# Game Cameras - several questions ...



## 50ShadesOfDirt (Nov 11, 2018)

1. Whose brand did you go with, and how long did they last you, in years?

2. Did you change them out to get newer brands or technology before the old one died?

3. Anybody using them for other than game trails (property line, driveways, etc.)?

Pretty much all of my old ones have failed ... they all were limited to small SD cards, and I see lots of new features these days. I anticipate trying to place more of these all over the 40 acres to enhance coverage for security _and_ see what game is moving around.

Any other novel ways to be using them these days?


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## Wyobuckaroo (Dec 30, 2011)

My first game camera was a Leupold.... In learning to use it I eventually learned it performed most excellent both day and night... Problem was the connection to put pictures on a memory card was bad in all the cameras, so they discontinued them and did not replace a camera in there line.. The good thing is the Leupold came with a remote card reader.. The reader is nice to have along when you monitor the camera as you can make adjustments on the spot.. The down side is the reader takes an old style looking battery, like in an early flip phone and is a pain to keep charged when you need it.. I wish I could find a card reader that takes common batteries.. 

Next one I got was a Cabelas brand on sale.. Later I got 2 more when they were on sale again as a 2 pack... Works well.. The only issue I see is the area of sensitivity seems bigger than the area of the picture it will take or the coverage of the flash.. Meaning sometimes it is triggered before anything is in range of the lens.. The first picture I get of something is just the nose coming into the frame.. Considering how I use the cameras, I figure that is not a big issue. If I need more coverage I use 2 cameras that overlap some.. It seems best if the cameras do a cross fire of an area.. However I have mounted both cameras on the same post with a bit of overlap as it were.. I do a lot of work with live traps of many different sizes, so the cameras tell me a lot of info in that kind of use.. 

Again.. I don't need sophisticated features or bells and whistles on a camera.. So the cheap ones work well for me.. They seem good for battery life, ease of use, and good enough quality pictures for my needs.. All this on about as cheap as I can make it.. 

Everyones needs are different..


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

I run a bunch of cams and have settled in on the simple little Wildlife Research brand units. They take (8) AA batteries and an SD card, run around $40 each. What I like best about them is they are simple to learn how to use and operate. I've had other brands and they just give you too many dumb options that I don't have any interest in using. I just want pictures, and set them on 30 second delay between shots.

Trail cameras can be frustrating. Can't tell you how many times I've went to retrieve pics and gotten ZERO because I set something wrong, or hundreds of pics of blowing weeds in the wind. For best lighting and minimal glare, always point them northerly. If you don't have a handy tree, it's no big deal to drive a post to mount them to.

If it's whitetails you're after, set them over mineral blocks during the antler growing season, then on feed, shelled corn (where legal) and you'll get a good inventory of what's in your neighborhood. Where I live, we cant have minerals or bait out during the hunting seasons, so I create mock scrapes in front of cameras utilizing scent during that period.


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## NEAlabama (Sep 30, 2014)

We bought two Browning game cams to figure out what killed our birds. The resolution was great but they blew through batteries, even expensive batteries, so we decided it didn’t make sense to use them for security like we hoped.


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## poppysfarm (Apr 10, 2009)

I am looking too and would like one with cell service that streams the video to my phone and runs off solar power. Just some features to think about after dealing with SD cards which are useless for preventing security and livestock issues. I want to catch the fox in the act not just get the evidence he did the crime!


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

I spent money on one and can't get it to work. Frustrating. I've heard this from other users.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I have 3. The first one was a big, clunky thing with no real way to set it up except a heavy metal bracket that had to be bolted to a board. It took several D batteries. Second one was smaller and easier to operate and took AA batteries. But the infrared flash washed out everything and the 5 second delay made it useless. I was happy with the 3rd one but put it down in the house somewhere and promptly forgot where I put it. I've been looking for it for 5 months. The last one was a $40 sale price item from Menards.


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## WinonaRail (May 20, 2020)

We were having a problem with vandalism last summer. It was mostly at our mailbox, over 300' from the house, during the night. The best solution we could come up with was game cams. We purchased 2 (different brands and on sale) at the local Menards (regional lumber box store). Caught them the next day when I sent the pics to the sheriff's department and they uploaded to their FB page. Now I have them pointed at the front door and a patio door along with motion lights to ensure quality pics.


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## 50ShadesOfDirt (Nov 11, 2018)

I forgot to add that I originally had 3 bushnells ... purchased from Sams Club long ago. All worked great, had good battery performance (6 months on 4 AA alkalines)but all have died after 4 or 5 years. Also didn't like having to climb the trees a bit to change batteries or harvest sd cards.

For new technology, I can't swing the cellular, for both price and coverage reasons.

I am looking into the CuddeBack cams, which have the CuddeLink (proprietary) mesh network. With over 1800' of land in any one direction, I may be able to connect a series of their cams up, and have them all feed back into the home cam, wherein I harvest the pics. They also have tons of 12v dc, ac, solar and other options, so power should not be a problem (little to no battery changes). Finally, they update firmware all the time. Only thing I'm unsure of is how long they last in the field ... still looking at forums & such. If anyone has CuddeBack experience?

One thing I've noticed in all this research ... does the manufacturer offer firmware updates for their cams? If not, it seems to imply that they produce a model, abandon it, and you're expected to buy the next model to get fixes & such. Don't know if you are seeing that in your brands that you run with.

Hope this helps ...


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Based on what I am reading, they aren’t worth the aggravation for casual/entertainment use


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## Wyobuckaroo (Dec 30, 2011)

Based on what I am reading, they aren’t worth the aggravation for casual/entertainment use 

+++
Not really.... I'm going to say, if you don't need bells and whistles the cameras now set at a meter high are not that hard to use.. 
A pretty simple day, night photo or short video is cheap at $100 or less, and easy.. If you can take pictures with your phone you can do a trail cam.. 
I can't do phone pictures, but that is just me.. 

It is fun to see things like a bear come along and give the lens a sniff from 1" away.. They will find it with there nose and not by seeing it.. 
Give it a try.. You will like the fun..


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

Checked my three cams today, swapped the cards and re-baited the locations with shelled corn.
Had approx. 800 pics between those three cams including several good bucks which I'm happy to see made it through the hunting seasons. When pics reveal they are dropping antlers, I'll start looking for sheds.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Can someone come set mine up?


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Alleyyooper had a whole bunch of trail cam posts in the outdoors section. I know he said what kind of camera he used more than once. His pictures were really great.


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## RideBarefoot (Jun 29, 2008)

I have two and a reader that I have for sale due to moving. PM me for info if you're looking.


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## 50ShadesOfDirt (Nov 11, 2018)

I looked into building my own wireless mesh network, supporting regular security cams ... it was a bit of investment in both materials/money and time, to stretch things across 40 acres, and support security cameras relaying back to the house. Whereas Cuddeback has it now, and it is easy and done (cuddeback.com/cuddelink).

Thus, with all the roads, driveways, and game trails, I'm leaning heavily towards the Cuddeback line ... they specifically say they can support relaying of cam shots up to 1/4 mile thru the trees, and I should be able to harvest all the pics right in my house. To do both security and game monitoring (w/ game cams), it looks like I'd need:


"home" cam (primary unit, no cam on it) at $130 (cuddeback.com/products/cuddelink-home) ... this would sit in my house.
one or more of their cuddelink cams, positioned all over the acreage. the first would go at the main driveway, the others (as time/money allows), in a relay around the property. the 4-pack seems the most inexpensive route, at $750 for 4 (cuddeback.com/products/model-j-1415), as otherwise it's $300/cam.
lots of solar and alternative power options ...
I have no idea how long in years that they'll last, but the bushnells lasted 4 or more years in our region, which isn't bad. If these get close to that length, I'll be happy.

Thanks for all the input and advice!


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## DEER30 (Jan 23, 2021)

I have owned several over the years. I used to be a Moultrie man. Got my first one about 12 yrs ago after replacing a 35mm Bushnell (remember 35mm hahaha). Loved them! Photos were great and customer service WAS awesome. Now...junk.
I now run several brands:
Wild Game Nation: Affordable, dependable, good battery life, but image quality is relatively poor unless your subject is standing still. I only use these cams over mineral sites for deer. It may take 15 pix of same deer and hopefully 2 or 3 will be clear especially at night.
I have a couple cheap knock offs that i cant even remember the brand names. Cost like $40. Same issues as WGN and range is limited. Still targets on bright sunny days are crystal clear though.
I LOVE Browning Strike Force cams! Crystal clear, fast trigger speed, awesome video with audio. More expensive but get what you pay for! I set them up on july 1st, change batteries at Halloween and retrieve them in mid January. Only cam i will buy again unless something changes


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## IlliniosGal (Jun 3, 2019)

RideBarefoot said:


> I have two and a reader that I have for sale due to moving. PM me for info if you're looking.


Do you still have these for sale?


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## IlliniosGal (Jun 3, 2019)

After researching a number of brands I went with Wildgame Innovations brand. The cameras I got were on sale from Walmart and are an older model, I bought 6, they are called ClokePro. 

I set up a permanent one in a location where I have a lot of coyote activity the first of June this year. I have only just recently had to change out the batteries, so 8 months before the 8 AA batteries ran out and I have gotten well over 20,000 pics and videos from that camera. The rest of the cameras I move around, though I have at least one pointed on the driveway pretty much all the time, seasonally (gardens in the spring, orchard in the fall) or if I find a new area with excessive animal activity.

I absolutely love these cameras! I put one pointed at my hummingbird feeder and got the most amazing pictures. I will back up what Fishingguy said, I moved one camera to a Beaver lodge on my creek and in just 24 hours got 7,675 pictures of weeds on the ditch bank blowing in the wind. Also during a recent snow storm I got well over 10,000 pics in 5 hours, of snow!


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## IlliniosGal (Jun 3, 2019)

Alice In TX/MO said:


> Based on what I am reading, they aren’t worth the aggravation for casual/entertainment use


Tell me what you have, if I can figure out how to use them so can you. Mine are a great source of information and delight.


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

Checked my three cams yesterday. Had almost 1200 pictures; tons of does and small bucks, several really impressive bucks, racoons, turkeys, squirrels and birds.


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## Wyobuckaroo (Dec 30, 2011)

I never had much luck finding shed antlers.. Either too weathered, chewed on, or never found the 2 nd one... 

The other problem was occasionally finding one with a tractor tire while feeding livestock.. NOT good..


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