IADNR bans cell cam "scouting" during hunting season

Joined
Jun 1, 2024
Messages
50
Totally understand and agree with the sentiment. It just happens to work, collectively, for the hunters on public where I am.

That’s pretty standard for any situation where no one has a real claim to possession: people come to a tacit understanding. Which works well until an interloper comes in… hell hath no fury like a displaced hunter with no claim of right to hunt somewhere. The petty lengths to which people will go to try to get the newcomer to leave can be epically stupid.

My family always hunts a pass that is just on our side of the property line from the National forest. We’ve had people come up from the National forest side to try to “claim” that spot try all sorts of things. Putting up stands on our land. Sitting just off our land twenty feet from where we are already set up. Or tromping back and forth along the property line. Or going down the hill 50 yards, just out of sight, and firing a shot every few minutes.

In the early 1990s, my family bought a farm that had been neglected for a decade while the absentee owners went through a divorce. The stink raised by all the poachers who had claimed little corners of it as their own hunting spot could probably be smelled from 30,000 feet. For the first two years, we had to hunt there twice a day every day and threw off poachers every time we went out. The animosity generated by this change played a big role in a horrible lawsuit in which my family got involved. Some realtime cameras might have been pretty useful in that situation.

I definitely don’t like it when people try to claim a public resource as their own.


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dtchhuntr

FNG
Joined
Oct 29, 2021
Messages
30
That’s pretty standard for any situation where no one has a real claim to possession: people come to a tacit understanding. Which works well until an interloper comes in… hell hath no fury like a displaced hunter with no claim of right to hunt somewhere. The petty lengths to which people will go to try to get the newcomer to leave can be epically stupid.

My family always hunts a pass that is just on our side of the property line from the National forest. We’ve had people come up from the National forest side to try to “claim” that spot try all sorts of things. Putting up stands on our land. Sitting just off our land twenty feet from where we are already set up. Or tromping back and forth along the property line. Or going down the hill 50 yards, just out of sight, and firing a shot every few minutes.

In the early 1990s, my family bought a farm that had been neglected for a decade while the absentee owners went through a divorce. The stink raised by all the poachers who had claimed little corners of it as their own hunting spot could probably be smelled from 30,000 feet. For the first two years, we had to hunt there twice a day every day and threw off poachers every time we went out. The animosity generated by this change played a big role in a horrible lawsuit in which my family got involved. Some realtime cameras might have been pretty useful in that situation.

I definitely don’t like it when people try to claim a public resource as their own.


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Yep, I don't disagree at all. I was thinking of it through a very small microcosm of how its been operating the last 10 years in one little hunting spot, definitely not advocating claiming spots. And if someone was in my normal area,tip of the cap and I'll move to one of my other marked locations.
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2024
Messages
32
I can see a benefit on public land. Keep the playing field level for everyone. Private I don’t think we need to control who’s using what for cameras.

At the end of the day, technology, social media and influencers have irrevocably changed the world. You can choose to bitch and moan about it but it’s not changing. With this has also come a huge push towards bigger deer. It’s easier now than ever to find a bigger buck. Guys are more competitive and want bigger ones, hence less smaller deer getting shot.

I’ve run cell cams for 5 years. Main takeaway I found is they actually caused me to hunt way less. Took me until the 5th year with them to harvest a big buck. Did the cell cams help, sure. Are they the reason I got him, maybe a small percentage of it. I had to get lucky and have him come through the right spot at the right time, hunt the stand on a perfect wind(almost wrong but just right enough), get into the stand, and on and on. Guys like to show you a picture of a deer under a stand and say they would have killed it had they been hunting that day. We all know that’s simply not true. To think getting cell cam pics means you can just go walk up to a deer and harvest it is foolish.
 

Elkangle

WKR
Joined
Jun 16, 2016
Messages
966
It’s easier now than ever to find a bigger buck. Guys are more competitive and want bigger ones, hence less smaller deer getting shot.

Which in turn leaves way more opportunities for kids or less experienced hunters who would be tickled pink to kill smaller bucks... and I think that's awesome
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2024
Messages
32
Which in turn leaves way more opportunities for kids or less experienced hunters who would be tickled pink to kill smaller bucks... and I think that's awesome
That is a really good point. There are so many properties and areas with ridiculous numbers of deer. More and more properties that hardly get hunted by one or two trophy hunters.

Access to private is harder than ever. For that reason, I can see an argument for no cell cams on public. I know a lot of hardcore big buck guys with plenty of primo, private access are still running cameras on public. Always looking for that big one, wherever it is. If they can’t run cell cams in there it may increase some opportunities for the guys that need that public as their only option.
 

Elkangle

WKR
Joined
Jun 16, 2016
Messages
966
That is a really good point. There are so many properties and areas with ridiculous numbers of deer. More and more properties that hardly get hunted by one or two trophy hunters.

And just to be redundant for future viewers, that property with ridiculous numbers of deer spills over on to adjacent properties that has less deer
 
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