Advanced Trail Camera Tips to Help You Bag More Game

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Reaching timber’s edge, I struggled to locate the tree with a trail camera on it. I couldn’t even see the trail. Two weeks prior, a massive ice storm swept through the area. It was the worst I’ve ever seen. Old growth Douglas firs were uprooted, covering the mountainside. Deciduous trees snapped like toothpicks. The two-foot wide, six-inch deep trail I’d been running trail cameras on for over a decade was three feet below the fallen trees and limbs I now walked on.

It took me four hours to cover a half mile. I found three cameras. Three others were lost or destroyed. Five more still remain atop the ridge, some buried in landslides and fallen trees, some inaccessible.

Stretching nearly three miles, it took me years to learn this game trail. On multiple trail cameras I’d caught Roosevelt elk, Columbia black-tailed deer, black bear, cougar, bobcat, coyote, gray fox, otter, spotted skunks, tree squirrels, flying squirrels, mountain quail, turkeys and more.

I had 62 trail cameras out during the storm. Eleven were lost or destroyed. It was time to start over and find where the animals went. Months into the quest, I was reminded why I love running trail cameras.

The Education

As a lifelong hunter, former high school science teacher and a full-time outdoor writer and photographer for the past 24 years, the only thing that’s taught me more about animals and animal behavior than physically observing them is trail cameras. When scouting and hunting, we can only be in one place at a time. But running multiple cameras allows you to simultaneously have eyes in many places.

I run all trail cameras on high-definition video mode and the longer the clip can be, the better. A video reveals much more than a still image. You might get a picture of a cow elk in front of the camera, but you won’t hear the bugling bull that’s out of frame. You might see a flock of turkeys walk by, but you won’t hear the many sounds they actually make. You could get a few shots of a cougar rubbing on a rock but watching and listening to multiple video clips of the interaction for over 10 minutes is an education like no other.

When I lived in Alaska, I ran many trail cameras near our home, capturing brown bears, black bears, wolves, foxes and more. Trail cameras have played a big part in many of my hunts around the world, from leopard in Zimbabwe to brocket deer in Mexico to red stag in New Zealand. When hunting other states, I often take trail cameras along as they can reveal a lot in a short period of time. Do this a few seasons in a row and what you discover about a place will surprise you.

Currently, I have nearly 100 trail cameras set out. Sixty-five are Moultrie Mobile Edge Pros, the only cellular cameras I run because all the updates are done automatically, meaning I don’t have to pull cards and update them. Their high-definition video is exceptional, as is the sound quality. While most of these cameras are in my home state of Oregon, I have them in two other states, spanning over 660 miles.

The rest of my arsenal is a mix of non-cellular cameras, Stealth Cam’s DS4K Ultimate and Browning’s Dark Ops Pro DCL. The Ultimate’s are a true workhorse. In Alaska, I had multiple Ultimate’s buried in more than five feet of snow all winter long. When I was finally able to uncover them, they were still working. The extended video option on the Dark Ops is tops and I’ve caught some incredible, two-minute-long clips of animals displaying behaviors shorter clips would have missed.

Pulling cards of non-cellular cameras and scrubbing through video footage takes time. I try to check all non-cell cameras once a week, more if hunting season is in full-swing or predators are prevalent. While cellular cameras are convenient, there’s no substitute for getting out and checking trail cams. What you see, hear and smell when covering miles a day on foot, is an education in itself.

The Sets

It’s common to spend over an hour making one trail camera set. Rarely do I walk up to a tree and strap a camera on it. It’s nice when that happens, but I’m looking to catch more than an animal standing in front of a feeder. I want to hear every sound it makes and feel its presence when moving naturally, and this requires nontraditional, precise camera placement in discrete and unique places.

Last summer, I found an elk calving ground. It spanned 30 acres and was primarily thick brush with young alders and willows. There were no mature trees. I located trails, chopped the tops out of the foliage so it didn’t move in the wind and trigger the camera, then strapped in the cameras. Because the willows and alders were so small, I often had to tether three or more of them together for stability. I split some limbs and positioned multiple shims in order to get the camera straps securely in place. Elk love biting camera straps, so they had to be hidden and tightly tethered.

In forested habitats, one of my favorite places to position trail cameras is under logs. If the logs are big and rotten, use an ax or machete to carve a place in which to fit a camera. If the log is green, dig a hole under it, smack in the center of the trail. These cameras are rarely strapped in. Secure them in place with rocks or limbs wedged into either side. Pieces of bark can be placed on top of the camera to protect it from the rain.

I set a lot of trail cameras no more than a foot off the ground. These require attention because rain, snow and leaves will obscure the little lens which is angled slightly upward. Get a herd of elk running over it on a rainy day and it’ll get covered in mud. With cameras at ground level, I’ve caught elk running over them, cougars touching them with their nose, bears licking them, bobcats eyeballing them, a pack of coyotes on the prowl and loads of turkeys doing their thing. Placed at ground level, trail cameras don’t appear to alarm animals.

Useful Knowledge

Trail cameras quickly revealed to me how spread-out elk herds can be when leisurely feeding and moving. While I often catch a cow or two on film, I routinely hear others mewing, off camera, along with bulls fighting, raking trees and bugling. I’ve caught bulls bugling from mid-August through October. When focusing on elk, I often hang two or three cameras on one tree, pointing them all directions to cover 360º. I see many mature bulls, even bucks, avoiding primary trails, often moving through thick brush, instead. What some of these animals navigate through is mind boggling.

As for predators, if you think one or two trail cameras reveals what’s out there, increase your camera count. I catch a lot of predators traveling primary game trails, the edges of fields, logging and farm roads and along fencerows. I still have a lot to learn, but I’m starting to figure out routine paths of travel used by mountain lions during specific times of the year in my area. I’ve been after two big lions for three years but they’re in vast, brushy country that’s very difficult to hunt.

Thanks to trail cameras, I routinely find places to hunt waterfowl. I’ll put cameras in tiny creeks to monitor water levels, hunting them when wood duck or mallard numbers build. I’ll position cameras on green grass flats sprouting near ponds late in the season, eagerly awaiting the arrival of thousands of wigeon to start grazing. I’ll set cameras in shallow roosting ponds, on points where ducks preen, sleep and gather food that’s washed ashore. Should a storm approach, I’ll put cameras on the downwind side of ponds to see when ducks find the food that’s surfaced.

All my waterfowl cameras are Moultrie Mobiles because a day, even a half-day, can make a difference. Last season we got hit by two consecutive storms. I put six of the cellular cameras on target water and enjoyed five great hunts in seven days. One hunt was for wigeon grazing in a field of flooded kale, one for wood ducks in a flooded filbert orchard, one for mallards in a rising creek and two for wigeon grazing on green grass.

The Commitment

Every time I head into the woods to check or set trail cameras, I carry a machete to chop brush, cut blackberry vines and keep trails open. In the spring, tall grass is cut out of trails, as is all greenery that can constrict a trail. In the summer, I dust each camera lens every time I check them. In the fall, leaves are continually an issue, as is snow in the winter. Falling limbs and trees often have to be removed in winter or after a windstorm. Keeping trails open encourages continual use by all animals and ensures your cameras capture them, rather than brush blowing in the wind.

I went through many backpacks before finding one that best fit my trail camera needs. The Motive pack by Alps Outdoorz, is a specialized trail camera pack. It holds eight cameras, extra batteries and SD cards, a machete, hatchet, pruning sheers, LoopRopes, cable ties and other gear I routinely use for running trail cameras. When setting Moultrie Mobile cameras with solar panels, I use one of my bigger hunting packs.

When it comes to keeping track of where trail cameras are set, I’m old school, often sketching maps with pencil and paper. However, if relocating a lot of cameras with changing seasons or animal movement, or when setting a couple dozen in one area, onX is a great tool.

I run trail cameras year-round. If you’re a waterfowl hunter who targets local geese, monitoring nests is a good way to learn their numbers. If you’re a turkey hunter, you’ll be amazed how many poults are killed by predators and early spring storms. Last season six of seven hens I monitored on trail cameras had their clutches killed by predators, and trail cameras confirmed all of it. This information reshaped how I hunted toms in the area and ultimately helped me punch two tags late in the season.

Full Comprehension

If you’re not sure when the deer rut takes place in your area, capture a wobbly-legged fawn on camera. A deer has a gestation period of about 200 days, so count back from when you capture fawns taking their first steps. By doing this, I’ve discovered deer breeding in mid-October, running through November and into early December in some areas. Thanks to this information I rattle and call more, with better results than just doing it a few days of the season.

We all want hunting seasons to be longer for the simple reason we love being out there. Trail cameras are your key to achieving this. In the off-season I average over 40 hours a month in the woods because I’m checking trail cameras. It’s rarely a burden and the education I receive by frequently seeing the same ground exceeds more than I ever thought possible. Watching how water sources change with the seasons and understanding how this impacts animals is invaluable. Discovering landslides that unearth minerals has led to my putting cameras on them and killing upland birds and deer I otherwise may not have. When you run a lot of trail cameras, your quest to gain knowledge is a year-round endeavor, not limited to the days you’re just hunting.

Make the commitment to running more trail cameras and not only will your knowledge of animals and animal behavior grow, so too will your appreciation for and understanding of the habitat in which we hunt. If hanging a trail camera near a feeder to see when a big whitetail buck shows up is the goal, that’s fine. But step deeper into the forest to learn when and where a buck moves, then strive to understand why. That’s when your knowledge of the animals we pursue will rise to another level.

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