Do's and Dont's of Trail Camera Set-up

Having set up trail cameras for several years, I have experienced many situations of how to properly place the camera for optimal images. A preference for an individual animal or many animals will determine exactly where you will want to set up your trail camera. If you are targeting a specific animal, then setting up on individual trails and locations known to contain that animal are best. By doing this, you can focus your time on patterning one animal without wasting time or batteries on less-desirable animals. For setting up on animals in general, I recommend setting up over high-use feeding areas. By doing this, you will capture multiple images of multiple animals. I personally like this approach best simply because it allows me to see what all is moving around on my property. By setting up on feeding areas, you have the opportunity to check cameras during the middle of the day when there is little activity there. This will provide little disruption to the habits of the animals being sought. For any setup, it is best to set up the camera so that it is about the height of the animals head. For deer this is about waist high, for turkeys it is about knee high, and for small critters a foot off the ground is best. Also, setting up a camera facing North or South is best. Facing a camera East or West allows the sun to cause the camera to take false images. This can happen anytime of year. Where legal, I also like to spread a little bit of food or scent in front of the camera to cause the animal to stop long enough for a good quality photo. This will help cut back on shots of only half of the animal. Slow response cameras are very bad for this. Even the best of the best will still occasionally capture only half of an animal. That is just part of the process and also why it is good to know that you have several hundred more images possible to make up for the couple of poor shots. I usually end up with roughly 10% bad pictures, 80% good pictures, and 10% great pictures. I feel this is not too bad when considering that I might be looking at 300-400 pictures at a time. Hopefully, this will help in setting up your cameras for optimal images.