Alright so I haven't ran trail cams for the last 4-5 years now. I'm going to get back to running some, and was wondering what trail cams to look at? What's the best bang for the $? I've just been finding my shooters from riding and looking, and asking the people I hunt on what they've been seeing. Can't complain I've done good that way. I just want something else to do with deer hunting. That and it helps to pattern deer. I have done a little research and the browning seem like they are hard to beat.
We all have brands we prefer but to be honest it can be a crap shoot when it comes to initial performance.
I've gone through Wildgame Innovations, Bushnell, and Moultrie game cams. Despite being the cheapest camera I bought, the WGI is still running like a champ...maybe I'm lucky. Bushnell on the other hand, I will NEVER buy another one...nothing but bad luck with them. Moultrie has been reliable, I would recommend them as well. I have a friend who is a professional videographer that won't use anything but Cuddeback. But to sum it all up, I agree with Sota's post above.
Crazy because my experience has been the exact opposite of RCW3D. I started with Wildgame Innovations and Moultre and had issues with both of them within a year or two. Bought a Bushnell Trophy Cam and have had that for 8 years. Added another one 4 years ago and bought another one again on Black Friday. My brother runs 3 as well and we both have had no issues. Cabelas usually has them on sale for $129.99 and $30 mail in rebate is included when they run the Black Friday deal. I would think you could find them at that price a few times throughout the year. The newer ones are definitely better than my 8 year old camera and the newest one I have not had a chance to get put out yet, but has a lot of improved features (14 mp stills, 1080p video with option for stills or field scan simultaneously) and I really liked the old ones. I also like that they run on AA batteries. Usually the batteries last me 1-2 months taking approximately 300-500 videos a week.
A lot depends on what you are expecting out of the camera. But for currently $88 on Amazon, it would be hard to beat the Stealth Cam G30. My only complaint about mine is that it was to bright at night but a couple pieces of tape resolved that issue.
Doesn't surprise me at all Aaron, all goes back to Sota's post though. I've heard good and bad things about every brand out there. I expected the WGI to be junk but it continues to work great. I bought the Bushnells expecting great thing and all but 1 died a little over year. Strange how that works.
I love my Cuddebacks. Little bit more expensive than some other brands but cant beat the performance.. IMO
I'd stay away from wild game innovations.. I have several and they work well about 2 years then really have problems with. Moultrie is good from what I've used. There are also some other performance things you can think about, like placement in relation to the sun, etc. Here are some further ideas.. Trail Camera Tips - YouTube
I've had the best luck with Covert so far, gonna keep buying them. Had worst luck with Bushnell and Moultrie. That is just me though. Sent from my SM-S820L
I have an old mogul tire that works great, wild game is a bust for me, the worst thing to do is buy three different cameras, formats are different so cards are not interchangeable, school of hard knocks.
My first cams were wildgame innovations, they worked fine for the 2 years I ran them. Then someone decided to take me to the cleaners and stole them all. I now have stealth cams, one I got last year and the other is 3 years old and still running fine.
I got a Moultrie camera about 5 years ago. It was about $120. I love it, but it does take stone dud pictures if something goes by real quick like a bird. But it takes great night time pictures, you know when you have something because deer glow a lot brighter than the rest of the picture
I've had great luck with moultrie, even the one with the camera screen so you can review right on location. Just need to figure out the tweets, like needed to reformat sd card if off a different camera, help desk helped out alright,
I had a Wildgame Innovations camera that died out within half a year as well. I had a previous one for almost 4 years before it died, so I figured I would get another. This go around, I did not fill out the warrant within the 14 week cutoff -though I absolutely should have as it was a quick waste of a nice chunk of cash. I bought it in early summer and it died before the end of deer season. It did take quality photos though.
