At what point to trailcams become litter?

mozey

Long Time Member
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I think this might be a sensitive subject, but I know of a couple (saw them both again today), about four and five miles from the nearest road, that based on the spider webs, etc., I don't believe anyone has visited them for a couple years. Are there really slob hunters that go to the trouble of setting up a trailcam for a specific hunt, and then after their hunt is over they don't want to pack it out, so they just leave it there?

As someone who also puts trailcams up on public land, I don't ever want anyone to mess with mine. But as far as these two are concerned, I'm starting to think of them like the random beer cans or bottles that I'll pick up and haul back out just for the sake of doing my good deed for the day...
 
Probably someone walked away from them. 50 years from now they will be antiques when you find them.
 
Probably to lazy to go back and get them. I found an old Double Bull blind on a wallow//water hole the other day way up in the wilderness that was ripped, broke down, weathered seems someone just didn't come back for it. I have a DB blind.....that's about $400 gone. Also found a camp all broke down stuffed in between two big fallen Ponderosa pine trees and covered up with branches, I happen to see part of a blue tarp in there. There were chairs, tents, bottles of water. I marked it on my gps and just left it alone.
 
I was checking drinkers yesterday and there was 4 camera's on drinker. One had been there so long that the strap holding it to tree had rotted out and camera was laying on ground. Now a day it seems like camera's are left year round and people come by once year to change cards and replace batteries.
 
Do you think they might forget where they hung them or they are just to lazy to go back for them.
I know guys who only check them once a month, change out batteries & card. BUT they never leave for a whole year.

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I don't know. Whoever it was went to the trouble of securing them with locks, so I think they intended to return. But it's obvious that the batteries are long dead. They're covered with dust and cobwebs. I left a camera out over a winter once after an early snow made it so couldn't get to it, but I don't remember it looking like these even after that. But that was almost ten years ago so I may have forgot.

Anyway, the more I think about it, the more I think I should just leave them alone.
 
LAST EDITED ON Jul-24-18 AT 09:26AM (MST)[p]Funny not funny, I have a friend who put a couple up and forgot where he placed them.Went back 2 months later and was fully green and couldn't find em, his 3rd camera he placed in an area where the forest service thinned out and believes the tree he placed it on was one cut....3 cameras gone in 1 year....Lesson to be learned I'd say...
 
Just my opinion, I hate them on public land! I don't like thieves either, so think people need to not touch others property.
 
LAST EDITED ON Jul-27-18 AT 03:08PM (MST)[p]I had 2 out of 3 cameras have their SD cards removed during our hunt last year.

I feel the same way as a lot of you I assume. We work to hard for what we have to have others view our property as free game.

When I am out scouting and run across someone's stand/blind/or camera(s) I check for sign and then move on to another location. I do this in hopes that others will be just as respectful of where I am planning on hunting myself or with my kids.
 
Sorry, I never meant for this thread to be a discussion about whether it's bad to mess with or take people's stuff. I think we can all agree on that.

I'm still hung up on whether it would ever be ok to bring out someone's stuff that appears to be abandoned on public land. How much time should pass before it would be considered cleaning up someone's mess rather than stealing someone's stuff?
 
I lock up my cams and pick up shortly after season. Run them in my yard but that's a different matter. Sorry but IDK the answer for cams that are left on public for long periods of time.
 
not sure but its supersizing they are still there. How often do you hear that someones camera got stolen AGAIN.
Maybe the thief has got enough and stopped. I only have a couple mostly for around the house but I will be putting some out soon just to check the inventory.
YES
Speakin of that Ill start a new thread INVENTORY trail cam pics post em if you want or keep them to your self its all good here.


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