Trail Cam Rams

[Buster]

I put a trail cam up on a ridge a few weeks ago as a long shot of getting pics of rams. I've looked at this ridge lots as a likely travel route, but you can not glass it because it is treed all along it. Went up and swapped out the memory card and found that I got lucky.

The likelihood of patterning rams with a trail cam and then killing them is slim, but this does tell me that they are using this ridge. I can realistically see this ridge also being used in the mid-to-late fall as well.

I'm fairly inexperienced with trail cams, and have already learned from my pics that I'll have to trim a nuisance branch that keeps giving false trips, and I'll have to change the angle to avoid the sun in the evening. (I'll also have to set the date and time).

Who knows, maybe one day trail cams and tree stands will be a common strategy for bighorns in the timber. (Ok that doesn't sound like that much fun).

 

[Jager]

Awesome captures mate, always great when you get target animals on your TC's. Try setting the TC up facing North/South or vice versa to avoid the rising and setting sun.

 

[Buster]

Awesome captures mate, always great when you get target animals on your TC's. Try setting the TC up facing North/South or vice versa to avoid the rising and setting sun.

Thanks Jager. I'm going to scout out another tree that can target the same trail, but at a better angle. I'm also going to try to get a cam that has burst mode to try to get more images.

 

[Nick Muche]

That is awesome! I never have issues with my cameras being tripped by the sun when they are facing the north. Might give that a try.

Looks like they are moving through their fast, I'd set the time between pictures to the minimum. Great stuff, can't wait to see more!

Treestands for Sheep, I see something in your future! Maybe

 

[shaun]

What Dreams are made of!!

 

[Travis Bertrand]

What Dreams are made of!!

Yup

 

[Buster]

I think my trigger speed is pretty slow on my cam (can't remember what brand, but I think its a 5 year old Moultrie). Figured I give myself the best odds by putting it on a "corner" of a trail to get them coming and going, rather than passing by. Any better suggestions? Better camera?

 

[Shrek]

Check out chasinggame.com for real world trail camera reviews. The performance varies from model to model and within the same model from load from china to load from china. They are a crap shoot except for the reconyx but they are too rich for my blood. I've got two old wildgame cameras that I think I paid $50 for five years ago that work like champs and I bought more of the same the next year and they were all lemons. I have bought a pile of others and they were all hit and miss.

 

[Nick Muche]

Anyone who uses Trail Cameras knows that Wildgame Innovations trail cameras are about as bad as it gets... Not even their "good" ones are any good.

The Bushnell Trophy cams or better yet, DLC Covert II's (If you can find them) have been awesome... Video, great camera settings and will run a full year with 8AA batteries...

Cuddebacks are about junk too, as is their CS when you need one fixed...

 

[Shrek]

Nick , I wouldn't argue with that a bit. I do have those two wildgame cameras though. Cuddyback is the worst of the lot though. Expensive , unreliable , and the center frame technology is just a really narrow sensor beam that only captures something dead in front of it and misses everything else. At least the wildgame cameras were dirt cheap.

 

[Nick Muche]

Yeah they are cheap, that's why they sell so many. The worst part is that most guys don't realize how expensive they are to keep running when they are using C's and D's for batteries... That's just ridiculous. I used the ONE I bought for a few weeks on a Kansas food plot, I swear I had to change out batteries every few days. Then it went tits up... It was then that I realized that their cameras are about as good as their TV show.. bahaha

 

[Buster]

Yeah they are cheap, that's why they sell so many. The worst part is that most guys don't realize how expensive they are to keep running when they are using C's and D's for batteries... That's just ridiculous. I used the ONE I bought for a few weeks on a Kansas food plot, I swear I had to change out batteries every few days. Then it went tits up... It was then that I realized that their cameras are about as good as their TV show.. bahaha

Oh man,that is really bad.

 

[Shrek]

They weren't all that bad. I've run well over a dozen at one time and could go a month on a set of batteries in the old IR4's I was running. I've run a bunch of different types of cameras of my own and for others and they all make a lot of lemons. Primos , bushnell , moltrie , wildgame , cuddyback and reconyx I can think of off the top of my head. Even on of the reconyx had to go back when it stopped reading the card. A four mega pixel camera is about right imo. Any higher pixel count eats cards and slows down the reset of the camera. I go for reasonable quality photos and lower cost cameras so I can afford a bunch and cover more ground. Four or five cameras with so so pictures will gather four or five times the intel that an expensive camera will taking beautiful photos. Sixty to one hundred dollar cameras will get it done all day and twice on Sundays. I was buying refurbished primos for forty bucks and they worked great. Set them up at home for a week covering the front door and make sure they work. Send the defective ones back and put the good ones out . I did this all the time on my old hunt club.

 

[Jager]

I primarily use Home Brew TC's which are generally pretty good. The one brand of commercial unit that are pretty good are the ltl acorns.

 

[Buster]

Rams on the move tend to be fairly close together. What options are there to potentially get pics of 5 or more rams passing by within a few seconds?

 

[Jager]

Buster, are u facing your cams across their trail or along it?

If you can position the cam so it is on a bend facing down a straight you should get multiple good exposures as they walk onto the unit.

Do you know where they are watering, this is the best option for plenty of exposures.

 

[Buster]

Buster, are u facing your cams across their trail or along it?

If you can position the cam so it is on a bend facing down a straight you should get multiple good exposures as they walk onto the unit.

Do you know where they are watering, this is the best option for plenty of exposures.

I do have it on a bend, but even at that I still managed to only get one image as they came by. I think my trail cam has a pretty slow trigger. Hoping to pick up a cam that has a faster reset time, or at least a burst mode option.

I want to target this ridge because i think it is a travel corridor that links 2 areas that are more open and can be glassed.