Banning Trail Cams, thermo imaging, …..

Well Utah just did it
https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2022/01/05/utah-wildlife-board-bans/

I’ve been thinking about this as technology increases. Now that you can get cameras that link on one cell plan, and you can stream live video or images. How soon before they get banned around here? A hunter could in theory be using them like surveillance cameras in the aid of hunting. I glanced at the WI regulations and found very little in the summaries regarding electronic devices for deer. I recall years ago seeing some language with some restrictions on drones. Wonder if this has the potential to grow and affect us in the midwest??

Interesting. I guess I never really thought about the angle of a hunting being in a tree actively hunting, gets an alert on his phone that a deer passed by one of his other cameras. This could get interesting.
I was sitting in the bar a few months back and there is a guy that bowhunts right behind it. He is sitting there (after dark) and having a beer and his phone goes off. Hes like damn, theyre going through now! LOL

Thank goodness they’re allowing thermal for predators.

Thermal in the outdoors opens a window like sonar did for water! Amazing what you can learn animals do/go in the darkness.

I’m all about limits. If the limit is correct, the method is immaterial.

But in regard to cameras, they’ll perish eventually. People to concerned with others success to look at their own failures in achieving success. Misery loves company as they say.

5 gallon bucket man hates the guy with the toys. All tech in outdoors is an avenue to better understand your prey. Ignorance is bliss… tell a guy something new who is already set in his own knowledge of the subject often ends in confrontation..
Hence, the term “fair chase”

I’ve never had the urge to use a trail camera for hunting. I feel like it ruins the surprise and wonder. Removes the mystery, if you will. I feel the same way about live imaging sonar for fishing, although I do think it’s intriguing to watch and you could learn a lot from it.

Now get your pitchforks

Never did think about it from that angle tho- about aiding illegally in a hunt like two-way radios. Interesting point.

Boone & Crockett does not recognize game taken using cellular trail cameras. The position is on their website at https://www.boone-crockett.org/bc-position-statement-big-game-records-eligibility and states:

Trail cameras can be a helpful tool in game management and selective hunting. The use of any technology that delivers real-time location data (including photos) to target or guide a hunter to any animal in a manner that elicits an immediate (real-time) response by the hunter is not permitted. “Real time” is the key concept. Seeing a photo and harvesting an animal a few hours later, or even the same day, uses this technology to assure a kill. It also takes advantage of the animal, which cannot detect impending danger from a camera. Waiting several days, or even until the following season, to pursue an animal captured on camera is different, and would not be deemed an unethical use of a trail camera.

As for cameras that require hunters to physically check the photos from trail cams, the Club has no specific policy. The Club requires a hunter to follow state regulations…

I’m not one who uses a camera in the woods. I just never bought in to them or owned one. Nothing against cameras by any means.
But real time photos being linked to cell phones is just nothing I see as a sportsman. I get it to watch your land or have them out there through out the year, but for hunting I think it’s pure laziness.

I use a trail cam at my treestand sites. They are not linked to my phone or anything. Just an SD card that i have to manually remove and take back to the house to view. I use it just to get an idea of what kind of deer are around. It does not affect when and where i hunt. Still hunt the wind and go out at normal hunting times. I never really thought about the implications of having real time photos and videos sent to a phone.

I don’t know why Wis. would ban them, the season runs from sept thru Jan. the DNR appears to want to kill off every deer in the state, they hand out doe tags like tickets to the county fair. In my opinion our DNR is the most poorly ran agency in the state. when I was a kid you could see 50-75 deer in a feild in the evening, now you may see 10-15. opening day of rifle season in the 80’s you could normally see 20-25 deer, now i’m lucky to see 10 all season, I would say the majority of those with cell camera’s are looking for trophy deer, with our dnr those are getting few and far in- between.

I’m not for banning camera by any means. But I don’t think real time cameras that send pics to a cell should be legal for hunting.
It’s as bad as hinting inside a high fenced in farm.
We all want a trophy when it comes to hunting and fishing. But putting in work, reading the woods and the signs a animal leaves is half the fun. It’s to bad so many ” sportsman ” are to lazy to do just that.

Beast wrote:

I don’t know why Wis. would ban them, the season runs from sept thru Jan. the DNR appears to want to kill off every deer in the state, they hand out doe tags like tickets to the county fair. In my opinion our DNR is the most poorly ran agency in the state. when I was a kid you could see 50-75 deer in a feild in the evening, now you may see 10-15. opening day of rifle season in the 80’s you could normally see 20-25 deer, now i’m lucky to see 10 all season, I would say the majority of those with cell camera’s are looking for trophy deer, with our dnr those are getting few and far in- between.

Couldn’t agree more!

Personally I think they could almost put a season on them, but probably nearly impossible to enforce. Probably why Utah just banned them.

I run a lot of non cell cameras. Typical sad cards need to be pulled and viewed as one would expect. I have deployed a couple cell type for security. They cover my house and buildings plus a couple high traffic areas where trespassing a holes come in my property.

The real time cell cams are awesome for seeing cars in the driveway and who is around. I have no need or desire for using as a hunting aid.

However I enjoy using my regular cams almost more than actually hunting. Unique circumstances with my father’s health, but pulling cards and having him look through them has been fun. He even gives me locations to put cams.

Beyond deer and how deer respond to our farm activity, I get to see coyote, skunks, badger, turkey, and more. It enables me to manage my land the best I can. For me it’s about balance and habitat. So cams are just one tool that helps in the big picture – no pun intended. As stated above, they don’t strongly influence where I hunt at. That’s all influenced by the conditions in that moment. But I’ll be pissed if we have full ban.
Over all if WI did any restrictions, it will one of those “add on” fines. Would be dam hard to enforce

gregory wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Beast wrote:</div>
I don’t know why Wis. would ban them, the season runs from sept thru Jan. the DNR appears to want to kill off every deer in the state, they hand out doe tags like tickets to the county fair. In my opinion our DNR is the most poorly ran agency in the state. when I was a kid you could see 50-75 deer in a feild in the evening, now you may see 10-15. opening day of rifle season in the 80’s you could normally see 20-25 deer, now i’m lucky to see 10 all season, I would say the majority of those with cell camera’s are looking for trophy deer, with our dnr those are getting few and far in- between.

Now that we’ve kicked the DNR in the knee for the shape of the deer herd again. There is someone else to look at for excessive seasons and limits. Not where most people would look. Lobbyists run state governments. I repaired deer damaged vehicles for 45 years. 20 years ago, we would be repairing deer hits 3 months after the rut, and weeks after the does weaned the fawns in the spring. When they had their new fawns. It was no secret the DNRs were pushed to reduce deer herds. When I quite 5 years ago, we were seldom behind over a week or so. That cost my small shop 10s of thousands of dollars a year. Can you imagine what it saved State Farm and other large insurers pushing the issue.
Now that we’re good with cell phone/ trail cameras. What would you think if they made drones “legal” to fly over a timber before guys set up a deer drive? Not a hater here. I have 2- $59 cameras by my hard sided blind. To see if there is a deer in the proximity. Could care less about antlers. I live over an hour away from my spot, check cam a couple weekends before season. Had about 8 different deer in 20 days, two days straight without a deer. Didn’t feel I should kill anymore. The coyotes are taking more than their fair share around me.

FWIW,

We (by ‘we’ I mean my buddy) use a handful of cell-linked cameras on the land we hunt. It’s my buddy’s grandfather’s farm, and it’s about 3-3 1/2 hours south of us, about as close o the WI/IA border as you can get. He has four or five cameras set up on the property, roughly 320 acres with us hunting maybe half of it. His cameras send him pictures every 6, 12, or 24 hours (I think) depending on the setting, not real-time. We still go down to the property several times a year to scout, but it’s helpful when trying to place stands and blinds late summer/early fall. I will say we’ve had pictures come in of deer we’d happily harvest during the week leading up to a weekend hunt, but so far they’ve been from locations we had already planned on hunting, so it wasn’t like we switched our plans up for the next day because of a pic we got the night before. Also after the shooting started on opening day, the amount of pictures we go was drastically reduced. If anything, I’d say overall they had a negative impact on our hunting, since it was tougher to be optimistic about going down for a long weekend when nothing had came through on the cameras all week!

Personally, I think using one to actively track animals real-time would be unethical. As far as using them to help decide what you’re going to do in the next few days/week, I don’t think it’s as big of an issue. They’re definitely nice for people that don’t have the time to spend a ton of time on a piece of property throughout the year.

P.S. They did help catch a guy stealing catalytic converters from the amateur junkyard his grandpa is seemingly building on his property!

What’s the difference if the camera sends you pictures real time or 6 hours latter? Your still pattering animals and what time they come through every day without even having to leave your couch. At least with the SD card type you have to take the time and energy to go out in the woods and check them. Just my opinion

“To craft a camera rule, DWR mailed surveys to 9,000 licensed hunters seeking data on their use own use of cameras and their opinions on regulating them. Of the 2,300 who responded, 57% had not used trail cameras, and only 8% of those who did used transmitting cameras, according Wyatt Bubak, a DWR enforcement officer. Around half the respondents favored restrictions on trail cameras, but that portion rises to two thirds if the restriction targets cameras that transmit images, Bubak said in his video presentation.

While about half of the camera users deployed five cameras or less at a time, the survey did included 11 respondents who deployed 30 or more.

Tuesday’s action also puts an end to the sale of data and images produced by trail cameras. Apparently there is market for such information.

“One of the things we’ve noticed popping up around the West are services where you will go online, see a picture of an animal that you like and then purchase that animal’s image, location information and date that photo was taken from a trail camera in the hopes of harvesting that animal in that location,” said Jones. “Public sentiment was that they would like to see that prohibited, and that’s a recommendation we’re making.”

I wonder how wide spread that is?

I’m about 99.9% sure there would be no legislation passed in MN banning trail cameras. There are too many in use now and no way to enforce a law against them. Not to mention there already are laws against using unattended electronic devices to take wild animals. The problem is proving someone used a radio, cell phone, trail cam or some sort of electronic trip wires to alert a hunter of approaching animals.

In my own experience using trail cameras over 15 years, I’ve only shot one deer from my stand that I got a picture of. I don’t think it’s as big of an issue that it’s made out to be.