How long to leave the cam?

[Jburke]

So the title pretty much says it all.  I'm new to the trail cam thing and just curious about how long I should leave it before checking it.  I'm thinking a week would probably be enough but Iv'e seen people leave them longer.  Obviously the longer it sits the more pictures it should have, but if it's not getting action I don't want to leave it in the same spot and waste time.

[huntnnw]

Depends what the cam is sitting on trail,salt or feed etc.. if ya had feed out and left 2 weeks I am sure the SD card would be full... if its on a trail and batterys would last u could leave a month, but at the same time seeing whats on a trail now and come fall isnt going to be to beneficial... The other is how close ya live...if its close versus ways away and fuel costs u might wanna leave it a couple weeks. My cams right now sit about 2 weeks before checking them they are over salt licks. I have a cam up in the Mts on a elk spot that will sit a month.

[Maverick]

i just set 2 yesterday on trails. ill check them in a week-2 weeks

[bobcat]

I think two weeks is a good length of time for me. But sometimes I only wait one week, especially if it's a new location, and I'm not sure about how much activity there will be, and/or I'm not sure how lighting and other factors will affect picture quality. I just checked a camera today that had been out for one day short of two weeks. It was a new location, and a new camera. I ended up with 673 videos of nothing. It was on the edge of a clearcut and it must have been the sun that set it off. My 2GB SD card was full. It did last for ten days. But I wish I would've checked it sooner. I will probably go out tomorrow and move it to another location.

In other already established trail cam locations that I have, I will let them soak for at least two weeks each time. I try to limit the time I spend in these areas, leaving my scent and disturbing the wildlife. But sometimes it is hard to wait two weeks. However, not so hard if you have six cameras out.

[Button Nubbs]

If you put them further away from your house its easier to wait

[Jburke]

Well I got it set up this afternoon in a place that I knew there were some elk.  Turns out I may have found a better spot than I had originally thought.  Found lots of old sign on the hike in and then found about a dozen or so beds just inside the brush.  Elk are some smelly animals sometimes!  Set the cam up on a trail by the beds with a trophy rock next to the trail.  Will wait a week or so and see what shows up.  Little leary about leaving it on public land but this isn't on a road or anything so I'm hoping it's far enough away from anywhere people might be.  Worst case scenario is to start over with a new cam I guess.  That's a huge factor as to why I bought the cheap one.  If someone does find it and swipe it I'm out 50 bucks instead of hundreds.  Will post some pictures when I check it out.

[Baggman]

If its a new cam you cant really leave it for a long time till you know it is working properly. Once you know everthing is working right and animals are around and no Fn. theifs are around I leave mine for two weeks. Keep track on paper of times and dates so you can have a supprise date with your animals latter in the season.

[Alan K]

I used to leave my Bushnell with a 16 GB card in Idaho from spring break to when I came back over after summer break. (Mainly because I didn't have a quad and the gates were locked when I went to hike in.) I've found that if you get a long way from any roads that people can drive (walk/pedal bike/horseback areas) and go downhill where there are no roads in the bottom you're pretty safe. Especially in steep ground.  

The only camera I've ever had ripped off was down on the coast in a relatively flat area not far from a road in a high visibility area that any half wit hunter would check out because of the amount of animals you'd regularly see down in that shallow draw from the road.  Wasn't so much set up there expecting to see anything other than what I'd already seen from driving in, but just to get pictures.  Got burned. 

[huntnnw]

I have setup cams to have bears tear them down after 2 days  or SD cards that are incompatible

[Jburke]

Well I at least made sure it was working with the sd card before taking it all the way there and checked to make sure it was taking pictures before I left.  So as far as the camera functioning properly it looks ok.  I think I even have it angled good to actually get animals in the pictures, not just brush or trees.  As far as where I put it, it's not on a road or anything.  I park on a road but that's about as far as I go on the road before I start hiking through the brush.  It's about a mile hike or so, but it's not a hard hike really.  Just kind of a little area we found last year that I felt needed to be scouted some.  I will openly admit that I don't normally do much scouting.  With work and the fact that I normally fish a lot during the summer I don't normally have a lot of extra time.  But this year I have spent so much money for hunting already I'm trying to make it pay off.  That and my fishing partner works out of town now so that leaves more time to scout instead of fish.

[bmccalister]

Some good points. As for how long I leave my cameras out depends on the location of the camera, what type of activity I am seeing, relation to opening day, and my schedule. This year I have been checking my cameras every week while last year I was checking them every two weeks. This year I have been getting a lot of activity but most of it is coyote and a bear. I am not sure why but a bear really likes one of my cameras. Every week it is repositioned on the tree with close ups of the bear mouthing my camera; however, I have yet to get any deer on either of my cameras in this area.

I read how some people have had problems with people stealing cameras or people who are worried about people stealing cameras. I place my cameras in areas I know no other people will be willing to walk to; for example, behind closed gates. It has been my experience that a good number of hunters are lazy and are not willing to put in the extra work to harvest their animals.

Good point about checking and testing your equipment before going into the filed. When I buy new equipment I always test it out before I go into the field. However, sometimes the only way to get a realistic opinion about a piece of equipment is actually using it in the field; for example, I purchased a shooting stick at a sportsman show that worked great under ideal conditions but in the field it was a piece of garbage. 

[Arrow]

I generally leave mine out there for 2-3 weeks at a time and I have gone longer too. My camera is about a 3 hours drive away and a long hike in so its not something I want to do ever week. I also feel in a remote spot like this you don’t want to be in the woods ever week or you run the risk of changing their patterns or pushing them out of the area all together.   

[KimberRich]

If you put them further away from your house its easier to wait

So true.. Mine are roughly 302.6 miles from my house.  Makes checking them every couple weeks tough!  I've learned my lessons the hard way about camera location, battery life, branches that move in heavy winds... etc etc..  Nothing like dreaming of giant bucks for 2 months only to check your camera and find 1600 pictures of a stick blowing in the wind the day after you set the camera.

If I were closer I would probably check mine every couple weeks.  Enough to keep the "attractant" fresh but leave as little of my scent in the area as possible. 

[Jburke]

If you put them further away from your house its easier to wait

So true.. Mine are roughly 302.6 miles from my house.  Makes checking them every couple weeks tough!  I've learned my lessons the hard way about camera location, battery life, branches that move in heavy winds... etc etc..  Nothing like dreaming of giant bucks for 2 months only to check your camera and find 1600 pictures of a stick blowing in the wind the day after you set the camera.

If I were closer I would probably check mine every couple weeks.  Enough to keep the "attractant" fresh but leave as little of my scent in the area as possible.

The wind was another of my concerns.  It was pretty windy when I set it up and I wasn't completely sure if I was going to have sd carrd full of tree branches or not.  It didn't appear to be in the way of the camera but I guess I will find out tomorrow when I go check it.

[Skyvalhunter]

You don't want to taint the area with a bunch of your scent. Leave it out there a month or so. That is unless you are taking pictures of your backyard deer.