Find a Good Camera
Trail cameras come in all different shapes and sizes. Some cameras work very well, while others will only give you a huge headache. If you would like to see a list of trail cameras that we have reviewed and suggest buying, click the Trail Camera Review button below so you can buy with confidence.
Camera Setup
Once you have a good camera, you can establish where you want to put your camera. This can mean setting your trail camera up anywhere from your yard to somewhere on a mountain near a water hole. Once you have a spot in mind, it’s time to start figuring out where to set up your trail camera to get the best results.
Animals love walking on trails. Trails usually have little to no obstacles on them. These trails act as a highway for animals, and if you can establish where they are, you will get some awesome pictures and videos. If you can’t find where the trails that the animals in your area are using, and you know animals are coming through an area, make a trail. The easist time to make a trail for animals is in winter: all you have to do is stomp or shovel your trail through the snow in front of your camera. In the videos below, we stomped and shoveled out a trail through three inches of snow in an area we knew that animals were coming through regularly.
These trails do not have to be big. In the videos above, the trail we made goes slightly off-camera and cuts back in the shape of a backward number 7 in front of our camera. If you watch the mountain lion video on the right, you will see the mountain lion walk down the entire length of the trail that we made.
This method also works in the summer and spring months. Instead of clearing snow, you need to clear grass or bushes to make a dirt trail with no obstacles on the path. However, in some states, it is NOT legal to do this anywhere but on a property that you own. Make sure you check your local laws before doing this. Making a path this way has the same effect as shoveling or stomping down the snow to make a trail. If animals are in the area they will eventually follow your trail. The mule deer above is following a path we made with a car.
Animals naturally make these trails over time. Almost all animals are creatures of habit and walk the same path over and over again. These trails are perfect places to set your trail cameras on because they almost always have animals on them! Sometimes these trails don’t have trees that you can set up your camera on. If there are no places to set up your camera, we would suggest getting a trail camera stand that screws into your camera. (Most cameras have a place to attach to a stand.) Click below if you need a stand for your camera.