Trail cameras: tampering, stealing, and how to avoid it

[Ross]

Zero issues so far running 9 on public ground with cables through housing and around trees. Most are two hour hike in for most peeps so as noted would take some work and advance planning to tamper with. Making assumption most that venture that far have better things to do that mess with someone's gear. I do have a friend with cams closer to roads and he has had issues

 

[archer wapiti]

Put a label on it that says it is part of a university biology study.

Who is that supposed to deter?

 

[Finch]

I've never had one stolen but I'm not sure if many have encountered my cams either. I do put a label on the top of every cam that reads "Do YOU SEE MY OTHER CAMERA - IT SEES YOU!" I really don't have a second cam watching but they don't know that. I think that would deter me from stealing said cam if I were a thief. I guess if any of you come across a cam with that label, you know you're good to steal it.

I was spring gobbler hunting national forest this past spring and noticed a newly hung camera 40 yards before getting to mine. A nice buck had been using that ridge the previous hunting season. I made sure they got several photos of me to let them know they were not alone in that area. I'm kinda hoping they get scared that someone will steal their cam and pull it before getting pics of that buck.

 

[Thunder head]

I build metal boxes and chain mine to the tree. But I have access to the metal and a welder. So far I haven't had one get stolen. Just enough to keep an honest person honest.

 

[boom]

i leave a camera(s) on one of the most camera stolen properties around. public land hog hunt.

i do a few things:
1. i hide them best i can. everything is taped with some cheapo, camo duct tape. i want it to blend.
2. i cable lock them. i buy regular cables..that i wrap with camo tape.
3. i put the cameras up high. i pack a ladder with me. i look retarded hiking in the woods with a tiny ladder strapped to my hunting pack. but i put my cameras up where you will have difficulties climbing to them. usually overhangling limbs.

fingers crossed, i havent lost a camera yet. one of those folding ladders is pretty cool strapped to a hunt pack.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Who is that supposed to deter?

Hippies. Non hunters.

 

[danarnold]

This fine looking citizen was on my friends cam, a long ways from where you would think you would find crackheads

 

[orionthehunter1]

Labeling works I believe. I've been running cameras on public ground for years and have never had one messed with or stolen. Mine also say property of Colorado Parks and Wildlife with a random number on them.

 

[Squamch]

My advice would be not to leave your salt block package, camera package, battery package, and SD card package garbage on the ground beside your camera, then no one will be inclined to clean up all the garbage you've left there.

My cameras have my name and phone number and "Don't steal!" On them. So far it has worked.

 

[Saiselgi]

Highly dependent on your area. High pressured areas where you are seeing other people’s cameras are probably more likely to result in thievery. The advice to put em where no one else is, is the best idea. However not always a possibility.

 

[Elk97]

I don't use any cams but have seen a couple out in the mountains of MT. Saw one at a wallow this past Sept during archery season and was tempted to put a big glob of mud on it, but I didn't. Not supposed to use cameras during the season.

 

[11boo]

I bought a set of three cheap cameras, used, off another forum. They worked well enough and at 30$ ea I figured no big loss when they are stolen.

3 years of use, none stolen. But two have been torn off trees by bears and one by a bull elk. They still work after all that.

 

[MTbowhunter36]

I don't use any cams but have seen a couple out in the mountains of MT. Saw one at a wallow this past Sept during archery season and was tempted to put a big glob of mud on it, but I didn't. Not supposed to use cameras during the season.

You can use game cameras during season now, but they cannot relay real time animal movements.



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[Colterw]

I try to hang mine on the inside of a corner in a trail, and back into the timber about 15 feet with the thought that people don't usually look that far to the left or right when hiking. I also have my name and number on them so anyone tampering with them knows who they belong to. I think it would be harder to convince yourself that finders are keepers if there's a name and phone number to prove otherwise. That being said, I've had three cameras up in different places for the past three years without even getting a person on them.

 

[BugleMeTimber]

Run up to 5 cameras on public land in a given year. Have had two hunters on one camera 300 yards off the road on the intersection of a skidder trail so not surprised. Both just walked by but one was taking photos of my mineral site and ground blind. Have had one camera destroyed and had another one damaged from bear. Just run cheap enough cameras that it isn't a big hit to the pocket book but it sucks losing the time invested and intel. Never leave them up during modern season though.

 

[wind gypsy]

I had a couple taken out of my yard on the edge of town and then returned to my house when I was out of town by someone who lives in a nearby neighborhood. The guy told my girlfriend an odd story about his 12 YO taking them down because he was walking around out after turkeys with a crossbow and was scared that they were the DNR watching him.

Well, they didn’t delete the pictures that clearly showed the kid discovering them and then returning with dad and taking em down. Fast forward about a month I got permission to archery hunt on the neighbors land which these cams were near the border of. In my initial walk around the property I discovered a whole bunch of pot growing in 5 gallon buckets and some trails leading towards a house that happens to belong to the guy who took my cameras down.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

You cannot stop a dedicated hater. Snowflakes will beat your camera with a rock until their hands bleed as much as their intolerant, social justice bleeding blacks hearts. We need to educate these morons. Whenever possible, copy & paste this anywhere the antis might see it:



The only way to truly protect animals is to be pro-hunting. I realize this seems crazy to many but what most folks don’t know is that hunters fund over 75% of the wildlife management in America. They are the means by which an ecosystem is balanced, taking the necessary number of animals (as determined by wildlife biologists) to sustain healthy populations of every species. There is a limit to what any area can support, this is called its “carrying capacity” & must be maintained. That requires removal of some animals to prevent overpopulation. Understand the movie Lion King? It’s about maintaining a balance. Hunters provide & fund that balance, not treehuggers. If an animal population exceeds the carrying capacity of a region, you then see mass die-offs of a species…sometimes multiple species. They die from a lack of resources (food, water, bedding grounds) as well as exposure, and disease. But the biggest benefit to animals comes from HUNTER LOBBYING, FUNDING AND HABITAT PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION.


Take bison for example. Many people believe hunters nearly wiped them out and the government stepped in to protect them. The truth is exactly the opposite. The government commissioned the killing of North American bison to win the Indian wars. It was hunters who successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress for the protection of bison (some call em buffalo) and began breeding them. In the decades since they have been brought back from the brink of extinction to over half a million. There would be more but urban sprawl limits the unbridled wild breeding of these magnificent beasts.



Here's 10 Reasons Why Hunting is Conservation.



Reason No. 1 why Hunting Is Conservation: In 1907, only 41,000 elk remained in North America. Thanks to the money and hard work invested by hunters to restore and conserve habitat, today there are more than 1 million.



Reason No. 2 why Hunting Is Conservation: In 1900, only 500,000 whitetails remained. Thanks to conservation work spearheaded by hunters, today there are more than 32 million.



Reason No. 3 why Hunting Is Conservation: In 1900, only 100,000 wild turkeys remained. Thanks to hunters, today there are over 7 million.



Reason No. 4 why Hunting Is Conservation: In 1901, few ducks remained. Thanks to hunters’ efforts to restore and conserve wetlands, today there are more than 44 million.



Reason No. 5 why Hunting Is Conservation: In 1950, only 12,000 pronghorn remained. Thanks to hunters, today there are more than 1.1 million.



Reason No. 6 why Hunting Is Conservation: Habitat, research and wildlife law enforcement work, all paid for by hunters, help countless non-hunted species.



Reason No. 7 why Hunting Is Conservation: Through state licenses and fees, hunters pay $796 million a year for conservation programs.*



Reason No. 8 why Hunting Is Conservation: Through donations to groups like RMEF, hunters add $440 million a year to conservation efforts.*



Reason No. 9 why Hunting Is Conservation: In 1937, hunters actually requested an 11% tax on guns, ammo, bows and arrows to help fund conservation. That tax, so far, raised more than $7.2 billion for wildlife conservation.*



Reason No. 10 why Hunting Is Conservation: An 11% tax on guns, ammo, bows and arrows generates $371 million a year for conservation.*


*financial info via America’s Sporting Heritage: Fueling the American Economy (January 2013) & Hunting in America: An Economic Force for Conservation (January 2013)


To see how hunting is literally saving millions of animals in Africa from extinction, (can you handle this information?) visit https://www.dropbox.com/s/yaeghegrp...partners_for_conservation_April_2017.pdf?dl=0


If you truly care about the future of animals you will join us hunters in preserving them and fight the idiots who claim to be conservationists while “reintroducing” large species of wolves into areas they never actually lived before. Wolves are a huge problem adversely impacting all big game species. But don’t take my word for it…do your homework and look beyond the talking points of organizations who survive on grants to promote a single ideology or species protection. You cannot protect and preserve generations of all species if you don’t focus on all species and the carrying capacity constraints that determine their growth or decline. Hunters successfully preserve and improve animal populations (as proven above) and if you kill hunting then the animals die with it. Don’t be gullible…talk to hunters with an open mind and heart. You will discover they are the most passionate and actively engaged conservationists there are. Nobody does more for animals than hunters.


Even the extreme liberals in Berkeley understand that without hunters and the wildlife management they fund, there would be no top predators left in Africa. See the research for yourself.

http://alumni.berkeley.edu/californ...e/lion-king-berkeley-carnivore-research-works

 

[zeeoh6]

When I bought my first Moultrie 12+ years ago I bought a steal case for it that locks the camera inside via a python cable lock. It was a pretty tough setup but also heavy. Of course someone could steal it if they really wanted but they would've needed some bolt cutters or a chainsaw for the tree.

 

[PLI]

I carry a couple of the cheap screw in tree steps in my pack and get them up off the ground a ways.

 

[tim tarras]

I gone to the spy high system.

Spy High Mounts

Trail Camera Mounting System

www.spyhighmounts.com