Gift from the wife.

[NickCNC]

Just got this from my wife this morning. Never used one before. Any tips on do's and dont's or advice is much appreciate.

 

[Sask hunter]

They are addicting

 

[hank4elk]

Re-chargable batteries. If you figure out a way to keep elk from destroying one,let me know.

 

[kansasdad]

Plan on a short lifespan on your camera. Sadly a certain percentage of cameras are done after one season of snooping.

When setting one up, make sure tall grass or branches aren’t going to trigger 1000’s of pictures of waving grass or fluttering leaves.

Set up so that the camera isn’t pointing into a rising or setting sun. Setting up to capture the intersection of two travel corridors could double your captures.

 

[buckbull]

Dont store batteries in them when not in use. Lithium batteries dont work as well as alkiline in the cold but they wont leak and ruin the camera. Ive lost a few cameras due to leaking batteries.

Try to use the same SD card on the same camera. Mixing SD cards with different camera makes and models can be frustrating, even if you reformat the card.

 

[NickCNC]

What's a reasonable size card to use. Something tells me the 16Gig card that came with it will not be sufficient?

 

[FI460]

16 gig is fine unless you're getting a ton of videos.

Bear box and cable lock on public land.

 

[MarvB]

Double check your field of view/angle from the sensor to see what its “taking in” …nothing like coming back in excited anticipation to your cam to find out you’ve got a card full of pics of the branch in front of it waving back and forth!

 

[belshawelk]

Don't know about that brand but all my Bushnells are in metal boxes, bolted to the tree. Keeps animals from taking them down. Energizer lithium batteries are the best. I get over two years and over 5,000 pics on each set. Bushnells take 16 batteries so its a lot but the last a long time regardless of temperature.

Bolting it to a tree will keep critters from getting it but not some asshole with an axe on my private property from chopping it off because he got caught trespassing. oops wrong post.

 

[claybreaker]

I like to try from having the camera pointing into the morning or evening sun.

 

[manitou1]

Dont store batteries in them when not in use. Lithium batteries dont work as well as alkiline in the cold but they wont leak and ruin the camera. Ive lost a few cameras due to leaking batteries.

Try to use the same SD card on the same camera. Mixing SD cards with different camera makes and models can be frustrating, even if you reformat the card.

I believe you have that backwards. Lithiums perform better in cold. All batteries perform poorer in the cold but lithiums are rated the best for cold weather use.

 

[jeremys4]

I got one for Christmas as well I had it up for a couple days on a pond the geese have been using. Woke up this morning and last pictures I had was of a coyote at 2:30. I was worried it may have chased the geese away until 5:30 a doe came in and I could still see the geese.

 

[NEWHunter]

Generally the cams have a pretty wide angle. If I’m monitoring a travel route/trail I like to set the camera about 10 yards away if possible. Place them at around a 45-60 degree angle to the trail. A camera with a slow trigger speed will sometimes miss the animal at a 90 degree angle. Also on trails keep the time between pictures minimal or experiment with a burst mode if available. I find the buck or the big buck is often in the rear. You’ll miss that trailing animal on a 20 second delay. Good luck, they can be super fun.

 

[SWNMELK]

You might want to check your game and fish/fish and wildlife regulations on cellular cam use. We can't use them down here in NM since 2019 (I believe).