Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey, folks, welcome to the Wire to Hunt
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
Speaker 1: This week's show is all about understanding the technology behind
Speaker 1: trail cameras so that you can take your digital scouting
Speaker 1: to a higher level. After last week's excursions into the
Speaker 1: summertime white tail jungle, it's time for a little retail
Speaker 1: therapy at your local sporting goods store so you can
Speaker 1: stock up on some trail cameras. While we almost all
Speaker 1: use these digital scouters to some extent, a lot of
Speaker 1: us don't really understand all that modern trail cameras really offered.
Speaker 1: I had an AHA moment, not really that long ago,
Speaker 1: include me into the fact that I don't treat trail
Speaker 1: camera us like real cameras, and I should and I
Speaker 1: think you should too, because you'll get better pictures, better videos,
Speaker 1: and better overall intel if you do that, and that's
Speaker 1: a good thing in the deer woods. My friends. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. I hope after last week you rubbed some
Speaker 1: calamine lotion on your mosquito bites and you've spent enough
Speaker 1: time rooting around in your various body crevices to know
Speaker 1: whether you found all the ticks that hopped on when
Speaker 1: you were out there burning some boot leather last week.
Speaker 1: I promised you that things would get more fun, and
Speaker 1: this week they will. This episode is all about trail
Speaker 1: cameras themselves. In the next couple of episodes, I'll get
Speaker 1: pretty far into the trail camera weeds, with strategies and
Speaker 1: where to place them, how long to leave them out,
Speaker 1: and why you'd opt for a traditional model versus a
Speaker 1: cellular option. But for now, it's time to think about
Speaker 1: trail cameras and what you should buy to maximize your
Speaker 1: scouting efforts. The good news on this front is that
Speaker 1: you no longer have to go broke to get a
Speaker 1: quality model, because this is one category that has just
Speaker 1: absolutely exploded in recent years. There are dozens of trail
Speaker 1: camera companies, and like most new hunting technology, these things
Speaker 1: started out mostly in a small market of super serious
Speaker 1: white tail bow hunters, but as more options became available,
Speaker 1: they've moved into the general firearm world and have absolutely
Speaker 1: overtaken all other scouting methods for deer hunters from Canada
Speaker 1: on down to the shores of the Gulf. That in
Speaker 1: and of itself isn't bad for the average weekend warrior
Speaker 1: who just wants to see what bucks are in the woods.
Speaker 1: For the die hard hunter, trail cameras can be an
Speaker 1: amazing tool to having the kit, provided that they don't
Speaker 1: convince you that you no longer need to actually scout.
Speaker 1: And if this hits a little bit too close to home,
Speaker 1: don't fret. We've all been there. I went through a
Speaker 1: phase in my life, particularly when I had two babies
Speaker 1: at home and I was hunting a lot of small,
Speaker 1: twenty acre type of properties, where I convinced myself that
Speaker 1: two seven digital scouters were just good enough. The problem
Speaker 1: I found after a couple of seasons was that I
Speaker 1: could still kill deer regularly on traveling public land hunts,
Speaker 1: but I was getting my ass absolutely whooped during home
Speaker 1: game hunts where I should have had the most advantage
Speaker 1: because I was using trail cameras. Now it doesn't bother
Speaker 1: me to get beat by the deer, because I've been
Speaker 1: beat by the deer nearly every time I've ever hunted them.
Speaker 1: I don't get mad when I lose an argument with
Speaker 1: my wife either. What actually bothered me during that time
Speaker 1: of my life where I was leaning too hard on
Speaker 1: cameras was that I wasn't hunting as much because I
Speaker 1: wasn't getting encouraging pictures. It kept me from going out
Speaker 1: and sitting in observation stands or doing a little in
Speaker 1: season scouting to figure out where the fresh sign was.
Speaker 1: Not only was I waiting for the deer to come
Speaker 1: to my spots, I was waiting for them to walk
Speaker 1: past my cameras in those spots. That's a losing proposition.
Speaker 1: I've since then realized the error of my ways and
Speaker 1: have altered my strategy, which, as I already said, will
Speaker 1: get covered plenty in the next couple of shows. But
Speaker 1: before them, I think it's probably a good idea to
Speaker 1: break down camera choice and accessories. Now have you ever
Speaker 1: just looked at an advertisement for a trail camera? Of
Speaker 1: course you have. You've seen plenty of marketing speak and
Speaker 1: some flashy numbers thrown around, not unlike Bow companies touting
Speaker 1: Ibo aerospeeds that might sound impressive but probably really don't
Speaker 1: mean much. To you and your individual drawway, draw length,
Speaker 1: aero choice, or hunting style. When it comes to trail cameras,
Speaker 1: do those numbers mean anything to you? Should they? Maybe?
Speaker 1: Take the megapixels advertised with a camera. For example, you
Speaker 1: can find reasonably priced options that boast twenty to even
Speaker 1: thirty megapixels, which simply boils down to image clarity. The
Speaker 1: more pixels they cram in their higher resolution and the
Speaker 1: photos will be to hire the resolution, the more you
Speaker 1: can zoom in and see clear details versus just a
Speaker 1: buck looking blob of grainy bullshit. Higher megapixels might matter,
Speaker 1: or if your cams are typically set on a mineral
Speaker 1: site or some other deer positioning attractant might not be
Speaker 1: a big deal. You might be thinking, so what is
Speaker 1: the ideal megapixel number? That's a great question and one
Speaker 1: you should direct message Mark Kenyon about because I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone in the world would see a
Speaker 1: difference in trail camera recon between a camera that is
Speaker 1: built with twenty megapixels versus thirty. You'll definitely see image
Speaker 1: quality degradation if you can find a camera with a
Speaker 1: really low number of megapixels. But in reality, the latest
Speaker 1: models that aren't total clunkers are going to deliver crisp
Speaker 1: enough picks for the average deer hunter's use. You'll see
Speaker 1: the same thing happen when it comes to video quality.
Speaker 1: Many models offer four K quality video clips. Now, this,
Speaker 1: my friends, is bananas and also pretty awesome. If you
Speaker 1: run video, and you absolutely should in certain situations like
Speaker 1: during the rut or while monitoring an October community scrape,
Speaker 1: then higher quality clips are always better, especially for nighttime captures.
Speaker 1: There's a catch here, though, with this quality imagery and
Speaker 1: videos that you're going to get if you go this route,
Speaker 1: you should really consider your SD card choice as well.
Speaker 1: The Cheapo's that they sell next to the trail cameras
Speaker 1: that Cabela's probably aren't a great choice. You're now dealing
Speaker 1: with a real camera that actually needs a quality SD card,
Speaker 1: So headed the electronics store over to tar j and
Speaker 1: buy a card that not only offers the amount of
Speaker 1: gigs you need for the storage, but also a decent
Speaker 1: right speed. And what this means is that some cards
Speaker 1: can write up to like a hundred megabytes of data
Speaker 1: per second. If you're capturing one or two minute clips
Speaker 1: of four K video amped up right speed is real important,
Speaker 1: and there's good news here too. Just like with the cameras,
Speaker 1: quality s D card options are cheaper than they've ever been,
Speaker 1: but it's still important to shop for a decent one
Speaker 1: that won't fill up in three days or bogged down
Speaker 1: when it's supposed to be capturing amazing footage of a
Speaker 1: buck rubbing his forehead all over a licking branch. Trail
Speaker 1: cameras often have a maximum size SD card they can handle,
Speaker 1: which is what I usually go for these days. That's
Speaker 1: often something like a thirty two gig model, but in
Speaker 1: a not too distant future it will likely be sixty
Speaker 1: four or even And to take it a step further,
Speaker 1: especially if you might run it in video mode, look
Speaker 1: for a class ten s D cards in the appropriate
Speaker 1: storage size. These feature a minimum data right speed that
Speaker 1: will serve all your trail camera needs. Another camera consideration
Speaker 1: will involve flash. Most newer models offer nighttime flash that
Speaker 1: will be either infrared or a no glow option. If
Speaker 1: you're a camera shopping and you see one that doesn't
Speaker 1: offer this, it might have a white flash, just like
Speaker 1: a wedding photographer setup. I've had a few of those
Speaker 1: doozies in my day, and it might as well have
Speaker 1: been out in the woods yelling at the deer as
Speaker 1: they walk by, while making threatening movements in their direction
Speaker 1: and occasionally throwing mountain lions at them. White flash is
Speaker 1: no boy, no, my friends, especially if you hunt pressure deer. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: the market has called out most of those options, which
Speaker 1: is a trend I hope we see through to the
Speaker 1: very end. When it comes to infrared versus no glow options,
Speaker 1: which are also called black flash, sometimes you'll see that
Speaker 1: more cameras offer infrared than anything. This red light flash
Speaker 1: is visible to the deer at least on the camera
Speaker 1: will light up, and that is a consideration, especially if
Speaker 1: you're hunting spooky deer or plan to hang your cameras
Speaker 1: at eye level. This is why I tend to lean
Speaker 1: on the no glow options, although they might cost a
Speaker 1: little bit more. I'd rather spend up and have the
Speaker 1: deer oblivious. But there are plenty of hunters out there
Speaker 1: who put infrared flash cameras to good use and have
Speaker 1: absolutely no problems with them. There are other features that
Speaker 1: may or may not matter to you on cameras. Time
Speaker 1: lapse is one of them. It's a useful tool for
Speaker 1: monitor during food plots. Burst mode is another, and this
Speaker 1: is something I use almost always if I've got my
Speaker 1: cameras set solely for capturing images and not video. Burst mode,
Speaker 1: which tends to offer anywhere from like two to maybe
Speaker 1: nine images per triggering event, is a great way to
Speaker 1: capture all of the bucks in a bachelor group that
Speaker 1: might pass by, not just the leader, or to capture
Speaker 1: a dough in November and then the buck that chases
Speaker 1: after her a few seconds later. If you've got the
Speaker 1: space on your memory card, there's no reason not to
Speaker 1: let your camera shoot away other than it's a little
Speaker 1: more of a pain to go through the photos when
Speaker 1: you check your camera. It's also a good idea to
Speaker 1: pay attention to recovery time of your camera. Sub one
Speaker 1: second times are standard, but most cameras allow you to
Speaker 1: choose if you want a longer break between triggering events. Again,
Speaker 1: with enough storage available on your SD card, you probably
Speaker 1: want as little downtime as possible on your camera, so
Speaker 1: choose wisely, and in regard to specific situations like rut
Speaker 1: time recon. You might very well notice that you're camera
Speaker 1: often captures decent pictures of deer noses and butts. This
Speaker 1: is almost as frustrating as hanging a camera and then
Speaker 1: forgetting to actually turn it on, only to return a
Speaker 1: month later to find that you've basically hung an expensive
Speaker 1: paper weight in the woods. I've done this roughly three
Speaker 1: thousand times in my life, and every single time it's
Speaker 1: made me appreciate the fact that the government lets me
Speaker 1: drive a car and use scissors without supervision. Some cameras
Speaker 1: offer just one trigger speed, which is whatever they build in.
Speaker 1: Others let you choose and you can cater them to
Speaker 1: different situations. If you're capturing running bucks, the quicker the better.
Speaker 1: If you're monitoring a food source or a mineral site,
Speaker 1: you might not need a lightning fast trigger, and you might,
Speaker 1: in this case just get the very bow of the
Speaker 1: deer with no hope of seeing the stern again. There's
Speaker 1: good news here, because you've got a pile of options,
Speaker 1: and most of them are pretty reasonably priced. I say
Speaker 1: that with a whole bunch of terror, however, because every
Speaker 1: time I write about products or talk about them and
Speaker 1: I say something like that, some random person out there
Speaker 1: in anonymous tough guy land will say something like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I bet those erroos are worth it. For the guy
Speaker 1: who makes your kind of money, or or I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's nice to have all those free bows and not
Speaker 1: have to pay for them. Listen, folks, prices price, but
Speaker 1: value is subjective. When it comes to trail cameras. The
Speaker 1: most common question out there is what's the best camera
Speaker 1: I can buy for X amount of money. No one
Speaker 1: can answer that question for you, because no one knows.
Speaker 1: The better question is what do you really want out
Speaker 1: of a camera and which models deliver that. If there
Speaker 1: are five on the list, are any in your price range?
Speaker 1: If not, pretend it's the last day of the season,
Speaker 1: your freezer is empty, and then there is a fat
Speaker 1: forky walking in lower those standards. Bro, If one or
Speaker 1: more of the cameras does fall into your budget, you've
Speaker 1: got options. I'd say you could probably look up some
Speaker 1: reviews on your perspective models, but also that it sure
Speaker 1: seems like quality out there has leveled up drastically in
Speaker 1: the last five years. It wasn't that long ago when
Speaker 1: if you bought a cheap camera you might as well
Speaker 1: just hit yourself in the head with it before throwing
Speaker 1: it in the garbage. That way, you might learn your lesson,
Speaker 1: and it would have ended up there anyway. If you
Speaker 1: haven't noticed, one of the things I'm doing is a
Speaker 1: writer's trick we call weasel words. I'm being really sneaking
Speaker 1: and telling you what to buy without committing to tell
Speaker 1: you what to buy. So I'll say this. Brand wise,
Speaker 1: you're on your own. There are a lot of good
Speaker 1: trail camera brands out there. Price wise, the sweet spot
Speaker 1: for a solid camera that isn't a cellular option seems
Speaker 1: to be about a hundred to two hundred bucks right now.
Speaker 1: And if you do drop a Benjamin or two on
Speaker 1: a camera, think about it like it is in fact
Speaker 1: a camera. As someone who routinely hauls expensive camera geting
Speaker 1: into the woods and on the water, I've learned a
Speaker 1: lot of lessons about how to handle technology in the field.
Speaker 1: For example, if you think you should just throw your
Speaker 1: expensive DSLR camera in the backpack without it being in
Speaker 1: a case because you're only going out for a morning
Speaker 1: December muzzle order hunt on the farm just down the road,
Speaker 1: don't set your pack down too hard on the cold
Speaker 1: front steps to run back in and grab the coffee monke.
Speaker 1: You forgot. Trail cameras are built for the woods, but
Speaker 1: they are also worth taking care of. You're already going
Speaker 1: to leave them out in the field for weeks, months,
Speaker 1: or maybe years at a time, try to keep them
Speaker 1: stored in a dry, warmish place when they're not in duty.
Speaker 1: When you do actually hang them in the woods, consider
Speaker 1: what you would do to get an actual picture in
Speaker 1: that spot at all times of the day. If it's
Speaker 1: facing toward where the sun rises or sets, you might
Speaker 1: be in trouble either in the morning or the evening
Speaker 1: as the sun blazes away on the horizon. If your
Speaker 1: camera sports a test mode option or features a built
Speaker 1: in LCD screen for viewing, use them to make sure
Speaker 1: you're set up is spot on. To take this a
Speaker 1: step further, I also like to use an adjustable mount
Speaker 1: and hang my cameras above my head, angling them down.
Speaker 1: This keeps them from getting stolen sometimes, and it provides
Speaker 1: a better look at bucks as they pass a deer's
Speaker 1: eye level. Camera hang only works if the deer has
Speaker 1: their head about level with their back as they walk through.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes they stop and pick their head up, or they
Speaker 1: put their nose to the ground to sniff away. I'd
Speaker 1: rather capture the entirety of the deer every time versus
Speaker 1: hoping I get lucky when they pass through. This is,
Speaker 1: of course dependent on the setting. It's also easy to
Speaker 1: think about camera angle in the same way we consider
Speaker 1: shot angle with cameras set up on food picture of
Speaker 1: the camera taking a broadside shot of deer travel, just
Speaker 1: like you'd want to with a bow in your hand.
Speaker 1: For a trail or a travel route, you might want
Speaker 1: to point your camera down the trail for a quartering
Speaker 1: two or quartering away shot to get a better look
Speaker 1: at the passers by. Camera angle and mounting considerations are
Speaker 1: important for another reason too. Some deer just seem to
Speaker 1: be wise to cameras, or at the very least not
Speaker 1: big fans of them. In northern Wisconsin where I hunt,
Speaker 1: the deer have a very low tolerance for trail cameras.
Speaker 1: They spook from them often. And I'm only speculating here,
Speaker 1: but I think it's tied to the fact that baiting
Speaker 1: is legal in the county I hunt. I think those
Speaker 1: deer are so across them to danger around corn piles
Speaker 1: that they associate anything else that's usually around those corn piles,
Speaker 1: like cameras, which are always there with danger. Now I
Speaker 1: know there are plenty of bucks that get shot up
Speaker 1: there while munching away on the Golden secret and having
Speaker 1: their picture taken. But I also know the prevalence of
Speaker 1: images I get with dear spooking that aren't anywhere near
Speaker 1: abait pile is really really high. Pay attention to the
Speaker 1: images you're getting, and adjust your cameras accordingly. That is,
Speaker 1: if you're putting cameras out. Yet some people like to
Speaker 1: wait until later in the summer, reasoning that bucks will
Speaker 1: be closer to a killable pattern. Then that's up to
Speaker 1: the individual and probably not a terrible strategy, even if
Speaker 1: it isn't as much fun as getting out now and
Speaker 1: setting up some cameras. And on that note, I think
Speaker 1: the best way to dive into this type of scouting
Speaker 1: correctly is to circle back to your East scouting and
Speaker 1: your boots on the ground efforts and start planning out
Speaker 1: camera spots around that earlier work. Look at your way
Speaker 1: points there in the places you can't watch or clearly
Speaker 1: figure out by walking in and looking for sign start there,
Speaker 1: or in the places you've already looked at that have
Speaker 1: tickled your curiosity but you're not really sure if they're
Speaker 1: going to be worth some stand time in the fall.
Speaker 1: Those are the places worth starting with cameras, and that
Speaker 1: can happen any day now, because if you get it right,
Speaker 1: you'll have weeks or months of good intel building up.
Speaker 1: And if you get it wrong, you've got time to
Speaker 1: reset your camera strategy, which in the next episode is
Speaker 1: about to get a hell of a lot more detailed.
Speaker 1: I'm also going to go down the cellular camera rabbit
Speaker 1: hole to make the case for and against them. So
Speaker 1: if you're interested in taking your scouting game even further
Speaker 1: and really maximizing your trail camera advantage, you're gonna want
Speaker 1: to listen next week. That's it for this week, my
Speaker 1: white tail obsessed brothers and sisters, be sure to tune
Speaker 1: in next week for more deer hunting wisdom. I'm Tony
Speaker 1: Peterson and this has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast.
Speaker 1: As always, thank you so much for listening, and we
Speaker 1: will see you right here next week