Trail cams

Great question but wow so many scenarios. I’ve got a few but they seem to fit different needs. Thoughts…are the cams a long distance/travel time from your home? Is it hunting season and you want real time data? Is it your private land and you want real time data on poachers? Countless other scenarios. For longer term patterning, cheap ones are fine. When really zeroing in on what’s going on, cell-based (assuming coverage) blackout night version is quite valuable. On a side note, I have yet to have a cam stolen. That said, all mine are camo and my expensive cell based have camo metal housing drilled into trees, locked, and are difficult to remove. Keep us posted, this is a very good topic and others will hopefully have some good info for all of us.
 
As other's have mentioned, I'd much rather have 3-4 cheapish cams out soaking then 1 expensive cam. I've only had 1 cam stolen over the years so thats not really a big concern, just prefer to cast a wider net.

Unless you're planning to set it up on private where you know you have cell services, I personally wouldn't bother with the expensive cell cams. I have two Tactacam Reveal X cell cams and I've yet to find a worthwhile spot on public to set them up where they have actually enough signal to consistently send me the pics. I end up just using them as normal trail cams 99% of the time.
 
Anyone ever get trail cam pics of said trophy and then actually kill him? Like ..before and after pics? I might buy a trail cam if that's the case..
 
Anyone ever get trail cam pics of said trophy and then actually kill him? Like ..before and after pics? I might buy a trail cam if that's the case..
I took a picture of a beautiful woman over 48 years ago. she has been my wife now for coming up on 47 years. Does that count???
 
John..trail cams were not even a thought in those days...way before social media and 6.5s..but hell ya buddy!! Congrats!!! Mrs GD is a trooper!!!
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Anyone ever get trail cam pics of said trophy and then actually kill him? Like ..before and after pics? I might buy a trail cam if that's the case..

Only twice in 20+ years. And one of them I found the buck scouting and killed before I pulled the SD on the card to see the buck on camera. The other was on a fresh burn and probably the only CBT that was honestly patterned from July-sept. Wasn’t able to kill him with the bow, but killed him opening morning with a rifle.

I use cams as a way to see what animals are around a general “home” area. CBT and MD rarely take the same dang trails and a good % of the pics I get are of bucks moving through an area and not using it as a core area. - besides being “cool” to see what’s in the woods I do think it helps paint a larger picture of what’s going on in a mountain range or bowl etc if you run enough cams long enough over the years.
 
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I love trail cams....I've had expensive and I've had cheap....Personally, for what I do, the cheap work just as well....I just want to know what's working the the "Best 40" these days.... ;)

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Def go with the cheap ones that just take photos. I have had some stolen out here in SoCal areas. I even had bear puncture one.
 
I like the Yellowstone WiFi camera. They run $250 they are pretty darn good. Batteries can last up to a year with the right settings.
 

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