I think long term success with cheap trail cams is the exception. The guts of the inexpensive cameras are the same or similar and made by the same 12 yr old chinese kids and are all in the process of dying as soon as the plastic wrapper is removed. To the manufacturers these cameras are disposable.
$400+ cameras to strap to a tree are out of the question for me
I had an old Cuddeback that took beautiful pics for many years but when it eventually died it was replaced by a POS Cuddeback. After a few conversations with the female ogres at Cudde customer service I just tossed it under a running brush hog. (yes, it felt good)
I've got a box of Primos and other cheap cameras that have died.
I've now come to the conclusion I don't need trail cams to enjoy my hunting. I'm not an outfitter, I'm not a trophy hunter looking for a specific deer. Since I hunt the same general areas every year I was using them strictly out of curiosity to see what was in the neighborhood. Most pics were a bunch of squirrels, crows, coyotes, bobcats, maybe a hog, blowing leaves, of course plenty of does and fawns with occasional bucks until November then more bucks. The expense, time and aggravation just isn't worth it any more. I'm going to hunt regardless of the trail cam photos. I move my stands based on what I see, not camera pics. Plus with the money I've saved I've paid for my non-resident elk tags.
rost: is there really a "shack outside La Grange"?
ZZTOP played our county fair here in September for the first time ever...
Nephew passes the property on the way to and from town every day... There is nothing much left there anymore, I know where its at casue there are some bee boxes at that area nowdays.
We just got a UTV in our fire dept yesterday.... The back tailgate has a sticker says protectign the chicken ranch since 1866... I about spit out the water I was drinking when I saw that.
It was there for sure. Most towns had em. There were some in the general area for quite a few years after Marvin Zindler came up and muddled around here.
Back to cameras, I"m not a trophy hunter per say, as I kill more culls than anything but I do like to manage the herd like it should be IMHO. The cameras let me know whats going on all year round and what needs to be shot if anything.
Generally the largest bucks of the year are nocturnal by season openers... so its just a luck thing if I get to harvest one of them, and I don't really care if I do or not. But for us, we have up to 20 bucks on 100 acres all summer due to food plots and feeders, and by Oct 1, we generally loose 50% or more as tehy start roaming as we have very few does permanent around.
The cameras are fun for me. I know when I need to take out a few yotes and coons and such when the numbers get high.
And all this while working a job and living a crazy life, not making time to get to sit and watch much like I would like to.
we use em in AK too... helps be in more places than one at a time. Get some neat pics sometimes... first pics of a wolf ever this fall, and first ever of grizz... ones at night that we'd have never had a chance to get other wise.
