What are your favorite trail cameras? Any one brand/ type that stands out - or to avoid? What features to look for?
Trail Cameras
- Thread starter Dan
- Start date
Joe Hulburt
Active Member
I've got three. A Cuddeback Expert, Cuddeback Capture and a Bushnell Trophy. Both the Cuddebacks have failed and had to be replaced at my expense thru Cuddeback. Both are currently acting up. So far the Bushnell Trophy has been great except for some occasional white out shots (during the day) due to the IR activating when it isn't needed.
I will be buying more Bushnell's for now as long as it keeps treating me well. They run forever on 4 AA batteries and are very small making packing and hiding them much easier.
Here is the Expert...
Here is the Capture...
Here is the Bushnell....
I will be buying more Bushnell's for now as long as it keeps treating me well. They run forever on 4 AA batteries and are very small making packing and hiding them much easier.
Here is the Expert...
Here is the Capture...
Here is the Bushnell....
Joe Hulburt
Active Member
One of the Bushnell at night using the IR. I really prefer flash pictures but the IR is a lot more inconspicuous and it seems to be much easier on the batteries.
bow&muzzyhunter
New Member
elktracker
Member
Is the Bushnell Trail Sentry 5MP a decent camera? They have them on camofire right now for $73.50.
sticknbiggens
Member
Love my Cuddeback Captures. Couldn't even tell ya how many great pictures I've got outta them. Great pictures in the daylight hours and great in the dark. I'm pretty sure i've never had a blank picture outta one of them. The battery life is great too. I've got an old Moultrie Gamespy 200 that is a great camera but the battery life is terrible and it runs off a 6-volt.
IL Hntr
Member
I have an HCO Scoutguard 550V that did great for me last year. I plan on buying another as well as trying a Bushnell 8.0 MP.
Elkoholic307
Banned
I've tinkered around with several different brands of cameras and Reconyx makes the best trail cams, hands down. In my experiences, Cuddeback has been the worst. I've had nothing but headaches with that company. You will save yourself a lot of trouble, time and money if you snag a HyperFire.. or any Reconyx cam for that matter.
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If you can afford it Reconyx is definetly a buy once cry once sort of deal. Otherwise compile a list of must have features and figure out what works best for you. The rest of the cameras are a mix of quality, battery life, speed, photo quality, detectability and durability. Just have to figure out what of those features is most important to you.
Like the pictures of the 2 bulls in the wallow. Have you guys ever lost/stolen any of your cameras?
Joe Hulburt
Active Member
I got 130 pictures of those two fighting in that wallow that day. It went on for 1 1/2 hours and one of them broke off a tine in the battle. Trail cameras are a lot of fun!
I've never had one stolen but I am pretty careful about where I hang them. One big advantage I like about the little Bushnell is they are easy to hide and easy to hang from an overhead position making them even harder to spot. I've got locking bear boxes for the Cuddebacks that would make them a little bit of trouble to steal but the best security is not having the cam seen. Bears do love to chew on cameras so if your in bear country and hanging one down where they can get at them they will. They can bust a camera open and ruin it in a hurry. I've never had a bear climb for the Bushnell so I think it has to do with them being at ear level and the bears hearing the camera because they almost always stick their nose in a cam at ground level.
xtreme
Very Active Member
I have a Reconyx RC45 and two of the Scout Guards, also an old 35mm. The above post has it explained correctly.
sjsmallfield
Veteran member
I have three Cuddeback Capture IR cameras. I have had great luck so far. This year my hunting partner is going to try a Bushnell Trophy 8MP. Can't wait to see how the pictures turn out as well as the video. I'm thinking about trying one myself this year. As far as the bears, if you have them around you should think about a bear box. We had a blacky tear up a stealth cam a couple of years ago. No matter what you choose they are alot of fun. Good luck!!
squirrelduster
Active Member
I recently became a dealer for Scoutguard after doing some testing. The trigger fast and the batteries last a long time, usually around 6 months. They take great video with sound. I use them for grafitti captures. One of them has a completely dark IR illuminator.
I haven't used them for animals yet other than my local Blacktails. Under 200 bucks.
I haven't used them for animals yet other than my local Blacktails. Under 200 bucks.
I bought 2 cuddeback captures last year and were really impressed with them.They do everything I need and will work during the cold months of fall/winter here in Alberta.Only problem I had was with the mem cards and this has been fixed by buying 1g cuddeback cards.Not many cams will perform in -40 and this is when the biggest buck pics are taken every year.Me and my friends just purchased 20 and I will be running 8 this year.I have never found that the flash scares animals so this is what i usually buy because IR has to grainy of night pics.Here is some Alberta bucks.The last two pics are ones my buddy got and I have never seen pics of two bigger bucks traveling together anywhere.
hubba20
Active Member
Can't go wrong with a Moultrie... Here's a couple pictures I've gotten with Moultries. I love them...
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Skybuster1329
Member
I have used Cudde back. Like the quality great trigger speed. My is a couple years old and I always thought it was lacking in features and pretty expensive. I have a Moultrie that's are pretty good. Features I would make sure your get is multiple shots per tricker and Video. Battery life on both of these were great.
I agree Flash really doesn't scare animals much and infra red are the best pictures.
Stay away from wildview there junk !!
I agree Flash really doesn't scare animals much and infra red are the best pictures.
Stay away from wildview there junk !!
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