Trail Cameras

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I ought to have this Browning model Tuesday.
I'll try it out in the couple acres fenced off around the house. Always 8 or 10 whitetails messing around all the time.
That'll give me a chance to find out just what it'll do.
 
As for the 60 feet, float pilot, get yourself some good, free photo software like Google Picasa with which you can enhance the lighting. Even with my cheap Tasco, which only had IR flash, I can see 60 feet and further with it, but I have to enhance the lighting. Picasa also has this button called "I'm Feeling Lucky" you can push and it auto enhances contrast, really cool feature. :D

With this software, get yourself a camera or cameras that will flash in IR and you're in business. Most cameras will do that. You might want to spend enough to get quality shots with IR for better facial recognition. Long as I can see what the animal is, I'm good, but for what you want, you need to identify suspects. :D Anyway, this software really helps and it's a free download. You can crop with it, too, same as digital zoom. You can also digital zoom with it temporary to check out what the crop will look like.
 
You want to be careful about down loading Picasa.
It used to be good, but it seems like now all the download does is load your computer with malicious garbage. Not sure what happened to it.
 
One thing I like, but don't have on all my cameras, is the ability of the camera to take and store photos without an SD card installed. I can't count the number of times I have gotten to the camera and didn't have an extra SD card. I know there are reader/viewers that you can buy but I would probably forget it to. Since I tend to just buy a camera when I see one that jumps out at me I have about 7 different kinds so a couple have this feature and it works well for me.
 
I have had game cameras for several years. I have used stealth cams, cabelas,wild game black out and Moultrie. Once I purchased bushels trophy cams I have replaced all, they take good picture day and night. I only buy them on sale never gave more than a hundred for any. Best thing with lithium batteries I only replace batteries at most once a year if they take tens of thousands of pictures. I hunt in panhandle of Texas so tempertures range from 105 or so in summer to single didgets in winter. We have 10 cameras out year round, we feed year round and hunt hogs year round. I have 2 original Bushnel cameras that are close to 5 yrs old still taking pictures. Most other brands 3-4 yrs is all that lasted for me. I have 2 cameras that are set to video, nothing like watching and listening when you get harvest pigs. Good luck and hunting to all..
 
One thing I do is carry a card reader that I plug into my android phone. I then copy all pictures to my phone and erase the card. Works great.
 
Since I don't have and have no use for any of the cell phones all that electronic gimicktry doesn't interest me a bit.
I just got that Browning camera yesterday.
First impressions, I an not impressed.
Pictures in the daytime are good, the ones at night are poor so far.
The camera seems to react fast and gets a photo as soon as something gets in the FOV and the so called rapid fire thing it has gets lots of good shots in daylight. The quirky way the things are set up I find a total pain. Trying to figure out just what is going to be in a photo is a bad joke, aiming is impossible, just a wild guess.
 
We've been using a Bushnell for the last 4-5 years. Works OK, many great pics and batteries lasts for over a year, and I usually leave it out until January or February so it sees some cold weather. My only gripe is that the infrared flash is visible. Most deer don't notice or get curious except for the big bucks. Three pictures, one looking, one spinning, and a tail in the distance. So they do see it.

So I just bought a new camera yesterday, a cabelas black infrared 8 pix. Two young guys at the display talked to me for a while about their experiences and that led me to it. I think it was on sale, Cabelas has a 10% off card (which ends today) and there was a $30 rebate, so total cost was $150 + tax. Nothing to report yet.

Laphroaig
 
I'm beginning to get a feel for this trail cam I got.
I've had a few people tell me that some of the Bushnell cameras are better than the Browning ones. I'd be willing to bet the differences are minor.
Mine is set up on the edge of a little meadow right now where there is uaually a lot of various game activity, I'll probably go back down there in a couple days and see what it got if anything.
One thing I have noticed is that the viewing screen, about 2" square on mine, is pretty worthless at least to me, I can't make out much of anything on it unless it happened to be really close.
 
I'm cheap so I limit my cams to <$100. I just need it to take pictures. The Wild Game Innovations cams have been fine for us. We've had a number of them going on 3 seasons now with no issues. I just can't see hanging a$300 cam in the woods in the rain and snow for someone to steal. We own the property, but get trespassers periodically...... Hate thieves..

Jeff
 
We've been trying to figure that out. Maybe it caught my scent from putting up the camera. There were dozens of does and fawns, there's a couple well used game trails going through there.
The B&W IR photos were pretty poor I thought.
 
I like having a camera set up on a scrape line and taking videos. Any time there is a buck more than a year old you will see him for about 2 seconds as they apparently hear the camera running or something that spooks them. Meanwhile 6 pointers, spikes and fawns work the scrape seemingly oblivious to the camera. And people wonder why they don't see mature bucks! The same is true of the still pics as the mature bucks don't hang around.
 
A couple of pics from my recently purchased Browning. They are changing names on their cameras so fast it is hard to keep up with what is what with them. Seems to work fine. Yea, the names are corny.

I have no experience with any others, but if I get another one, and I would like to, it will likely be a much cheaper one. Just something to show what is there. I bought the Browning on supposed picture quality, because my wife only cares about the pics, not hunting.

These pics were taken on the 10 MP setting. You can set it for various Megapixel settings. 10 is the highest.
 

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Your night time photos are way better than anything I've seen from mine so far.
I'm not sure if I've tried that at the high 10MP setting yet.
Might leave it going in the yard again tonight and how it does.
Got it running in the highest video mode right now, always a bunch of white tails messing around on the west side of the wind break, so I should get something before long.
 
I used the Wildgame for years, but not buying anymore of them because of all the duds I have been getting. I was getting lots of SD cards that the computer couldn't read, so I started Reformatting them every time they were stuck in the computer and it has helped. If you get any "no image" messages from your camera or computer, you might try this.
 
Regarding the quality of night pictures, from what I have read on the trailcampro.com website, night picture quality of the black flash cameras like the Browning Spec Ops is less than the red glow infrared night pictures from cameras like the Browning Strike Force. This is just my understanding from my reading. For that reason, I'm about to buy a Browning Strike Force. I'll mount it about 10 above the ground like my Moultrie 880 is mounted. Positioning at that height is a bit of a pain as the camera has to be shimmed or placed on a branch that provides an angle that will result in pictures of what is below. The advantage to mounting at that height is the deer notice the red glow much less, based on my experience. I'm going to try the game camera mount also so the camera can be positioned easier. Obviously mounting a camera that high necessitates carrying a ladder to change cards, etc. To that end, the 3 foot aluminum ladder I carry is light enough that it doesn't bother me (but may bother others.) Just the thoughts going through my head at this moment. JohnM, thanks for starting this thread. The discussion has been very helpful to me.
 
I have a couple of the Bushnell trophy cams, they're maybe 2-3 years old now. The battery life if very good — at least 3-4 months using rechargeable AA's. The first one I bought took very good night photos, but the second one was much grainier. In fact, I returned two of them before I decided that I'd just been lucky with the first one. There's a noticeable difference in night photo quality that I can't explain.

Anyway, at least they're both reliable. I bought a Primos 35 several years ago and it won't run more than about 7-10 days before something locks up and drains the batteries. Maybe it's a fluke but I'm not buying any more Primos game cameras. I still use the 35 when I'm out for a weekend and notice something I want to observe for just a day or two, like a game trail under a fence. I don't even bother to leave it out for more than a week because I know that when I get back it will have died. :fire: :banghead:
 
Does anyone have any experience with the SpyPoint BF-6?
I'm thinking of buying a camera either tomorrow or Fridayand looking at both the Moultrie 880i and this SpyPoint BF-6. Both of these are in my price range and look to be fairly equal but I just want to know your opinions.
 
Over the years,I've bought many different brands of game cameras. I never had much luck with Wild Game Innovations,Primos,or Moultrie cameras.
The Bushnell Trophy cameras worked great for about 2 years,but then both of them broke. I sent them in for repair,and Bushnell refused to repair them,they only wanted me to buy new ones from them. So,I will not buy anymore Bushnell products.
I have 4 of the Browning Recon Force 8mp cameras,and couldn't be happier with them. I have 2 of them taking photos,and the other 2 taking videos. They have always worked excellent,and take great photos/videos on them.
Cuddeback is probably the best one on the market,but I won't spend the money on them.

These are free ranging low fenced deer on our place,not high fenced animals. We have spent a lot of time and money growing deer like these,and we have a bunch of them. These are probably 4-5 year old bucks.
 

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I went to bass pro and they didn't have the m880i only the m880so I ended up getting the Cuddeback E3. The guy at the counter said he has both and likes the E3 better anyways. I'll get pics soon enough maybe I'll check the cam pics this coming Friday that will be a week sitting
 
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