My 2012 Trail Cam Pics - Last Batch (9-26-2012)

And this is "Camera #1" set up about 500 yards from "Camera #2" and at the top of the bowl I hunted last September during the muzzleloader hunt. I had a slight malfunction with this camera... it took a series of 3 pictures every 10 seconds & filled the memory card in 2 days (I love false triggers). I "fixed" it and have left it up there for another try.

Nice pics, I always look forward to seeing whats running around out in the woods :thumb I have to make a trip this weekend to swap memory cards in mine.

I'm always a fan of cam pics, thanks for sharing. I hope to set up the rest of mine later this week for the summer.

Nice pics! You've got yourself a great area!

That's funny about the false triggers..... I have 8gig cards in mine and if it's windy in a location, I'll have around 6,000 pics in a couple weeks, kills the batts too ](*,) I have my cams set at bursts of 3 every 30 sec. I thought my mouse was going to brake after clicking though all them pics :))

Great pics. Looks like you found a great spot for summer horns

Here's my next batch. My first camera malfunctioned again taking 3 pics every 10 seconds regardless. So, I got 1300 pictures over the course of 4 hours and the only "wildlife" was me when did the final set up & walked away. This camera was also screwed with by somebody & unfortunately my SD card was already full when it happened. The settings were changed from 3 still pictures every 10 seconds to 60 seconds of video every 60 minutes. So I moved it and put new batteries in it... if it malfunctions for the third time I'll bring it all the way down and check it out. Plus I'll be looking at investing in security boxes & locks, this is the second time in as many summers that I know someone has messed with them... even on private property nothing is safe I guess.
My heart sank when I got to my second camera and it was facing a completely different direction & I thought maybe the same guy had found this one. But that wasn't the case... I had heard that elk were curious creatures, and sure enough on two separate occasions a cow took it upon herself to move my camera around. The last cow to mess with it actually licked it or touched her nose to it and got the camera lens dirty (I didn't know that it was dirty until I was off the mountain so my next batch of pics from that camera will be all blurry).
Anyway, NO DEER at all from this round. Perhaps it's just been so warm that it's hard for the IR sensor to detect since the ambient temperature is so close to body temp, or maybe the elk are in there so much that the deer have decided to stay away.
Enjoy.
This was the first cow that moved the camera (she moved it a full 45 degrees)... I pulled my first batch of pictures June 23rd, notice the date.
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-20/PRMS0036.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-20/PRMS0056.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-20/PRMS0078.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-20/PRMS0093.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-20/PRMS0097.jpg" alt="" />
This is a crazy looking spike... my wife says I should shoot this one because he looks silly (I wonder what she means by that?).
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-20/PRMS0102.jpg" alt="" />
And here's where another (or maybe the same) cow decides to dirty my camera lens.
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-20/PRMS0110.jpg" alt="" />
Plus here's a little buck that I bumped twice of the creek bottom when I crossed to head into the bowl after my cameras. I bumped him first on the way in & he startled me a bit, but as I climbed into the bowl I watched him circle back behind me and bed back down... so on the way out I got him again & was ready with my camera:
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Misc%20Scouting/DSC06936.jpg" alt="" />

I think pics 4 and 5 are the same bull... but I can still confirm at least 5 different bulls in the area.

Those are some great shots. I have been wanting to get into putting some trail cameras out, but I am having a hard time deciding what ones are going to be the best. It looks like the ones you have shoot a good picture at night. Thanks for posting.

Nice pics Derek, yea those Elk love to mess with the cams. To bad some crazy guy is messing with it, on private property no less. :(

"74Toad" wrote:Those are some great shots. I have been wanting to get into putting some trail cameras out, but I am having a hard time deciding what ones are going to be the best. It looks like the ones you have shoot a good picture at night. Thanks for posting.

I have 2 Primos & 1 Moultrie (an older GamepSpy model). I love the 2 Primos, they seem to run forever on 4 D batteries. I only have to change them out once per summer... unless one malfunctions or some guy changes the settings to video to chew up my battery. The Primos are inexpensive (less than $80 on Amazon). I can't justify spending several hundred $$$ on something to strap it to a tree & walk away. The infrared flash does a good job at night, although other models with more LEDs would likely provide better pictures... but these are suficient for me (unless a cow elk sneezes on the lens). I don't like the white light flash, no real opinion/reason as to why... I just don't.
The Moultrie uses a big 6V battery & even with the flash turned off I only get 2 weeks on one battery, so I don't put that one out a whole lot anymore. Takes decent pics though.

I did notice one other thing when I was retrieving the first camera way up at the top of the bowl... I noticed some strange marks on the tree that my camera was on and also the tree in the center of the cam pics. Some look like claw marks (3 or 4 straight equally spaced marks), but others looked like rubs from antlers (kind of a back & forth, up & down pattern to them). I hadn't noticed them before & will try to take some close-ups when I take a camera back up there... but here's a pic from the trail cam so if anybody has any thoughts as to what is making these marks let's hear it (yeah, I forgot to set the date again, too). http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Misc%20Scouting/PRMS0024-1.jpg" alt="" />

Here's round #3, it's only been a week but got some good shots (but still NO BUCKS!):
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-27/PRMS0018.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-27/PRMS0058.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-27/PRMS0115.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-27/PRMS0118.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-7-27/PRMS0130.jpg" alt="" />

Here's a new placement from my camera that malfunctioned the previous 2 times (which worked great this time... go figure). This camera got moved as well, a cow elk got friendly with it & turned it so the last 200 hundred pics were of a twig.
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-7-27/PRMS0017.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-7-27/PRMS0059.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-7-27/PRMS0070.jpg" alt="" />

Then there's this one with the mystery creature... coyote, cougar, quadrepedal yeti?
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-7-27/PRMS0055.jpg" alt="" />

Sweet pics man. What's that of in your very last pic?

I don't know, your guess is as good as mine... I'm thinking either a coyote or a young mountain lion (because the tail is so short)

Good looking pics! How long will the elk hang around on your place?

"therookie" wrote:What's that of in your very last pic?

After Googling a couple pictures of coyotes & lions... I'm going to say it's a mountain lion. Coyote's tails are bushier while a lion's tail is more "sausage" like. I'd say the tail in the picture is sausage like.

"waspocrew" wrote:How long will the elk hang around on your place?

I don't know... we didn't even know the elk were in there until last fall during the muzzleloader hunt when I saw a spike & cow. I would expect that they will scatter during the rut. I'm just hoping that they group back up and come back to the area to feed post-rut. Maybe somebody with more elk knowledge could help me out with what these bulls may or may not do.

I would say mountain lion too, based on the tail and body.

Nice and thanks for showing, and I'll go with yote.

Nice shots. I would be sitting in some of those spots when opening morning came along, that much I can tell you

Here's batch #4: Starting to see the deer come back in. Still seeing the elk as well, I was hoping to see some start rubbing but it doesn't look like it.
Here's a picture of a rub that I found just a couple yards up the trail from one of my cameras... perhaps it's from last year. http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/08172012155-1.jpg" alt="" />

Here's a small buck... after not seeing any bucks since the end of June ANY buck is a good buck! Incidentally, I think this camera was tinkered with, I only had 14 pictures on it and they were all within the last 18 hours. It seems a little fishy (my other camera had almost 600 pics on it) and perhaps I'm playing with fire and am lucky to not have it stolen. Anyway, I moved this camera up the hill a couple hundred yards and security boxes are #1 on my wish list.http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0007.jpg" alt="" />

Here's a little 4x4 bull elk we call "Fourplay". He shows up on the cameras once every couple days or so. http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0041.jpg" alt="" />

This has got to be the tallest spike I have ever seen.http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0102.jpg" alt="" />

Here's a couple different pics of a nice 5x6.http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0107.jpg" alt="" />http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0414.jpg" alt="" />http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0415.jpg" alt="" />

Then there came these... what a sight for sore eyes! I was planning on being in this area opening morning of the muzzleloader hunt but since the bucks seemed to be few & far between I was beginning to have my doubts. This first buck is a narrow tall 3x3. I'd shoot him in a heartbeat!http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0364.jpg" alt="" />http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0369-1.jpg" alt="" />
The second is a bruiser!!! He looks to be a heavy 4x4, but width is hard to distinguish. I'd be stupid to pass on this guy.http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0373.jpg" alt="" />http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-8-17/PRMS0377-1.jpg" alt="" />

http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-9-3/PRMS0026.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-9-3/PRMS0058.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-9-3/PRMS0029.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/TruthCam%2035/2012-9-3/PRMS0037.jpg" alt="" />

Now it's sit back and wait for Sept 26 & the muzzleloader opener.

This has been a way fun thread to follow... you've got some great shots! I'm excited to see what happens with your muzzy hunt... only a few more weeks!

http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-09-26/PRMS0022.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-09-26/PRMS0052.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/Primos%2035/2012-09-26/PRMS0056.jpg" alt="" />