Chewed up

[Muddydawg17]

 New to trail cams and bad luck right out of the gate.  I set my camera over 10lbs of dog food and some grease and molasses.  Went up to take a look and the bait was cleaned out and the camera destroyed.  Couldn't even read the card.  I installed the camera before handling the bait.  I dont know what went wrong. 

I tried to hang it at least 7ft to avoid this.  It looked like the bear wanted to get at either the batteries or the card.

[Dan-o]

Dang, that's a bummer.

I've had a couple cameras hit by bears but not that hard.

[Bango skank]

You really want to eat a bear thats been eating greasy dog food?   

[Muddydawg17]

I was gonna stop throwing the dog food out at least a couple of weeks before the season opened up.  I suspected there was a good size bear in that spot.  I just wanted to have a look at him.

[7mmfan]

Bears are super curious. Even if the camera had no scent they want to play with it anyway. Also, a 6' bear standing tall can easily reach something 8' up. I'd say you need to he more like 10'+ to really stand a chance of them not messing with it.

[7mmfan]

On the plus side, you know he's there somewhere!

[stw]

Here in Washington once a bear hits a bait for deer elk or anything . And you quit feeding there and the bear comes back and you shoot it even ifs after a few weeks you can get charged for baiting bears because that's a known feeding site to them game wardens consider that baiting bears in Washington .. boom felony charges done hunting .

[greenhead_killer]

I have heard bears smell the batteries in the cams and that’s what gets them to want to chew on them. Either go higher in the tree, or get yourself a bear box to put the cam in.

Stw, looks like he’s in Oregon so probably not an issue with the baiting. I’m not sure on their state laws though.

[huntnnw]

Here in Washington once a bear hits a bait for deer elk or anything . And you quit feeding there and the bear comes back and you shoot it even ifs after a few weeks you can get charged for baiting bears because that's a known feeding site to them game wardens consider that baiting bears in Washington .. boom felony charges done hunting .

felony charges 

[h20hunter]

Regarding bears....get a box for the cam and run some two inch screws from the inside out....looks gnarly and is truelly bear proof.

[Monsterbull11]

Be real careful with what you guys are "feeding" to get pictures. I talked to the game department because I had a barrel out solely to get pictures and they said it's illegal to intentionally feed bears. So dog food and grease might put you in a bad spot. You get a pic of a bear eating your deer food (apples, corn, ect...) they can't show intent. Safe to say, my barrel was pulled the next time I checked that camera.

[Bango skank]

Be real careful with what you guys are "feeding" to get pictures. I talked to the game department because I had a barrel out solely to get pictures and they said it's illegal to intentionally feed bears. So dog food and grease might put you in a bad spot. You get a pic of a bear eating your deer food (apples, corn, ect...) they can't show intent. Safe to say, my barrel was pulled the next time I checked that camera.

Hes in oregon

[Ricochet]

Baiting bears is illegal in Oregon.

[Monsterbull11]

Be real careful with what you guys are "feeding" to get pictures. I talked to the game department because I had a barrel out solely to get pictures and they said it's illegal to intentionally feed bears. So dog food and grease might put you in a bad spot. You get a pic of a bear eating your deer food (apples, corn, ect...) they can't show intent. Safe to say, my barrel was pulled the next time I checked that camera.

Hes in oregon

Caught that after I hit send.