Should cell cams be banned?

[ddd-shooter]

Just because he's there Tuesday, doesn't been he'll be there Wednesday. Many people think its just that easy. It's not. Really the only advantage is if you live on the property or on the property your hunting, you get your instant notification, then get to pursue. Even then, your not guaranteed to get that deer. By the time you get ready and get there, deer can be gone. I don't know how people are with there cell cams but I always got pictures sent 2x a day. If i did live notifications, which i did when I first got them, yes it was cool, but after 1-2 days of hundreds per day of notifications, it gets pretty old getting them instantly, especially if you don't need them instantly.

I know some people that have leases only use camera's before the season. They take the camera's down 1 week before season starts. It eliminates all the jealousy of that was my buck and this and that. Which is fine and dont care. That's the main thing, people get jealous and cry because "that was there deer.'' That's how I look at some of y'all writing on this. Jealous because someone can get pictures faster than you and therefore is quicker to the punch out hunts the same area and they get a deer before you, then your all mad.

Being on public land, it's for everyone. If it's legal it's legal. But some states find a way to get this passed, is just crazy people think it's some huge advantage or not ethical. Oh well. It can go on and on. To me and many, it's not that serious. However you hunt is your business, just because others do it different, doesn't mean its right or wrong. Just need to get over it.

How many stories, YouTube videos, etc have the phrase in them “we started getting regular daylight pictures of this buck so we knew we needed to hunt him” ???
There are tons of anecdotes of “we got a picture of him Friday so we snuck in there Saturday” “we watched him head to bedding that morning so we crept in and got in the saddle on one of his exit routes”

Simply not fair chase. At all.

 

[kjh86]

I think it's odd that states don't allow radio or cell communication between hunters for fear of unfair chase, but a guy can go get a cuddelink setup and litter the woods with cams for a relatively low price. Now they just have 24 hours surveillance of the woods. Running on private is fine or out of season public, but in season public land surveillance while laying around on your couch doesn't feel much like hunting.

 

[ddowning]

if this is true then why hasn't overall hunter success rates when up? Instead they have stayed steady since folks started tracking this data.

Iowa is killing just as many bucks with half the deer population of several years ago. I'm pretty sure that is increased hunter success. It just isn't on the metric they use to quantity it. It is similar to them telling us inflation was under 3% year over year for several years. Figures dont lie, but liars can figure.

Neighborhood determines the size and age of the deer you have to hunt. My neighborhood changed recently and we went from multiple 5.5 year old high scoring deer to hunt every year to zero in about 3 years. Also, we passed every 3.5 and 4.5 year old stud. The neighbors kill everything that is 140" or bigger. At this point, the only 5.5 year old deer to hunt are 140" and smaller. Before cell cameras this was never a thing. There were so many big bucks around that people didn't know about and they would shoot the first buck they could, or eat their tag waiting for a giant. Now, they know what is around and will happily shoot the highest scoring deer they have using their property because they know what it is and they know there is little chance of doing better. That deer has gone from 170-180" to 130-140" in a hurry due to high grading with cell cams. There are other issues as well, but that is the main one that effects the trophy whitetail resource as far as cameras in my area. Having both used and not used sd card cameras, they are a huge advantage. I have not used cell cams, but several situations, they would likely have been the difference between getting an opportunity and not after looking at sd card photos at stand sites.