Public Land Trail Cam Etiquette

[Mallardsx2]

At what point is it not fair chase, or even really hunting?


I agree and that is why I personally stopped using cellular trail cameras. I got a picture of a buck sent to my phone one year that was gasping his last breath after I put an arrow through his ribs...It just didn't feel right. That deer died 20 seconds later. Did it help me kill the deer? No. But something still didn't feel right about it. So I stopped using them.

 

[TOGIE]

I really wouldn't bat an eye, might even smile, in all reality would probably vote yes on it, if all trail cams were made entirely illegal on public land everywhere in north america without some sort of research permit, cellular or not.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Putting up a cam on public land doesn't mean you own that spot. I just means you are telling anyone who walks by you saw something good there.

I've put my climber right on the tree they hung the camera on before.

 

[bigsky2]

Does anyone that feels like you shouldn’t touch someone’s camera have a different opinion if the camera is being used illegally?

 

[Nameless Range]

Does anyone that feels like you shouldn’t touch someone’s camera have a different opinion if the camera is being used illegally?

How would ya know?

 

[bigsky2]

How would ya know?

Some states like Nevada you’re supposed to have them down by a certain date. I believe Arizona recently put a full ban on them.

I believe Montana’s regs were intended to make cell cams illegal during the season. The regs state you can’t use them “while hunting”. I bet there isn’t one person in this state that gets a big buck or bull on their cell cam during the season and then goes and takes their camera down before they start hunting.

 

[Nameless Range]

Some states like Nevada you’re supposed to have them down by a certain date. I believe Arizona recently put a full ban on them.

I believe Montana’s regs were intended to make cell cams illegal during the season. The regs state you can’t use them “while hunting”. I bet there isn’t one person in this state that gets a big buck or bull on their cell cam during the season and then goes and takes their camera down before they start hunting.

I think if they are flat out not allowed to be out there that makes sense. In Montana, I don't think you'd have any way of knowing. Even a cell cam can just be a regular cam without a subscription.

It's kind of weird but I was really concerned about this because I use cell cams for trapping, which for a part of December overlaps with Montana's muzzleloader season - which is an elk and deer season. I put them out along with my traps on Dec 1. When I reached out to a Warden via email to ask about my concern with having cell cams out there coincident with a big game season, he said not to worry about it, but reading the regs at the time it seemed like a gray area to me.

It's kind of an aside, but in the context of trapping I think cell cams make things more ethical if anything - minimizing the time an animal is in a trap, notifying a trapper if nontarget animals are in them, etc.

 

[brymoore]

An I the only guy that has piss photos on cams? Turn around and see I was a star on a camera as I zip up.

 

[Wildabeest]

Even a cell cam can just be a regular cam without a subscription.

Pretty sure the MT regs state “is capable of” or something to that effect. So whether it’s turned of or you don’t have a cell plan set up on it doesn’t matter.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Does anyone that feels like you shouldn’t touch someone’s camera have a different opinion if the camera is being used illegally?

How can you use a camera illegally?

Thieves and trespassers always have an excuse.