Bucks and Red Foxes

Finally got out to check my cameras. It was cold and windy here today but bright sunshine made for a nice day in the fields and woods. Got a couple of young bucks at the power line. They're still holding on to their antlers. Like I said last year the bucks in my area seem to shed their antlers later than in many places. A few will still have them near the end of February. The two red foxes are on a camera that is failing on me. I noticed that 95% of the night pics were black a couple of weeks ago. I was lucky to get the night pic of the fox. The good news is I got a new Covert Reveal to replace it. So I'm looking forward to seeing what I get on it next week.  My camera set along the creek hasn't worked out well. I changed the angle in hopes that is the problem.

Small Buck

Another slow week for the camera traps. The big bucks are still AWOL from the cameras. I know they're still around from having seen two last week as we were finishing the corn chopping. It's funny to watch the deer come out into a field that has just been chopped and stand looking around. They're probably thinking where the heck did all of our corn go.  I did get this small buck last week. One thing I really like about the Covert camera is it takes great night time pics.

Bucks

I finally got lucky and had some cloud cover when the group of bachelor bucks showed up at the camera set. The big ten pointer wasn't with them but I got a couple of good bucks in the group. One has a weird rack with a perfect four on one side and a messed up four point on the other. Looks like they really like the mineral block I set out. I moved the Reveal camera to this set today so we'll see next week if it handles the whiteout problem better.

Covert Reveal Review

I’ve had several people ask what I thought of the new camera I got to replace the flood damaged one so I thought I’d write a little review. Besides it’s too hot outside to do anything else. So let me begin by saying I’m in no way connected to the DLC Covert Company  nor receive any monies from them. This is just my personal views and experience with one of their trail cameras.

The first thing I thought when I opened the box was wow this thing is small. It will pretty much fit in my hand. The actual size is 5.5”x3.5”x2.2”. It has a nice camo pattern and is well built.

I’ve had the camera out in the field since early May and it’s taken over 1500 pictures. The battery life is a three bar indicator on the remote control unit that plugs into the camera for setup. The first week it dropped back to two bars and I was thinking oh no the battery life doesn’t look good. But it has held on two bars ever since so I’m pleased with that. The camera will run on 4 or 8 AA batteries.  I’m using the 8 battery set up.

One the main reasons I went with this camera is it has a white flash that gives you color pictures at night.  This is one feature that I have been very pleased with. The flash really lights up a big area and I’ve gotten some great night time shots with it. Another thing that pleased me is the sensing range. It’s picking up animals at least 35’ to 40’ out if not a little bit more. One thing I have noticed is the sensing field is wider than the camera field of view. I played around with it a little by walking past it at different distances and the first shot usually just had me walking into the picture frame. Now the trigger speed could be that fast but I don’t think so. The camera technical data says the trigger speed is 1.2 second but I’m guessing it’s more like 1.5 to 2 second. Again I don’t do a controlled test and that’s just my observation from the pictures I’ve gotten. But 1.5 second isn’t bad for a camera in this price range.

I’ll let you form your own opinion on the picture quality from the pics I’ve posted but overall I’m pleased with the quality and color. I attached a few pics from last week at the end.

Another concern I had was whether the camera was quiet. By quiet I mean does it have a filter clunk when it takes a picture. I’ve found that the animals in my area are much more affected by the loud clunk than they are by the white flash. I’m happy to say that this camera is quiet. I haven’t noticed any pictures of the animals staring at the camera as they do with another camera I have that does have the clunk.

I haven’t needed to deal with Covert’s customer service so I can’t help you with that. But I count that as a good thing also. The cost of this camera is around $120 and I got mine on sale for $99. With the security box and python lock cable (highly recommended in bear country or high people areas) you can get a very good trail camera for around $150 if you shop around. All in all I really don’t have anything I don’t like about the camera and I’ve become a big fan of the Covert cameras. To the point I’m thinking about getting another one.  YES, I’m totally addicted to this camera trapping thing.  If the pay wasn’t so bad I’d quit my day job and do it full time ;).

If I missed something and you have questions please don’t be afraid to ask. You can email me at jsmith0359@gmail.com.