Early Season Scouting

So I purchased a trail camera during black Friday in 2010. I thought I got a good deal, paid about 70 bucks and walked out the door. Then rifle season came, of course I was too lazy to get the camera out on the farm to get some snapshots. Winter and spring passed by as the camera lay sleeping in the attic with the rest of my hunting gear and the resident raccoon. Which his lease is now up. I finally broke down and setup my camera on local hunting spot through a co-worker. We laid out some corn and setup the camera.

Three days later I received a call from Brian (co-worker) to let me know that the camera had 60 pictures already. I was amazed that there were so many. Than I thought about it, maybe we didn't set it up right and it is capturing a moving branch or sunlight movement. Brian had the same idea, "you are going to have all pictures with squirrels in them". Geez we weren't being very positive about this. I went early in the morning to meet Brian and we downloaded the photos. We noted that after five days all the corn was gone....

Well we were both wrong, the camera found what we had originally hoped for. Deer! As you can see in the photo at the top of the page, our first resident doe is the cover story of most of the photos. She found our food source within 5 hours of putting out. Check out the Infrared photo, I didn't realize the camera was capable of such crisp and details pictures.


Well she wasn't the only star of the photos. We had a whole flock of turkeys and a small group of raccoons feeding with the deer at night. Incredible, with only a few days of photos we captured so much wildlife. So lets talk about the camera equipment. Wildgame Innovations have a whole line of trail cameras, and as mentioned above, I took advantage of some early season Christmas specials at Dick's Sporting Goods. The camera is the IR 3.5 and is able to accept a 2 GB memory card (not included). The camera requires 4 C sized batteries or can be powered by an external battery pack. The camera can take day and night photos as seen in the blog, and you can be the judge of the quality. Obviously the slower the animal moves passed the camera the less fuzzy the image is. I was blown away with the good deal I got on black Friday, I want to correct myself and say "I got a great deal".

Wildgame Innovations provide lower and higher grade of trail cameras with more bells and whistles like more memory, video capability, and better distances. I believe I got just the right equipment for my need. This camera as shown me so much about the area I plan to hunt and would recommend it to anyone.

With that being said, make sure you share you feedback with others when purchasing hunting and fishing equipment. Its through lessons learned and personal feedback that we can improve the techniques, approaches, and equipment used on our adventures. Don't be a turkey!