Trail Cam gone - new strategy

[BigTreeWalker]

Thinker Thunker just did a vid on that and raised some interesting questions as well. I guess the two boys weren't that far apart. 

[SWWASAS]

Facial recognition software is getting good enough that if a Police department wanted, they could put all of their mug shots into it and identify burglars and thieves from security cameras.    People don't  just steal stuff once,   but when they get started due to drug use,   are multiple repeat offenders.   So many people, including myself have security cameras deployed on their property.     Of course the ALCU is fighting facial recognition tooth and nail.   If you don't want to get busted by facial recognition stop doing the crimes.   

[wiiawiwb]

5 hours ago, BigTreeWalker said:

The method I mentioned earlier was the best method I could come up with and not carry a bunch of extra gear into the woods. (Making a hanger and using an extendable pole.) 

Consider that the less disturbance you create in any area is better. And climbing trees with climbing sticks or a ladder would be a considerable disturbance. Not to mention carrying them in and out. 

Those screw in foot and hand holds would be an idea and a lot less to carry. A half dozen or less would easily get you 6' off the ground and still give you something to hang on to while attaching the cam. But then again, some disturbance screwing them in and out. 

 

The trail cams are going on public land and I believe screw-in foot holds or screw-in trail cam holders are illegal in many states.  That's why the climbing stocks are so attractive. They use straps to affix to the tree.

[BigTreeWalker]

True, and that's why I use a hanger. It goes on a limb. Does nothing to the tree.  

My suggestions were just other possible scenarios. 

[SWWASAS]

The local TV news was talking about hidden cameras yesterday.    The reporter stated that they are getting so cleverly hidden that even experts cannot locate them.   Inside household sockets.  alarm clocks,  USB chargers,  the list goes on.     That made me think about this trail cam thread and the problems associated with them.     While some are making the effort to camouflage the cameras,  they are still mostly a largish  plastic box that is difficult to hide.    The are easily recognizable by humans who steal and destroy them.   Bears are attracted to the plastic and the prevailing theory at this time is that BF know what they are,  do not know what they are and but avoid them,  and possibly see the IR triggers or flashes.      It seems to me that a complete redesign of a the trail cam is necessary to bring them at least up to the standard of the barely find able spy cameras.       Batteries need to be fairly large to last but batteries do not have to be built into the camera.   They could be buried and a wire running to the camera itself which could be hidden inside something as ordinary as a large pine cone.    

[BigTreeWalker]

You are correct about the box on a tree. Even in the dark with night vision they stick out like a sore thumb. 

Here is one of my solutions. But the camera is timelapse, so no sensors and no flash. Daytime only. But it will take a picture of anything at any distance in front of it. It's in the center of the picture. 

 

[Huntster]

18 hours ago, SWWASAS said:

...........If you don't want to get busted by facial recognition stop doing the crimes.   

 

..........or wear a mask like a 19th Century stagecoach robber, which Antifa does with perfect impunity at Smash and Destroy Parties nationwide.

[Huntster]

17 hours ago, SWWASAS said:

The local TV news was talking about hidden cameras yesterday.    The reporter stated that they are getting so cleverly hidden that even experts cannot locate them.   Inside household sockets.  alarm clocks,  USB chargers,  the list goes on.     That made me think about this trail cam thread and the problems associated with them.     While some are making the effort to camouflage the cameras,  they are still mostly a largish  plastic box that is difficult to hide.    The are easily recognizable by humans who steal and destroy them.   Bears are attracted to the plastic and the prevailing theory at this time is that BF know what they are,  do not know what they are and but avoid them,  and possibly see the IR triggers or flashes..........

 

My deceased brother-in-law had an incredible security system at a second home in Las Vegas that incorporated cell phone notification and a series of hidden and disguised cameras that would get you busted if you were there too long for a security patrol response/arrival. My home security system us like that. If you don't leave within a half hour, you're busted, even if you wear a mask.

 

The wilderness can negate the cell phone feature, and it adds problem entities like bears, who don't care a whit about police, and wgho operate on the most sensitive sense of smell on Earth. Camouflaging/hiding a bear-proofed camera from human eyes is probably possible, but a difficult proposition. So far, my steel security box cabled/locked to a tree has worked both with bears and men, but a simple chainsaw and bad attitude can steal my camera in less than 5 minutes. Nothing is perfectly secured. Nothing.

[SWWASAS]

I think if a camera were sufficiently different than the existing crop of game cameras and could be better hidden it would solve several problems.     While humans know about pin hole cameras they would not expect one to be deployed into some natural object, nor would a BF.      Something significantly different than a game camera might even  be a curiosity to a BF for a few years before they are lumped in with the plastic boxes as something strange to be avoided.  

 

   I think I posted the attached picture some time ago.   It's story was for weeks one summer I was positioning myself on a ridge line accessible with a spotting scope and hoping to see BF movement in a river valley below.     I would always set up in the same spot where I could park my truck nearby yet get a commanding view of the valley.   .    One day this teddy bear showed up propped up against a bank in the exact spot were I normally set up the spotting scope.     There is no human habitation beyond this spot.     Just woods.      So I doubt some kid threw it out a car window like some young ones like to do.   Further proof of this is that it is impaled with a stick in place and manner suggestive of a phallus.    The little guys hand left hand is placed on the stick.     Some suggest that it was a warning or even something intended to be sexually suggestive.         It was placed there and impaled and not simply thrown out a car.    I wonder what a spy camera inside it could have seen.    The cameras themselves are cheap enough that they could be sacrificed if the recording device is separated and connected by a wire to a well hidden recorder.    

Edited May 19, 2019 by SWWASAS

[Huntster]

21 minutes ago, SWWASAS said:

...........I was positioning myself on a ridge line accessible with a spotting scope and hoping to see BF movement in a river valley below.     I would always set up in the same spot where I could park my truck nearby yet get a commanding view of the valley.   .    One day this teddy bear showed up propped up against a bank in the exact spot were I normally set up the spotting scope.     There is no human habitation beyond this spot.     Just woods.      So I doubt some kid threw it out a car window like some young ones like to do.   Further proof of this is that it is impaled with a stick in place and manner suggestive of a phallus.    The little guys hand left hand is placed on the stick.     Some suggest that it was a warning or even something intended to be sexually suggestive.         It was placed there and impaled and not simply thrown out a car.    I wonder what a spy camera inside it could have seen.    The cameras themselves are cheap enough that they could be sacrificed if the recording device is separated and connected by a wire to a well hidden recorder.    

 

So did you return to that spot after finding the doll there? Who do you think put it there? Is there a structure anywhere near that perch? Did you comb the area looking for a camera or sign? Does the clothing on the doll look like anything you wear?

[SWWASAS]

I left the doll there.   I did return within days and it was gone.   As to who placed it there it was either some logger who had driven past me on the active logging road, or a BF who could easily see me there from the valley below or the ridge above.    The nearest house is 5 miles away down below on the county roads.    I did look for prints but as you can see the embankment is gravely and covered with vegetation.   It is a drummer boy outfit with epaulets so not something I would ever wear.     The loggers in the area are not friendly because someone had hijacked a loader and done some damage to a locked forest gate.     I was hiking out past the gate and a  Federal Forest ranger stopped me and asked me if I knew anything about it.    It was my first interaction in the area with a ranger and I was armed so he was pretty cautious when he was talking to me.   

 

Another interesting to me fact is the spot the bear was placed was where I was when I started watching a military helicopter with my spotting scope,   land up river,  stay on the ground for few minutes then fly off to the SE, being gone for about 20 minutes before returning.      It had made several trips and suddenly it turned and started coming straight towards me.   I put my scope in the truck and drove off.    When I did the helicopter turned away from my direction and went to where it had been going to the SE.   I still do not know why I was of interest to it other than I was watching a military helicopter operation in the Gifford Pinchot.   It was a Navy Helicopter.    I see Coast Guard helicopters doing SAR and Army headed to Boardman but never Navy in the area.     Maybe it was a Seal Team Operation of some sort?   

Edited May 19, 2019 by SWWASAS

[Huntster]

4 hours ago, SWWASAS said:

...........As to who placed it there it was either some logger who had driven past me on the active logging road, or a BF who could easily see me there from the valley below or the ridge above.........

 

I'm just guessing here, but I kinda' doubt a sasquatch put that there........unless it was one of those telepathic ones that some here communicate with, but wouldn't those kind just mind speak with you and tell you to GTFO?

 

Yeah, those sneaky Seal Teams just love to do their secret BS without coordinating with anyone...........and they tend to get into trouble doing it. One of the teams made a fuel mess on state land during a winter exercise when it was well below zero, and the state authorities were pissed off when they found it. Of course, classic for Seals, they were long gone, and Army personnel (me) was sent up to clean it up. It was clear that the Arctic Hawk (sub-zero cold weather) kicked a$$ on the vaunted Seals, and they flew out of there with their flippers tucked up under their butts, leaving a costly mess behind.

[SWWASAS]

That is funny.    At the time I thought the only reason they would be where they were is to clean up some military mess someone made.    There were no missing people or civilian airplanes down that would get National Guard or Coastguard assents involved but some military asset may have been splattered all over the woods.    The direction of flight and the distance away for a round trip would have put their distant landing site SW of Mt Adams.   Why would some person with a pickup with a spotting scope cause them to come and investigate me?   The only place they could have landed near the river was a gravel pit that people used to go to shoot in.  

Edited May 19, 2019 by SWWASAS

[Huntster]

8 minutes ago, SWWASAS said:

.........Why would some person with a pickup with a spotting scope cause them to come and investigate me?.........

 

I've never been buzzed by military aircraft off post, but have a few times by Alaska State Troopers, and countless times by hot dog private fixed wing pilots, probably looking for a meat rack to see if I had any animals hanging.

[SWWASAS]

9 minutes ago, Huntster said:

 

I've never been buzzed by military aircraft off post, but have a few times by Alaska State Troopers, and countless times by hot dog private fixed wing pilots, probably looking for a meat rack to see if I had any animals hanging.

When I was a student pilot I was practicing turns around a point when I was solo.    Some dude with a shotgun did not like it for some reason,  maybe it was not hunting season, so he shot at me several times.   I was surprised that the airplane did not have holes in it but I was probably too high for bird shot to reach.    I was probably 1000 AGL.   

 

In the military we had a low level route that left Nevada and went straight North into SE Oregon.    I think it was along 395 or 397.   .     Anyway I have seen semis drive off the road when we went roaring over the top of them at 700 feet in a B-52.     We were not buzzing them but just flying our route.    

Edited May 19, 2019 by SWWASAS