Trail Camera Settings Question

I’m wanting to know what settings everyone is using on your trail cameras? I’m new to using a trail camera and could use some pointers.

Earlier in the fall I had my Bushnell set to take 2 photos every trigger with a 1 minute delay. This was over a mineral site with a trail going beside it. Now I have it set to take 10 second videos every minute.

I know someone who uses single photo with the shortest delay it will let him do. I haven’t thought about doing it that way before….and I’m sure there are countless other ways too.

I know guys who love the 3 round burst with 30 second delay. I’m personally more conservative and leave most of my cameras at a 60 second delay between most pics. My new Covert Code Blacks prefer the 1 minute delay to get the text sent and recover.

I’ll be interested to read what others do and the logic behind their choices.

Mineral or bait 2 shot 30 second delay

Trails 3 shot 0 second delay (it will still be a 7-10 second delay as it writes pics to card)

Water holes 3 shot 15 second delay

Scrapes 3 shot 0 second delay

Videos are 15 seconds with a 30 second delay

I like pictures and its my job

For this time of year especially I have everything set on video or pictures with the SHORTEST delay possible. I prefer the video because this is the time of year when bucks start nosing does around and chasing, and if the doe runs past first, triggers the camera, and then the buck walks through within 10-60 seconds (most standard delays), you miss the buck and think yo’re hunting on the doe mecca all the time. With the video it allows you to watch what happens for 10 full seconds after the trigger which can tell you where the deer are heading/moving and show hidden trails you may have never seen before. If using a straight picture mode get as many pictures as possible as said before. It never hurts to delete an extra 100 pics if there might be one extra pic that tells you valuable information about your hit lister.

I always use the 3 shot burst for pics with 30-60 second delay. Heck, digital pics are free. When on video I use a 20 second video again with a 1 minute delay. Takes quite a bit longer to go through videos, but sometimes it’s well worth it.

For trails, mineral licks, etc where the deer are passing through, I use 1 or 2 pictures every 10 seconds. But I also dial down the MP setting to the lowest setting, about 3-5 MP depending on which cam.

My theory is that the MP count is what has the most impact on the storage space each pic takes up and at close range there’s no real loss as I get plenty of detail even at close range. I also get 2-3 shots of each deer even if its just walking by on a trail.

The big * in this would be that if using the time lapse “field watcher” mode, I would up the megapixels to the max resolution. My thinking here is that I’d want to have the resolution that would allow me to zoom way in and look at deer that were far away.

I think one of the big drivers would be how long you intend to leave your camera alone without clearing the chips. My father lives close to my property, so he checks the cams once a week, so I never get anywhere close to filling even an 8 GB chip.

Grouse

I run all 3 shot bursts. It gives a better opportunity to see different angles on the deer

I have one camera that goes up looking at 2 wild apple trees every year, that one gets a 2 shot with 30 seconds until right about now when I turn down the delay to 5 seconds (lowest mine will go) to give me a better chance of catching a buck should they pass through nudging does.

My other cameras are all on trails, these run on 2 or 3 shot patterns, all on the lowest possible delay setting. I also set them up as much as I can to look ‘down’ trails so that deer on them stay in frame as long as possible.

But, give it another 10 days and you can pretty much throw any plans out the window and just hope they come through slow enough when they do that you can make out what it is.