• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Thinking of dumping all cameras.

I only do a few cams on this tiny piece if private land I have access to hunt. Don’t do anything on public because of theft. I have to say seeing what I get on the cams is almost like its own separate hobby for me outside of hunting. I don’t use them to target any animal. It’s just exciting to see what comes in there and when/why for me. It does make it more encouraging to hunt in there too of course. But for me it’s just fun to see what’s happening when I’m not around.

If I ever get my own piece of property to hunt, my tune is likely to change completely. Hah!
 
kyler1945 said:
My best 10 years of hunting are behind me(25 total so far). My next ten will be really good but not great. And the ten after that will be ok…if I even have them. I moved to a new state, and have a baby on the way. Maybe I’m lucky and my kid will want to hunt. If not, time will be at a premium. It already is. I learned in two months of putting a half dozen cameras out, what would’ve taken a few seasons to put together.

If I had my youth back, and no family, I’d probably give them up completely. But they’re going to be a tool that shaves a chunk out of time out of hunt preparation. I average 5+ miles a day walking from august 1-February 28 every year. My per day hunting mileage will not change. But the number of days I spend out there can be reduced drastically with cameras.
Click to expand...
I almost find that my time hunting and having kids is almost better. My mindset is different since having kids. Just kind of makes me appreciate it all more or something.
 
Last edited:
Topdog said:
The best thing you guys could do is dump all those cell cams immediately, especially Tactacam Reveal X models, Verizon specifically, and because I’m such a nice guy Topdog is here with Paypal ready to give those bothersome cell cams a good home, PM’s are welcome my friends, let me end the horrific 1 AM notification of a giant nocturnal buck that was never meant to be, hunting can be stress free again by simply unloading all those cameras at a discount rate to a member you know and trust that will treat them right!!!
Click to expand...
Too funny. I may make a fortune on my tactacams.
 
kyler1945 said:
My best 10 years of hunting are behind me(25 total so far). My next ten will be really good but not great. And the ten after that will be ok…if I even have them. I moved to a new state, and have a baby on the way. Maybe I’m lucky and my kid will want to hunt. If not, time will be at a premium. It already is. I learned in two months of putting a half dozen cameras out, what would’ve taken a few seasons to put together.

If I had my youth back, and no family, I’d probably give them up completely. But they’re going to be a tool that shaves a chunk out of time out of hunt preparation. I average 5+ miles a day walking from august 1-February 28 every year. My per day hunting mileage will not change. But the number of days I spend out there can be reduced drastically with cameras.
Click to expand...
Amen to this reasoning. I am right there with you.
 
I need a thread like this, I have a big buck I jumped twice this season. I could put a camera up, I have two of them but they require cards and I’ve never set them up in my hunting locations. I thought about putting them up but maybe I’ll hold off. They aren’t cell cams so I’d have to enter one last time before the season to check them.
 
I ran 3 cheap card cams this year on a very high pressure spot. They were very revealing wrt inventory and movement patterns. If you want to get rid of your cams, PM me and I will pay the shipping to free you from them!
 
I pretty much use cameras to identify general travel direction, and general travel time.

Once I establish that, about the only use I’ll get out of them is seeing how much of that movement could extrapolate into daytime movement. I usually don’t put them within 100 yards of where I intend to hunt.

If I’m huntjng a place with antler restrictions, a side benefit is knowing if there are legal deer to be killed.
 
I've gone back and forth on it. I have a few cheap cams I slap up from time to time. I mostly just put them up in a spot that I scout and plan to check it when I go back in to hunt the spot. I usually leave it out 2 weeks minimum. I use them for inventory purposes. I can download the card to my phone as soon as I am set up at height and see what is around.

If one gets stolen, I will not be to upset about it. I can't say I have ever had one give me actionable intel on a buck. I do believe that when I ran them more and tried to do that it hurt me more than helped.

The best use I put cameras too is for the past few years I always run one covering my vehicle while I am off in the woods.
 
Last edited:
I’m a painfully ok-ish hunter.
I go back and forth every year. It would be nice to retire them all together.
I most enjoy moving around and hunting where sign dictates, this quiets my mind and my goal is only to get closer to deer, consistently.
When I do that I tend to find a few decent bucks too
Unfortunately this doesn’t get me seeing deer as often as I’d like since hunting New England.
- when I hang cams high it really limits the sight picture but hung by a scrape, feed tree, or pinch like a stream crossing or two fingers meeting;
3 Card Cams can help me fill in the blanks “ of what is heavy sign” and day or night….
Is that stream crossing 4 deer in daylight 3 x a week
( that’s alot of prints) or a couple deer every day?
I Mainly wait until scrapes really open up just to see what is hitting scrapes if I haven’t tagged out, then hang cams to reinforce my theory; there is often a larger buck than any I have yet to see in daylight that year and pull card mafter a hunt , yank em out of the woods before full orange army .

I ve learned that this approach doesn’t really help me see bucks in day unless I move to cell cams primarily.
The act of hunting a scrape area and then pulling a card lessons my success rate vs just hunting the scrape area ( as a dumb anecdote).

now if you have a cell cam(s) and based on pics, can cut out of work/ life and go hunt based on that , when the wind works, then yes it should absolutely help.

on out of state hunts , using 1 to 2 cell cams provides a crazy amount of ability to hone in on where deer are when you have a buck only tag

I lost my point but I’m just going to make the best of my time in the woods .There prob isn’t a good replacement to cams and increasing your sightings vs time spent finding deer.
Is it worthwhile or not is up to the user.
 
I was in the few or no camera camp for a long time, sure I had a couple of standard cameras out in the past but it was a joke and more for entertainment purposes than anything else. Once I started realizing that they are simply. another tool to be able to inventory the areas I’m planning to hunt or hunt already, especially real time cell cam footage, it helps
me manage my deer assets and timing much, much, more effectively and efficiently. As other proponents have stated earlier, it is a huge time saver as well and with a full time job and kids…. Volunteer commitments etc., I am finding they help me organize my hunting time as well. They also helped me while hunting this past season which gave me the staying power to be able to shoot a nice buck during bow season. As far as going in and checking standard cams, I only do that during season immediately before and after or during hunts so I’m there already there already and I don’t check them all at the same time only where it makes sense given where I’m hunting that day. Over a course of a few to several “sits” you can change out your cards within a reasonable amount of time.

Another aspect of them I like is being able to have live on the hoof pics of the deer you end up harvesting. It’s kind of a cool story and a way to honor the animal in some way.

Believe me, I’m not a social media fb person either, I hate that stuff and getting caught up in the comparisons. At the end of the day, no one really cares what you took except yourself and your closest family and friends. I am proud of everyone who ever takes any deer as long as it’s ethical and legally harvested and they are happy with it.
 
Most of the deer podcasts that I refuse to listen to should all be titled “how to use cams that surveil the woods to find and kill big bucks you’d have never known existed”. It’s total BS and cheating IMO
Never used em. Never will. It’s led to the shut down of countless permissions on properties because deer never seen are now protected. It’s also led to a great decrease in woodsmanship. It takes the surprise and fun out of success. “Target bucks” are all the rage. I literally lose 90% of my respect for any deer shot using these. Some of the greatest hunters out there say the same thing. They’re cheating. But use em cause they’re legal. I get it, you are pressured to create content. But sheesh it’s just becoming a video game. Now the thermal scopes. Good lord man.
 
I stopped few years ago but put couple out late season this year. If nothing good shows on camera I was bad to not hunt. I enjoy hunting, so doing away with cameras actually made me hunt more. But same time a good deer on camera will make a guy hunt hard too.
 
I grabbed two spypoint cell cameras on sale last off-season and they've been in the woods since. Can't say that they've directly translated to shooting any deer, but it's fun to inventory the animals that are around.
 
kyler1945 said:
My best 10 years of hunting are behind me(25 total so far). My next ten will be really good but not great. And the ten after that will be ok…if I even have them. I moved to a new state, and have a baby on the way. Maybe I’m lucky and my kid will want to hunt. If not, time will be at a premium. It already is. I learned in two months of putting a half dozen cameras out, what would’ve taken a few seasons to put together.

If I had my youth back, and no family, I’d probably give them up completely. But they’re going to be a tool that shaves a chunk out of time out of hunt preparation. I average 5+ miles a day walking from august 1-February 28 every year. My per day hunting mileage will not change. But the number of days I spend out there can be reduced drastically with cameras.
Click to expand...
My camera use has ramped up directly in response to two kids arriving, starting 4 years ago. Property is an hour away and every trip is a negotiation. As much as I would love to dump em, they’re basically the key to my strategy given the circumstances. And same, I’ve learned more in the past several years of using them as I learned in the previous decade or two combined. I know there’s an ethical debate about cell cam use, but that’s kinda like saying the fella that can spend a lot of time in the woods has some unethical advantage because I was definitely more lethal when I could put the time in, vs me now heavily handicapped in spite of cell cam usage. It’s crazy to me that we’ve had a shooter consistently walking 100 yards from the barn for 3 years now and I might not even know he existed if it wasn’t for the pictures.
 
I think the decision to use cameras or not comes down to what makes you excited about hunting deer. The same thing could be said about food plots, weapon of choice, using dogs, etc.

Like others have said, I also go back and forth on the camera decision. Ironically, though, I think my turn away from cameras is made possible by my use of them this last year. I saw, for myself, that deer generally move at certain times, but also move at totally unexpected times. I did not hunt enough in years prior to feel confident when I wasn't seeing deer. Are they even out here? I thought so, but now I know so. Now, if I end up using cameras in the future, they will be on a much smaller scale and for the sole purpose of inventory.
 
cville_bowhunter said:
I think the decision to use cameras or not comes down to what makes you excited about hunting deer. The same thing could be said about food plots, weapon of choice, using dogs, etc.
Click to expand...

I think you hit the nail on the head right there. Do what helps you build excitement. And what builds excitement for you will very likely change over the years, so maybe don't sell all your trail cams yet. you may come back to them.

When I first started hunting 4 seasons ago trail cams really helped me become a better scouter. id tromp through the woods and find sign but I wasn't sure if that was "good" sign. So id put up a camera. Then after few weeks I could see what that sign equated to. Maybe it was a hot spot, or maybe it was just 3 deer passing through that area once and otherwise they didn't use that area. It helped me confirm or deny my hypothesis on what I thought deer were doing in the area.

Fast forward 4 seasons, I now know most of my local public spots really really well and the need for cameras has become lessened because I basically know what they deer are doing and when they're going to be in those areas. The main thing I find I use cameras for now is just scouting hunting pressure. if I get 2-3 dudes on a cam, I know one of my spots is likely blown for a week or 2 or maybe the rest of the season. Knowing this really helps me not waste time in an area and I can just move to my next spot.
 
“Because it’s legal” There just comes a point where surveillance and assassinations are more appropriate terms than hunting. Cams are like xbows, everyone has an excuse to use em. It’s not like I care that much, and not like my opinion matters, but it’s not woodsmanship, it’s all to make things easier in one way or another. It’s just strange being so proud of something found by not looking, by not being there when’s it was, and using information when you weren’t there to decide when to make a move. So surreal in the world when I would’ve thought a main point of hunting is to connect to nature and disconnect from technology. Most of us are short on time, families and jobs. So you didn’t know a great buck was around and some years you get him and some years you don’t. Does it really matter that you didn’t get to post a pic to impress us all on social media, or you post a 6 and not a 10? Nobody really cares is the truth. They’re happy you did whatever, and probably too busy surveilling their own property to impress you, as they sit in their stand checking all the sites online in the tree that they can’t identify. Yep, I’m a little sad how far it’s gone..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top