Trail cams

white van man

Well-Known Member
Hi Guys,
Need to put some trail cams up on a new permission so I can see deer movement etc.
whats good,how far do they view ,costs, simple usage.
any ideas, I hav'nt t put a budget as I'm being open minded at the mo.
Cheers Steve.
 
I've used them for quite a while mate, I went for Bushnell trophy range, model was 119476 I think, cost about 180£ well worth the time and effort though I use it at bait points for foxes. I will post a couple of vids later, one day one night so you can see quality. The one I uses the black (ir) LEDs so no flash.
 
My mate put his up on our permission for two weeks, it recorded plenty of activity from munties badgers and rabbits for the first 3 days and then nothing for 8 days, the last 2 days once again recoeding activity from munties and a badger.

Ian.
 
Bought mine from Scott Country. Great bit of kit and Scott country are great to deal with.
 
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the replies and vids, Looks like the Bushnell will fit the bill, I think Uttings are doing them at £159 at the mo I need about four so will see what they have.
Cheers Steve
 
It was about this time last year that Aldi did their trail cameras - in fact I think it was the end of june

its normally about the same time every year
 
It was about this time last year that Aldi did their trail cameras - in fact I think it was the end of june

its normally about the same time every year

We bought one this year. It's taken thousands of photos already, and a few of them even have animals in them (not the 1012 photos of grass blowing around that we got off the card this morning though....).
 
I would seriously consider checking the Spypoint BF-8 before going down the Bushnell route, (we sell both)

I can count on one hand the number of Spypoint returns we have had, but with Bushnell i would need all the staffs hands and feet, some of the entry level models are woefully inadequate, and with interpolation applied their image quality vs reliability is not even close to Spypoint.

I spoke with Chris Packham again recently who was a die hard Bushnell fan, and has since moved to Spypoint and raves about them.

Alarm clock beats smartphone in list of gadgets we can't live without - Telegraph
 
White van man I highly recommend the spy point bf10 HD I bought mine from Scott country who I also highly recommend. They are certainly not the cheapest but easy to use and top quality pics and vids.
 
Trail cameras all have a fairly limited range - many people seem to expect much more than they can deliver. In general the ideal "viewing" distance for them tends to be about 10 - 20 feet. Given this you can't easily cover huge areas with them very well and so you have to have a plan to photograph your target fairly close to the camera.

For me trigger speed is a big factor, as is the quality of the sensing. These two things sort of run in parallel but all cameras miss triggers it is just that some miss them more than others and, of course, if you never see it then you never know that you missed it so you need to have confidence in the sensing. When it comes to trigger speed then I think this is important due to the fact that most cameras take their best photos pretty close up and so you need a fast trigger time to catch a moving deer in that sweet spot. Many cameras turn in a lot of empty photos because they take several seconds to trigger and the animal has already left the frame before the photo or video gets taken. If you are baiting deer into a feeder for example, where they might stand around for a while, then trigger speed becomes less important but be warned - I tried to bait sika in with wheat and various other stuff and they were frightened by the wheat on the ground and moved away never to be seen again :)

It is sometimes possible to buy "old stock" cameras at much reduced prices - for example I tend to buy older Bushnell cameras as the price is reasonable and they have everything I need. The 2012 Bushnells have the 0.6 second trigger so I wouldn't buy anything earlier than that. I think only Reconyx can match that, even in 2014, but they are far too expensive to tie to a tree. (the 2014 Bushnells are down to 0.2 seconds trigger time but are still too expensive for me) However, buying a secondhand trail camera doesn't seem like a good idea as they all have a limited life - any complex electronics you leave out in the weather 365 days per year in a cheap plastic box is on borrowed time and 2 years seems about average for a trail camera.

In as far as I can see all cameras have various bugs and faults so it would be worth making sure that any camera is suitable for your requirements - for example on some models of Bushnell the "field scan" (Bushnell speak for a timelapse system) never really worked very well so you don't want one of those if you need timelapse. The internet is a good source of common faults and bugs for the more popular cameras.

Swing by the chasing game forum as those folks know all there is to know about trail cameras:

Chasingame.com discussion forum Index page
 
I have little acorn 5210A trail cameras and have had no problems with them at all.

Cost about £80 each and have a 12 mega pixel camera with side pir detectors which start the camera recording just before the subject walks in front of the camera.

Sensitivity can be turned down to prevent false triggers and the batteries last for many months.

I bought steel security boxes for mine which help to keep them secure.
 
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