Mallardsx2
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2015
- Messages
- 3,688
Public Land Trail Cam Etiquette
- Thread starter Moserkr
- Start date
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
Well-known member
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.
I've put my climber right on the tree they hung the camera on before.
Nameless Range
Well-known member
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
Well-known member
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.
Wildabeest
Well-known member
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
Well-known member
I totally agree that they are a great tool for trapping and I wish more trappers would use them outside of hunting season. I’d probably do the same if I was a trapper.
I love to run trail cameras as much as anyone (I’ve had as many as 30 out at one time in units I don’t even plan to hunt), but I’d rather give up trail cameras completely than see more cell cams on public land during the season. I can certainly see what draws people to using them, especially now that I have two little kids and my time I get to spend hiking around in the mountains has been greatly reduced. Part of the reason I like running cameras in the first place is to spend time in the woods.
Montana’s regs pertaining to cell cams are terribly written and the fact that they are lumped into “motion tracking devices” with thermals is really problematic to regulating either of those technologies. I wish Montana would put together a citizens committee to look at some of this stuff similar to what Idaho recently did.
Sorry I’m starting to rant and derail the thread.
Elky Welky
Well-known member
In my view that creates a two wrongs don't make a right situation there. I fantasize about shooting down drones that are being used illegally the same as I fantasize about doing "something nefarious" with trail cameras, but I'm really just not that confrontational and the juice isn't worth the squeeze to me (shooting down a drone is also a Federal crime, so that sucks).
I am all for tightening up the rules so they can't be flaunted the way we have been seeing here.
There's also alot to be said for extra-legal remedies, like creating a culture that self-regulates. The example here is hunter orange. In Montana not wearing hunter orange could cost you a whopping $10-$20, or about 1/5 to 1/10 a tank of gas. If hunters didn't self enforce orange laws here based on cultural norms, there could be a stronger need for stricter punishment. But because hunters enforce it themselves, the orange law has not needed any change, ever, if I recall correctly.
So more clear regulation + better culture/understanding of how trail cams can be ethical/unethical strikes me as the approach needed.
