Pope & Young Club Clarifies Stance on Cellular Trail Cameras

Interesting debate. I live two hours from my main hunting property so I purchased my first two cell cams this year and love them. I’m sure they will help some people get slightly better odds on killing a deer, but I would bet the percentage will be quite small on how much their odds improved. You still have to get next to the deer without him knowing. A lot of hunters would probably accomplish just simply running the deer off their property and possibly getting it shot by someone else. I would say if I just use the information I get from the cell cams I’m just as likely to get a picture on the other one on the other side of the farm. I will still choose my stands based on all camera data, the weather/wind direction, and time of the year. Are there people out there who will figure out how to try to exploit it? Sure but how’s that any different then anything else. Not sure how pope and young would prove it in most cases.


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Sorry for the segmented post with several miss spellings earlier - I was in the woods hanging a stand. Well let me clarify - my buddy was hanging this particular set and I was sending stuff up to him (the best job). I know I said I was done and I would just read - but I enjoy the topic quite frankly because I can see both sides of this I really can.

Let me pose the question a little different way - again I working under the belief that the real time data provided via text photo tips the odds in your favor. If you don't believe that at all then you will probably have a difficult time grasping this questions in the first place. But this question has been posed with other technologies in the past and it applies here.

At what point do you get uncomfortable with more and more odds in your favor? An argument can be made for a lot of things... Not to over simplify it but:

Crossbow: Improving hunter odds. But provides the ability to hunt for some that otherwise might not be physically able to.

Laser Optics: Takes a lot of the guess work out of it (skill). But hopefully improves shot placement and accuracy. Like any new toy you still have to practice with it.

Ozone: A machine in your stand that is literally designed to make you more stealthy than ever. Beating the nose of a game animal is obviously important so I'd think this helps your odds.

Lighted Knocks: Ability to find your arrow after the shot. Track it through the air. Know if you've made a good shot or bad prior to tracking.

I can keep going - these are just a few examples. I'm just not sure I want anymore odd boosting technology in the sport - that doesn't mean I judge anyone who uses these things. I've used lighted knocks in the past. I put in food plots. etc. etc.

Let me give one more quick example of how technology (perhaps) can negatively impact a sport and you can see how the same logic might apply here. After I graduated college and my Track and Field days were behind me I decided to try out Triathlons - competed in some shorter distance Triathlons and eventually competed in 2018 (I think) in the Ironman North American Championship in the Woodlands, TX. Let me tell you something about Ironman and competitive cycling in general - you've got to have a certain amount of genetic gift, physical ability and mental fortitude - but generally speaking the more money you are willing to spend via technology on your bike then the better your results will be. My $4,500 Trek is no match for the $8,000 to $15,000 that some competitors are spending on a bike. That $$ translates to about 2 to 4 mph over the course of 113 mile bike that will dominate you. After a successful day in Texas I decided to walk away from the sport as I was unwilling to spend the money it required to be successful.

How does that apply to hunting?? This is no mystery but your ability to out spend can really help you in hunting. Spend the money on - Laser Optics, Cell Cams, Ozone, Lighted Knocks, Food Plots, Bow, Arrows, Leases etc. etc. I just don't know where enough is enough and at least for now for me - enough is at a regular old trail camera... Maybe that is too much. I'm really the pot calling the kettle black here - I've got a nice bow, I lease hunting land, I put in my own food plots with my own equipment... I'm not claiming to be perfect - I'm just conflicted.

 

Well here is a perfect example to fuel the fire of debate.... Make your own decision. And please, by no means interpret my comments below to discredit this hunter or video in any way. I've watched almost all of their videos and these guys spend countless days in the stand with nothing to show for it other than being there and gathering intel with their eyes. In fact in more than one video, the bucks they were after turned the tables on them and started to pattern them. And became quite good at it too. They had to improvise to get the job done. A cell camera didn't teach them this.



I don't use cell cameras for a couple reasons. They are more expensive, not using them gets my butt away from chores a little bit and I live 20 minutes from the property I hunt. I like to think of it as Christmas every time I check them. If I lived 2 hours from where I hunt like I used to, I may give them more consideration. I don't think using a cell camera should disqualify you from a record book. Frankly IMO, if the only thing you do as a hunter is wait at the ready for your camera to tell you when to hunt, you're not a hunter. Instinct and experience kills deer, not cameras. And a little bit of good ol' fashioned luck never hurts either.

 

You really are comparing apples to oranges in your example because one of them is a direct competition. I don’t see how that applies to hunting unless you’re simply just trying to get a bigger buck than your buddies every year. I sure like to shoot the biggest bucks but I’m happy when they get one too. The rest of the stuff you mentioned can simply be put up to personal preference. Personally I don’t think the outside ozonics work quite as well as some people believe. Whenever I watch someone on tv hunt with one they always talk about wind direction still when choosing stands. Also every unit I have been around as made a smell I can smell myself. When I get up a tree I can use a range finder and hit every thing around me so that’s really no different than using the sight imo, which I don’t have because don’t that very reason. There are people who make legitimate arguments every year that trail cameras actually hurt you more then they help. As far as new technology bows and crossbows that ship sailed long ago. But you can still choose to hunt with what you want.


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I don't know man - it's still a bit of a competition. Me vs. the Deer. Me vs. the Elements. Me vs. Me. I don't really view it as me vs. my friends - I hunt with only 1 friend on my lease and we work together. But I'm usually (unapologetic) trying to kill a bigger buck than I did the previous year - that is always the goal. What has always been a bit of a friendly "competition" to me is letting my hunting buddy choose the stand he wants to hunt first and then picking a stand that's going to give me more action and a better chance than the stand he choose. Using the weather, instincts, good entry exit plan, scent control, scrapes, food sources yadda yadda - those factors are so much more fun to make decisions around which stand to hunt.

It might not have been the best example - it just came to mind when thinking about situations where technology advancements haven't necessarily lead to greater outcomes. As we've mentioned on this thread a few times - you can come up with so many different what if's and scenarios... But generally speaking when I hear a big buck story I'm much more interested in:

Well I could have hunted X stand or I could have hunted X stand. I choose this stand because of this wind and because of this bedding area and because of this food source.

Than

Well I was going to hunt X stand but that cell cam dinged at 10 a.m. and told me the buck was headed to a bedding area near one of my best afternoon/evening stands so I went and sat in that stand and he wouldn't you know it he walked past!

I think it's really not that controversial of a topic for me - the more I talk about it the more I realize that I don't care if anyone wants to use a cell camera - do you! But I just don't have any interest because I don't want more of an advantage and I like to hunt the way I like to hunt I suppose.

 

On this that has born out in bowhunting is the slippy slope. We have slipped plenty.
Our club has been slow to change and I dont think it's a bad thing....

 

I think many of us are - myself included. Last year hunting Iowa public with zero trail camera knowledge of any deer was a very refreshing experience for me. Yet here I am, less than a year later, checking my cell cameras on my leases twice a day to see what deer I'm chasing this fall.

On a similar note, I've long found it ironic that many of the anti-crossbow folks who say it makes hunting "too easy" are the same ones spending obscene amounts of money on new bows, rangefinding sights, sitka gear, box blinds, food plots, etc. All of which serve one purpose - to make their hunting easier. It's interesting to see where each person decides to draw the line in their personal journey toward success, and how they justify the righteousness on their side of the line.

PS - nothing exciting on cell cam last night. Just a couple raccoons and coyotes. Not a deer to be found!

 

Good insight from all.

Three years ago I put my trail cameras away during the spring and summer. I have really enjoyed not running 10 or 12 cameras every couple of weeks during the summer anymore. Yeah I could have bought cells and stayed out of the woods.

But my reason for not doing inventory is that most of my inventory leaves every year the last week of October anyway. It's nice to be surprised when a new big boy shows up come rut. For way to long I dreamed that I could kill the big bucks I caught on camera in the summer... Yep that turned out to be mostly a myth!

Now I just use them during the season. Mostly over scrapes that I plan to hunt. They are just a tool to see if the horns on their head match the size hoof prints in the scrape..

 

I stopped running cams a few years ago. I like the element of surprise for when I finally lay eyes on the buck that think I've been chasing...So I can then shoot him in the ham and break the internet.