People messing with my trail cameras

[trophyhunt]

I'm building a small army of trail cams to set out next year and my plans are:

- Python locks for all cameras except my really remote ones
- Elevate them above where anyone can reach without climbing
- Set them back from the trail/clearing so they're not as easily spotted

I think some of the cams are designed now to where the lock would prevent someone from getting in to the SD card slot.

python locks are a joke to thieves, first time I used one in the backcountry some azz hat took an elk bone and twisted it right off. Only thing that saved that camera was my bear box that was lag bolted w 3 bolts to the tree. Putting them up higher with a small ladder should help.

[Bareback]

I climbed a tree and put a cam a good 15 feet high in a pretty remote place. Let it soak all spring through fall.  What I noticed is they loose their effectiveness as the distance increases to the trigger point.  I had zero night pictures and limited day, one twighlight. Needless to say after a 5 hr round trip for retrieval I was a bit disappointed at only having 25 shots. One animal and 4 groups of hunters. I did enjoy seeing all the groups of hunters heading back down about 90 minutes later. They must have been enlightened as to the ruggedness of the terrain.

[emac]

I'm building a small army of trail cams to set out next year and my plans are:

- Python locks for all cameras except my really remote ones
- Elevate them above where anyone can reach without climbing
- Set them back from the trail/clearing so they're not as easily spotted

I think some of the cams are designed now to where the lock would prevent someone from getting in to the SD card slot.

Like trophy hunt said python locks are a joke.  Depending on what cameras you get a lock box.  I get all mine from camlockbox.com.  They have been great.  I get bigger master locks for them that fit pretty tight to the lock box.  I try to get ones tight enough that no cutters can get enough bite on them to cut them off.  Not 100% steal proof but they would have to work damn hard to steal them.

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[highcountry_hunter]

Just for the record, I don’t own any trail cams or do I ever plan on buying any. But reading this thread makes me think it is time for someone to develop a decoy/booby trap type device. Of course non-lethal, but inconvenient enough to make people think twice about messing with someone else’s camera. I am think something like the dye packs banks use. The responses to this post should be interesting

I’ve thought about trying to devise something like this with the ink bombs but I’m not an engineer. I’ve also thought about digging a pit trap in front of the camera but the problem is the roots of the tree...this all stemmed from last year somebody stealing my card and batteries but leaving the camera. So I talked to a buddy who hunted in the same area and he said the year before he bolted his camera to the tree with 1/2” lag bolts and they cut his tree down with a chainsaw, stole his tree stand and bashed his camera to a million pieces. Some people think they own the woods
I think one that blasts fart spray on someone when they open it would be hilarious, and effective.