New trail Camera – Help

I have a trail camera setup in my backyard to get pictures of the deer that pass through often. There is one buck I’ve got pictures of for 3 years now and want to see if he’s still around and what his rack looks like this year. I went to get it loaded with new batteries and setup and found out its dead. I Took the batteries out of it earlier this Spring and it was working at that time. Not totally sure what’s wrong, but looks like its time for a new trail camera. Don’t want to spend a ton but want something that takes good pictures and hopefully easy to setup and use. Even though its only in the backyard it would be nice if I could retrieve the picture without needing to pull the card. I guessing things have changed a lot since I purchased the last one. What is the best one for the money ?

I don’t have a wide variety of experience with them but do have 2 different brands I use.

One is Stealth cam, can’t remember what kind, but I like it just fine but you do need to pull the SD card each time. If you’re not in a hurry I would suggest waiting until Black Friday or Cyber Monday as there will be deals on a variety of different kinds, and maybe even later this year as the seasons wind down and stores want to get rid of them. I got my Stealth cams online from Fleet Farm, I think they had something of a sale price plus 10% off your order or something on Black Friday, I want to say they were $60 or $70 with the discount.

I also paid somewhere between $80-$99 (can’t remember but it was under $100) for a Cabelas brand one. This one has an SD card but it also has a screen on the bottom so you can see what you’re aiming at, and with this screen you can go through the menu and look at the pictures you took, so no need to pull the card. I really like this one and I buy Cabelas or what used to be Gander Mountain brand stuff whenever I can because I feel like you get good quality for a little bit less money because it’s their brand.

Both brands I described show the time, date, temperature, I think the Cabelas one shows moon phase, and both can take video as well.

Tactacam Reveal X is a pretty hot camera right now. I think they are like $120 at scheels if you can find them. Keep a card in it like you’re used to, or you can pay a monthly subscription fee and use the wireless access feature. Access the pics from your phone anywhere. I think its like $5 a month or something. You can cancel or start the plan anytime. So just use the cell part during deer season or whatever. Pretty slick.

Those Tactacam’s look nice. The scheels here has a good supply of them. I may have to go that route. Just have to decide how much I’m willing to spend. The 119.00 one looks like it will work fine for what I need.

I have 3 of the Bushnell brand cameras. They have worked really well for me for the past 3 plus years. I’ve add a new one each year and now have 3. These were less than 100.00 each. They work with cards. I’m surprise the cost to subscribe to service is only 5.00 per month. The land I hunt between Minong and Hayward would not have good enough cell service to access remotely.

bzzsaw wrote:

I have 3 of the Bushnell brand cameras. They have worked really well for me for the past 3 plus years. I’ve add a new one each year and now have 3. These were less than 100.00 each. They work with cards. I’m surprise the cost to subscribe to service is only 5.00 per month. The land I hunt between Minong and Hayward would not have good enough cell service to access remotely.

The one that stopped working was a Bushnell. It was one of the cheaper ones they sold. It worked great for the last 2-3 years I used it. Not sure what happened to it. All looks Ok inside – Just wont work.