Outdoor - The DIY Hunter

Details: Written by The DIY Hunter; Category: Outdoor; Published: 15 September 2014; Hits: 2644

Glassing for mule deer with my new Vortex Razor HD 11-33x50 spotting scope in preparation for the upcoming Utah muzzleloader mule deer season.

Clarks Nutcracker checking me out.

A week before the opener and I was hiking back in to scout and check my trail cameras. On this trip in I was taking my new Vortex Razor HD 11-33x50 spotting scope out for the first time. It's a really good piece of glass that is nice and compact for my pack hunting and scouting trips.

I didn't see too many deer on this scouting trip.

After checking the cameras I found quite a few really young bucks but nothing even close to tempting me. I also noticed that the number of deer on camera greatly decreased a little into September. This is a little concerning.

I decided to move one of my cameras to another location a mile further in and near what appeared to be an elk wallow. We'll see what it gets next time in.

I bumped a nice two-point in one of the canyons I hiked through. He paused just long enough for me to snap a photo.

I'm thinking I probably will be hunting further in just because I don't have any good bucks on camera in the canyon I was hoping the cameras would find a good buck in.

We'll see what's on the cameras the next time in when I'm back to hunt with my new Thompson Center Encore Pro Hunter.

This buck gave me a nice pose for a second then headed out.

Using my Samsung Galaxy S Tab 10.5 to review my trail camera video in the field.

Here's some of the trail camera footage of the small bucks I found in the high country.

Details: Written by The DIY Hunter; Category: Outdoor; Published: 29 June 2014; Hits: 2320

No real monster bulls on the cameras. This is one of the better sized bulls that have been caught on the trail cameras.

Any bull is a shooter in my book. I love elk meat and when it comes to archery elk hunting anything I can get I will take. This would be a really nice bull for me.

A little extra bruising after my seventh knee surgery. All the grinding on the bone caused a lot of bleeding this time around.

Here's an illusive Browning Creeper I watched while out checking the trail cameras. Not a common bird to see and difficult to get it to hold still to take it's picture.

Bear attacked Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) trail camera and a battery pack. Camera upside down and power cable chewed through.

External battery pack port that water was able to enter the camera through after the bears attacked the camera.

Selfie of Dad and I out checking my trail cameras.

Shortly after checking and moving my trail cameras around in May the transmission fell out in my right knee. This knee has a long track record of issues dating back over twenty years to that fateful day I jumped that XR500 and the bike came down on top of me. My knee was now in a vicious cycle of locking up and swelling. It would lock up in a bent state going down stairs preventing me from straightening my leg.

I went to Dr. Harrison and got a cortisone shot which helped but my knee still wouldn't stop locking up. It was time for another surgery. So in the end of May I had my seventh knee surgery to date. Most of what Dr. Harrison did in this surgery was grind out large bone spurs of arthritis that had grown throughout my knee. One spur was in the center area and was pinching up against the ACL. I suspect this was the spur that kept locking up the motion of my knee.

My knee is so much smoother since the surgery. Thank you for keeping me out on the mountain Dr. Harrison!

I wanted to give my knee a little time to heal before I went back up the mountain to check my cameras. So the cameras hadn't been checked in a good five weeks.

This time out I went with my dad. It was nice to spend time with him on the mountain and show him my favorite locations to find elk and where the bears have been etc. It brought back fond memories of my youth spending time with him camping, hunting, hiking, exploring, and looking for birds in the mountains.

At each camera location we would skim through the videos captured from the trail camera on my phone. At one camera we realized that we had bumped a young bull out when we were in the bottom of one canyon it snuck out the top going on the trail right past one of my cameras. You can see this elk (last elk on video) on the Velvet Antlered Elk video on this page. At another camera the last critter to go past the camera before us was a black bear. Dad made the comment that I needed to walk first incase we ran into the bear. Thanks dad. We didn't run into any bears but we did find where bears had been raiding ant beds.

At the location where I found the bears the most the previous year, we found that they had returned. One camera had been busted from the tree, a power chord to a external battery pack had been chewed through, and another camera had been turned upside down. Dang bears!

The camera that had been turned upside down had the external battery pack plugged into it. Using this external power source exposed the camera to allow moisture to get into the camera. This is fine if the camera is right side up but with the camera upside down the camera ended up getting completely full of water. Even the SD card was completely covered in water. I figured the SD card and camera were finished... however, after I brought them home, cleaned them up and dried them out the SD card worked and had the videos still intact. And to my complete surprise the Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) camera still works. Yeah! I suspect Browning will add a seal to the power chord in the future to prevent water from entering the camera in this manner.

This year I placed a new Browning Strike Force trail camera in the same location that I had a Spec Ops trail camera the year before. The Spec Ops is a Black Flash camera while the Strike Force is a standard IR camera. I quickly noticed a huge difference in the quality of my night videos with the Strike Force. The spring that this camera is watching is around 15 to 25 yards away. The Strike Force easily illuminates the area and with the Spec Ops it was pushing it to see the critters very well at times.

From how I understand it, this is a issue with the imaging sensors being able to see the standard IR light spectrum better than the Black Flash light spectrum. There are benefits to both systems. In the areas I use trail cameras I prefer the standard IR flash and right now my favorite trail camera is this really small Strike Force (BTC-5) trail camera. I like that some animals notice the faint red dots on the camera and look at the camera. I don't find that the critters are afraid or avoid the cameras. The only negative could be that they come up and rub on or pull on the camera damaging it however, I haven't had any cameras get damaged from critters at night. Bears during the day, yes. Watch the video to see a comparison of black flash vs standard IR flash at night from the same location.

After reviewing the footage of the bears I believe the camera attacks were the work of two bears. I believe the same two bears that Dallen and I watched during his elk hunt last fall.

Details: Written by The DIY Hunter; Category: Outdoor; Published: 18 May 2014; Hits: 1842

Here's a bull elk about ready to start growing his antlers. This was taken with a Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) trail camera. Click on the image to download the full size original JPG this trail camera captured.

Browning Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) trail camera.

Here's a cow and a yearling bull starting to grow his first antlers. This was taken with a Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) trail camera. Click on the image to download the full size original JPG this trail camera captured.

On this clump of small trees I strapped on a Recon Force XR (BTC-2XR) trail camera, a Recon Force (BTC-2) trail camera, and a battery pack. To get the cameras pointed in the right direction I use Browning Tree Mounts.

This location saw a lot of activity last year so I wanted to double up the cameras in hopes of catching more of the action there. One camera just can't cover this spring well enough.

This location at times saw a lot of activity last year. To keep the camera taking video as long as possible, I have a micro sized Strike Force (BTC-5) trail camera with an external battery pack attached. I also have a 32 Gig SDHC memory card in the camera. As long as the bears don't tear down the camera this camera should have plenty of battery and memory to keep taking videos until I return to check it.

I picked up a couple newer 2014 models of trail cameras this year. I put them out on the mountain back in April when I was out hunting for shed antlers with my boys. For weeks now I have been wondering what might be passing by the cameras. With it being so early in the year I knew that there probably weren't a ton of critters in that high area on the mountain however I was hoping to possibly catch a glimpse of a black bear.

This time up the mountain I brought all my trail cameras that I pulled from the river bottom where I had them out all winter and early spring. I moved all the cameras around this trip out.

I placed cameras in my favorite spots from last year and with the additional new cameras I am experimenting with some other locations to see how active they are and what might pass in those locations.

One thing I am doing a little different this year is I am purchasing 32 Gig SDHC memory cards. I primarily like to set the cameras on video mode and last year there were a few times that in less than two weeks I would have full cards using 16 and 8 gig cards. Not wanting to miss any of the action I am working on getting the largest capacity SD cards.

Well after reviewing the images and video I didn't get anything super exciting but there are a few critters starting to move into the area. There's a few coyotes, lots of mule deer and elk in the area. Antlers are just starting to grow and no sign of bears, fawns and calf elk yet. Next trip out I should start seeing some fawns and calves I would believe.

It was pretty funny to watch a couple doe mule deer detect my scent on the camera from the day before when I put the camera out. You can check out some of that footage below.

Some bull elk pass by my Strike Force trail camera. The one bull stops and turns to look back. It is pretty cool to see the moisture of his breath in the air.

A coyote happens to look over and notice the red cluster of IR lights illuminated on the camera. The light they make is invisible but if you are looking directly at the camera you can see a faint red IR LED light dots. I prefer this spectrum of IR lighting over the Black Flash spectrum as it has greater illumination distance and I like that some animals take notice and are curious and investigate the little red LEDs.

The Black Flash cameras like my Spec Ops (BTC-3) trail camera work great they just don't have the flash distance of my trail cameras with the light red LEDs showing when they flash.