$99 Trail Cameras

Camera over looks a mock scrape.

                                            Research by Jim Taylor

Over the years I have tried various brands of trail cameras with disappointing results. I've got an older Moultrie (big 6 volt battery) that "kinda" work but I have to do a series of jumping jacks in front of it to trigger a photo. Several years ago I bought two WildGame cameras, (used 4 c batteries) both are not working this year. In the last few years, trail cameras have gotten more compact, have better battery life, quicker trigger speeds, and better image quality.

Image taken with the $99 Bushnell 

Last year I purchased a compact Tasco that holds 4 AA batteries that I swear will last 6 months. It works but the images are not of the highest quality. Unless you are looking to frame and hang your pictures it seems to be more than adequate for scouting work. I just want it to document what passes in front of the camera. I still have this one and continue to use it today.     

The image above was taken on the 7th of November.

This year after seeing the Bushnell cameras (Model #119420) at Wal-Mart for $99 I had to give them a try. I bought two and hung them up on our hunting lease near Stuttgart in September of this year. They have continued to provide me with respectable images of deer visiting our food plots and have yet to need replacement batteries. For the price I remain impressed with their performance. ChasingGame reviewed the cameras and said the trigger speed is a reasonable 1.25 seconds. I have since bought two more and strategically placed them on some ground that I hunt in Kansas. One of the cameras captured a different buck passing the camera three days in a row. (Shown here)

Range and trigger speeds are your two most important elements of camera selection. Game cameras with less than 1 second trigger speeds are available but they are much more expensive. Reconyx HC600 has a trigger speed of less than a quarter of a second but cost a whopping $550! Bushnell does make a cameras(Trophy Cam HD) that has trigger speeds down to .6 seconds but retails for $249.   

This buck would find it self standing 15 yards from 

my stand on the 10th. 

 If you are watching a food plot or feeder the fast trigger speeds are not necessary. But what about trail watching? An alternative to the fast trigger speeds is to give the deer a reason to slow down on the trail. I like to make a mock scrape at the area of the trial I want the buck to stop at. A fresh scrape with a squirt of doe in estrus or buck urine will get the bucks attention long enough for the trail camera to record the deer. I think you can be much more successful spreading 5 cameras out over your hunting area than having one super-fast expensive camera.

My Nov 10, 2012 buck that was captured on 

camera three days earlier. 

Before deploying a trail camera check local rules on their use. After hearing about them being outlawed in certain areas I called around to several wildlife refuges within the state of Arkansas. Richard Gray, enforcement officer for my favorite National wildlife refuge, White River, says that yes, they do have rules prohibiting leaving Trail cameras overnight. Apparently, they don't specifically have a rule that says you can't leave trail camera on the refuge. What they do have is a rule that prohibits leaving or "abandoning" any personal property on the refuge. Specific exceptions have been made for tree-stands and boats over the years. I would like to see an exception for game cameras as well.

Trail cameras are useful, fun, and can extend your hunting season in a non-consumptive way. To me they add a whole new dimension and exciting element to the scouting endeavor.

A Poachers Game

                                                                                                               by Jim Taylor

He has killed as many as  four bucks each season in Kansas where the season limit on bucks is one.  Yet he is able to tag each one of them with what might seem like legitimate tags.  Not only does he tag them, he often registers them.   He is so brazen that he walks into the local Southern Kansas  taxidermist  with his heads and boasts of his repeated successes as a  bowhunter.   He has been under suspicion for several years yet the Kansas Game and Fish officers have not been able to nab him.

Kansas tagging and registering rules(or lack of) makes it easy for  crooks to take advantage of the system.

Properly attached officially printed tag as shown on KDWPT web site

How has this poacher been able to dupe the enforcement officers for so long?   First off, some background on Kansas tagging rules. Kansas requires you complete your deer tag by writing the date of harvest, signing it and attaching  it to your buck. This must be done upon harvest and attached before you can legally move the buck from the harvest site.   The tag completion process renders the tag useless for additional buck kills.   Any hunter thinking about abusing the process knows he risks getting ticketed, fined and may loose his hunting privileges  if he fails to follow the rules and complete his tag immediately.   It keeps honest hunters honest.    

For most hunters that's it, we're happy,  a filled Kansas tag is a symbol of a successful bow season.   You're done because you can't get another tag.  Or can you?   In Kansas tags are issued via three methods.  Over the counter, via mail or online. The first two methods provide for the familiar Tyvek, officially printed, not easily duplicated deer tag found in most states.   The third method, and the one ripe for abuse,  is simply printed off from your home computer on your own regular 8 1/2" x 11" paper.

Now lets examine the process of our boasting poacher.   At  the moment he kills a buck  he promptly fills out his home printed paper tags  and attaches it to the animal.  Everything so far is legal and on the up and up, except for his criminal intentions.  The poacher now snickers under his breath that he has cleverly covered his butt and  can now freely load the deer in his truck and transport  it  without suspicion if he is stopped.    If it is a big racked buck  and he wants to boast  about it and show it off,  yet he wants to continue hunting what are his options?  The poacher has learned to take advantage of his proximity to surrounding states.  He simply buys tags in multiple states, in this case Missouri, Oklahoma or Arkansas, to tag his big racked  Kansas buck.   Once the tag switch-a-roo takes place he can now boast about his purported "Missouri big buck"  while the  poacher continues to freely hunt Kansas with  freshly printed deer tag copy number two. 
 
Kansas has worked hard to enable the licensing process to be easy and pain free for its hunters.  Being able to print my tags from the computer is convenient and fast.  I would hate to see this curtailed because of some schmuck  poacher who is gaming the system.    I understand that  no system is fool proof  but Kansas has left themselves needlessly vulnerable for abuse by poacher schmucks.  Some simple improvements can easily be implemented.  It would help if Kansas were to require  hunters to register their Kansas deer kills within a specified time frame.  For the life of me I don't know why that is not required   They have a voluntary system in place but it is not mandatory.   There is much to gain from increased tagging compliance as well as biological data collection by making registration  mandatory.    With the prevalence of cell phones and easy access to the internet there is no excuse not to implement this immediately.   

The downfall of these poachers is that they think they are smarter than the system.  They think the game wardens are clueless to their scheme.  On a more selfish level their antics and schemes hurt the honest hunters.  I would like the opportunity for a second  Kansas buck too, but as long as these crooks keep poaching that will never happen.  Kansas KDWPT web sites estimate that  illegal poaching may account for as many legal deer taken.

As someone who is proud of our Arkansas bowhunting fraternity in my home state I am additionally irritated that in this particular case the suspect poacher/criminal is an Arkansan.  Well I really shouldn't be bothered, with his multi-state poaching scheme and violation of the federal LACEY act (interstate transportation of illegally taken wildlife)  it is likely our poacher could soon become a Kansas citizen.....in the famous Leavenworth prison.

Fort Smith Arkansas Bowhunter Steve Bradley's Big 217" Kansas Buck

Pearson's Z-Force

The buck made his presence known on the afternoon of November 19 at 5:15pm  as he came in grunting at a group of does. After three trips to Kansas this year I was relieved when he presented himself  broadside at twenty yards.  With three alert does giving me the "you're busted stare" as I drew my bow,  I was still able to deliver the Magnus broadhead to the 10 ring. The buck was mine.

Jim's 2009 Equipment: Bow: Ben Pearson Z-34 with R2B2 Cams- 29"@60lbs.;   Arrows: Carbon Express;  Rest: Whisker Biscuit; Broadhead: Magnus Stinger 4-blade 100grain. 

The next morning,  my hunting buddy Bruce Jameson made an unbelievable shot on a true Kansas monster.  Bruce, who owns "The Outdoor Indoors" in Pittsburg, Kansas, a Ben Pearson Archery retailer  and award winning taxidermy service,  used a  Pearson Z-34 with R2B2 cams.

Pearson helped us deliver two perfect shots on two unique Kansas whitetails.  Both deer were estimated at over  200lbs field dressed. Let me tell you Kansas deer are big in every sense of the word!

The Power of Z-Force at work!

Story by Jim Taylor

KINGS OF KANSAS

November 23, 2008.                                                        by Jim Taylor, Arkansas Bowhunter

Nested in my lock-on I was barely 12 feet off the ground. I was well hidden among the scented boughs of a sturdy cedar tree that are common for stand locations in this area of Kansas. It is quickly evident that you don't have the tall easy climbing Overcup oak trees that permit the use of climbers that are our mainstay in Arkansas.

The buck came toward me at a steady gait moving North to South along a well worn trail that would deliver the buck to within 10 yards of my Cedar tree. I came to full draw and gave two successive grunts with increasing volume as the buck moved closer. He finally stopped in the last available shooting lane. He was a forgiving 10 yards away. At that range it is easy to think you have a chip shot and relax. I forced myself to take a second to focus my pin solidly on a spot behind the front shoulder of the 8 point buck. With finger on my release, I squeezed.  My 65lb Pearson Z-32  delivered the thunderhead tipped arrow right behind the shoulder.  WHACK!  The buck kicked, then  bolted and crashed through the forest.  Then silence.

The energy of the arrow was consumed in the split second it passed through the bucks rib cage. The crimson coated arrow was now laying harmlessly on top of the fall leaves that blanketed the late November forest floor. The arrows work was done. After a week in the Osage draws of eastern Kansas that are often nestled between corn and soybeans fields my hunt came to a fruitful close on a crisp but sunny Sunday November morning. A three and half year old eight point buck was now mine to quietly admire.

It was a primitive yet noble process that man has repeated for thousands of years. It still has the ability to inject the November chill directly into my veins and send uncontrolled shivers throughout my body. It serves as a reminder that despite our disconnected life of I-phones and "super center" processed hamburger there remains a vestige of predator instinct within that still calls us to the November forest each year.

Hunting partner Bruce Jameson bagged a huge 8 point this morning that we estimated will score about 152! That is one big 8 point. Monday Bruce spotted what he said was the biggest deer he had seen in 10 years. Let me tell you, in Bruce's neck of the Kansas deer woods that... is Big..

Jim Taylor, Arkansas Bowhunter

Steve Bradley