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How many trail cams?

meyeri

PMA Member
How many trail cams you guys running? Also, how many per acreage are adequate to cover the spot well?

I currently have 8 operational and I struggle to cover ground as well as I want; hard to bump up the numbers when it seems like one dies or gets stolen every year. Between public and private I have those 8 cams on about 1500 acres. I feel I get a decent inventory, but every year I run into a scenario where I struggle to get pics of deer I have encounters with. I feel like 1 cam per 100 acres would be a much better spot.

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Good question? I’m going to say 11 cell cams and maybe 10-12 non cell cams and that is on roughly 9 properties.

Maybe adding a few more.
 
Running 9 on three areas covering 50 acres, small woodlots, field edges and crops. These are non-cellular except for one. I get a good idea of what buck are in the vicinity but that changes come the rut. Zeroed in on four locations I hunt regularly year after year with good sucess.
 
A lot of factors here. One farm I've got 10 cams on 115 acres and think I could use more, and another I have 6 cams on 150 and think I'm doing pretty well.
 
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Like others mentioned, somewhat property specific on how many.
Depends alot on the topography and how much edge you have to
funnel where the deer move the most, IMO
 
run 4 cams on 120 acres
Another 8 on 360 acres
3 on 60 acres
4 in another 120

Couple other small farms where i run 1.

About half are now cell cams
 
I used to run 30 cams total stretched out over many farms. I have 7 on 17 acres right now, and most of the time don’t get the same bucks on the cameras. I run 5 on 30 acres usually and same scenario, seems like the farms are divided. I lowered my number and switch to high usage areas depending on time of year- my cell cameras are still sitting on the shelf in my office currently
 
Normally 1 per farm in the best spot. A lot of my spots the deer funnel in as the season goes on. So summer cammeras do not really mean much. I would say November 1st to the late season is the best time for me to run cammeras.
 
I’m runnng 10 SPYPOINT micro links on 177 acres. Last year I had multiple photos of most of the mature bucks crossing our farm. I could easily deploy more cameras and plan to pick up a few more if they have a good sale soon. Last year was the first year I started using trail cameras. They are very entertaining and informative. I’m running them year around.
 
I will have 8 cudde's and 4 moultrie soaker type cameras out in the next couple weeks on only 38 acres. I've often wondered if I'm oversaturating it but since I don't go in a card pull all the time I justify it (at least in my mind!). I think in the upcoming years I might just remove them completely for a couple years to see if it makes any difference. Going to be hard because I really enjoy looking at deer pics! For any that aren't on mock scrapes I like to move them around the parameter each year to see if I'm maybe not aware of any "off the wall" buck entry/exit points to my land.
 
I run 6 on my 25 acres, and 3-4 on 120 acres of public. I have them out from mid July to late January, and they are mostly on scrapes, rub trees, and low fence crossings.
 
I run 2 cells and 5 regulars on my 60. But I run the regular cameras trying to really pick up on deer movement throughout the property. I set them around august in different spots each year and wont check them till end of season or close to. Trying to get intel to use for the next year. I run the cells to try and get an idea of movement times and daylight activity to find a killable buck.
 
Usually average 10-12 on 200 acre farm. None are cell cams. I'd also like to start cutting back and maybe get down to 3 or 4 total on the best plots. I'm still early enough in my hunting life that I love knowing what's out there. Before cams, I hated shooting mistake bucks (young ones) and since using them nothing has been younger than 4.5, so I like that aspect.
 
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