Profile: Cuddeback

Cuddeback cameras have come a long way since their inception. I tried an earlier model without much success. However, their newest models, the Capture and Capture IR are some of the best out there. Cuddeback now has five models available for the outdoorsman. The Capture is a 3.0 megapixel camera with a fifty foot flash. It has a trigger speed of less than 1/3 of a second. It can take up to 2000 pictures per battery set. It has delay settings from 30 seconds to 30 minutes and requires an SD card (my favorite). It retails for $199.99 and there is an infrared version available for $249.99. The main difference is that the infrared only has a range of 25 ft. The all-new rotary switch makes this camera the easiest to use. The previous series contained the Excite, Expert, and NoFlash models. These are acceptable models but I do not think they are nearly as good as the new Captures. However, the Excite is a 2.0 megapixel and the Expert is a 3.0 megapixel, while the NoFlash has a 3.0 during daylight and 1.3 at night. Their flash ranges are from 40 to 60 feet. Their battery saving system is not as good as the Capture. They have a delay of 1 minute to 1 hour. My biggest drawbacks involved the degree of difficulty of set-up. Also. They require a CompactFlash card which is not as convenient as an SD. The Excite retails for $249.99, the Expert runs about $349.00, and the NoFlash is about $399.99.

Set-up Tips

Getting good quality pictures from your trail camera can be frustrating. I have learned many lessons through trial and error. The most important thing to remember is that most cameras do not function properly if they are facing into the sun (East or West). I always try to set up my cams facing either North or South or a variation of the two. Another thing to remember is that most cameras are not fast enough to snap a picture of an animal if the camera is perpendicular to a trail. Instead, face the camera at an angle so that it captures more of the trail at one time. I always look for high use areas for set up. This equals more pictures total which in turn equates to more good photos. For big game, you cannot go wrong on a feeding area or a main trail leading to a feeding area. Also, in the fall a community scrape is an excellent place to set up. For creatures other than deer or turkeys, I set up in likely areas that I have stumbled across during hunting or trapping season. Setting up over a small bayou or swampy area is excellent for waterfowl or water-loving mammals. Setting up near rocky outcroppings or caves can provide good bobcat or coyote pictures. The edge of a cornfield is good for small mammals such as raccoons, skunks, or possums. For small mammals or near water, I like to set up about ten to twelve inches above the ground. For larger game I like about forty inches. During the winter months, placing a camera facing South also allows for more direct sunlight which will keep the batteries warmer and lasting longer.

Turkey Scouting

Trail cameras are also a great way to find that secret strutting are for a big old longbeard. I use a similar method as I do for scouting out an individual buck. However, I need to speed things up a bit since the spring season is so short. I start out initially placing cameras on the perimeter of several foodplots (turkeys seem to prefer the clover ones best). I will then use the information garnered to focus in on a general direction of travel for the longbeard. I will head off in the woods, following the contour of the land looking for any flat stretches of ground. These areas can be on a ridge top, in the bottoms by a creek, or even paralleling a hillside. These areas are usually several yards wide and at least thirty-forty yards long (old logging roads are ideal). This is the type of area a wiley old bird will seek out after experiencing any amount of pressure. I will place a camera on several likely areas and monitor them for several weeks prior to season. Before being pressured, a bird is likely to only visit the area occasionally. But later in the season, he will move there on a daily basis. By knowing which areas he prefers, you can be there and set up when he comes strutting along.

Using your trail camera to scout out your next big buck

Trail cameras are great for locating and patterning an individual buck. The method I use is to start off in late July. By this time most of the larger bucks will have grown enough antler to be able to distinguish them from other bucks. I will place at least one camera over each major foodplot. These cameras are simply placed over the whole foodplot, not over any specific trail. I will use these to determine which areas an individual buck is using most of the time. I will then place more cameras over the one or two areas preferred by the buck. These cameras will then be centered in the middle or on the edges facing in different directions. This will clue me in as to which direction he is coming from (first picture of the night) and which way he is leaving (last picture of the night). Once the entry and exit areas are determined, I will place cameras on the major trails in those areas. Sometimes this is not even on the food source, but instead is several yards back into the cover. I usually like to go back and place cameras overlooking the intersection of trails. By this time I will have narrowed down the buck’s preferred trails into and out of the area. By continuing to move cameras further into the woods and down the trails, I will eventually hit upon his bedding area. At this time, I will only place my cameras up once near the bedding area and leave them for a couple of weeks. I will go in and remove them and then not disturb that are again until a rainy or windy day comes along so that I can place a stand close by and leave it until season opens. This method can take some time but will lead to the most desired travel paths of a specific buck. By hunting your stand as early in the season as possible, you just might catch that big buck with his guard down. As the rut nears, these trails will become less reliable. However, if he has not been spooked he should return to the same area during late season to recoup from the rut.

Trail Camera Safety

With the increase of trail camera use comes the need to safely secure the unit to help prevent theft. Most trail cameras today come with some sort of securing the unit to a tree or other object. Unfortunately most of the time the method is not enough to deter theft. Usually the camera can be bolted to a tree or attached with bungee cords and then padlocked. A padlock can easily be cut or even broke off of the unit if it simply locks onto the plastic housing. The most secure way of attaching the camera is by use of a cable lock. One such model that I have had considerable success with is the Python cable lock made by Masterlock. This cable is designed to tighten when tampered with and there is no shackle to cut. Another method is to buy a metal box that is made for many models of cameras and then use a cable lock to secure it to a tree. The metal box will help prevent damage to the memory card if the thief is intent on destroying evidence of themselves. This setup comes in handy when using your camera for surveillance. Although it does not provide for the best triggering, using a ladder and placing the camera out of arms reach and angled towards the ground, will deter most thieves. If a person is serious about stealing a camera, there is nothing made that will completely stop them. However, with a few precautions, a person can help deter the majority of criminals.

Share your photos

Trail cameras provide such a new and unique perspective to the outdoor world. With them, we get to enjoy snapshots or video of things that we normally would never get to experience. I have learned so much about the deer, turkeys, and other wildlife on our property thanks to the images provided by my cameras. I have caught deer fighting (both bucks and does), turkeys dusting, coyotes wandering, bobcats hunting, grey foxes sneaking, and raccoons being nosey. I have caught birds in flight, birds on roost, and birds feeding. Trail camera pictures tell us a lot about how wildlife acts when they are undisturbed by humans. They fill us in on what happens when we are not there. I love seeing new pictures and never get bored with viewing them. I enjoy hearing others’ own observations and experiences with their trail cameras. I have posted several of my own pictures on this blog and I invite others to do the same. Simply email them to me at wildlifecams@gmail.com . Please, also give me a little rundown on the details of the pictures so I can share with the rest of the readers. I will post all pictures and some selected stories here on this blog.

Interesting uses for your camera

After years of trail camera use, I am beginning to use my cameras for other uses than just for deer and turkey pictures. I have found it interesting to hang road kill carcasses in a tree or tied to a log and see what will come around. I have had many coyotes, foxes, and bobcats show up in front of the camera, along with raccoons, opossums, and skunks. However, I never would have guessed that I would see deer coming up and smelling the carcasses or even to see a flock of turkeys coming over to investigate. These were not some fluke of nature, either. I have seen it several times over the years. I have also seen some awesome pictures of ducks and geese sitting on their nests or swimming in a pond. By placing a camera close to water level back in a swamp or cattail marsh, one can expect to get pictures of those ducks or even a beaver or muskrat swimming around. In the summer down time of the deer world, it can be interesting to place a camera near a bird nest in a tree or near your house. Some cameras are capable of recording video footage also. Watching a mother bird feed her young from a few mere inches away is pretty cool. I also like to set up my cameras in video mode along a gobblers strutting are. I have gotten some wonderful footage of turkeys strutting and gobbling on camera. It seems that every year I seem to find a new use, or is it reason, for continuing my camera use year round. One new use I plan on trying this year is to place cameras in trees overlooking the gates onto our farm. By doing this in February, I can see if anybody is trespassing and also hopefully see if they come back out with a handful of sheds. I am sure this could hold up in court as evidence if you are having trouble with poachers or trespassers. As always, the uses for trail cameras seems endless.

Battery and Memory Card Simplification

As I have said in other posts, I like to keep my whole camera system as simple as possible. By keeping as many cameras running on the same battery type/size and the same memory card, I can be efficient and keep costs down as well. I have a personal preference for the AA operated cameras and the SD cards. As long as I can obtain rechargeable batteries then I am happy. When you are running several cameras at once, the cost of replacing batteries every two to three weeks is high. This is why I like to run rechargeable batteries. I also like the cameras that allow you to add a solar panel also. This allows me to keep a camera up and running longer. During the busy season (Aug-Jan), I will usually be getting about 1500 pictures every two weeks on my cameras. This computes out to around three to four hundred per camera every two weeks. I purchase two memory cards for each camera and I keep one large memory card as a master storage. My basic schedule of events is to check my cameras every two weeks and remove and charge the batteries over night. I replace the memory cards with new ones and take the full ones home. Once home, I download all the cards onto a file on the computer. I then sort through and delete any unwanted pictures. I then transfer the remaining pictures to the large master storage card. When I get around 500 good pictures, I will then go to Wal-Mart and have a CD burned for about $2.50. This I keep in a folder for future references and as a permanent copy. I will print of several of the best pictures and sort them by individual deer into a photo album. I keep the pictures divided by each year. It is amazing to see how individual bucks grow from year to year. It is also nice to be able to have a life documentary of a buck if you are lucky enough to harvest it. This is pretty much how I operate and keep thousands of pictures neat and organized.
Since most of my cameras are placed on our property @ four hours from home, I do not have the luxury of checking them every couple of days. Because of this, I need a durable, fool proof system to keep things running smoothly. I have come to rely on the method of using rechargeable batteries, solar panels, and common memory cards throughout my arsenal of cameras.

Favorite Trail cameras

My all-time favorite trail camera is an older Penn’s Woods Digital Scout 03 camera. The company had trouble with the Minolta camera used in this setup and I have only one working model out of three I bought. Minolta refunded my money for the other ones since the camera itself could not be fixed. However, the one good unit I have has served me faithfully for 5 years now, taking @500 pictures/month and @4000-5000 pictures/year. This camera runs off of four AA’s in the unit and 2 AA’s for the camera and takes up to a 2GB SD card. By using 2500 mAh Energizer rechargeable batteries, I have found this to be the slickest, most economical setup out there, taking between three and four hundred pictures per charge. I also have a newer version, the Digital Scout 06. This setup has a Sony camera that takes two AA’s and a 9-volt for the unit itself. I like this one too, except the camera needs a Memory Stick Pro for operation. I personally like to keep my whole fleet of cameras simple by using SD chips. Oh Well! I would highly recommend their newest version, the Digital Scout 07. It is basically the same as the 06, except it has 7 mega pixels instead of 6. These are the same cameras offered through Pixcontroller, and can be bought through either place. However, the Penn’s Woods one comes with an included Masterlock Python cable lock. I have found this to be the best way to secure your investment. A new camera that I like very well is the new Cuddeback Capture. This camera is far superior than their previous models, and it is cheaper also. I tried their Expert model and it ate up batteries worse than any other camera I have tried. I spoke with a regional rep and he said that they had been having a lot of trouble with short battery life. I believe they must have it fixed because I am getting over 400 pictures per set of batteries. The one shortfall of these cameras is that they take 4 D batteries and that gets expensive. I have tried the Energizer D rechargeable batteries with very little luck. I am still looking for the ultimate D rechargeable. Also, the new Capture takes an SD card instead of a Compact flash like the older models. I have tried several of the Moultrie cameras and have had ok luck with the Cabela’s Outfitter model. This camera is slow to trigger but it is very reliable when it gets cold out and you have the option of attaching a solar panel to keep the 6-volt lantern battery fully charged. I would recommend this as a great introductory model for someone who does not want to spend a lot of money. So there you have my favorite camera picks. I know there are many more makes and models out there (many which I have tried), but to keep it short and sweet, this is my list of favorites.

Cheap is not always better!

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to have tried out various trail cameras on the market. I have tried products from Bushnell, Cuddeback, Moultrie, Penns Woods, Wildview, and Stealth Cam. I have tried out various models from the old-fashioned 35mm to the new digital cameras. I have found out from experience that cheaper is not always better, and in the case of trail cameras, that is very true. Lower cost cameras are a way for manufacturers to sell to people not interested in spending a lot of cash. However, these introductory models do not contain the same level of quality components as the higher level, e.g. more expensive, models. A perfect example of this would be the time I bought a cheaper Bushnell camera. I did this because of tight finances. I had never used Bushnell products before and simply wanted to try them out. The camera I bought came as a kit that also contained a viewer and a mounting system. Well, the viewer did not work from the get go and the camera was horrible on batteries and had a very short flash range. Needless to say, I was very unhappy. I tried to return it to the local store where I purchased it only to be directed to Bushnell’s regional representative. I emailed the gentleman and received a quick reply. He was understanding of the situation and was determined to resolve the issue and satisfy this upset customer. He immediately went to the extreme and offered to send me a new, top of the line unit for no expense. He called and talked to the local store of my initial purchase and requested they refund my money. I did this fully expecting to never hear any more about it. I mean come on, how often does someone promise something that is too good to be true? Well, a few weeks went by and I received a package in the mail. Once opened, I determined that Bushnell really was determined to satisfying their customers. In the package I found a new top of the line model of Bushnell camera, along with a new viewer and a new camera mount. I was speechless. This type of customer satisfaction is unheard of these days. I applaud Bushnell for the efforts they went to in order to make me happy. Well, I must say that the top of the line camera works wonderful and I would highly recommend Bushnell products to anyone. Another quick example of introductory cameras comes from Wildview. I tried their first low-cost digital camera ($69) and was extremely dissatisfied. I returned the camera for a refund of money. A friend of mine has a couple of Wildview’s higher priced cameras and loves them. I have seen the pictures from those cameras and they do look good. The cheap camera I tried had about a 5 ft. flash range and was only 1.3 mega pixel, so the pictures were grainy. It also liked to eat up all eight of the AA batteries very quickly and I swear it took a whole herd of deer dancing in front in order to trigger it. In summary, I would recommend if someone only has x amount of money to spend, then save until you can afford a higher level camera. Do not waste your money too soon on a cheaper camera only to be disappointed.

WildlifeCamCentral Web site

I have been working on my new web site, WildLifeCamCentral. The site is dedicated to the use of trail cameras. It contains several articles related directly to the trail camera enthusiast. I have included links to several retailers and sites that might be of interest to the trail camera user. I also included a page of products for sale through Amazon. I have included these as a way of making revenue for my site. WildLifeCamCentral was designed from the obsession I have with trail cameras. I, like many others, have taken such a liking to the trail cameras that I have pretty well become obsessed over them. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning every time I check the cameras. I cannot wait to see what Mother Nature has done this time. I look forward to seeing wildlife do things that would/could not normally be seen otherwise. I have included a calendar on the site with local and national information of interest to sportsman/women. I would appreciate any visits to the site. Please feel free to comment here on what you think of the site.