Trail cam straps

[wiiawiwb]

I've been on a pursuit of the best camouflaged trail cam I can have.  My approach has been to decide on a tree in a location that I like and then take the bark from a downed tree of the same species. It gets dried and then glued onto my trail cams to help camouflage them. In my case, fir species are prevalent.

 

I think the end result is pretty good and it makes the trail cam nearly impossible to see unless you know its there. The Achilles Heel of a trail cam has always the strap. I've used thin bark that I staple to the strap once the trail cam is up. It's not ideal and doesn't always work to my liking.

 

I just recently came across two videos where the folks used 550 paracord. The light immediately went on in my torch-like, two-watt noggin...ding, ding Wiia...paracord comes in many colors and everything from solid colors to patterns to camo.  I ordered several 50' lengths of paracord, some solid and some patterned, and am hopeful it will virtually disappear when mounting the trail on the tree.

 

One of the downfalls of paracord is that it is exceedingly thin compared to an inch-and-a-half strap. That means less material holding it tightly to the tree. I wasn't crazy how either of the two videos mounted their trail cams. I've decided to use a trucker's hitch to cinch it tightly around the tree. If anyone has another idea about how to affix it more tightly, I'm eager to hear it. 

 

For what it's worth, the color choice of the paracord in this video is terrible, as is the knot-tying technique, but I'm sure it is just meant to give a visual idea of the difference between a trail cam strap and paracord. In this video's case, a color in the gray family, with a pattern to break up its outline, is something I would try.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by wiiawiwb

[BlackRockBigfoot]

I just picked up a new batch of inexpensive trail cams yesterday.  

 

I need to replace the strap on one of my old one, since I decided to stick my knife in the tree where the cam was located while I was trying to carefully clear a few branches.  Of course, I wasn't careful with that...I cut the strap and nearly severed it.  

 

If you decide to go the paracord route, try boredparacord.com. They have a great selection of patterns and colors.

[NorthWind]

16 minutes ago, BlackRockBigfoot said:

If you decide to go the paracord route, try boredparacord.com. They have a great selection of patterns and colors.

 

As does paracordplanet.com 

[wiiawiwb]

Thanks for the heads up on both of those companies!!

[EABiker]

Epoxy a metal or plastic strip to the rear of the camera leaving an inch above and below it.  Drill holes in the strip, and screw it to the tree. Cover the small protruding bit of the mounting strip with bark, and you are done. The horizontal line of any type of strap looks very out of place in nature.

[wiiawiwb]

The paracord came in more quickly than expected. I took at few pictures of the solid brown and brown-camo paracord next to one of my trailcams. The bark is Eastern White Pine. 

 

It shows the difference between a solid color and a camo pattern. The solid brown matches the brown color in the bark so it is as close as I can get.  The camo contains the same brown but has lighter and darker color patterns as well. I am very pleased with the result as the brown-camo paracord nearly disappears even at close range. Someone looking at it from 50' will never see the paracord.  I will use brown camo (the actual name of this paracord) whenever the trailcam is being attached to Eastern White Pine. It was purchased on eBay and it came in a Paracord Planet package.

 

p.s. This trailcam took a lot of abuse so some bark has fallen off. You can see glue here and there. That will get fixed and the trailcam will be in ship shape by April.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by wiiawiwb

[MIB]

When I find someone else's camera, it's usually the straps that give them away. 

 

A couple years ago I strapped a camera to a small tree then wrapped ferns around the tree over the strap.   It was a little goofy looking but as long as you didn't know to look for a camera, it did an adequate job.     Midwinter during a heavy wind storm the fern broke loose.   I had some very strange blurry things in the pictures and it wasn't 'til some months later that I realized it was the end of the fern, not some kind of crazy feline which is what it most looked like.    If I hadn't had the camera doing 3-shot bursts, I wouldn't have noticed the substantial change in tree trunk angles and positions and wouldn't have known about the wind storm, probably never would have figured out what I was looking at.

 

Now days I generally toss the straps.   I use a couple of black inch and a half wood screws placed just wider than the camera screwed into the bark and use soft black steel wire to attach the camera between the screws, then use pieces of stick, etc as wedges to tip the cameras to point them wherever I want.  

 

My most extreme "hide" was done that way, but beyond that, since the tree was dead and burned by a big fire, I carved a hole into the bark deep enough to set the camera more than halfway into the tree.  

 

When I start getting creative hiding things, I'm very careful to mark the location with GPS and often to take a picture of where the camera is so that when I return a year later I can find it again.   I've only not been able to relocate one in 6 years .. I suspect it was stolen.    That's not a bad record.

 

 MIB

[Catmandoo]

I don't do paracord. I use flat straps of polyester / nylon webbing / seatbelt material.  I made  sleeves of ASAT camo to cover the mounting strap with ratchet buckle and python cable. I also use  ASAT 3D leafy camo to hide the mounting and security cable. The 3D leafy camo reacts to wind.  'Scrunching' up the camo fabric  can give a 'textured look'. I cover the straps because many materials have dyes to protect against degradation from sunlight as in ultraviolet light. Humans can't see the UV reflection. You may not know that you and your gear look like a neon sign to the animal kingdom.

Atsko has info on their site      https://www.atsko.com/             And of course, many things to buy.

 

Many adhesives will glow. Fabric and thread can glow. Testing at home can be done with a $10 'dollar bill checker' that emits 'black light'.  The UV flashlights cost more and are dangerous. You can burn your retinas in 2 seconds if you are careless. Safety glasses / goggles should be used.

 

I put together some sample images to show how bad it can get.  The zebra pattern webbing is just a sample. Your fabric can be OK but the thread at the seams  can be a problem.  The ratchet strap buckle has epoxy glue under the head  of a screw. Glows very nice but that is against the tree and covered.  The little black light  runs on 4 AA batteries.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Catmandoo
add more images and text

[Catmandoo]

Years ago, the little bear to the left verified my use of a heavy set up. It was going after a cover scent (essential oil) that I did not know was cut with vegetable oil. The cellular board had pipe cleaners soaked in pine oil. The little bear bit the plastic and and tried to pull the set up off of the tree. Didn't succeed.  Reconyx RC55 survived and the 1/16" steel mounting plate was impressively bent.  I discarded metal mounting plates after some testing and determined that they were projector/reflectors of ultrasonic noise from the camera. Capacitor charging  for the flash is noisy

 

I'll pass on the paracord. Grin and bear it.

[wiiawiwb]

An excellent point about UV light. It never dawned on me. I'll have to get a UV light detector and check the trailcam including both the glue and paracord although the glue is covered unless the bark is knocked off. 

 

I had to smile when I saw ASAT Leafy camo. It's what I use and think it works very well.

 

Where I go, it is not legal to affix a trail cam to a live tree using screws or nails so it isn't an option. It is an effective way to do so. You don't want to lose or have the Reconyx destroyed. They make serious trailcams.

[Catmandoo]

Cut the tags off of the garments and also check any drawstrings.

[wiiawiwb]

I went today to move a trail cam and take a picture of it using paracord rather than straps. For purposes of illustration, I chose to put it on a tree that was half in the bright sun and half in shade.  The top picture was taken fairly close to the tree and partially in the sun. The paracord that is in the sun is visible although it is much less visible than a strap would be in full light.  The part of the paracord in the shade is virtually invisible. Click on the picture and even when you zoom in the part of the paracord to the left is almost impossible to see.

 

The bottom picture shows the trail cam from a distance and straight on rather than from the side. 

 

I always hang the trail cams so they are always in the shade.

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by wiiawiwb

[wiiawiwb]

Yesterday, I moved one of the trailcams to a new location to a creek that feeds out from a beaver pond and has more open space than the last location. This one was put on a tree that overlooks the creek 10' in front of the trailcam.  I'm hoping it will lure something in from wooded area across the creek. We'll see. 

 

I put the trailcam up quickly and didn't fiddle with the paracord when I took this picture. Before I left, the two lines of paracord were one.  This picture was taken from about 8' away and it is still not very visible.  No one will be walking in this area unless some hunter decides to start poking around. It's too early for that and I'd don't know they would even see it.

 

[BlackRockBigfoot]

On 8/1/2021 at 3:30 PM, wiiawiwb said:

Yesterday, I moved one of the trailcams to a new location to a creek that feeds out from a beaver pond and has more open space than the last location. This one was put on a tree that overlooks the creek 10' in front of the trailcam.  I'm hoping it will lure something in from wooded area across the creek. We'll see. 

 

I put the trailcam up quickly and didn't fiddle with the paracord when I took this picture. Before I left, the two lines of paracord were one.  This picture was taken from about 8' away and it is still not very visible.  No one will be walking in this area unless some hunter decides to start poking around. It's too early for that and I'd don't know they would even see it.

 

That’s awesome.  I need to swap out my straps.

[wiiawiwb]

This past weekend, I put up a trailcam. As described above, I've moved to a quick, setup-and-release paracord strap. It's in a location far away from a trail and overlooks one end of a tiny pond.  I think it will be difficult to see the strap even if someone happens to stumble upon the area.

 

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by wiiawiwb