Biggest advantage of cell cams over sd and wifi cams….

[redblood]

And there are a bunch. But i am amazed at how i am taught a daily lesson, with real time reminders, on peak times of deer movement. At work my phone starts have clusters of seizures as deer trip cams on different farms and different areas at virtually the same time. I know , that in theory, you could ascertain the same info when you pull cards and tabulate the data on paper, but man it is so much effective and immediate when you phone is screaming it you every single days. Few things i noticed.

1. Deer are active at night but not super active
2. 1st light is the most active time
3. The first 2 hours are especially active
4. Last light is really good near agriculture
5. Movement is greatly enhanced during a cool fronts and during light rains, pretty much anywhere and anytime
6. Very little midday movement until rut draws near.

 

[TheLBLman]

As the rut hits, you can still throw out much of the above.
Each of those above 6 items can be very site specific, generally true, but may be just the opposite at certain cam sites.

There is generally an additional seasonal difference in deer behavior, range shifting, i.e. summer vs. fall vs. winter, as well as changing food sources, etc.

Biggest advantage of cell cams to me, generally speaking, is simply not having to visit the cam locations so often. This saves time & money, while keeping the areas less disturbed.

Much of the extra cost of cellular service plans is actually recouped in gas & time savings over regular trail cams. In some cases, the monetary savings of cell cams makes using them less costly than regular trail cams.

Other advantages include seeing what's happening sooner instead of later.

One big advantage is knowing whether your cam is actually working, or not.
Can't tell you now many times I've had cams not working for weeks, and only discovered that weeks later.

With cell cams, if your cam quits working, you know to prioritize visiting that specific cam sooner.

 

[tree_ghost]

There is a huge advantage to having those peak movement times fresh on your brain

 

[Wrangler95]

I like the cell cams over SD card way more!Like said saves gas and disturbance!

 

[DaveTN]

How much are you guys paying for unlimited plans?

 

[Carlos]

@redblood That's a very accurate summary IMO.
I've noticed the same thing in my area.

 

[Planking]

They are really nice for trapping yotes.

 

[Ski]

I've got nothing against cell cams. But I just don't personally see any benefit. Other than the cool factor of getting instant pics on my phone, there's no information I glean from it that is any more useful than the information I get from a traditional camera. I suppose it's probably in the way they're used, what you're looking to get from it. For me, current season info isn't near as important or useful as historical info. The intel I get from my cams this year won't affect my hunt hardly at all for this season but will become critical data points to factor into historical patterns & trends going forward. For that I don't need instant pics sent to my phone.

I also often hear that checking cams puts pressure on an area, but that hasn't been my experience at all, or at least not in any significant way. The added information I get from boots on ground while checking cams far outweighs any minor adverse affects my presence might cause. I've been using trad cams for a long time and can't think of a single time checking my cams realistically prevented or hindered me from getting a buck I was after. On the other hand walking through the woods to scout while checking cams has resulted in finding sign that directly led to tagging some bucks.

At the end of the day you'll choose what you think is best and find or create justifications to support that decision, whichever way you choose to go. Given my own personal circumstances that are unique to me, cell cams are useless as tits on a boar hog. For another hunter traditional cams may be just as useless.

 

[deerhunter10]

I also often hear that checking cams puts pressure on an area, but that hasn't been my experience at all, or at least not in any significant way.

For us it's not really the pressure so much as we are spread out. Our best farm is 40 minutes away. Got a place behind the house that's a 20 minute side by side ride to get to. Just makes places like that easier to stay on top of what is going on. I've said since they came out. We killed big deer without them killed big deer with them. They take them away we will still kill big deer. But they are a nice tool.