By Alex Comstock
It’s amazing to me just how much trail cameras have developed over the years. From film, to digital, to now where a trail camera can snap a photo and seconds later you can be viewing that photo on your cell phone. If you take a second to stop and think about it, it’s fairly mind blowing. There can be some controversy though, over cellular trail cameras and for good reason. We’ll talk more about them this upcoming season, but today, I wanted to focus on three benefits of using a cellular trail camera and how they can help you.
1. Real Time Data
Arguably the biggest benefit of a cellular trail camera is the ability to have real time data in the moment. It can serve useful on so many different occasions. For me, I hunt out of state a lot, and having cell cams in these other states can help determine when to make a trip to hunt. If you have a couple cell cams on a property out of state and all of a sudden the last week of October, they start lighting up, you may be inclined to take a quick trip and capitalize.
The same can be said for having cellular trail cameras close to home. For a lot of us, we have multiple spots to hunt, even if it’s just one property. And a lot of times, hunters will run around checking trail cameras before deciding where to hunt. With a cellular trail camera, that is simply taken out of the equation. You can be viewing real time data without having to pressure a bunch of spots (more coming on this) and make your decision where to sit on a particular day based on the data your trail cams are showing you.
2. Less Pressure
As I just mentioned, by utilizing cellular trail cameras, you don’t have to be in the woods as often checking those cameras, and therefore you can be pressuring areas much less often, which in my book is a big win. When I talk about trail cameras, I like to talk about how you should let them soak for weeks to months at a time in the summer and at least a couple weeks at a time during the season. But, let’s face it, that’s not easy for a lot of people to do. Most people want to be checking their trail cameras often. Ultimately, the more you check cameras, the more pressure you’re applying to your spots. With a cellular camera though, you can scratch that itch of wanting to check cameras by getting them sent right to your phone. You don’t have to physically go out to your camera location as often, and by default you’ll be applying less pressure to your spots, which will only help you.
3. Security
The last benefit that I want to cover when it comes to cellular trail cameras is one that’s not discussed as often and that’s security benefits. It’s almost a shame that this is a topic I want to cover, but it’s a reality. People like to steal trail cameras for whatever reason. I’m still shocked it ever happens, simply because it’s wrong on so many levels. With a cell cam though, you can at least feel a little better, because if someone walks in front of your camera that would normally swipe it, either one of two things will happen. They will notice it’s a cellular camera, and not take it or they won’t realize that and if they do steal it, boom you have immediate evidence of who took it. It’s not a perfect science, as someone could obviously approach it from behind the camera, but there’s a much better chance of you catching the person.
Another way of implementing it as a security measure is if you happen to get a picture of someone and they’re not supposed to be on your land in the first place. Let’s say you have permission on a piece of private or even own land, and if you get a photo of someone trespassing, you could either head out there if it’s close by, call your landowner neighbor, etc. to catch the person trespassing in the act. At the end of the day, having a cellular camera can help your security measures immensely.
Conclusion
Cellular trail cameras have changed the game, no doubt. They allow you to do things and make decisions based on information that you never could before. And each year, they come down in price, becoming more and more affordable. If you’ve never utilized a cellular trail camera, I highly recommend it.
