Scouting for wildlife

Bobcat lure

2012-01-21T10:32:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine gave me a bottle of his bobcat lure so that I could try and get my first bobcat on a trail camera. I put the Spypoint IR-6 in the Jefferson National Forest on a point above a rock outcrop. It seemed like a logical place to set a camera trap for a bobcat.

I went back a week later as I could not stand it any longer. No signs of a bobcat but the deer sure liked it. Especially one young doe who was in the area one mid-afternoon with her momma.

Pro-X videos of a young doe

2012-01-07T07:30:00.000-08:00

I recently hung my Spypoint Pro-X trail camera on a high point in the hopes of catching a bear in the area and possibly a bobcat. Though they have not come by yet I did a lot of video of one young doe. Be sure to have your sound on as this camera has sound with it.

I usually spray the area with a scent killer as I leave and I did not do so this time. She hung around for over seven minutes smelling every stick and leaf in the area. She is a cute little thing.

Spypoint Tiny-W

2012-01-06T05:59:00.001-08:00

I just hung a new deer cam in woods last week. I let it sit for about four days before pulling the card to see how it had done. I am really happy with the pictures that it is taking. No monsters came through but this spot sure shows promise for bow season next year.

The camera is a Spypoint Tiny-W. This is Spypoint's smallest camera yet it is full of features. The camera has 38 infrared for night-time illumination and has 7 zone coverage. Another neat feature is you can set it for time lapse mode. I am very happy with this camera.

Scouting for turkeys

2011-02-23T10:52:00.000-08:00

I have decided to try and scout for spring gobblers with my Spypoint cameras this year. I have never chased turkeys with a trail camera and thought it would be a great way to check a lot of area. I moved in December back to the Roanoke area so I need to scout some areas I have not hunted in awhile or ever. So far I have located plenty of deer but only two gobblers since I hung the cameras two weeks ago.

Spypoint Pro-X - What is this?

2011-01-26T05:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks I have been out for months. I broke my arm right before bow season and it put a hurting on my hunting and scouting. I did hang a Spypoint Pro-X out in a friends garden that he had planted with rye. I got this video of a doe being very curious. Be sure to have your sound on as this camera comes with a built in microphone.

Spypoint Cameras on Industry TV

2010-10-09T03:57:00.000-07:00

Spypoint Trail Cameras on Industry TV

The Industry TV, which airs on the Sportsman Channel did a show on Spypoint trail cameras. They covered some good information about Spypoint trail cameras including some new features for Spypoint cameras.

Spypoint Pro-X Doe Video

2010-10-05T04:31:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to check my Spypoint Pro-X the other day. The camera was setup on a friends small property to catch deer movement from the fields to the national forest. I set the camera up to video with sound as I have never used that feature before. I love this camera! I can not wait to go after turkey, bear, coyote, etc.. with this camera! Having the sound really brings a whole new dimension to me.

Spypoint Facebook Contest

2010-10-01T04:02:00.000-07:00

Facebook Photo Contest - Win a $300 Trail Camera From Spypoint!

Post your best trail camera photo on Spypoint Facebook Fan Page , and email it to Spypoint for judging, at,
mcossette@ggtelecom.ca , with the subject line "Facebook Photo Contest."

All trail camera photos are eligible to win.

Photos will be accepted through November 30, 2010, the
winner will receive an IR-8 Trail Camera from Spypoint!

Setting up on new property

2010-09-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

Last week I went and pulled my cameras off of public land. Bow season will be here before you know it and I did not feel comfortable leaving the cameras out there this close to season. When I pulled the Spypoint IR-6 I had over 400 photos of deer and bear in the two weeks it had been on that tree. Needless to say I was stoked.

So I was more then a little down today when I went and checked the cameras on a new piece of private property I have permission to hunt. Instead of 400 or even 200 photos I had around 50 or so on four cameras! Luckily one cow horn spike who happens to have a kicker was gracious enough to give me some shots on several cameras.

Setting up on a new piece of property can be a real chore. You have to figure out where the deer are and where they want to be. You need to find an area that they will stop to feed or stage in to get plenty of photos. I chose poorly this time and got almost as many cow pictures as deer pictures. Granted two weeks ago I had almost 500 cow pictures on this new property so I am doing better.

Today I moved my cameras around again and feel much better. This property does not have any type of food plots and very little grazing grass. The woods are full of acorns, hickories, apples and grapes. Deer are not feeling the need to move as much since food is everywhere this year. Instead I focused on water. I found a nice little sink hole littered with acorns and fresh deer sign. Now the hard part will be waiting until Friday or Saturday to check the camera to see if my plan worked.

Bear Safes Work

2010-09-16T10:35:00.001-07:00

I went and pulled a Spypoint IR-6 cam that I blogged about a couple weeks ago. As I walked into the saddle where the camera was I knew something was going on. My tag end for the master lock python cable was hanging loose from the tree. Upon closer inspection there were nice chew marks on the tag end.

When I looked at the picture count I was shocked to see 470 photos in the last two weeks. The camera was hung in a wilderness area in the Jefferson National Forest. You get pictures of game but not like you would on a farm. Out of the 470 photos about 75 were of bears.

A lot of the bear pics were very blurred due to the bear "playing" with the camera. One is very clearly a bear eye and snout starring into the camera. Another picture twenty seconds later is of the bear walking away.

Not sure what the attraction is to the bears but I am very glad I invested in a bear safe. This was the first trip out for this camera which retails for $210. A $50 bear safe with two lag bolts and a master lock cable lock saved me $210 on my first trip.

Bear Safes

2010-09-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

If you have used a trail camera in an area with bears for longer then a week you know they love trail cameras. Not sure why they love them but they will eat them, chew on them, lick them and turn a $200 camera into a pile of junk in no time flat.

When I upgraded my cameras to Spypoint I knew I wanted a safe that would stop a bear and hopefully a low life thief. I was getting enough pictures of bears that I knew it was only a matter of time before one went into chew mode on one of my cameras.

I ended up ordering two custom fit bear safes for the Spypoint IR-6 and Spypoint Pro-X from Custom 1 enterprises.

When the package arrived from Custom 1 first thing I noticed was the weight of the box. I could not believe two bear safes with padlocks could weigh that much. The next thing I noticed after opening the package was the quality of the product. This safe is heavy duty to say the least. 11 gauge steel that has been powder coated in a nice olive drab green. The cover has been cut to fit the Spypoint cameras exactly. There are holes for a cable lock to pass through at the top and also on the bottom that matches up with the cable lock holes on the Spypoint cameras.

With the shrouded master lock this is one tough bear safe. Another way to protect your investment is the two holes drilled through the back of the safe. I used these to lag the safe to a tree tightly with hardened lag bolts.

As we all know, nothing is full proof. Hopefully though this will be fool proof!

Hello to Scouting for wildlife

2010-08-22T07:30:00.001-07:00

I have started this new blog to follow my scouting of wildlife. I will be using game cameras to scout and capture pictures of Virginia's wildlife. Up until recently I have been using a cheaper brand of camera that is not the best when it comes to taking pictures in the woods. Most of the day time pictures were completely whitened by the infrared.

I now have two new game cameras on order. The cameras are made by Spypoint and are 6 mega pixels and 12 mega pixels. The 6 mp camera is the Spypoint IR-6 and is a compact 4 1/2" X 6 7/8" X 2 7/8". The camera has 48 infrared LEDs for night-time illumination.

The IR-6 can use up to a 32GB SD/SDHC card and also uses six AA batteries. The camera takes color pictures by day and black and white by night. One great feature I like is that the internal unit is removable. This will allow you to keep the camera's shell mounted to the tree and you will not have to re-aim your camera every time you check it.

The Pro-X is a 12.0 megapixel camera. It has the same measurements as the IR-6. I contains a 3" built-in viewing screen to allow you to see your pictures or video in the field. This camera also has 46 infrared LEDs and use up to a 8GB SD card. One feature that really stands out for me is the audio recorder. I can not wait to try and get some bear video and turkey video with audio!

Stay tuned to see some great pictures and videos from these two cameras.