Back at the bobcat log

I decided to put my Spypoint IR6 camera on video mode and give that a try. I have never used that feature on the IR6 and was curious how it would do. I am very happy with the video even if no bobcat showed up. This raccoon sure seemed to like the bobcat lure. I have decided to give up on the bobcat for now and go after turkeys with this camera.

Bobcat lure

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.

Scouting for turkeys

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.

Setting up on new property

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

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.

Hello to Scouting for wildlife

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.