I just had a trail camera stolen on some public land in southeast Wisconsin. (i am surprised its the only one so far in 3 years of putting cams on this piece of land) And, although I know that is the risk you run, I was kinda disappointed in my fellow bow-hunter. (cause thats the only guy that would be back there, a bow hunter). What ever happened to hunters code of ethics? Heck, I know of 7 tree stands, actually 8, I found another one yesterday. I mean come on, the stands arent supposed to be left up anyway!I could just take em all down, and no one could cry about it cause the stands are technically illegal. Not that Im a stickler to follow the regs to a T myself.... but anyway. I know that cam is long gong, and theres nothing I can do about it, except that now Im supper paranoid, and hide my cams by putting em high up in a tree and stuff like that. The point of this post was supposed to be to ask if you guys had advice to keep cams from getting stolen, but turned in to a rant instead.... sorry
If you have enough cams, place one to watch deer and another in a hidden spot that a thief wouldn't notice to take his picture. Eliminate him directly out of the equation. He'll be back.
Some never had it. Sorry about the camera. I marvel at the shows with the various game officers who question and/or arrest the same guys all the time. Even fines and revoking license privileges don't do any good.
I would say, hunting public is like going to the casino, you have to have a mind set that what you take in with you and leave behind, most likely will not come out with you. Many people go out to public hunting lands for the main purpose of taking what hunters leave behind. it's the perfect season for selling hunting gear on Craigslist. I've had 2 cameras stolen from private land and it sucks. I've also had deer stands stolen. once we found all of our deer stands missing from where we hunted. come to find out the son in law of the owner, decide he was going to sell the deer stands since he knew his farther in law didn't hunt. We got them all back, but man that shady. My neighbor hangs his cameras up high with a ladder or step. he mainly does it because people trespass all the time down there. also he doesn't want any deer smelling human scent on them. either way, it's a good idea.
Hang them high (use a climbing stick), Use a lock box, try not and place them off a main hunter trail/route, take them out of the woods as soon as you get what pictures you needed from them. I don't keep cams up that long anymore, a few months that's about it.
Hang em high and try and match whatever pattern the camera has on it1 I know my stealth cames have an oak tree pattern so I do my best to put them in an oak tree to blend in better!
I think when hanging cams on public land, the trick is to be creative where you place them. You need to put them where you don't expect other hunters to travel, but deer do. I find the thick stuff and place them where there's a bit of a clearing. I've been hanging 2 and 3 cams every year (5 months) for 16 years on public and haven't had one stolen YET.
this cam was in a really dumb spot, i mean, I got pics of deer, but it was to close to hunters trails. And it was in the open. I like to put the cams, like you all said, up higher in the tree. That way, A. hunters cant get to it as easy, or see it as easy, and B, the deer dont see it as much. ive always thought that those pics of a deer staring 1 in away from the cam, and then running, were prob not good signs.
^THIS^ I hang all of mine high. Also, use a trail cam that you can set a password to protect it from thieves. This makes it useless if someone steals it. If you know it is an area that this has happened, hang another one for surveillance like someone else said.
