How To Hack A Dear Camera

10 Trail Photographic camera Hacks to Apply When Deer Hunting

From reading the manual to getting the bending right to keeping a thief at bay, at that place are several tips deer hunters tin can use to maximize the effective use of their trail cameras.

At first glance, a trail camera appears to be a simple device to use — purchase it, plug in an SD card and batteries, hang it in the woods, and become set up to see dozens, or fifty-fifty thousands, of photos of bucks you'll spend a lot of nights dreaming about.

But every bit with most things in life, there'south often more meets the eye.

Whether you want to call them hacks — elementary ideas that help brand life a bit easier, save time, and bring greater efficiency to a tool'southward usefulness — or refer to them as skilful onetime-fashioned tips, at that place are a number of things deer hunters can practice to improve their photograph and video spying in the deer woods.

Have Enough Trail Cameras

It's no secret that properly using trail cameras is 1 of deer hunting'south most of import skills — subsequently a hunter'southward selection of a deer stand up site and their proficiency with a burglarize, muzzleloader, or bow.

Thankfully, there'due south no shortage of trail camera options waiting to be discovered at your local University Sports + Outdoors and academy.com.

If you take enough hunt-fund cash bachelor for your whitetail pursuits, having at least ane camera per 100 acres of land is a decent place to start. You can either buy them all at once, or if you've got kids in college like I do, opt for a more budget-friendly approach by purchasing a unit or two at a time as you add to your growing trail camera drove.

Read the Trail Camera Manual

Every bit an outdoor communicator, I've always described myself equally a writer who writes first and takes a few photos 2nd. Simply I've also made it a signal to get to know several of the all-time wildlife photographers in the business, and take learned how to maximize my gear's potential and improve the photos I do end upward taking along the way.

Believe information technology or not, one of their most of import pieces of advice pertaining to the use of my digital SLR camera also applies to the use of trail cameras: read the manual!

So important is this piece of communication, that I've been known to take the instruction manual with me for a sit down on a deer stand so I can pass the time and larn how to more than effectively utilize the camera unit of measurement at my disposal.

Power the Trail Camera Properly

When it comes to batteries and trail cameras, some users may try and cut corners. But because of voltage inconsistencies, bottom quality construction, and reaction to weather conditions, what oft ends upwardly happening is the effort to cut costs brings on missed photos, photographic camera malfunctions, and increased levels of frustration.

To gainsay this potential state of affairs, bite the bullet and buy high-quality replaceable alkaline metal batteries or rechargeable lithium batteries equally recommended by your trail camera'southward manufacturer (remember the hack about reading the manual?).

On a like note, don't endeavor "homemade" power sources with your trail cameras (i.e. automobile batteries). Why? Because it could be too much juice, something that can end upwardly destroying a trail camera's inner workings and possibly voiding the unit's warranty.

Recommended

In the end, follow the recommendations made for powering your camera, either with batteries or external power sources. And so head to your local Academy Sports + Outdoors and get the necessary power gear for your trail camera — yous won't regret it!

Win the SD Carte Game

At get-go glance, many hunters think they need the loftier-quality, high-speed SD cards designed for SLR cameras — cards that often carry the biggest price tag too.Only when y'all read the manual on your item trail camera, you lot'll often find the manufacturer doesn't e'er agree.

Why? Because high-speed SD cards designed for loftier-end cameras oftentimes utilise write speeds that are too much for nigh trail cameras. Simply put, most trail cameras don't take the loftier-end internal guts of a professional camera. Every bit mentioned several times already, read the manual for your trail photographic camera and follow the manufacturer's recommendations. This may salve you some money and help showtime the cost of loftier-quality batteries.

How else tin can y'all win the SD card game? Showtime, by choosing the highest storage SD cards your camera tin utilise, a job fabricated easier by the selections available at your local Academy.

Second, consider these cards as necessary tools and buy plenty so you tin rotate them between visits to your unlike camera locations. Adjacent, assign at least 2 specific cards to rotate with each camera, formatting them within the camera, and labeling them for utilise with that particular unit of measurement. Then, treat these cards well, putting them in a card-holder/carrying case to prevent loss and potential impairment.

And finally, if an SD carte du jour starts giving you trouble, replace information technology without a 2d thought.

Get the Trail Photographic camera'due south Settings Correct

Similar Goldilocks, hoping to find a bed and bowl of porridge that was just right, a deer hunter wants to get their trail camera settings "just right" as well.

How? Starting time, past making sure your trail camera's sensor-sensitivity settings are just correct for your needs and where you chase. Simply put, y'all don't want to miss a photo of a good buck walking past, but you also don't desire a photo of leaves and grass moving every time the wind blows.

Side by side, y'all'll desire to become your unit's paradigm-resolution settings correct. For in-season utilise, it's ok to opt for higher image quality — which chews up SD card memory quicker — since you're likely going to be visiting your hunting ground more than often. And you might desire to get a photo suitable for framing when and if you get a big buck downward.

Finally, understand and properly use the video mode on your camera as hunting season approaches and arrives. Notwithstanding photos are great, but all they tell you is the "what", equally in "what'south passed by." Only video — which chews upwardly memory, of course — tin can be invaluable, telling you the "why" equally to deer movement patterns, how a cadet comes in, and where they're coming from and going to. That's invaluable intel if a total freezer and taxidermy bill are your goals.

Keep Insects at Bay

Since trail cameras are left outdoors for long periods of time, insects can be a potential source of trouble as they crawl up inside storage components and camera housings. Spiders can leave gluey webs behind, even to the point of potentially obscuring the lens, while ants tin get in and destroy the inner workings of a trail camera unit.

How do you keep pesky insects at bay, particularly ants? For starters, natural products like bay leaves, cayenne pepper, blackness pepper, cinnamon, lemon juice, and even spraying a mixture of vinegar and water tin can piece of work. Go like shooting fish in a barrel though since you're wanting to keep ants at bay, not overpower a spot with unusual smells that can tip a whitetail off to human beings in the area.

It'due south also fairly mutual knowledge that dryer sheets contain chemicals that go on insects at bay. To repel ants and notwithstanding avoid unwanted scents in the whitetail woods, use the dryer sheets Academy sells specifically for deer hunters like the Wild animals Research Center Scent Killer Autumn Formula or the Expressionless Down Current of air products.

In a similar way, spiders tin can bear witness to exist problematic, particularly when they build webs and nests inside the boxes that firm trail cameras, batteries, etc.

To keep spiders from becoming a trouble, acquit a pocket-sized umpire's dwelling plate brush or a nylon-bristled gun cleaning castor — see the gun cleaning supplies at your local Academy Sports + Outdoors store — to sweep away the webby filaments and nests each time you lot visit your camera.

Then, to encourage them not to return, use an HME Products Cedar Olfactory property Beige, a natural smell that can crusade spiders to crawl elsewhere. If your photographic camera box is big enough, store the scent biscuit inside. If not, use a zip-tie to attach the cedar beige to the outside of the camera unit.

Get the Trail Camera Position Right

As my wife and kids might tell you lot, I'grand not always the smartest guy on the block.

Unfortunately, this trait showed itself when I first started putting upwardly trail cameras considering, to be honest, it never dawned on me to position my camera where it wouldn't shoot photos in the direction of the sun. Only after the first batch of unusable photos, information technology didn't have long before I had corrected that mistake, one I've not made since.

I've as well learned — the hard way, of course — to position the angle of my trail camera's all-seeing lens at a 45-degree bending up or downwards a trail every bit a deer moves into and away from the photographic camera location. No more 90-caste camera angle shots since I want more than than 1 photo of a large buck as information technology walks by.

Finally, it pays to become the camera's height just correct too, opting for something that is in the belly button range. Adjusting for meridian changes if necessary, this height usually gets a full photo of a passing whitetail, not a too-low shot of its feet or a likewise-high shot of its antler tips, back, and rump.

Make clean the Lens

Since moisture tin streak up the area effectually the lens, bring forth a small bottle of drinking glass cleaning solution and either a soft Chums Mossy Oak Microfiber Chumois Lens Textile or a Leupold Lens Pen to clean the outside of the camera'south of import omniscient eye.

And since trail camera lenses tin fog upwardly, it never hurts to conduct along a small canteen of anti-fog solution similar the Vortex VTX Fog-Gratis Lens Cleaning Kit.

Protect from Theft

As information technology'south oftentimes been said, nothing's worse than a thief. And that'due south especially truthful when it comes to a thief that'south stolen a deer stand, a deer feeder, or a trail camera unit.While protecting the other gear mentioned above is another story for some other time, how can you go nearly stopping a would-be trail camera thief?

For starters, you lot can camouflage your cameras upwardly a fleck or place them where they're surrounded past limbs, leaves, and other vegetation.

At that place are also another ways to combat a trail camera thief with some innovative products bachelor at your local Academy. Those include a Master Lock Stealth Cam Python Lock to lock the photographic camera upwards to a tree, an HME Products Tree Mount Trail Camera Holder that can be placed well up in a tree above a thief's reach (with the camera angled down, of grade), or a SPYPOINT SB200 Solar Camo Security Camera Box.

Give a Deer Reason to Stop

While all of these hacks and tips serve a great purpose, I've saved my favorite one for last — give a whitetail a reason to terminate if the law allows for such practices where you chase.

In Texas, where supplemental feeding and placement of mineral products is legal, that means using a bag of deer corn or a mineral block situated several feet out in front end of my trail camera's lens.

It can also include the apply of a highly aromatic attractant similar the myriad of products made past Large & J, items that include a pocketbook of Large & J Legit 5-lbs. Mineral Mix, a Big & J CUBE Long-Range Attraction Block, or a 20-pound bag of Big & J BB2 Granular Deer Attractant.

With a picayune bit of luck, these products — not to mention some of the other hacks mentioned above — can help requite me a adept supply of photos to place a target buck this fall, besides as lay the background for a hunting strategy to fill an unused deer tag.

All of which leads to needing another set of deer hunting hacks — knowing how to properly cook up a delicious venison meal and finding a spot on the wall for a special big-cadet taxidermy mountain!

Source: https://www.bowhuntingmag.com/editorial/deer-hunting-trail-camera-hacks/368630

Posted by: friskhicess.blogspot.com

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