The scouting camera

With opening day of Virginia’s archery deer hunting season less than a month away, many hunters are eagerly readying for the season.

Preparation includes sighting in bows and, in anticipation of later gun seasons, zeroing in muzzleloaders and rifles.

Many hunters are also committed to pre-season scouting, the important reconnaissance that can help determine what hunting areas stand to be fruitful later in the fall.

Scouting used to be a boots-on-the-ground and eyes-behind-binoculars deal.

Hunters still must spend time afield, but those binoculars are no longer the critical piece of gear that supplies visual intelligence.

That role is now held by scouting cameras.

Rapid rise

Scouting cameras appeared on the hunting scene relatively recently, about 15 years ago.

Early models were the work of hunting’s mad scientists, men who paired motion- and heat-activated sensors to point-and-shoot film cameras and put the works in water-tight boxes.

As clunky as those early cameras were they still provided hunters with an almost magical tool: the ability to observe the woods without actually being in the woods.

Hunters could get pictures of deer and other game, those shots providing a survey of the kinds of animals around, and sometimes even confirming or hinting at their behavior and travel patterns.

And while that intel didn’t guarantee hunting success, it provided some extra incentive for hunters to spend more time in the stand in the hopes that the trophy that their camera had caught would eventually show back up.

Scouting cameras have come a long way.

Today, the least expensive model will blow away the best camera available even five years ago.

Basic functions

Today’s models, like early versions, rely on sensors to detect game through a combination of heat and movement.

Key elements of detection are the trigger time, detection area and recovery time.

Trigger time is how long it takes for the camera to activate once an animal is detected.

Testers at Trailcampro.com found in tests of 47 cameras that trigger time ranged from .19 seconds for a Reconyx HC-500 to just over two seconds for the Spypoint Live, which transmits photos via cellular technology.

Fast trigger time is critical when sensed animals are moving quickly.

Recovery time is the time it takes for a camera to process the picture, group of pictures or video after each animal detection.

Recovery time can range from a second for the most powerful cameras to more than 20 seconds.

The detection area includes two factors: angle and distance.

Many of today’s cameras can easily detect game out to and beyond 60 feet.

The detection angle works in conjunction with the camera lens’ field of view.

For example, if a camera lens has a 40 degree field of view and 50 degree detection field, a detected animal might not even be fully in the camera’s frame when the shutter fires.

Conversely, a camera with a detection angle narrower than the camera lens field of view will usually get the animal fully in the frame.

Just like with regular cameras, today’s trail cameras use digital memory technology.

Sensors range from a few megapixels to 10 megapixels and beyond.

But, just like with cameras, more megapixels doesn’t necessarily equate to better pictures. The camera’s lens is still critical.

The flash is another key.

Early trail cameras used bright, white flashes, just like regular cameras.

But many trail camera users worried, and justifiably so, that those bright flashes could spook game. What good is a picture of a trophy buck if a trail camera’s flash sent the wary animal scurrying into the next county.

Along came infrared flashes.

Infrared flashes typically glow red, and are much more subtle that white flashes. Resulting pictures are black and white, and not in color.

One problem with IR flashes?

“If a bear sees a red glow, they tend to eat the camera,” said Doug Solomon, the trailcam guru at Roanoke’s Gander Mountain store.

Normal IR flashes also are not suitable for cameras used for surveillance, which Solomon says is a common need for many buyers.

The answer for that dilemma is provided by a wave of new models using black or “no glow” IR flashes.

The flashes are all but undetectable to the naked eye, which makes the cameras good choices for hunters using their cameras on public land as well as for those who like to use the cameras for security purposes.

Setting the trap

A good trail camera will perform poorly if the setup is not good.

During the summer many hunters use bait or mineral blocks to pull game into a camera’s field of view. But with deer feeding illegal during the deer season, starting Sept. 1, food or attractants can’t be used to aid with stealth camera setup.

Instead, hunters should set up their cameras on natural food sources, or along deer travel routes.

Users should avoid setting cameras up facing the rising or setting sun, which will cause animals to be backlit.

Because movement triggers the camera, areas with lots of low branches or bushes that will easily sway in the wind also should be avoided.

Frequent trips to check cameras for images also can backfire, as each trip results in leaving human scent in the area.

Minimizing scent contamination is one benefit of cameras that allow for wireless remote access to memory cards.

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