Outdoor - The DIY Hunter

Details: Written by The DIY Hunter; Category: Outdoor; Published: 18 May 2014; Hits: 152

Here's a bull elk about ready to start growing his antlers. This was taken with a Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) trail camera. Click on the image to download the full size original JPG this trail camera captured.

Browning Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) trail camera.

Here's a cow and a yearling bull starting to grow his first antlers. This was taken with a Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) trail camera. Click on the image to download the full size original JPG this trail camera captured.

On this clump of small trees I strapped on a Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) trail camera, a Recon Force (BTC-2) trail camera, and a battery pack. To get the cameras pointed in the right direction I use Browning Tree Mounts.

This location saw a lot of activity last year so I wanted to double up the cameras in hopes of catching more of the action there. One camera just can't cover this spring well enough.

This location at times saw a lot of activity last year. To keep the camera taking video as long as possible, I have a micro sized Strike Force (BTC-5) trail camera with an external battery pack attached. I also have a 32 Gig SDHC memory card in the camera. As long as the bears don't tear down the camera this camera should have plenty of battery and memory to keep taking videos until I return to check it.

I picked up a couple newer 2014 models of trail cameras this year. I put them out on the mountain back in April when I was out hunting for shed antlers with my boys. For weeks now I have been wondering what might be passing by the cameras. With it being so early in the year I knew that there probably weren't a ton of critters in that high area on the mountain however I was hoping to possibly catch a glimpse of a black bear.

This time up the mountain I brought all my trail cameras that I pulled from the river bottom where I had them out all winter and early spring. I moved all the cameras around this trip out.

I placed cameras in my favorite spots from last year and with the additional new cameras I am experimenting with some other locations to see how active they are and what might pass in those locations.

One thing I am doing a little different this year is I am purchasing 32 Gig SDHC memory cards. I primarily like to set the cameras on video mode and last year there were a few times that in less than two weeks I would have full cards using 16 and 8 gig cards. Not wanting to miss any of the action I am working on getting the largest capacity SD cards.

Well after reviewing the images and video I didn't get anything super exciting but there are a few critters starting to move into the area. There's a few coyotes, lots of mule deer and elk in the area. Antlers are just starting to grow and no sign of bears, fawns and calf elk yet. Next trip out I should start seeing some fawns and calves I would believe.

It was pretty funny to watch a couple doe mule deer detect my scent on the camera from the day before when I put the camera out. You can check out some of that footage below.

Some bull elk pass by my Strike Force trail camera. The one bull stops and turns to look back. It is pretty cool to see the moisture of his breath in the air.

A coyote happens to look over and notice the red cluster of IR lights illuminated on the camera. The light they make is invisible but if you are looking directly at the camera you can see a faint red IR LED light dots. I prefer this spectrum of IR lighting over the Black Flash spectrum as it has greater illumination distance and I like that some animals take notice and are curious and investigate the little red LEDs.

The Black Flash cameras like my Spec Ops (BTC-3) trail camera work great they just don't have the flash distance of my trail cameras with the light red LEDs showing when they flash.

Details: Written by The DIY Hunter; Category: Outdoor; Published: 20 April 2014; Hits: 200

KB and Dallen looking for shed elk antlers.

Mountain Bluebird watching us from the oak brush.

KB packing some spike elk antlers in his backpack.

The crew of us boys with our five spike elk antlers. Landen was a little down for the photo. He wanted to find a big antler. Me too, me too.

My three boys and I decided to go hunt for shed elk antlers over Easter break. I was off for Good Friday and so I took the boys out to see what we could find.

I knew a very general area of where the elk would be this time of year and we set out to scour the area. The elk would have been shedding their antlers over the past several weeks with the smaller bulls probably just losing their antlers.

The area we were hunting in has lots of thick oak brush. We spent a couple hours weaving around and around looking for antlers. We were finding a great deal of fresh elk tracks so they had to of dropped their antlers somewhere near by.

After a couple hours we found a nice brown elk spike in a meadowy area. After finding this one we really scoured that area very carefully and ended up finding five spike antlers within about 200 yards of each other. Two of the spikes were brown and three were whiteys from years past.

So we have a pretty good idea of where we can find spikes in future years to come but where were the bachelor groups of bulls hanging out when they dropped their antlers? I figured they would be lower because they would have dropped their antlers sooner than the spikes. We spent another couple hours working our way down the mountain hoping to find some nice branched antlers but we couldn't find any.

I had brought a couple of Browning's newest trail cameras with me in my Alps Pathfinder pack. The boys were a little tired so I let them play together building a fort while I hiked up a draw to set out the trail cameras.

I was excited to get a couple of new Recon Force XR, BTC-2XR trail cameras and a Strike Force, BTC-5 trail camera. I have loved the cool videos and images I have been getting with my 2013 models of Browning BTC-1, 2, and 3 trail cameras and I'm excited to try out Browning's new 2014 models this year.

The Strike Force BTC-5 trail camera is really small and is packed with awesome features. I can't wait to see what it captures. It's a little early in the year but I would love to catch some bears or young calf elk and whatever else I can on the cameras.

As luck would have it, as I was out setting out the trail cameras I stumbled onto a small five point elk antler. How funny! I didn't think I was in an area that they would have shed their antlers. The boys weren't amused that somehow I found the "big" antler while I told them to have fun here while I go off to setup trail cameras.

Browning Recon Force XR next to the smaller Strike Force trail camera.

The bottom and back view of a Browning Recon Force XR next to the smaller Strike Force trail camera. I like the heavier duty strap loops on the back of the Strike Force.

This Recon Force XR trail camera looks much the same as the original Recon Force. One noticeable change are the back-lit buttons when in update mode. Most of the changes come in the form of better images, video, IR lighting and sensors.

I hiked up a draw to put out some trail camera while the boys were playing and building a fort. Oops, the boys aren't going to be happy about me finding a five point antler.

I setup a Browning Strike Force trail camera with a Browning Trail Camera Power Pack watching one of my favorite locations from last year. I am curious to see how well the batteries last with this camera and with the power pack setup.

Here's a closer view of the Browning Trail Camera Power Pack.

This shows the Browning Recon Force XR next to the smaller Strike Force trail camera with the doors open.

Here's a sample image taken from the Strike Force trail camera. It was a dull cloudy day and as you can see the snow is still on the ground from winter. Within a couple weeks things should really start to green up.

Here's a link to the original high resolution jpg image the Strike Force trail camera took which is a 10 MegaPixel image with a 2.8 MB file size.

Details: Written by The DIY Hunter; Category: Outdoor; Published: 03 March 2014; Hits: 80

During this winter I have set out my trail cameras in a creek bottom where mule deer and turkeys like to winter. In this setup I have a Browning Spec Ops trail camera watching the edge of a fence corner post where deer like to funnel around. I have many, many deer photos and videos from this location. As I was scrolling through the many deer photos from this camera from the past couple weeks I came across these photos of a Red-Tailed Hawk pouncing on a rodent, fly up to a fence post and then a Magpie comes in to scavenge below the hawk. The trail camera was set to take six rapid-fire photos. In this setting it starts taking photos about six tenths of a second after it is triggered and then it takes six photos rapidly in two seconds time. And I have the camera set to a five second delay before it can be triggered again.

In this series of photos the camera is triggered just before the hawk hits the ground. Then sometime five or more seconds later the hawk takes off triggering the camera again and it starts taking photos as it is flying up to the post. Finally a Magpie flies in triggering the camera and gets his picture taken six times.