Trail Cam Stolen .. Only time I guess.

[Irish13]

Well .. Guess it was just a matter of time something like this would happen.
My brother and I hiked to our thick covered grounds to collect our cams this morning and found one cam had been stolen. Luckily our new cams are able to be cable locked, but this one was far to old to have this feature.

Maybe we are naive or just raised proper, country town values! What drives people to steal from other hunters? Any hunter could take one look at it and realize it was a PC of junk cam !!

Obviously it was another hunter .. We laughed at the thought of it being one of these guys in all these high end trucks, top of the line camo, top of the line guns and bows, top of the line tree stands, yet can not suppress the urge to steal something not locked and worth about $50

Anyway it could have been taken by anyone ... Most likely someone who would not read this forum. Not sure how you can wake up each morning and feel good about yourself .. Hey this is now a perfect excuse to tell wife why I need to buy a new cam ?? See .. Always a silver lining and stay positive because hunting season is too short !

All the best this season ..

[Bullzeye]

I Hate thieves !! My hunting partner had his stolen three weeks ago on private land, first time in twenty years of hunting there. I was hoping they took mine also because I have three cams in the same area so chances are one of my cams would catch the culprit.

[paulaboutform]

That really stinks! Old camera or not that's still a shame and I'm sorry to hear that.

[FireFly]

Somebody stealing something from me will plss me off more than anything else. In the Navy I had somebody steal my dirty underwear and that plssed me off.

But with Field Cams, I sometimes wonder if somebody was photographed at night while poaching therefore took the Field Cam to get rid of the evidence.

My son-in-law had somebody trespass on his property and walk right up to a Field Cam and see if he could steal it. Luckily, the Field Cam was secured with a padlock and this idiot stood there right in front of the Field Cam trying to figure it out. My son-in-law was able to even get a license plate of the vehicle the guy was driving. The vehicle was from the county he is in, so he's on the lookout for it and all hell is going to break loose when he finds it.

[wabi]

Maybe we are naive or just raised proper, country town values!

I can remember when nobody locked their doors, sure not the case today!

Gave a buddy a feeder last year. He was replacing the broken spin-feeder on his "big plastic barrel on a tripod" feeder. He lost a spring when installing it and I had a spare. Went with him a few days later to replace the spring and his feeder and trail came were gone! 2 ladder stands were still there? He found out who got them, but no way to prove it in court.
He moved the stands to a location he can see from the back of his house or garage. He's a "tactical firearms trainer" and has several rifles that could make a thief very uncomfortable if the try it again (and a couple dogs that will let him know about trespassers). It's 300+ yards, but I've watched him ring a 24" metal "gong" at that range with a .44 mag pistol.

[flightattendant100]

Neighbor always sets up two cams. One in plain sight and second one pretty well hidden. He catches some shots of deer he didnt get with the first one and a poacher or two as well. Last year two guys went by his house and asked to run hogs with their dogs, he gave them permission with the stipulation that they not get around his deer feeders. He has good pics of them going up to the obvious cam and pulling SD card and using a viewer to look at pics and then putting Sd card back in cam and moving off. He wont let them back!!

[stoneycreekhunter]

I've had 2 cams stolen...both we're on private property and both were locked with cable locks.

It's a terrible feeling.

[DuckHunt]

Hey this is now a perfect excuse to tell wife why I need to buy a new cam ?? See .. Always a silver lining and stay positive because hunting season is too short !

Thats the way to look at it. The only thing I've had stolen so far is a folding aluminum deer dolley that I had hidden in the woods on private land near one of my stands. It sucks that it was stolen. But that was the worst dolley ever for uneven terrain. I only hope that whomever stole it uses it every time they kill a deer. I only found it potentially useful to win Americas Funniest Home Videos. The deer was on the ground with the dolley on top more often than not.

Today I have one a little nicer, but it stays in the truck until needed.

DuckHunt

[Irish13]

Thanks everyone for your replies .. Good to vent and move forward.

I forgot to mention that it's not the cam we will miss (however it did it's job for years), but the 2 months of deer pictures/scouting on the SD card we never got to view is our major concern.

BTW.. I shoot an IBEX and my brother shoots the Phoenix, could not imagine using anything but Excalibur.