Protecting game cam advise

[greasemonkeyok]

Go to the pawn shop and purchase the least expensive camera they have and set it up low as the visible camera. As others have said above, multiple cameras have a deterrent effect at some point.

As also said many times, place it low and they will steal it - place it high they will shoot it.

 

[heehaw]

there was a new clip a month or so ago, about a guy that had his home broken into, so he "then" installed a game camera and caught some really good pictures of the two guys, when they broke into his home "again". i want to know how he hid the dang thing in his house???
heehaw

 

[David P]

If you don't want the camera damaged or stolen you will need to put it in an inconspicuous location. If you can find a spot like that high in a tree, all the better. However, I would try to put it in a spot where people don't typically look, even if it is in the tree.

I have purchased five trail cameras over the past year (2 Wildgame Innovations IR4, 2 Moultrie M-80 and a Bushnell Trophy Cam with the blacked out top portion). The BTC is the best of the lot, IMHO.

My needs may be a bit different than yours but I needed a camera that would cover a very large area where I knew thieves had entered. I wanted to be able to get their picture from a distance at which the sensor would not have been tripped. Both the BTC and the M-80 has the plot-watcher feature. Essentially, you program the camera to take pictures at certain intervals (every 1 minute, 5 minutes, etc) during specified times. However, there are two big differences between the two cameras when utilizing this mode.

The BTC allows the user to program it to take pictures for a 24 hour period. The Moultrie will only take pictures in this mode from just before daylight to just after sunset. (The M-80 has a Hybrid mode which will take pictures at intervals throughout the day and whenever the sensor is tripped at night) The BTC will take pictures whenever the sensor is tripped, in addition to the scheduled time slot. The M-80 will not. Finally, the quality of the pictures taken during plot mode are different for each camera.

The M-80 seems to take a much lower quality image during the plot mode than it does normally. It does have software that comes with the camera allowing the user to stitch all of the pictures together that may be watched at 1-4x speed (or is it up to 5x? can't recall). Anyway, the BTC pictures are of a much higher quality but unless you load them into a slideshow, you have to hit the mouse or keyboard whenever you forward to the next picture. This small inconvenience is worth the extra picture quality, especially given the situation.

One final note: I have used all these cameras with only the Wildgame Innovations external battery pack. This pack is about $50 up front but the batteries 1) last much, much longer and 2) are rechargeable. I left the two WGI cameras out a good part of a very cold winter last year; the batteries were still showing nearly a full charge when I took them down (2-3 months later).

Here is a link to a few pictures taken by my BTC. I'm not sure if these are of the same quality as the pics that were uploaded to my pc or not (they went through photobucket and I can't remember if they were dumbed down a bit before I posted them or not). http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/215433-trespassing-theft-issue-24.html#post2621106

 

[dmccarty]

...Since the perps have followed the same m.o. on all occasions, pickin' a spot is easy . They start at rear of house, use the same window ( no matter how I board it up ) to enter, and then unlock the same exterior door to leave ....

Ah, since they are always going into the house and exiting the same way you have some more options. There are camera's you can hide in the house that might be useful or maybe not if the house is empty.

Hidden Cameras

I just picked this link since I know they have some of this type of equipment.

You really want to get as large a photo of their face as you can. Given that you know how they are entering and exiting that gives you an advantage in setting up the camera.

Getting a photo of a license plate would be great since that should lead to a name that goes with the photo.

Later,
Dan

 

[1bush2hog]

Is there anything that is already at the site that could be used to hide the camera? Rocks, logs, stumps, trash pile, leaf pile, brush pile, etc., can all be used to effectively hide a game cam, while still allowing the flash and lens to be operable. The perps are already used to seeing what's there, so they would probably not give it a second thought now.

I like the smaller bushnell cams as they are less than $200 for the color models and do a pretty good job for the money. They are also easier to hide. The problem with mounting a cam high is that it is very difficult to get a good face shot due to the angle and or distance.

Also, you will need to consider the sun on the lens before you decide on a location as direct sun will prevent any usable pics from being taken.

If you decide to place one inside the house, maybe you could use whatever is still in the house to conceal.

Or, you could just pick up a couple of pitbulls and let them stay inside the house for awhile

 

[nickel plate]

Bird houses are a good idea to hide a camera in but it must be a stationary bird house and not one that will swing in the breeze causing the camera to trigger thousands of times before you pull the card fo viewing.
My game cam: Reconyx Hyperfire HC600.

 

[sailorman]

And the good advise continues !! Like the idea of placement and sun . Hadn 't thought about that . Also semi-ground level might be better for me as I have many trash wood piles in the area from hurricane clean up .

 

[1bush2hog]

Bird houses are a good idea to hide a camera in but it must be a stationary bird house and not one that will swing in the breeze causing the camera to trigger thousands of times before you pull the card fo viewing.
My game cam: Reconyx Hyperfire HC600.

That is a nice camera! A little pricey for me, but have read great reviews on it.

 

[David P]

I swapped out my memory cards from the two Moultries last night and wanted to post a pic as a comparison to the Bushnell. The lighting isn't as good so the shutter speed has to compensate by taking a longer exposure which creates a bit of the blur you see in the pic. It isn't bad but I would expect it to be better under better lighting conditions. BTW, this pic is of a man who is trespassing on my property. This is one of the frustrations of having the cameras up.... instead of blissful ignorance you actually see what goes on when you're not around.

I think the distance from the camera to the man walking is about 30 feet or so.

Here are a couple night pictures. Note: I have the camera set to take a series of three pics everytime the motion sensor is activated.