I religiously use my trail camera for hunting and I swear by it. However, I'm curious if anyone has used a trail camera for trapping purposes and if so, whether it helped?

Thanks.

hey Wayne,

Good to see some more nebraska folks.

Heres my take on the thread. Take it as you like cause its an opinion.

I think trail cameras are great for bowhunting for deer. They also cost alot to have a bunch of them out.

My school of thought is that i like to be able to read the sign that the animal leaves. I may set up 25 different locations in a year for cats and twice that for coyotes. that would be alot of moving the camera around or alot of cameras, alot of pictures of coons and skunks and opposums and deer and what ever.

I don't really like to frequent an area any more than i have to. If i'm going in to scout it out, then i'm in to set it up and check and then out. Probably not so much of a problem with cats, but coyotes will sure notice the increase in human activity. Coons leave a wad of sign. that should be easy enough to tell the tale if you are looking in the right spot. I think it would probably be easier to catch a mink in a trap than on camera. Not sure which animal you are after.

Probably enough babbling, but its like kids now days with the calculators. could any of them do long division if they're calculator broke? If i can read the sign thats there, I'll be good for anything i'm after.

thats my take.

I've never used a trail camera for anything, but…

You may be overlooking one of the fundamental differences between hunting and trapping. Hunting requires your timely physical presence in order to bag your quarry. You have to be right there, in proximity to the animal, to send a projectile at it.

Trapping does not require your immediate physical presence for a capture. You set the trap, and you come back and check it. So.. instead of setting up a camera, and then coming back to see if you have taken a picture of your target animal, why not set a trap, and just catch it? If you have to come and check the camera everyday, you might as well check a trap.

And if there are no animals there... well, the trap will tell you that just about as quickly as the camera will. And again, if you're dedicated to making a trip to check the the camera, why not check a trap?

-- Hal

Thanks for the responses... I appreciate them.

I understand the need to be able to recognize sign and have found that to be overwhelmingly the case made in the few items on trapping I have read so far. Interestingly, they are signs I have always noticed but never really observed or studied.

As far as the camera, I really was thinking during the off-season (like now).

So, for trapping, trade in the camera for sign and results... I can handle that.

And Hal, if you've never used a trail camera, you're missing out. I rarely check mine daily, usually every couple weeks or so, and it's quite the reward when the animal you've photographed is the result of your hunt!

Thanks again.

I have never used a trail camera, and ain't quite sure how it operates. But if the animal has no way of detecting its presence (ie; flash, noise), I think it would be a great way to observe an animals behavior at the set.

I think it would also be a great way to catch a trap thief.

I'm all for learning traditional methods, but technology can also be useful in certain situations...

Oh, offseason. Now I'm getting the picture. (Pun intended.)

I certainly don't see any harm in it.

As for catching trap thieves, I've thought about that angle myself but, how do you keep the thief from stealing your camera? -- especially at night. Do they work without a flash?

Like I said, I don't know anything about trail cameras -- educate me.

-- Hal

Check this out:

http://sunkhaze.org/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=2

Great site Jim!

Some of the more expensive models might be flashless and the digital ones might not make much noise. I can't imagine catching ill human behavior, however... I think you'd just end up providing the idiot with a nice camera!

I clicked on the site above and ,, If you watched the flash side show of the coyote eating at the white birch pile, That it did not appear to be frightened or run away after the flash of the camera. I was shocked !
I would of lost a pile of money if I was betting on that one.....
As a matter of fact, I almost replied earlier to this thread with a question of "wouldn't you think a coyote would be repelled by the flash"
Seams like I'm always learning.
I wish I had a night vision camera that would video a whole coyote catch.... right till you got there.... That'd be awesome.
and very educational.

I think it would be neat to have one of the infrared video trail cams at a set, just to see how an animal truely works the set.