Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game Cams)

[BlountArrow]

Maybe I'm the only one guilty of this, but I used to have a bad habit of allowing pics to pile up on my SD cards that I put in my game cams. If you do the same let me warn you right now the first time you get a game cam stolen you'll be sick for a long time over it!

Reasons being, you just alerted a criminal(s) of the quality game that exists on your place, and gave them and anyone they talk to more reason to trespass/poach on your place. You just lost a lot of data that maybe some of it you had backed up and some you didn't, we could be talking years worth. And, again if you're like me, maybe you've kept a few cute pics of your kids on those cards when they were helping you check your cams, and now some no good pos has pics of your family.

This happened to me over a year ago and as you can see I'm still not over it. As I sit here getting several game cams ready to put out I'm almost as sick now as I was then.

Keep your SD cards clean after you check your cams, back up the pics, and erase everything off of those cards before you take them back out to the field.

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[easy45]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I usually check cams every couple of weeks , save the pics on the computer and erase the cards before putting them back out.


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[BlountArrow]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I usually check cams every couple of weeks , save the pics on the computer and erase the cards before putting them back out.


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I never had a problem with thieves before and I just got lazy and complacent. Wish I had done like you back then... but I learned the hard way.

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[csi-tech]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I swap out my cards every week and if I'm just very busy, every two. I have been very lucky in that my cameras and stands have been left completely alone. I am also pretty lucky in that my farm is completely land locked with zero road frontage. Trespassers and poachers are a lazy species. They go for the low hanging fruit.

Being surrounded by large, exclusive deer hunting clubs and wealthier land owners helps alot too. They have no desire to be on my property and they can expect the same from me.

I was told that a neighbor's son has been shooting ducks in our pond. I went to that end of the property and sure enough 4 wheeler ruts, trees cut for shooting lanes, torn down fence and missing signs. Time to get proactive. I think in addition to swapping out SD cards you have to be there and actively monitoring the goings on. I bought several Primos Easy Cams just for security. I put them in places where they can monitor my more expensive cameras and high on trees where they can get facial shots of poachers on logging roads and near the "low hanging fruit" like the trail to my duck pond.

 

[BlountArrow]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

csi-tech, for what it's worth I was just gonna say this hunting property of mine has no road frontage and they have to cross one and in some areas two other owners' property to set foot on mine...so land locked cetainly helps cut down on the traffic but not a complete deterrent.

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[csi-tech]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

Agreed completely. Here's hoping you can minimize the traffic, find the offender(s) and have a great season.

 

[Mike Belt]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I usually swap out the cards on my cameras, bring them home and download them, then erase them. They're clean when they go back to the field. That being said I really like the ability to look at what's on the card in the field. Sometimes this keeps me from pulling a cam from that site at that time and sometimes it motivates me to move them. Either way, they are always set with fresh cards.

 

[Deerbuster1996]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I normally have to reformat my cards. It erases and gets rid of all folders. Reasons for doing this is my old primos camera doesn't like any sd card that has been in my browning camera.

But I do like several on here 2 cards per camera. Easily swap them out.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I usually check cams every couple of weeks , save the pics on the computer and erase the cards before putting them back out.


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same here

 

[Bone Collector]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I usually check cams every couple of weeks , save the pics on the computer and erase the cards before putting them back out.


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This and I actually stopped saving all my pics and started only saving pics of bucks i wanted to chase to save space on my computer. I can remember data, so I can make mental notes as to when does are using an area.

The buck data is more important to me, because they are sporadic and sometimes I miss something the first time through only to catch it later.

 

[Strict]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I usually check cams every couple of weeks , save the pics on the computer and erase the cards before putting them back out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This and I actually stopped saving all my pics and started only saving pics of bucks i wanted to chase to save space on my computer. I can remember data, so I can make mental notes as to when does are using an area.

The buck data is more important to me, because they are sporadic and sometimes I miss something the first time through only to catch it later.

This is how I check cameras as well. A laptop goes in with me. Pics are saved on the spot and the card is formatted (deleted) and placed back in the camera. Takes 2 minutes. When I get back home I look at them and delete everything but nice bucks and unique pics.

SD cards are exclusively for trail cameras.

 

[wjohnson1983]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I just take extra SD cards with me and swap them for what's in the camera.

Once I get home I save the buck pictures and anything unique like above. Then I also format the card.

Keeps me from having to lug the laptop out there.

 

[BlountArrow]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I'm a card swapper too, always have been. But, I was bad about leaving good pics on the cards as an extra backup. Stupid.

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[DaveB]

Re: Lesson Learned (Poachers, Trespassers, Thieves, & Game C

I bought a double handful of sd cards from the TNDeer Classifieds and never do anything but swap them out in the field.

At home I unload them on to my desktop into folders identified with location and date of unload. Then I stick them in a Samsung camera and format them. This seems to work so I just keep on.

Every now and then I will get antsy and copy folders to a different drive for no reason except I

I back up my desktop once a month to an external drive. I use Acronis True Image 2016.