Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 433: Foundations - Cell Cams and the Changing Scouting Game

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Ep. 433: Foundations - Cell Cams and the Changing Scouting Game · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey, everyone, welcome to the wire to Hunt
0:14
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, brought to you by First Light. On this
0:18
Speaker 1: week's show, I'm going to break down the case for
0:21
Speaker 1: and against the use of cellular trail cameras in the
0:24
Speaker 1: White Tail Woods. When listeners and readers reach out to
0:37
Speaker 1: me about deer hunting, I know that a good percentage
0:40
Speaker 1: of the correspondence is going to involve questions about trail cameras.
0:43
Speaker 1: We love our dear cams, and we've embraced both traditional
0:46
Speaker 1: models and as of late, cellular models in a way
0:49
Speaker 1: that hasn't happened with many categories of outdoor gear. But
0:53
Speaker 1: the reality is the trail cameras, especially cell cameras, aren't
0:56
Speaker 1: the end all to your scouting efforts. As you'll hear
0:59
Speaker 1: in this episode, they're pretty far from it. Actually, that
1:02
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you shouldn't use them, but instead should consider
1:05
Speaker 1: how much you rely on them to tell you what
1:07
Speaker 1: is going on the woods and how you should plan
1:09
Speaker 1: your hunts around the intel they provide. Last week, I
1:24
Speaker 1: broke down many of the considerations of buying and scouting
1:28
Speaker 1: with traditional trail cameras. Today's episode is all about cell cams,
1:33
Speaker 1: which is an option that has been around for quite
1:35
Speaker 1: a while, but has really caught on in the last
1:37
Speaker 1: few years. Not only have cell cameras gone down considerably
1:41
Speaker 1: in price, but nearly all trail camera manufacturers offer at
1:45
Speaker 1: least one model now, meaning you've got a lot of options.
1:48
Speaker 1: And my introduction to cellular cameras happened quite a few
1:51
Speaker 1: years ago. At the Archery Trade Association show. A company
1:55
Speaker 1: that no longer exists had a big display with some
1:59
Speaker 1: toaster side cameras, and when I walked up to look
2:02
Speaker 1: at them, a rep for the brand started telling me
2:04
Speaker 1: how they sent pictures to his email. He then went
2:07
Speaker 1: on to tell me how he used his cameras to
2:09
Speaker 1: find strutting tom's and fields throughout the spring season, so
2:12
Speaker 1: he knew where to sneak in and hunt. I walked
2:15
Speaker 1: away from that conversation thinking that that was a great
2:17
Speaker 1: way to ruin one of the best parts of spring
2:19
Speaker 1: turkey hunting, which is just a surprise factor of having
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Speaker 1: a bird suddenly gobble in your ear when you didn't
2:25
Speaker 1: even realize there was a long beard anywhere near you.
2:28
Speaker 1: It was quite a few years after that first exposure
2:31
Speaker 1: that I picked up a cell camera for myself. At
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Speaker 1: the time, I was running bear bait sites in Minnesota,
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Speaker 1: in an area with unlimited tags and very few bears.
2:41
Speaker 1: The round trip to the site to check a traditional
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Speaker 1: camera was two miles and it was mostly a waste
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Speaker 1: of gas and time for me. I figured a cell
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Speaker 1: camera would tell me exactly when bears showed up, what
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Speaker 1: frequency they were hitting the bait, and would save me
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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of time and cost on fuel and
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Speaker 1: it it's sort of It showed the visitors, but there
3:02
Speaker 1: was no frequency to those Minnesota yogis that had many
3:06
Speaker 1: bait sites to choose from. What ended up happening was
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Speaker 1: that I didn't hunt as much as I should have
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Speaker 1: or would have had I been using traditional cameras. In
3:15
Speaker 1: other words, it didn't actually help me, and it probably
3:18
Speaker 1: hurt me a little, but it was also a hell
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Speaker 1: of a lot of fun. Now I've never done Heroin,
3:24
Speaker 1: so this is just a guess on my part, but
3:26
Speaker 1: sell cameras are probably almost as addictive as a spoonful
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Speaker 1: of china white. Seeing a new photo identification pop up
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Speaker 1: on your phone is a rush, and that little dopamine
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Speaker 1: drip it causes It's hard to deny. Cellular cameras are fun,
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Speaker 1: really really fun, but they are also ethically a little
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Speaker 1: questionable and often legally questionable. I had a conservation officer
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Speaker 1: tell me once that they fall in a gray area
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Speaker 1: that might be construed as using wireless communication, which is
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Speaker 1: illegal in many states to take game animals. The way
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Speaker 1: he described it, if you had a cell cam send
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Speaker 1: pictures of a buck to you, and an hour later
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Speaker 1: you killed it, the case could easily be made for
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Speaker 1: a hunting law violation. If your camera is on a
4:10
Speaker 1: property five hours away and you can't just go hunt
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Speaker 1: it anytime a picture shows up, it's less likely to
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Speaker 1: be viewed as a violation. He also mentioned that what
4:19
Speaker 1: is going to happen, and I fully believe him on this,
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Speaker 1: is that cases are going to become more frequent as
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Speaker 1: people kill really big bucks that they've been capturing cell
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Speaker 1: camera images of. As he put it, no one turns
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Speaker 1: in the guy who shoots a four key, but the
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Speaker 1: guy who kills the only one sixty in a section
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Speaker 1: is going to make some of the neighbors jealous. This
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Speaker 1: is just reality, and the hunting regulations in most states
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Speaker 1: haven't caught up to this technology yet. It's likely they will,
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Speaker 1: but for now, it's up to you to decide how
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Speaker 1: to use a cell camera that fits your ethical desires
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Speaker 1: and is not going to get you in legal hot
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Speaker 1: water during the hunting season. If you do opt for
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Speaker 1: this route, you'll see a pile of reasonably priced options
5:00
Speaker 1: on the market. They range from as low as maybe
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Speaker 1: a hundred or a hundred and fifty ish bucks to
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Speaker 1: a couple of hundred. The plans, which operate on various
5:09
Speaker 1: phone networks and often require you to sign up for
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Speaker 1: a recurring monthly fee, can be anywhere from ten dollars
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Speaker 1: on up, depending on the amount of picks you want
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Speaker 1: to pay for and a few other factors, like if
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Speaker 1: you sign up for a whole year or just a
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Speaker 1: few months. Now, you can set up cellular cameras to
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Speaker 1: send picks instantly, which is what I do in the summer,
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Speaker 1: or batch send them at a specified time during the day.
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Speaker 1: This is a good move during the hunting season so
5:35
Speaker 1: that you're somewhat insulated from instant knowledge that could get
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Speaker 1: you in trouble. Now, this type of camera promises an
5:42
Speaker 1: intrusion free look into the deerwoods, and that's a big deal.
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Speaker 1: It's the biggest selling point of cellular cameras because, after all,
5:49
Speaker 1: who doesn't want to know what's going on at that
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Speaker 1: creek crossing or in their kill plot without having to
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Speaker 1: go in there and set the white tails on edge
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Speaker 1: with their presence. For distant properties, this is an extreme,
6:00
Speaker 1: eamly efficient and effective way to scoute. Ditto for small
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Speaker 1: properties that simply can't handle a whole lot of human
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Speaker 1: presence before the deer. Just leave your twenty acres to
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Speaker 1: set up shop a little ways away in a less
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Speaker 1: dangerous wood lot. Throughout the summer, you can use cellular
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Speaker 1: cameras to keep track of bachelor groups tucked away in
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Speaker 1: the backs of bean fields without having to glass them
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Speaker 1: or slip in and potentially disrupt their pattern. This is
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Speaker 1: an unreal way to take inventory and gauge some daily
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Speaker 1: usage on a food source. It's also a great way
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Speaker 1: to get an incomplete picture of what's going on out there.
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Speaker 1: In fact, all trail cameras are that way, because even
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Speaker 1: the best ones miss deer. This is something that never
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Speaker 1: gets mentioned in the hunting media, and it drives me nuts,
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Speaker 1: even though I get the reasons for the silence. The
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Speaker 1: first one is that most folks probably just don't understand
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Speaker 1: how inexact trail cameras really are. The other involves folks
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Speaker 1: who do, but they just don't want to talk about
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Speaker 1: it due to advertiser commitments and obligations. Listen, I get it,
7:00
Speaker 1: but having tested a pile of cameras, oftentimes in the
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Speaker 1: same tree, pointed in the same direction, I can say
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Speaker 1: that your cameras are missing deer. During a recent conversation
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Speaker 1: with a good buddy who is in the hunting industry
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Speaker 1: as well and also a dedicated d I Y hunter,
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Speaker 1: I asked him what the rate of deer getting photographed
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Speaker 1: versus deer getting missed was with his cameras, and he
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Speaker 1: responded with maybe thirty actually show up in images. In
7:27
Speaker 1: my personal experience, i'd agree with that. I see this
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Speaker 1: with cell cameras, and I see this with traditional cameras. Now, look,
7:35
Speaker 1: I get this that you might doubt this, but it's
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Speaker 1: testable and a real eye opener when you just mount
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Speaker 1: two cameras next to one another. I've done this with
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Speaker 1: a mix of different cameras and have always just shook
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Speaker 1: my head at the results. It's wild, but it's a
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Speaker 1: good lesson. We really put a lot of faith in
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Speaker 1: cameras because it's easy to believe they are out there
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Speaker 1: fighting the good fight for us all the time. But
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Speaker 1: think about that brand new iPhone you just bought. Does
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Speaker 1: it function perfectly? Probably not. It'll drop calls, it'll glitch out,
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Speaker 1: and it will generally not give you one perfect performance.
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Speaker 1: And I promise you that Apple, with two billion dollars
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Speaker 1: in the bank and access to the best software engineers
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Speaker 1: on the planet, is closer to perfection with technology than
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Speaker 1: trail camera companies are, and they still have issues and
8:23
Speaker 1: has a totally irrelevant side note. Apple is also one
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Speaker 1: of the companies that lead the charge for recurring service
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Speaker 1: fees and what that can mean for a company's revenue.
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Speaker 1: Those little four month charges that we forget about on
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Speaker 1: our credit cards add up in big business knows it.
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Speaker 1: So do trail camera companies, which is where the real
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Speaker 1: money is made on these cellular cameras. Depending on how
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Speaker 1: many cameras you run or how lazy you are when
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Speaker 1: it comes to auto renewals, this type of deer scouting
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Speaker 1: can get expensive in a hurry. So be mindful of that. Now,
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Speaker 1: knowing that and knowing that cameras are unreliable to some
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Speaker 1: extent doesn't mean they aren't valuable, but just don't operate
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Speaker 1: on the assumption that anything that walks in front of
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Speaker 1: them is going to be photographed. This isn't true, and
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Speaker 1: there can be another issue with cellular cameras. I've had
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Speaker 1: a few models that also only sent me some of
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Speaker 1: the pictures they captured. I've never pinned down why this happens,
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Speaker 1: but when I check the SD card versus the scent images,
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Speaker 1: it's almost always different. They are always more deer on
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Speaker 1: the SD card. Then we're sent to the app on
9:24
Speaker 1: my phone. This isn't an argument against any kind of cameras,
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Speaker 1: but just a note of caution. As I've been preaching
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Speaker 1: in these Foundation episodes, multiple forms of scouting blended together
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Speaker 1: is the best bet to becoming a better deer hunter.
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Speaker 1: If you realize solely on a cellular camera to inform
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Speaker 1: your hunting decisions, you're missing most of the puzzle pieces.
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Speaker 1: The picture is just going to be incomplete. Now, used
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Speaker 1: as a complementary tool, then you're onto something. If your
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Speaker 1: cell cam shows some frequent buck activity, in an alfalpha field,
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Speaker 1: get in in glass it as well. Take a look
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Speaker 1: at the images you get, plus the deer activity you
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Speaker 1: can actually observe. Take a look at the sign in
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Speaker 1: the area as well. If your camera is sending you
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Speaker 1: a few photos each day in a river crossing that
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Speaker 1: is absolutely pounded with tracks, you're probably missing some dear activity,
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Speaker 1: but that's okay, not the other end of the spectrum.
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Speaker 1: Something that is a definite plus that you'll see with
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Speaker 1: cellular cameras, especially if you have them send you images
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Speaker 1: as soon as they are captured, is that the picture
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Speaker 1: of deer movement throughout the day becomes more clear. This
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Speaker 1: goes for the rut, of course, but also every single
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Speaker 1: day of the season. In fact, every single day of
10:39
Speaker 1: the year. If you hang a camera on a food plot,
10:42
Speaker 1: you might not get too many surprises outside of morning
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Speaker 1: and evening movement, although little kill plots often show daylong movement.
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Speaker 1: But when it comes to travel routes and staging areas
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Speaker 1: and deep in the woods areas with good brows and
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Speaker 1: anywhere with decent cover, cellular cameras can reveal more daytime
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Speaker 1: move than we'd often expect. In fact, this is one
11:03
Speaker 1: of the reasons. I tend to hunt longer at all
11:05
Speaker 1: times of the year now, not just during the rut.
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Speaker 1: Running cell cameras randomly has painted an interesting picture for
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Speaker 1: me that there is the potential for daytime movement every
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Speaker 1: day of the season, and that's a powerful argument for
11:18
Speaker 1: sitting a few hours later in the morning or going
11:21
Speaker 1: in a few hours earlier in the afternoon. Even though
11:24
Speaker 1: traditional cameras tell you when bucks move as well, obviously,
11:28
Speaker 1: it hits a little different when you're in the office
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Speaker 1: at noon and a photo pops up of a buck
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Speaker 1: feeding in broad daylight. This is the kind of thing
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Speaker 1: that leaves a mark because it's an in the moment
11:38
Speaker 1: realization that what we think about deer isn't always quite
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Speaker 1: right or quite true. It doesn't take too many of
11:45
Speaker 1: those instances before you realize time in the woods is
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Speaker 1: a good thing, no matter what week of the season
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Speaker 1: it is or what the weather is doing. This idea
11:54
Speaker 1: alone has helped me kill a few bucks that I
11:56
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't have arrowed otherwise. One particular example is a
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Speaker 1: b in North Dakota a few years back. I've never
12:02
Speaker 1: run a camera in that entire state in my entire life,
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Speaker 1: because every trip has been to public land with only
12:09
Speaker 1: a few days to hunt, which was the case with
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Speaker 1: this mid October buck. But after a glassing session in
12:14
Speaker 1: the morning, I just decided to suit up, load up,
12:18
Speaker 1: and go sit over a small cattle tank in the
12:20
Speaker 1: mid day. I figured, since the tank was tucked into
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Speaker 1: a bunch of cedars, that maybe a buck would randomly
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Speaker 1: drink throughout the day. Even though I had no camera
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Speaker 1: images to prove that and couldn't see it from that
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Speaker 1: glassing point, I just knew from running cameras and other
12:33
Speaker 1: spots that the potential for midday movement was real, because
12:36
Speaker 1: it happens all over the place now. The very minute
12:39
Speaker 1: I got settled into my stand, a four pointer walked
12:41
Speaker 1: into the water. I stood up and got ready, thinking
12:44
Speaker 1: he might not be alone, and within seconds saw that
12:47
Speaker 1: I was right. The second buck, a beautiful eight pointer,
12:50
Speaker 1: took a little drink and turned in my direction. A
12:53
Speaker 1: minute later I heard him pile up in the stage,
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Speaker 1: and I realized that I'd have him pieced out and
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Speaker 1: back to camp long before dark. Okay, a small nod
13:01
Speaker 1: goes to cellular cameras for that buck, because they have
13:04
Speaker 1: just solidified to me the reality that deer move more
13:07
Speaker 1: than we think throughout the day. Of course, cell cameras
13:10
Speaker 1: also serve other purposes too. They might clue you into
13:14
Speaker 1: who exactly is hitting the scrapes in the beginning of October,
13:17
Speaker 1: or what time of the morning the deer most likely
13:20
Speaker 1: to travel down the creek bottom on your lease. But
13:22
Speaker 1: just like the smartphone I mentioned earlier, cellular cameras depend
13:26
Speaker 1: on good connections to function properly. This means that you
13:30
Speaker 1: might not be able to get a signal in your
13:32
Speaker 1: best spot. It also means that a good signal can
13:34
Speaker 1: be highly variable. I've tried to get cellular cameras to
13:37
Speaker 1: connect to the network on a quarter acre food plot
13:40
Speaker 1: and failed on one side while it connected easily on
13:43
Speaker 1: the other side. For some reason, there can be a
13:45
Speaker 1: difference in spots, even if they're only twenty yards apart.
13:48
Speaker 1: This has also happened to me many times trying to
13:50
Speaker 1: set up cell cameras in ravine bottoms versus higher ridges.
13:55
Speaker 1: The same goes for thick cover versus field edges. Again,
13:59
Speaker 1: this is in exact science. Understand that even with the
14:02
Speaker 1: best cell camera, you'll probably want to have some traditional
14:05
Speaker 1: cameras is backups. Just in case, You'll also want to
14:09
Speaker 1: make sure that your cameras are set up in sending
14:10
Speaker 1: images properly. The first step is to use them at home,
14:14
Speaker 1: where your cellular connection is likely to be really good.
14:18
Speaker 1: If you've followed the set up instructions, are getting pictures
14:21
Speaker 1: from your house, that's a start. It won't necessarily translate
14:24
Speaker 1: to the woods, however, and now I never hang a
14:27
Speaker 1: camera in the woods without making sure that it will
14:29
Speaker 1: send me images. Take the few extra minutes to ensure
14:33
Speaker 1: that's happening before you head back to your truck. Trust
14:36
Speaker 1: me on this. Those few extra minutes of patients will
14:39
Speaker 1: save you some headaches and frustration later. If you've done
14:42
Speaker 1: everything right, you should start to see some dear activity
14:45
Speaker 1: resume pretty quickly. This is the really cool part and
14:48
Speaker 1: obviously the biggest benefit of cell cameras. They can help
14:51
Speaker 1: you dial in deer movement in a way that traditional
14:54
Speaker 1: cameras just won't. Cell cameras can also tell you if
14:57
Speaker 1: you're sharing the woods with anyone. This is a big
15:01
Speaker 1: draw for private landowners. Knowing that someone is cruising around
15:04
Speaker 1: on their ground on an a t V or hopping
15:06
Speaker 1: fences to shoot a few squirrels in the middle of
15:08
Speaker 1: the day is valuable knowledge. Those are satellite benefits to
15:13
Speaker 1: this technology, and they are good ones. But dialing in
15:16
Speaker 1: up to the moment dear activity, even if it's incomplete
15:20
Speaker 1: dear activity, is key and a hell of a lot
15:22
Speaker 1: of fun to boot now. As I've already stated, cell
15:26
Speaker 1: cameras aren't the end all the scouting, even though they
15:29
Speaker 1: might seem like they are a complimentary tool that can
15:31
Speaker 1: be crazy beneficial in situations where you can't easily get
15:35
Speaker 1: to your dear ground or don't want to negatively impact
15:38
Speaker 1: your hotspots with unnecessary intrusion. You'll still probably want to
15:43
Speaker 1: run traditional cameras, and you'll definitely have to spend some
15:46
Speaker 1: time burning boot leather and looking around in those spots,
15:48
Speaker 1: but maybe not as much as you would have ten
15:50
Speaker 1: or fifteen years ago. That's a very good thing if
15:53
Speaker 1: you're careful with it. Now. In two weeks, all swing
15:57
Speaker 1: back around the trail cameras and the images you're currently
16:00
Speaker 1: getting and just what you should do with all of
16:02
Speaker 1: that intel. But next week is all about white tail
16:06
Speaker 1: groceries and how you should pay attention to the deer
16:09
Speaker 1: buffet now to not only inform your scouting efforts, but
16:13
Speaker 1: also to begin building a real fall hunting plan. So
16:19
Speaker 1: that's it for this week, My dear loving friends. Be
16:21
Speaker 1: sure to keep listening so that you can hopefully fill
16:23
Speaker 1: a few more tags this season, and more importantly, enjoy
16:26
Speaker 1: your time on stand a little more this fall. I'm
16:29
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson and this has been the Wired to Hunt
16:32
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast. As always, thank you so much for listening,
16:36
Speaker 1: and we will see you here next week.