Survival and Emergency Preparedness

I have 4 Covert trail cameras up at the hunting property and have moved them around over the years. Some places are better than others but like guns and ammo... more is better.

When I bought my Taurus TX22s from Sportsman's Warehouse they included two $50 coupons (one online, one in store) for future purchases. They also had a 4th of July sale including trail cameras. They had a Covert Gamekeeper 20 mp camera on sale for $89. I've had good luck with my Covert cameras so I ordered it online. It ended up costing me $39+tax. And the other day I stopped in the store on the way home from visiting my mother and they had a bin full of Covert Gamekeeper 18mp cameras on sale for $59 so I used my other coupon for that one.

To test them I put them behind my shed facing the field behind my regular house in the 'burbs. It's actually a grass spillway for the local river which is about half mile away. It's where I tested my minibikes and people often walk around. It's about a mile long and 100 yards wide. Last year the county came in and redid it by planting wild flowers and plants to provide habitat for bees, birds and other criters. It's like a nature preserve. The cams were placed side by side maybe 6" apart.

I lived in that house for 30+ years and never saw deer, it's pretty much fenced in so I was surprised to see this from the other night.

That's the 20 mp on the top and the 18 mp cam below it.





It thought it was interesting that the field of view was wider with the 18 mp cam. I also thought it was interesting that there was a 4 degree difference in temperature readings.

I'll need one of these for the new house!

My first 4 cameras cost about $100 each. They are Covert Black 16 mp ones.

These new ones were $89 and $59 on sale. They retail for $140 and $120 usually. They get mediocre reviews but since I got them for $40 and $10 I thought the risk was worth it.

There are lots of youtube videos testing cheap $30-60 cameras. Apparently there are some decent cheap chinese (I suspect most are made in china anyway) cameras. Walmart and others sell a Tasco camera for $30 which gets decent reviews. The tasco has only 8 mega pixals. Most cheap camera reviews recommend not less than 12 mps.

So the question is do your want quantity or quality? If I was using my cameras for security around my house I think I would go with quality. I think you could get a good camera for $150 or so. My $100 ones retail for around that. I bought them on sale. I do have one of my original cameras on the driveway leading up to the house. It's good for seeing visitors while I'm not there. It it set up to see license plates when they are pulling in and faces when pulling out.

For just seeing what animals are out and about I think less quality pics are okay. I don't think you need to spend hundreds of dollars. I have 52 acres to cover and need more cameras. I think I'm going to try some of the even cheaper cams in order to put them in more places. I've been looking at one called WoSports for about $40 on Amazon and maybe one of the Tascos just to try.

Just an addition to the above...

I re-set up both cameras to take a 3 shot photo burst and a 10 second video. The 20mp takes good photos but the video is dark even in bright daylight. The 18 mp cam takes darker photos and the videos didn't even work, they were all distorted.

The other thing is that the cameras take the 3 shot burst first and then a delayed video. Usually whatever was in the photos is gone when the video starts. I don't know if my other cameras even have a video function, just thought I would try it out with these at home.

New cameras....
They are called Mossy Oak Gamekeeper by Covert

Specs...Both
100 ft flash range (rather optimistic in my opinion. I'm seeing about 30-40')
42 no glow LEDs
1.5" viewing screen
Time, date, moon phase stamps
.4 second trigger speed
photo burst and/or video or combo w/audio
Adjustable video length
Adjustable MP rate
Use 8 AA batts
Can be password protected
Mounting straps
Lockable cases
Same dimensions/size
Made in China

Census 720 18 MP It has 720p video and up to 18 mega pixel photos. MSRP $119.99
58 degree field of view
1-3 shot photo burst

Census 1080 20 MP. It has up to 1080p video and up to 20 mega pixel photos. MSRP $139.99
52 degree field of view
1-10 shot photo burst

young bucks finally showing up around me...


https://my.arlo.com/hmsweb/users/librar ... A09_202107

tom mac wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 8:52 am young bucks finally showing up around me...

https://my.arlo.com/hmsweb/users/librar ... 5DE_202107

Holy cow!!! NICE

I've only checked my trail cams up at my property twice this year. Once in April after the winter and once in early June. One wasn't working because I forgot to put a SD card in it and one wasn't turned on...duh. No bucks on the other ones. It's been about 6 weeks since I reset them. I will check them again when I get back up there.

I took the 18 mp back to the store this morning since the video on it didn't work. The 20 mp one was $20 cheaper i.e. $69 than it was earlier this week ($89) so I bought it instead. I paid $89 online for the 4th of July sale. Just set it up in the backyard and will be testing it until I can get it up to the property. Hopefully it will work as well as the first one.

Confessions of an urban guy with three game cameras in the backyard:
1. my rural neighbor has my written permission to hunt on my rural 120 acres, so he put up hunting blinds and game cameras and send photographs of the turkey, deer and bears.
2. urban. I get the photographs of the animals that go through the yard at night.
Realistically, they are much less useful in dealing with human committed residential burglaries than commercial or retail burglaries. The most recent big residential burglary was professional. Masks, hoods, gloves. Multiple people. Defeated the professionally installed home system. This was a high walled perimeter wall environment. Two blocks away. I would only be able to sue civility if my home were invaded. The police would not recommend a criminal prosecution - too many burglaries going on in the area and I don't have much to steal.

Ewok is awesome....