cougar alley ne

[deaner]

a few photos from a one month soak, representing all species that showed up

[deaner]

few more

[jrebel]

WOW, what an awsome spot.....I really hope you have a tree stand next to that camera. 

Thanks for sharing...

[wilsongideon]

sweet pictures..what no elk? haha

[Pygmy]

Incredible pics!   Unique point of view.

[Austrian Hunter]

That is one sweet spot you have there!!!!  Thanks for sharing the pics!! 

[deaner]

sweet pictures..what no elk? haha

different camera i pulled a few hours earlier, next mountain over. got 450 elk pics in like 3 weeks, couple bulls too

[jrebel]

Little early for that there big guy....you have to wait till september to get your groove on.  LOL

[deaner]

Little early for that there big guy....you have to wait till september to get your groove on.  LOL

thats 2 cows there dude, just some youthful experimenting

[jrebel]

You sure that back one doesn't have a set of nuts......I am on my phone so I could be wrong but it sure looks like some junk.

[jrebel]

Wait...that may be a hoof........jury is still out.

[deaner]

Wait...that may be a hoof........jury is still out.

its a hoof. definitely girl on girl action.  youll agree when youre on your comp instead of your phone

[norsepeak]

sweet spot, I'd be thinkin about a treestand in that spot this fall.

[deaner]

sweet spot, I'd be thinkin about a treestand in that spot this fall.

oh i will absolutely be hunting that spot this fall, no question about it.  however, due to my aversion to heights im strictly a ground guy.  natural blind for the win.  ive had deer looking straight at me from 5-10 feet away while on the ground tucked into some foliage and they never saw me or showed sign of alarm.  i feel with proper camo, scent control, and the ability to hold still i can get by without being in a tree.

[wilsongideon]

thats pretty cool.....how early do you set your ground blind up so animals can get used to it?

[deaner]

thats pretty cool.....how early do you set your ground blind up so animals can get used to it?

no i dont use actual blinds, i just find a tight clump of reprod or bushes and tuck myself in. 

[Turner89]

Great spot

[denali]

   might need some traffic signage

[bobcat]

Great variety, and nice pictures. Looks like you have the camera mounted high. Is that to prevent theft? How high is it?

[deaner]

Great variety, and nice pictures. Looks like you have the camera mounted high. Is that to prevent theft? How high is it?

initially it was to prevent theft, and shortly after i placed it i watched this... Trail Cameras: What You've Been Missing - Reality Deer Management Ep. 8  and im now thinking i should mount all of my cameras high up.  its about 12 feet up.  i had one person on camera walking down that trail, and it seems he never looked up.  in addition to what the video is about, and the fact that it decreases the likelihood of theft, i feel it also gives better pics as it provides a wider range of effective view, lowering the chance of blurred photos.  but yes theft was my main concern, tho i did set it with a lockbox and padlock, strapped to the tree with a python lock, which combined with the height i feel my cameras are pretty secure.  unless somebody regularly looks up into trees and carries a chainsaw, in which case, theyre a dedicated thief and woodsman and i guess they earned it.

[deaner]

forgot to ask, for any of you experienced cougar guys, what do you think about the size / gender of that cat?  i dont know much about them, but to me it looks like maybe a 100 poundish female?  i know theres a few of you on here that have taken a good number of cats.  ive yet to fill a cougar tag. 

[elkh8me]

Thanks for sharing bud those are some great pics and a hog of a bear

[wsucowboy]

Looks like you got a great spot picked out, good pics 

[FSTaxidermy]

Great job on the photos! Got to be excited for the fall 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Dang that trail has some critters using it ....Hope they hang out for hunting season ...that chocolate phase bear is real nice !! 

[Nilehunter]

Score!  Great pics.

[deaner]

should put this one up too.  these guys were on that cam same time.  funny thing is, i think i know whose dogs these are, they were harrassing peoples livestock about 3 or 4 miles away from this camera, and the people got told to control their dogs or else.... month or so later here they are on cam up high in the mountains. go figure huh? looks like they dumped their dogs off to die rather than keep them controlled.   im sure these dogs have been eaten by something by now with all the cougars / coyotes n such i got on this cam

[EAS]

Nice photos. By chance did you put any sent or attractent etc on the trail, or is that pure traffic moving through?

[seth30]

Nice photos. By chance did you put any sent or attractent etc on the trail, or is that pure traffic moving through?

[nwwanderer]

The canines get feral fast.  I would start my season now with those two.

[Machias]

I'm not entirely convinced the lion photos are of the same cat.  The night time photo looks to be a slightly older cat.  Neither is a toad of a cat, but nice cats.  The daytime photos look to me like a younger cat, of course it could all be lighting and the way they are walking.  In the night time photo, is the cat going downhill?  That may contribute to the longer looking neck.  Great photos!!

[buckfvr]

Flat as a board there Fred......many cats in the area, bear too.

[Machias]

 

[KNOPHISH]

Cougars, bears & dogs? Nah, what you got is a killer rabbit with a vicious streak a mile wide, best to break out the holy hand grenade. 

[heavy hauler]

wow  any big foot pics yet?

[bearpaw]

I'm not entirely convinced the lion photos are of the same cat.  The night time photo looks to be a slightly older cat.  Neither is a toad of a cat, but nice cats.  The daytime photos look to me like a younger cat, of course it could all be lighting and the way they are walking.  In the night time photo, is the cat going downhill?  That may contribute to the longer looking neck.  Great photos!!

I agree with Fred, the impression I get is that they are two different cats, one is larger, longer, and older looking to me. I'd guess 80-90 on the daytime cat and 95-105 on the nighttime cat. From my experiences here in WA, I have killed or caught and released as many as 8-10 different cats in the same very small area in the same season more than once, cat territories overlap on a regular basis.

I want to thank you for posting the video. We've had reservations about cameras, notice how many guys on here say they only get photos one time of big bucks. I'm sure some deer get used to cameras or are lass afraid, but how many deer avoid the camera in the future? Also very important, theft is going to be greatly lessened, very few people look up while in the woods. 

[Gobble Doc]

Awesome.

[addicted2hunting]

seems a lot like northwest trek??

[Pilot_Hunter]

Nice pics!

[Machias]

I want to thank you for posting the video. We've had reservations about cameras, notice how many guys on here say they only get photos one time of big bucks. I'm sure some deer get used to cameras or are lass afraid, but how many deer avoid the camera in the future? Also very important, theft is going to be greatly lessened, very few people look up while in the woods. 

 

[deaner]

With the camera that high up the tree, how do you get it to point downward at the proper angle? a wedge of some sort?

Really neat pics and great idea...

what i did for that set of pics was a wedge i made from a piece of a branch i broke off, wedged behind the top and then the base of the cam resting on a branch stump to prevent the base from coming out.  however, its really a pain in the @$$ to get it set up right that way, and heres proof, just did a one month soak with the camera unfortunately angled wrong that way.  you can see in the pic of this choco bear that the angle was wrong, completely missed the trail.   so i went ahead and ordered 7 of these t cam mounts here... http://www.trailcampro.com/slaterivergamecameramount.aspx

and they worked great.  now all of my cameras are mounted on these, and im not going to be checking them until about beginning of september.  on 4 of them i used a 5 foot section of portable ladder, so that i could place them about 12 feet high.  and on 3 of them i simply stretched up while standing on the ground, so those ones are 7-8 feet high.  the only reason i had to not use the ladder for the extra 5 feet on 3 of the cameras was that i was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and wanted to expedite the process as much as possible.  if people are still interested in the benefits of placing cameras higher i would be happy to post pics from my various cameras here in september.  i think pics at the same spot, from waist high, how i had them before, compared to placed higher up, would probably be useful compared side by side.    and for anyone asking about placement who has not watched the youtube video i posted earlier in this thread i suggest you watch it, but may as well skip to the 4 min mark.  thats where the benefits of camera height starts getting explained in that video.  give me two months to let my cams sit and ill post results, both the good and the bad, and im thinking it will make an impression.  already from a couple trials im thoroughly convinced that its well worth the effort to place them higher up in the trees, for many reasons.  oh and for whoever asked, that set of pics didnt have any kind of scent or anything, was just placed in a good high traffic area.  anyway heres the pic i said shows that wedging cams is a pain and can get poor results due to the difficulty of getting the proper angle with that method.  id suggest the mount for anybody interested in putting their cams up higher.  as you can see the angle in this pic, where the cam was wedged with branches, is wrong and missed the trail, making that one month soak in a good area an almost total waste.

[jackmaster]

damn thats a hell of an assortment