RaggedHunter
WKR
So I will have enough points to draw my limited entry elk tag next year.. I know the unit pretty well, have spent a lot of time videoing elk and hunting with family members. I know the general area that I am going to hunt well and finding elk per say is not very difficult, but finding "the" bull is going to take some work. I want to really do my homework this year and get a look at as many bulls as possible so that I have correct expectations for the hunt the following year.
I have played with game cams a little over the years, but usually its just setting one out for a week or two here or there. I am going to get serious about it this year and invest in some cams so I can start running them on as many water holes as possible. Ideally, to cover the main water holes that should show me the majority of the elk in the area I will need at least 10 cams, more would be better, but to be honest I don't know if I'll have time to run more than that. Realistically, I may have to settle for 5/6 cams and just move them around a little more, rather than dedicating 1 cam to a water hole for the whole summer/fall.
I have a good stealth cam I bought a few years back, it works good but it was ~$150. Do I really need to spend ~$100+ a piece on cams? Or are there models for cheaper that I should be looking at? I think I would benefit from having more cams to cover more area, vs super high quality photos, but camera reliability is definitely important so I dont want to go through all the effort and have junk cameras not working right.
What cameras? I've heard some people use refurbished cams, is this a good option? If so wheres the best place to get them?
Do you set cameras on burst modes? how many pictures per burst? how long between shots? do you take video?
How long can you get on a set of batteries? What size SD cards are you running? How often are you checking cams? The unit is a couple hours from my house and a lot of these cams will be several mile hikes some in the bottoms of nasty canyons, so the longer I can leave them the better.
Any other good tips tricks or general game cam advice is much appreciated also.
I have played with game cams a little over the years, but usually its just setting one out for a week or two here or there. I am going to get serious about it this year and invest in some cams so I can start running them on as many water holes as possible. Ideally, to cover the main water holes that should show me the majority of the elk in the area I will need at least 10 cams, more would be better, but to be honest I don't know if I'll have time to run more than that. Realistically, I may have to settle for 5/6 cams and just move them around a little more, rather than dedicating 1 cam to a water hole for the whole summer/fall.
I have a good stealth cam I bought a few years back, it works good but it was ~$150. Do I really need to spend ~$100+ a piece on cams? Or are there models for cheaper that I should be looking at? I think I would benefit from having more cams to cover more area, vs super high quality photos, but camera reliability is definitely important so I dont want to go through all the effort and have junk cameras not working right.
What cameras? I've heard some people use refurbished cams, is this a good option? If so wheres the best place to get them?
Do you set cameras on burst modes? how many pictures per burst? how long between shots? do you take video?
How long can you get on a set of batteries? What size SD cards are you running? How often are you checking cams? The unit is a couple hours from my house and a lot of these cams will be several mile hikes some in the bottoms of nasty canyons, so the longer I can leave them the better.
Any other good tips tricks or general game cam advice is much appreciated also.