I am sure this has been discussed many times but being new to Trad gang I have not seen the question yet and would like to know everyones opinions. Here goes; If you use cameras, what is your reasoning? I myself lean toward the element of suprise and dont use them. Convince me on why I should.
I believe you are talking about trail cameras right. I use them to help minimize my time spent in my hunting areas. I can put one up over a trail or area that looks hot to know if it actually is being used currently or if it is an old trail or area. This information helps me to maximize the precious time I get to spent hunting with me wasting it hunting a cold trail or area.
QuoteOriginally posted by madness522:
I believe you are talking about trail cameras right. I use them to help minimize my time spent in my hunting areas. I can put one up over a trail or area that looks hot to know if it actually is being used currently or if it is an old trail or area. This information helps me to maximize the precious time I get to spent hunting with me wasting it hunting a cold trail or area.
I'll second that :thumbsup:
I like cameras. If you scout an area, find tracks, rubs, scrapes then you already know what is there, the camera just confirms it and really gets the excitement level up.
It also lets you know if the area isn't worth wasting alot of time on stand, bow season is short enough without wasting time on raccons, squirrels and crows.
Or as one of my cameras showed last year, 119 pics of turkey vultures! I guess the trail I set it up on was near a roost, never found a carcass.
If the camera has a time stamp on it, it will let you know if the tracks you are finding are being made at night or during shooting hours. I know that is subject to change, but it gives a good starting point.
Just my opinion, and I like to take the chip home and look at my local wildlife on my computer with friends.
Even if it is only vultures!
John
the art students i hired to sit in my stands got too expensive
I do it because it is fun, I love seeing the pictures of animals that I wouldn't otherwise see.
David
QuoteOriginally posted by texbow2:
the art students i hired to sit in my stands got too expensive
Now that is funny!
im not totaly against them. i just dont use them because i like to be surprised by what i do or dont see. but i also live in a state that you can hunt with bows during rifle season. that gives me plenty of time to figure out where i need to hunt. plus i would rather put my money towards my next bow. i am not for and really not against them. everything has its purpose.
I hate them. I just KNOW that at some point, there will be pics of me copping a squat posted all OVER the internet.
Killdeer :mad:
QuoteOriginally posted by texbow2:
the art students i hired to sit in my stands got too expensive
Yeah, I'm with ya.......those were the days weren't they.
Last season, I rented a gorilla suit for the weekend and snuck up on a friends camera while wearing it. Our club members usually bring the camera chips into the cook shed so everyone can see them on the tv, he thought he found the Florida skunk ape! It got a pretty good laugh.
I've been thinking about "streaking" in front of some of them in our hunt club........but I'm not sure I want to expose anyone to that horror! or "expose" myself to mosquitos and deer flies!
I get bit enough with my clothes on.
John
I'm fairly new to using them. (2 yrs.)I like to try and get pix of bucks in areas I hunt just to keep track of whats out there. If I'm lucky enough to get one of them I can hang before & after pix by the mount or in an album. I've been lucky once so far. It also reminds me of when I trapped when I was a kid. You never know what you might get. Like christmas opening presents wondering what you got.
i love them for several reasons
1. i live 4.5 hr drive from my deer lease, i can't scout every weekend or when i get off work in the evenings like some can.
2. i don't like to shoot the first deer i see, i want to get an idea of what is in the area before i shoot something.
3. it is cool to see the other non deer animals in the area.
4. as mention above it lets you know if the trails are being used primarily at night or during the day.
there aren't any very defined funnels or trials in south texas like there are up north so if you choose to hunt from a trail you have to be selective where you put a stand.
Scouting cameras are just plain fun.
If you feel they give you too much of an advantage, then do not hunt where you put them out.
They proved to me that there were indeed a few mature bucks in the heavily hunted public land where I live, and they also showed me that I (we)
underestimate their ability to avoid us when we hunt.
The only time I use my cameras during open season
is to monitor scrapes, to see the size of the bucks visiting the scrapes. Most scrape activity where I live happens after dark. I have learned this because of my cameras. All these years I thought I was doing something wrong, because I rarely saw bucks visit scrapes.
Help with scouting, shows what's in your area, cuts down on time for those that only hunt one day a week. It's a great tool for game management
I just like the pics.
I don't have one or use one. However, I think they are fascinating. I don't know if I would use them for actually scouting or not. I just find the pictures exciting. Being able to catch surprises on film that you never knew were there...bucks you never saw, bobcats, coyotes, etc.
If I had one I probably couldn't wait to run out and download and develop the pictures. I think the suspense would drive me crazy. I'd be like a little kid on Christmas morning.
Heck I get excited wondering if I caught something before checking the traps in my garden for the ground squirrels that eat everything.
yea I see the point of wanting to know what is there but what would make your heart pound harder? Knowing there is a nice buck in the area and seeing him finaly coming toward you or not knowing what is out there and then...holy crap ...look at this coming my way!
I do not have one YET, but it looks like it would be ablast just to see what is around. Though in my area a bear might chew it to bits, specially if it flashes at em. Anyone had this happen that hunts bear in bear world?
J
J-dog,
I think most of them are infrared beams as opposed to flash, but since i dont have one i could be very wrong.
When i get mine, it will help keep me from scaring all the deer away trying to scout too often....
P.
I think its totally unsporting; and I bet you $10 that if you sent me 10 trail cameras I would feel the same way !!!
try it- go ahead and try it!
www.killdeercoppingasquat.com (http://www.killdeercoppingasquat.com)
I hate the idea of trail cams.
They echo the call of the techno hunter
faster more success bigger racks more points
higher gross scores it all makes me want to puke in my stew. What ever happened to woodmans ship
This really gets me going I just can not see how or why a trad hunter of all people would except this> I thought we hunted with stick bow for the added challenge the nastalgia. Why stop with trail cams why not hire ex-marine recon scouts to go out and find deer and call you on the phone so you can go shoot them. This is insane what we have turned hunting into. I am very afraid of where we are headed and so should you be
It's funny that I was just having this discussion tonight before I read this post: I'm with tyee in that part of the FUN of HUNTING is challenging yourself to find the best spots through "skills the Indians used" as it were, and that to me all goes hand in glove with the whole traditional thing as not soley defined by the implement used to kill the beast. I think trail cams is a form of cheating really. OK, flame me! Let 'er rip! :bigsmyl:
I like seeing pictures people post taken from there cameras.I don't use one myself even though I have one but sure don't care if others do.Deer around here are spooky and the camera seems to alert them so I quit useing it.
I use trail cams because i hunt for bucks 140 and above.So i do a lot of looking before i hunt an area.But im real lucky we have managed our farm for 12 years we have lots of big bucks.And if you do alot of work you like to see your fruits of labor.So i must be wrong viedoing a booner 2 nights ago.
I like natures pictures: scrapes, rubs, tracks and the occasional hair on the fence.
I don't use them. In deciding to use or not use any piece of new technology, I first look how it might impact fair chase. That concept has at least two major components. First is that the animal has a reasonable chance of escape. That's why shooting animals in enclosures, swimming, with locked horns, tangled in a fence, etc. isn't considered fair chase. The second involves the element of fairness to the animal, of not taking unfair advantage of the animal. Most technology additively stacks the odds in the hunter's favor. Each person has to make his/her own decision as to how much technology they use and still consider their hunting fair to the animal. For me, trail cams don't meet the fairness requirement.
Brian...you made me look! :eek:
:biglaugh:
QuoteOriginally posted by Orion:
I don't use them. In deciding to use or not use any piece of new technology, I first look how it might impact fair chase. That concept has at least two major components. First is that the animal has a reasonable chance of escape. That's why shooting animals in enclosures, swimming, with locked horns, tangled in a fence, etc. isn't considered fair chase. The second involves the element of fairness to the animal, of not taking unfair advantage of the animal. Most technology additively stacks the odds in the hunter's favor. Each person has to make his/her own decision as to how much technology they use and still consider their hunting fair to the animal. For me, trail cams don't meet the fairness requirement.
Yup. I enjoy seeing pictures of animals, but I do not hunt with a camera, unless the camera's in my hand and I'm stalking the animal for a closeup. And it's why I quit using a GPS to mark a scrape location, right in the middle of doing it a few years ago. It was a "double head slap" moment for me.
I think they are great just for getting pictures of deer doing what deer do. I only have a 20 acre piece, so scouting is not really an issue, only have a good 6 locations for stands- my piece is a travel route- so I can get pics of deer as they are moving through. I have been seeing a whopper 8 point and two of his buddies each morning on my way to work. Been trying to get pics with my sony, but it hasn't happpened yet. I've narrowed down the travel route and put the cam out last night in hopes of just getting a few pics of him. We don't normally have bucks this good running around my area, so to me it would be awesome to have a few shots of him to show my brother and buddies. Not sure how guys think they are cheating- or whatever, you still gotta put your butt in the right place at the right time and make it all happen. The camera laser won't kill em, at least I don't think it will.....
The laser won't kill them, but the camera will tell the user the right place and the right time to sit/hunt. It also shows the specific characteristics of the deer. No more sitting over big tracks that turn out to be a doe's, unless you're after a doe, of course. It also alerts the user to deer he/she would never have known were there otherwise. It allows the user to "scout" 24/7, etc., etc., In short, it takes away any vestige of sanctuary that the deer might have had. These are the reasons I don't use them, but as I said, folks have to decide for themselves what's fair to the animals they hunt.
I don't have one or want one! I'm not against them but not for me! I like doing the leg work and enjoy being in the woods! I scout from distances and do a lot of shining, this gives me a very good idea of what's in my area, where there coming from and going to!
I think they are a great tool especially on land u are trying to manage. The more u see these bucks thru pics or sightings the easier it is to recognize that deer, detect age, growth potential and so on ... besides its almost as fun to check a camera as it is to hunt!
I don't know, maybe I just don't understand how to use them or don't try hard enough.
I do have a camera out for the summer and fall months and love looking at the pictures from it. I've gotten some great shots of all kinds of deer. Fawns, does, small bucks, big bucks, along with all kinds of other animals. I have one sequence of three pictures of a coyote, each taken at a different time and each with a small rabbit in his mouth. Obviously he had found a productive feeding grounds and kept coming back for more. Very cool!
And I have gotten pictures of a number of good sized bucks that I never saw while hunting. Still cool to know they are around. But I personally think the possible benefits or unfairness of using cameres is greatly overexagerated.
Like I said, maybe I just don't get it, and am not a good enough hunter, but it just doesn't seem like I see the deer doing the same thing at the same time of day over and over. I've had my camera on the same tree overlooking a small seasonal water puddle. I seem to get plenty of pictures. Maybe if I just tried harder I could make it work to help me kill more deer....
In the meantime, I'll keep using the camera and enjoying the pictures I get from it. I just don't hunt any differently because of anything I've seen on it.
Using a game camera has extended my pleasure by showing me what's out there. Don't fool yourself into thinking it's somehow unethical- you still have to hunt the deer just as hard, and just because you got a picture of a good one in a particular location, it doesn't mean that you can shoot the deer there. If you've hunted much, you know better. I have one picture of a deer that I managed to shoot later, at a different location. I think that's cool, and it doesn't detract from the experience in any way. Nothing "unfair" about it.
Why not it give me something to do, and sometimes I get some really cool pics.
Plus I have been know to moon a couple that weren't mine.