Over the off season I picked up a new camera (Cannon G40), new muddy camera arm and four extra bases etc. I was really enjoying the new camera set up. I have been using it faithfully as my goal over the last few years has been to film my solo hunts/harvests of mature whitetails. In addition to the Cannon, I have a couple GoPros that i use for second angle etc or when it is raining. Last week I hung a new set after observing some activity near a bedding area. In my haste to get in and out with minimal disturbance I forgot to hang a camera base. No worries i thought I will climb down at lunch and ease over a hundred yards to my observation stand and take that camera base. So the next morning I go in for my first sit with a single go pro. As luck would have it a shooter shows up and after nearly blowing the opportunity I make a good shot and it drops twenty yards from where I shot it. I look at my go pro and realize i never hit record...I have never forgotten to do this until now. It just happened so fast I forgot..I have a bunch of footage from the season that I feel is wasted at this point... Anyone else ever do this? Tips to avoid this in the future. It has definitely tainted and otherwise pleasant experience.
Been there, done that. My best advice to you is to try and slow down the moment as it's happening. Go through a pre-shot sequence that includes turning on and pointing cameras in the right spot, followed by your draw and the shot. The more you do it the less likely you'll be to forget.
Yep. One time. My youngest daughter shot a big doe in our youth season 5 or 6 years ago. I had the camera on, the doe all centered up in the frame ... a beautiful sight. I told her to shoot when ready ... BOOM ... the deer went maybe 30 yards and fell over. My camera work was 2nd to none ... until I looked down and did not see the red dot. I never hit the record button. I wanted to cry!
Thanks Justin. I thought I had pretty good routine worked out but maybe not having the big camera fouled up my mojo or something. DEC I know that had to hurt. Moments like that don't come every day. I guess its all part of the challenge which is part of the appeal.
Thought this happened to me on my last buck. I borrowed a gopro 4 black and through testing realized that I would have to mount it remotely close to where I thought I might shoot the deer. Talk about faith... Wifi triggering only worked within 20 feet, so I had to set it to looping mode. After 5ish hours, it would overwrite the oldest footage. I also added a 7-9 amp hour external battery so it could loop all day if necessary. 15 minutes after I shot my 5pt, I climbed down and went to give the thumbs up to the camera... It was off - WTH? Apparently a squirrel (I had 7 of them fighting for an hour in front of me) bumped one of the power connectors and the internal battery was only good for 45 minutes. Several days after the hunt, I got around to looking at the footage. To my amazement, I got the shot and just about 5 minutes past that on camera. Where I hunt, things routinely happen quickly. In the future when I save up for a "primary" camera, I doubt that I'll be able to get everything right without spooking the deer. So I guess my tip would be to use the looping mode in combination with a large external battery and the biggest memory card possible.
I'm going to have to pull out my Manual on the looping mode. Sounds like a no brainer in combination with some beefed up batteries. I think I would have been ok had I had my big camera. I'm going to get a couple more bases in the off season to make sure that doesn't happen again. Thanks guys.
One other tip about external batteries / emergency charger for the go pro. If you use one of those emergency chargers for cell phones, once the gopro is topped off - the emergency charger shuts off. I have several of these: Amazon.com: ExpertPower EXP1280 12V8AH Rechargeable Battery: Automotive for my ice fishing equipment. I make up a cigarette lighter adapter with flat connectors and plug in a usb adapter into that.
I just had an incident too. Many times Iv'e never pressed record, but I'm getting better. This past wk end I was hunting and filming. I filmed a doe up close like 20 yds. She eventually moved on. A few minutes later I looked to my right and see a big deer walking along the ridge at about 100yds. away. I grunt tube him and he stops dead in his tracks looking for the other buck. 20 min go by and I thought he had left. I saw an ear flick. I grunted him again. Here he came about a 110, 115 in buck 8pt. I decided to take him if i could. He walks in to 25yds. broadside standing still, with no clue I'm there. I had already come to full draw when he went behind a tree. Here we go. Easy peasy.Wrong….I check the viewfinder to make sure he's in the frame. He's not…. I'm at half zoom for a good impact shot….. I'm at full draw and try to move the camera arm with my right elbow….. The bow gets away from me and i slam the cam with my elbow as the bow lets down rather quickly. The deer jumps 25yds further away unsure of what just happened. He stays looking around. I grunt call him again.. Here he comes…again... I back out the zoom way back so i can get him in frame. He's in frame now but to far to record a good close up. I don't care. If he gives me a second chance and he's in frame even if its not close up I'm shooting. He's coming dead on at me again. He veers off at 25yds. I pick my only hole at about 32yds. he gets there and i grunt him to a stop. I shoot… you can see him turn to run. the nocturnal lighted knock is in the air a long time. I hit the deer poorly. way back…. Little penetration too… my heart sinks….Not good I call my pal and we give him an hr. My pal comes over and i direct him to the spot the deer was standing while replaying the video over and over. He searches for blood while I'm packing up all the gear, a 20 min. project. I have little hope of finding this deer as I have seen this situation before. and I'm sick over the shot as I regularly practice at 30yds. and can hit juice bottle caps at that range. My pal finds blood while I'm packing up gear. We leave all our gear at the base of the tree and start tracking. The deer is going straight down into a steep ravine with a stream at the bottom of it. When we reach the bottom we see the deer has crossed the stream and is going straight up the other side…..not good. We continue on finding drips of blood fairly steady. We find a couple of beds with a little amount of blood in them. then tracking starts getting harder 1 drop every 10 to 12yds. or so. ……………….Do We Find This Deer?…….continued…… We track on our hands and knees looking for blood. Spec here and there and then the arrow on the ground in a bed. 5in of penetration. The deer is dripping a little better now. easier tracking. He is still going uphill. Then my pal sees a deer about 100 yds. in front of us. Another deer bolts away flagging. I spot antler tips on the deer I see. I watch the antler tips bed down. ITS HIM I THINK. We both see him from different angles at about 75 yds. now. We freeze and watch. He gets up and walks 10 yds. and beds again. He does this 3 times and on the third time he falls down thrashes for 5 min. and he's dead. I got lucky for once. Hit the femoral artery and liver. there is video that will be posted at some point but a pic for now will have to do.
Well I guess I don't feel bad about forgetting to hit record. I was just going through some footage to make a video of my encounters while hunting over a decoy. Erased it all by mistake...
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