Managing Trail Cams – Tips and ideas.

Since many of us are now running multiple trail cams, I thought I’d start a thread where we can swap information about running the cams and how to make the process effective and efficient.

On my 80 acre farm, I’m currently running 6 cams. While trail cams are terrific tools, I’ve discovered that as the camera fleet grows, so does the need to be efficient. Currently, just checking all my cameras and downloading pics takes over an hour and that doesn’t include moving cams or viewing/sorting the pics once I get home.

Here’s what I’ve discovered that helps make things more efficient.

1. I bought a memory chip reader that plugs into my phone so I can pull the chip from each cam, download all pics to my phone, and put the chip right back in the cam. That eliminated the need to swap chips. Also this makes uploading much easier as I just plug my phone into my laptop and upload all the pics once I get home.

2. Carry a bag with accessories, extra chip, extra batteries, etc with you. That eliminates the need to make a return trip if the camera batteries are dead, etc.

3. I make a home-made screw in trail cam mount that I think works terrific. They cost only a few dollars each and the benefit of making your own mounts is that I just leave them on trees or posts that are frequent camera locations. Move the camera, not the mount, essentially.

4. I use Google Drive to store and share pictures. It’s easy to set up and it makes sharing pictures much more efficient than sending them by email.

5. Time lapse mode is an incredible tool, but you have to take the time to set up the cams and then more time to review the pictures. Many of which will be empty.

I’m interested in other ideas that make it easier and faster to run more cams. Anyone found any software or other tools that makes the process better?

Grouse

I agree it is time consuming, the whole process, but well worth it for me.

I have a small backpack that I carry all my accessories in and I take it every time I go check cams. In there I have extra batteries, extra chips, extra straps/mounts.

I always change the card in the cam with a fresh one I know is empty. Then when I get back I can review the the chips in the evening or when I have down time. I hate rushing thru the pics, you just never know when you are going to miss something in the background or way off to the side. It takes time to review them all, but when I get bored with it I just stop looking at them and come back later.

I sort the pics as I review them and the keepers I keep on my old lap top in folders separated by year, month, location.

I am constantly moving cams to get the latest intel, so I keep a list on my phone of where they are. I lost a cam one year cause I couldn’t remember where I moved it to. I still haven’t found the dam thing.

I am not nearly as organized as you Grouse, but I make it work. Some day I want to get a tablet solely for this and get a little more organized. Maybe even use one of the software packages to organize my pics, but that won’t be this year.

sticker wrote:

I am constantly moving cams to get the latest intel, so I keep a list on my phone of where they are. I lost a cam one year cause I couldn’t remember where I moved it to. I still haven’t found the dam thing.

Now there’s a great tip. Just this year I lost a cam as well!

Suddenly back in June I was up at the property and I was going around downloading pictures. Cam 1, check. Cam 2, check. Cam 3, check. Cam 5, check. Cam 6, check. Wait a freaking minute!!!!!

I couldn’t for love or money remember where the he!! I put Cam 4. Lord it was SO frustrating. I had been moving this cam around and now suddenly I was having a complete brain vapor lock and I just could not remember where I put it. I searched site after site where I had had it, nothing.

It was pure luck, I just walked into it in early August. Then it all came back to me, I was in a hurry and moved the cam right next to the road between plots, then my phone rang…

I like the list on the phone idea. My solution was to pick up a mini-white board at Target for $5. I put this up in our shed as the Cam Board and write the locations on it. My reason for going with the low tech white board is then my father can see where I have the cams and he can also update the list if he moves any of the cams.

But yes, however you do it, keep a log of where you put your cams! Great tip.

Grouse

When you get really crazy and get upwards of 20 cameras out come October.. you have to have outside help.

Last two years ago I used HUNTFORCE
and this year I am giving DEERLAB a try.

These type of software make stuff really easy to organize and saves so much time its crazy. I wouldn’t be able to run that many if it wasn’t for these programs organizing everything for me. Also can sort by wind and weather or pressure.

Also I can easily keep track of the locations on the cams on the satellite imagery so I dont lose any and also I can put in GPS way-points of the cams if I really want to get wild.

I can get into the specifics of the programs if you want maybe on another post. But that would be my tip. You can get started on them for free.

This year I am up to 24 cameras on 3 properties. Its a lot to keep track of but not real bad. What I do is the following.
I have enough cards to just switch them out each time. I have actually numbered every camera and have 2 sd cards numbered for each camera. I carry them all in a little pouch that holds them all. I have found this also helpful as some cameras are picky about what size card or brand of card they like. I also test each camera with each chip in the off season to make sure the camera is still working and that both cards accept pictures.
I carry the sd cards, 2-4 extra straps and extra batteries in to each camera.
Once home, I will put each sd card into the laptop and view the pictures and put the ones I want to keep in a folder with it labeled for the location and date.

It is rare that I get to all properties within a day or 2 so its not overwhelming but this last weekend I went through all cameras at once and took me about 2 hours to go through the pictures. The hardest part is remember what each location is based off the pictures only as I don’t write down where each camera is, I probably should though.

sktrwx2200 wrote:

When you get really crazy and get upwards of 20 cameras out come October.. you have to have outside help.

Last two years ago I used HUNTFORCE
and this year I am giving DEERLAB a try.

These type of software make stuff really easy to organize and saves so much time its crazy. I wouldn’t be able to run that many if it wasn’t for these programs organizing everything for me. Also can sort by wind and weather or pressure.

Also I can easily keep track of the locations on the cams on the satellite imagery so I dont lose any and also I can put in GPS way-points of the cams if I really want to get wild.

I can get into the specifics of the programs if you want maybe on another post. But that would be my tip. You can get started on them for free.

Is there a reason you went from hunt force to deer lab? Or was it just to try something different?

A couple years ago we were discussing the software on a different thread and Deerlab’s founder chimed in and gave his list of differences. And then I had a chance to talk to him on the phone, and could hear the passion for deer and heard the story of him building the software from the ground up.. and it was enough to earn my money. It is very user friendly.

Here is his words from a couple years ago on the differences….

“DeerLab’s stats are based off of specific hour segments where HuntForce goes off morning, afternoon, evening and night. I’m not sure when their times starts or stops. In addition I don’t know if they take time zones into consideration but I know we do.

DeerLab has a photo viewer that allows you to quickly view large photos using your mouse or keyboard. HF does not have this and you have to scroll through thumbnails.

DeerLab’s buck profiles provide easy-to-read pie charts on when and where a particular buck is moving. You can view stats from multiple cameras or drill down to specific cameras and even filter activity by date ranges. HF provides percentages.

HuntForce looks great but many have said our interface is a lot easier and faster to use. This really comes down to personal preference.

DeerLab allows you to create multiple tags for each photo (HF doesn’t have tagging) so you can filter photos however you want. For example, if you want to see all your bucks in one group off of one or all your cameras you can.

DeerLab allows you to filter photos by all the weather data (HF doesn’t). For example you can say show me all the bucks during a full moon with wind coming out of the North between 30 and 60 degrees.

DeerLab allows you to mass tag, edit and delete photos – HF doesn’t.

Photos deleted in DeerLab don’t count against you where in HF they do

DeerLab is mobile-friendly – HF isn’t

Both provide satellite maps (HF recently started using the same mapping and weather service as us).

HF received a half million in venture capital were DeerLab is self-funded by me and my partner. While we launched 3 months before them they definitely are known by more due to their paid sponsorships with some large TV personalities and shows. I wish we had their budget but their are pros on the other side as well.”

Awesome, thanks for the info!! I may have to give this a try.