We have been trying some trail cams at the farm here in TN and I was wondering what results others have been seeing.

Here's what we learned in summary...no large bucks...lots of does...a few spikes, forkhorns and one medium six...many coyotes. We also found that about 85% of the deer pics were at night...frequently in the first two hours after sunset.

A few coons, possum and squirrel and lots of pics at night with only the glow of eyes just outside the flash range, and many pics of nothing at all in the day. I've been trying to guess the cause of that. There seems to be some brief lag time, so maybe it was a deer moving fast close to the lens (we did get the rear end of several) or a bird or leaf falling??

The joke was nothing wierd for our area showed up. No mountain lions. Hardly any bears. And no hogs (they are now in the next county so we are already planning a proper welcome).

The practical thing that came out of placing cameras was it confirmed what we already thought about deer movements and it convinced us that something needs to be done about the coyotes. The timing on their pics in some cases showed they were probably closely following the deer. We have also been finding the remains of what looked like extremely young or new-born deer. We put that down to the coyotes too.

We deleted the pics and reset them all in new positions. I'm particularly interested in an extremely well-worn trail right beside the game fence on our side of a huge fenced off preserve. So we'll see..

Look really close at the day time pics for birds. I see them in one frame then not on the next.
Cameras are a really neat toy!!!

Shack,
I've employed game cams for six or seven years now. I go to my lease in the Texas hill country at least once a month. I have rigged my cameras to use rechargable batteries and hooked them up with solar chargers. Keep a 2 meg SD disc installed. Many times I will have as many as 1,700 pictures in a month. Sometimes I think I go up (300 miles one way) just to see the pictures and just hang out as much as I do to hunt.
I probably have 30,000 pix stored on my backup hard drive as it takes up too much space on my computer. Several years ago we had a place in east Texas. Never had much luck hunting deer there. Well a friend of mine and I set up two cameras over spin cast feeders. We kept two feeders going year round for three years, with cameras at the ready. Would you believe that we did not catch one buck in the daylight in three years. They would come in between 9:30 PM and 4:30 AM. We had does, hogs, squirrels, bobcat, coyotes crows rabbits etc, but no bucks.
Probably the most interesting sequence of photos was one where a bunch of pigs came into a feeder. During the feeding frenzy a large boar killed a shoat. The sequence over the next 24 hours showed buzzards coming in and completely devouring the carcass. By the next afternoon there was nothing there but bare earth.
Best to you and yours
GWB

Having a look at your game animal herd is the obvious advantage to trail cameras, but I also wanted to mention another big plus that we've experienced: catching trespassers/poachers. The detail found in the newer style cameras makes it pretty easy to identify someone by their face. After someone gets busted, it's amazing how fast word spreads. Trespassing hasn't been a problem lately.

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:
Would you believe that we did not catch one buck in the daylight in three years.

Very interesting, GW. Just curious, how did you get around this? (assuming you guys want to kill a buck) Seems like the odds are stacked heavily in the favor of the vampire bucks.

Quick answer. Have somewhere else to hunt.

The place we saw only vampire bucks was in east texas in the piney woods on a family farm. It was two miles off the nearest road. It backed up to a creek and a national forest. It was surrounded on the other thee sides by a 4500 acre timber holding. It was a family place used for enjoyment. I was the only one that hunted it. We owned the place for forty years. You would think you'd get some good bucks during that time. However, never did. Did shoot a ton of ducks, geese, coons, hogs, rabbits, squirrels, turtles and catch a bunch of brim, bass and catfish. So all was not lost. I grew up summers there and so did my kids.
For years I was either broke or raising kids and did not do too much deer hunting. Its only been the last 11 years or so that I have had the opportunity to hunt a lot. I have been on four leases total and two different Texas hill country leases for the last six or seven years. One is on a 3000 acre low fenced ranch that is about 40 miles from the nearest town in any direction.
The other is a 1700 acre pasture out of a 30,000 acre ranch. It is 23 miles from the nearest town and 6 miles off the highway down a caliche road. The Texas hill country has lots of game. Consequently I limit out If I choose to. So not seeing deer on the family place was not that big a deal.
GWB

quote:

another big plus that we've experienced: catching trespassers/poachers

A farmer I was talking to put a cam out to cover a barn or out-building of some sort and it was stolen. Apparently thieves broke into his place at night and it snapped their picture and they took it to get rid of the evidence.

Actually we were wondering if we'd get pics of trespassers, meaning the local top citizens. They are a real problem. We've arrived at the place where we park to hunt at 4 a.m. and found a couple car loads of them engaged in no telling what kind of transaction. They give us the sullen stare routine and drive off. We've also found where they pull stolen cars up behind the barn and set them afire. And apparently they've got sort of a lover's lane they like to frequent.

Anyway, I was thinking, wouldn't it be cool to set up a live cam including infra-red night vision to watch game in real time on your place? Or even put it on the net, maybe for advertising if you were running a game ranch? ..just an idea..

quote:

Originally posted by Shack:

quote:

another big plus that we've experienced: catching trespassers/poachers

A farmer I was talking to put a cam out to cover a barn or out-building of some sort and it was stolen. Apparently thieves broke into his place at night and it snapped their picture and they took it to get rid of the evidence.

Actually we were wondering if we'd get pics of trespassers, meaning the local top citizens. They are a real problem. We've arrived at the place where we park to hunt at 4 a.m. and found a couple car loads of them engaged in no telling what kind of transaction. They give us the sullen stare routine and drive off. We've also found where they pull stolen cars up behind the barn and set them afire. And apparently they've got sort of a lover's lane they like to frequent.

Anyway, I was thinking, wouldn't it be cool to set up a live cam including infra-red night vision to watch game in real time on your place? Or even put it on the net, maybe for advertising if you were running a game ranch? ..just an idea..

I know there is a Video cam that sends pics to your cell phone or computer.It is infrared.If I can find the ad I saw for it ,I will post its name. OB