Let me say first that I know exactly zero about cameras.

I was sitting in one of my stands this morning. I saw 2 small bucks. When I left , I retrieved the SD card from my trail cam. Much to my surprise, neither of those bucks showed up on the camera. They were DEFINITELY in the area where they should have had their picture taken.

Any ideas why?

If the camera is working properly, and yours may not be, the variables are distance and height of camera from the subject. Many cameras are installed too high and many have cluttering foliage in front of the camera. Maybe some of the other readers have more and better ideas.

I never put my cameras more than three feet high and always angle them down.I am not going to use cameras this year.I have food plots and know deer use them.This way I do not disturb the woods as much collecting SD cards.I do believe this pushes the deer nocturnal.When you see a really big buck on your camera,it is always a night shot.Chances are you will never see him anyway.

Let me make this more clear . I have pictures of other deer standing in the exact same place. Yet the bucks I saw today were not photographed.

This is absolutely not as issue of camera location, height, etc. Why are some deer being photographed and others are not?

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
Let me make this more clear . I have pictures of other deer standing in the exact same place. Yet the bucks I saw today were not photographed.

This is absolutely not as issue of camera location, height, etc. Why are some deer being photographed and others are not?

Vampire deer.

I am thinking it has something to do with the settings.

Do you have anything(bait,salt lick) to hold the Deer in front of your camera? The only setting is how fast it takes another picture. Burst mode or 1 every minute.

There is a feeder.

One of the bucks in question walked across in front of the camera. It never showed on film. No chance in hell that it wasn't where it needed to be to photograph.

I am very puzzled.

Did it take any other pictures after those deer? I did have a camera long ago, that the range got smaller as the batterys weekend.

I always make the camera take my picture when I leave and when I come back. That way I know it operated properly.

Larry,
I have had issues with some wild game nation cameras in similar settings, even a moultrie gave me problems. Cuddieback have not failed me. They have an extremely fast trigger speed. They are not the cheapest, but imo are the best

I'm betting trigger speed or time between photos. A one second trigger speed is really a long time for a moving deer. Like someone else said, take some burst to see what it shows.

What brand and model of trail cam is it?

It is a Bushnell. I do not know the model. I am out of town now.

Larry: the only game camera I have had any luck with is Bushnell. I have 7 of them on my places right now and occasionally they just don't take a photo...don't know why, just happens. I've thrown away about a dozen other brands in the trash or relegated them to barn duty and most of them are unreliable in the barn, too. Only other cameras I've seen that works most of the time are Cuddeback.

Does Bushnell make anything good these days?

All of mine are made by WGI and can't be beat for the money

BTW.....Always pointed North

Check the delay or interval times - 99% chance that's the issue. Here are two examples:

1. three shot burst, interval of 2 minutes - first deer walks by, three quick pictures taken, buck comes by 15 seconds later but the cam is still on interval and does not shoot.

2. single picture setting, interval of 10 seconds - first deer walks by, one quick picture, buck comes by 15 seconds later, one picture of buck.

I have found three shot burst of little value unless you are hoping to get a great look at antlers in which case well spaced burst pictures usually get you several different angles.

The other thing I should have said is that I was surprised at the low number of pics on the camera. If I recall correctly there were 71 pics. I expected hundreds.

my club has guys that use every make and model camera out there, and a few guys in particular buy and test out tons of cameras. generally, the bushnells do OK. i cannot justify the cost, but if you want the best out there, get the reconnyx. i have guys claim to catch cars going down the highway with them, their trigger speed is so fast. i have an older bushnell trophy cam that is just ok. i have a browning that i use for video. i think the brownings are the best value for the money right now; but i only use the video setting, so idk how it does on pictures.