phade

The recon force hasn't hit store shelves yet - only the 2017 Strike Force and Dark Ops are out. Everything I've seen so far on the 17 Strike Force is that its outdoing the 16. Still early though. I am very interested in the Pro model.

Let me know on the Browning - I am ordering the 2017 models in, soon.

Cuddeback has a new wireless system being planned. The higher series cuddebacks are OK. The Ambush line is pretty rough, especially the newer models for some reason.

This has been attempted many times on many forums. Every once in a while it works. Almost all of the ones that work and work well takes someone who opens their doors or a sportsman's club doors - not just taking the lead. One member here had a get-together at his house for a different forum and with local hunters here in wNY. It was a great time; people shared tactics that made them successful and what not. Brought mounts and photos.

Boo on the deadhead. A 6 we have had pics of for two seasons and one we've seen a few times from the stand. The 4 pt side still had blood on the pedicle and the beam. Pretty fresh. Looked for the match but no dice. Didn't even intend to look as I was just swapping batteries in cams and that was all it took. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I lucked into a pile of boxes of mag blend for $50. Probably won't need to buy any for a long while. I was planning on those XR before that lucky buy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's kind of apples and oranges because the defender is a wifi/Bluetooth phone. The pro models of the strike Force and Dark Ops will be the ones more likely to try if you don't need wifi. I have not tested any yet. A few large scale vendors have them in stock. I am a bit more cautious as I will want to ensure they are as good as advertised before selling. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have all of the Browning details now for 2017 - my initial order will be going in over the next week or so, let me know if you want in. Here is the Defender Press Release. There will be PRO versions of the Strike Force and Dark Ops. I have that info too if someone wants it. 2017-BrowningTrailCam_BTC9D-Defender.pdf

That is the defender model. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The e2 isn't a replacement for the Strike Force, but it's a pretty good picture cam. Takes good vids too but has a slow trigger, but other than that, it's not a bad buy at all. I've run one for 6 mos or so with good results. If my entire fleet was e2, I wouldn't be complaining.

That company has huge momentum. They're going to be a disruptor in the industry.

Very few cam companies will formally say their cams are waterproof on paper. At the end of the day, almost anything can be water intruded. This keeps them from having to pay very high warranty claims against unreasonable acts of God - IE, if you hang your cam on a creek edge and the creek escapes its banks and the cam is submerged or the area the cam is in gets torrential, lasting rain. For most of the scenarios, cams are waterproof. I have most certainly had leaks causes by fault gasket designs (usually fixed in next production run) or the bonding agents around the arrays and sensors drying out over time and cracking allowing water entry. But, for the most part, cams generally can shed water. If there is water ingress on a new cam, I would return it for warranty. Water will kill the cams - some immediate, but many much later down the road. The soldering used in most cams is not rust proof and once water gets in, damage grows internally. Browning's battery life is slightly above average, but it is not going to be at the top of the overall food chain. This is acceptable, however, when you compare performance and a realistic timespan for a cam being set. Even with generic batteries on pic mode across Spring, Summer, Fall, I can go several months without needing to change them - and I am in high dpsm areas. The HDEs have been reported to offer very long life with lithium - although they're not the cheapest on a cost per pic basis. I believe Browning has reduced the resting rate draw on these cams in 2016 and battery performance should only get better. The Defender uses CR123 batteries this year and I am interested in seeing how it turns out.

The people who found it were shed hunting, too.

Brownings have a high cutoff. Supposedly the new ones are more usable with rechargeables. Not really worth it IMO if you will only run them in winter. Cams can be finicky with rechargeables, but later models are better. I run rechargeables in my Spartans that have external or solar panels to ensure the external batteries are used first. Generally speaking if its a 6v setup and has separate banks, you can run them. Browning doesn't run the 6v setup in the Strike Force.

Unfortunately this time of year is busy for me at work, and I have cams that were set in September and haven't been checked yet. I would like to say I'll get to them this weekend, but I doubt it. I haven't sat down to count, but I probably have 15-20 out that I will need to collect. I don't have much interest in running cams in Feb/March/early April. I'll run a few for turkey April/May but won't put the fleet back out until late June/July. With my luck at work, I'll be posting the same reply in March or early April when I finally get a weekend morning to shed hunt, lol. Those are some good survivors - can't say that WGI takes great pics though. Woof.

Yes - I keep the site very very basic right now as most of my sales are via word of mouth. I will be adding some content to it over the late winter, early spring time.

Might be tough - one of the challenges for Browning is that the cam you use only has 6 batteries and they tend to need more juice during winter. Still an interesting test, but I would expect lower pic count on the Browning as a result since it'll reach the point of cut-off quicker than the Moultrie will.

There is a lot of market consolidation going on in the hunting and fishing industry. A lot of brand and company sales going to the key groups buying them up...TOG, VISTA, Escalade Sports, Pradco, Plano Synergy...if you just look these groups up, you'd be amazed at the brands they own. A lot of the smaller companies 10 years ago were purchased - I remember several getting their start on AT and 10 years later, they're owned by companies with multi-billion/yr revenue bottom lines.

Between my Z28 and my Synergy, I am not going to be in the bow market for a while. I just hope that when I am, there is a company putting out bows with similar design characteristics regarding the "shootability" that my two bows have.

As long as there is an external power hook up, yes there is. Did you use lithium in the Browning? Cold temps over winter for a long period of time is one of the few times where I would suggest it. There are pics out already on the cams, and I am working with my rep to get the pics for me to update the website. Covert does have a revamped lineup, looks like a model in between the MP line and the red 40/Black 60 families. Hopefully these cams are performers - reviews were mixed the past year or two. Their cell cams also have some upgrades, but nothing that is earth shattering, as they're playing catch up now.

The model will be carried over and there will be a "Pro" series of that cam with even faster trigger/re-arm rates. I am curious to get my hands on the new Brownings. New models can always be a little scary to buy, but Browning has only had one down year with new models. I am hopeful these new models are burners - fast performing and reliable. The Defender has a different shell and body than the other cams. The array looks like it'll blind someone - hopeful they are dim lit. Nothing on Spypoint that I have looked into. The solar panels are nice, but you can buy them for much less than the cost of the cam with the built in panel.

Spartan seems to be leading the pack going into 2017 again. They tend to slow roll releases - meaning some people thought they might have a video cell cam in the works. I don't have that info, but I would guess they are working on one quietly, and when they do release it (who knows when), it's going to be pretty solid right out of the gate. Most of the other cell cam companies released their cams and did a lot of beta testing on actual users, whereas Spartan did beta testing before mass market, reducing the bugs or tweaks necessary - and the reduced pain felt by owners of the cams. Are they perfect? No, they could have slightly improved trigger speed or a slightly better matched sensing zone (done on purpose as most cell cams are set at stationary points - beds, scrapes, feeders). They could also offer the premium app for free, but they don't middle man the data like Moultrie, Bushnell, or Covert, so it's about even. Honestly I am kind of shocked that Bushnell didn't revamp or come out with something new for cell cams. I thought Browning might dip their toes in wireless, but Bluetooth and wifi is a start. If I had my wish, I would like to see a video cell cam with sound. My second wish would be a cell cam that has options for transmitting. Example would be to have the cam take pics as if it were a regular trail cam, store, and then transmit to the app at a designated time, or have them take a pic, send, as they do now. Benefit would be the ability for pic sequences to be taken and sent similar to a regular cam rather than being limited to one pic every 30-60 seconds with transmission time built in.

Wow nice bucks! Those ears are PINNED back on the one mount.

Frost seeding med red and going over with cleth is a pretty easy plot when you only have some grasses to compete with. Hancock tends to be pretty cheap online.

A lot of the trail cam companies are announcing their new models. A few highlights - Spartan is scheduled to release a 4g cell cam for Verizon in September timeframe. They did do a late year release for US Cellular - not an impact here unless you hunt in the Midwest where this is a much asked for option. Browning has some new/updated models, including the Defender which uses CR123 batteries and has Bluetooth and wifi. It likely includes the use of a new CMOS sensor that Browning has not used before - usually they use a 2MP reliable one. Cam looks different from their usual shells. Moultrie has done what they normally do and come out with laundry lists of bullet points. Sometimes they hit home and sometimes they do not. They have re-tooled their line by letter series, A, M, S, etc. S is their signature series cam and comes with a price tag to match. Bushnell has a redesigned user interface with screen/buttons and some presets that will be set and forget kind of easy. Improvement on re-arm rate.