Leverage Cutting-Edge Trail Camera Technology to Harvest More Bucks

Humans, particularly hunters, are often walking contradictions. If you ask a typical hunter whether they support anti-hunting groups lobbying to reduce opportunities for any subset of hunters, they will passionately express disapproval. However, ask that same hunter whether they support reducing opportunities for nonresidents in their state, and their tone might shift dramatically.

Likewise, many hunters claim that technology is eroding the essence of hunting. Yet, the boundaries we establish regarding technological use are often fluid and quickly adjustable. In the 1960s, when Holless Allen began experimenting with a traditional bow to enhance its efficiency, he likely had no idea he was about to divide the small bowhunting community.

Allen’s revolutionary Compound Bow, with its rudimentary system of cams and pulleys, entered the market in 1967. The backlash was both swift and expected. Today, if you were to take one of his original bows into the field, your hunting partners might think you’ve lost your senses. And not the kind of medical care reserved for stitching wounds or setting broken bones, either.

Technological progress is inevitable. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the evolution of trail cameras. Over just a few decades, these devices have undergone drastic transformations. For younger hunters, it may be hard to believe that the first trail cameras contained disposable film. To see if you captured anything noteworthy, you had to remove the film, take it to a developer, and sift through the pictures. Most of the time, there was nothing of interest.

Today, trail cameras have evolved dramatically. If you’ve transitioned to cellular trail cameras, you’ve embraced cutting-edge technology. The next step is mastering its use to maximize your hunting advantage.

New Features & Modes

Cellular trail cameras now offer a wide array of customizable settings. These include trigger sensitivity, burst mode, trigger delay, and multiple resolution options for both video and photos. It’s essential to tailor these settings to your specific hunting needs.

For instance, if you’re aiming to capture rutting behavior, setting your camera to take just one picture and then wait two minutes before taking another is not ideal. You’ll want to capture images of both the doe and the buck in pursuit. Multi-shot mode with a brief interval between triggers is the best solution. Alternatively, a one-minute video clip ensures you don’t miss any action.

However, modern cameras go far beyond these basic features. Recently, I set up a few 70MAX cellular trail cameras in northern Wisconsin, aiming to gather intel. One camera was placed at the edge of a swamp where two trails meet. Surprisingly, I was able to configure it to capture deer images exclusively. Although the area is teeming with raccoons and turkeys, I used the Smart Capture feature in the 70MAX Mobile app to filter out everything but deer during the summer and early fall.

The camera’s location on a hillside makes it ideal for capturing deer moving along higher trails. When they enter the frame, the camera is triggered instantly. This is a common feature in most cameras. However, the 70MAX model offers a Smart Zone feature, providing a gridded image of the camera’s field of view through their app. You can then tap on specific grid sections to make them off-limits for triggering the camera.

For my setup, I selected every grid on the left side of the camera, as deer in that area were closest and likely to trigger premature images. Now, the deer must walk farther into the frame before the camera captures an image.

Refine, Explore, and Keep Experimenting

Today’s trail cameras offer a range of technology that might make Fred Bear turn over in his grave. The real game-changer, though, is how seamlessly your smartphone integrates into the camera system. The apps developed by these companies unlock a variety of features, which adds to the excitement of using them.

Some apps provide weather forecasts or track activity patterns from your cameras, offering insight into the best days to skip work and get into the tree stand. Others allow you to share images with your hunting partners, which could either be a great feature or a drawback, depending on how secretive you are about your target list.

Ultimately, if you decide to use cell trail cameras, it’s worth learning how to maximize their potential. These new models are brimming with features that might help you land a big deer this season, but they might not make a difference at all. It’s up to you to experiment and determine what works best for your strategy, if that’s something you find appealing.

Of course, this technology may not be for everyone. But if history tells us anything, it’s that in a few years, it probably will be. By then, newer, more revolutionary gadgets will emerge, making today’s tools seem like artifacts from a bygone era.