learned. Thieves don't often look for two cameras.

I change out cards and never stand there looking at the pictures. Where I hunt it seems to matter, other places may not. I have two cards marked for each camera and where gloves when I touch the camera (overkill, but I feel better about it). 4gb is usually enough as noted above.

Most small point and shoot cameras will view the photos from trail cams if you want a portable viewer. My Panasonic and Canon work fine with late model Montrie, Browning, Bushnell, and Scoutguard cameras.

One thing to think about is flash type. Deer will see all but the black infrared flashes. If you go with visible flash cameras, I find that they work best if you put them as high as you can reach and point them at a down angle. Deer don't seem to care about light above them, but they may freak out if it is at their level. I learned this trying to get a huge buck a couple of years ago.

The Browning cameras have worked very well for me, and are priced well. The Dark Ops models are my go to cameras these days. I have used a lot of cameras, and these have worked well.

Jeremy

I have used lots of cameras.They all seem to last only two to three years.Moultry has good pics,but are a 2 year camera.I have gotten three years out of Bushnell`s and they have a fast trigger speed and long battery life.Wildview are junk,avoid at all cost.I bought two Cuddebacks this year.They both crapped out in two months.They seem to have a very short range and pic quality sucked.

Between a friend and I we purchased 4 Moultrie M880s and they have been excellent for two years so far. Excellent battery life, easy to program and good sensing.

Talk about educational thread.
Larry and others, much to learn I had no clue about.
Many thanks, hope the OP learns as much as I did.
George

PS: Larry: I've been disagreed with many times, but, don't think anyone has ever been the gentleman you were with it. Most times it's more like: nah, I'm not gonna say that, haha!
Thanks,
G

custombolt:

Is there a GSM coverage in area? Here, in my country, GSM coverage is close to "everywhere", so we use game camera with capability to sending emails. Of course in email, the picture is in lower resolution than stored in SD card. The maximum speed camera can send is one per minute.

Real examples of pictures you get in email:

We have similar cameras here. They work well. The one that I have must be used with AT&T service.

Check out trailcampro.com

There's a wealth of information on the site.

I have 3 HCO cellular cameras that send pictures to my email and 7 Browning Strike Force, and they all work flawlessly.

How did we ever survive 50 years ago when we didn't have any of this fancy stuff? I liked hunting whitetails a lot better back then when a guy went out and looked for "sign" before the season opened and hunted by walking aournd with a 30-30 winchester

The herd in Pennsylvania has shrunk since the doe tag allotment went from 1 to unlimited (until sold out) several years ago. Places where we used to see 20+ deer in a herd now have 1 or 2. Hence, one has to work a bit harder these days to find the deer. Also, the antler size has gone from 3" or better spike buck in the past to a minimum of 3 points on one side and in some counties, 3 up minimum.

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
How did we ever survive 50 years ago when we didn't have any of this fancy stuff? I liked hunting whitetails a lot better back then when a guy went out and looked for "sign" before the season opened and hunted by walking aournd with a 30-30 winchester

Wow! That second wave was as good as the first. Thanks again.
And yes georgegeld, lots to learn here.