You described it perfectly for me as well, Nate. Except I take my one cam down when hunting starts — just a personal thing as I don’t want to think I’m in any way using technology as a crutch. In fact I can’t see how it would help with elk, since they range such huge areas and cannot be patterned. And the elk in a picture one day might be miles away the next. So it’s a summer recreation for me too, mostly for bears, which like a dip in cool water during the heat of the day all summer. As a hunting tool I don’t want or need it. As an off-season hobby of it’s own, Nate nails it. Here’s one from June … enjoying a mud bath.

Nate,

How far do you have to lead a mushroom when hunting one? 😆 😆 😆

I use a camera. I agree completely with your reasoning. As a matter of fact, my profile picture is from my game camera from the summer. I always “bet” myself how many pictures I will get. Some are really funny.

I guess an argument could be made against them, but if you are getting pictures like mine, you still have to spend DAYS in the woods before seeing “your” deer.

Alex

😀

Great picture Dave!

As far as game cameras go, I would love to own/use one. The main reason being that several Deer on Grandad’s property have marks on them that look like they survived a Cougar attack. Would love to get a picture of the cat/creature responsible. And maybe snap a pic of our trespassing nieghbors too :(.

I see the use for camera’s but I personally do not want one or want to use one due to the fact that it would take away the hunt for me. I am going to get some peoples feathers roughed up when I say this but I see is like a crutch, you can find out what you are hunting and when you need to be hunting. It makes the hunt easier and not as difficult…I find this to a big time disadvantage to the game.

The whole thing that gets me excited for this season, its the whole unknown factor. I have spend many hours this past year in early season looking for morels as well as game trails, going back and partially setting up ground blinds. Then heading back again to finish the ground blinds as well as looking for more trails that the game have started using.

If I were to have a picture of what critters are out by my blinds, it does one of two things to the hunt. #1 it gives a disadvantage to the game, I now know what time and how long a animal stays in the area, to me that is not fair game. #2 It spoils the story for me, I don’t want to know that there is a MONSTER buck in my area, because if I am blind and not know he is there and he walks by me…my gosh what a feeling I would get and what a surprise that would be to see for the first time this beast in my hunting woods!

I know I this is my opinion and I know it is different than what majority of hunters believe but I like the surprises that will stumble across us while we are hunting in the woods….Its like a box of chocolates 😆

Some friends of mine own a (small) wildlife refuge near here and use game cameras fairly extensively just to see who lives on the land beside them. They accept carcasses of livestock from local farms (natural deaths) and set up wildlife cameras to see how the animal is “recycled”. There are many, many rumors (some I truly believe in) of cougar in our area but so far their aptly placed cameras have turned up no evidence. What these cameras capture is fascinating to me, but I am not drawn to them as a hunting tool.

This is worth posting:

http://www.prairie-heritage.org/index.html

-Ben

I don’t mind going thru a box of chocolates to find the one’s I like :D:D.

I like my camera mainly for the whatevers that turn up. I also have one monitoring my front yard and porch for whatevers also. Amazing what runs around in the dark when you live on the edge of town: skunks, foxes, coyotes, strays of all sorts, including people. Only ruffled feathers around here are on the doves going down. I have no idea about doves and archery so not taking a chance there with doing wrong thing with lucky miraculous shot if it happened. 😆

When hunting for mushrooms Nate do you have to get up as early as we do/ I got turned on by the wife and love the fresh flavor. Luckily ours need no lead but need to get there early or they get gone.

You explain it well for me also, TK. I’ve come to enjoy using a game cam off-season and view it as a whole different “sport.” When hunting season comes around I take it down. Even though such a tool is useless for elk, unless you are baiting illegally, I don’t want to feel or have others think I’m using it as a crutch. Modern hunting is so full of crutches they trip would-be hunters up at every turn. I too love the mystery and without it, why bother. In the game cam pic below, taken last month, see the white log (barkless aspen) lying down at the center top? Just behind that is the skeleton of last year’s bull. He was standing in the water when I shot and that’s as far as he got — barely 15 yards. So this year when I sit in the same place in evening ambush I am looking at the bones of last year’s bull and it fills me with confidence in my Ashby-inspired elk setup. That’s a total side-trip of topic, I know, but if a trad bowhunter can’t boast a bit about making near-instant humane kills … well, why not? Now I just hope I haven’t hexed my karma for this year. 😛