It’s time to get your trail-cameras out at mineral sites and on food plots if you haven’t already. The 2017 buck season will be here before you know it! This guest blog from our good friend Kim might come in handy:
Are the straps on your trail cameras getting old and worn, or do you just not like the way they attach a cam to a tree? Well, for under $6 you can make 4 tree fasteners that will hold your cams securely in place.
Parts list:
–Four 5-inch-long Eye Screws
–8 Fender Washers
–4 Lock Nuts
–4 Wing Nuts
–Four 2-inch-long round-head Stove Bolts.
The diameter of the washers, nuts and bolts will be determined by the model of trail camera you use. Most cameras these days have an industry-standard ¼-inch attachment socket.
For cameras with a back mount, start by putting a 90-degree bend in your eye screw. Place eye screw in a vice with its eye up, then with a hammer, pound it down to 90 degrees.
Attach stove bolt through eye of screw with a washer on each side and a lock nut. Then place a wing nut on the stove bolt so that when you attach the camera to this bolt you can use the wing nut to tighten the connection to your camera.
I hang the fasteners on a wire outside, and spray them with flat-black paint.
To attach to a tree, turn the screw into the tree at the desired height and angle until it is firmly in the tree.
Now attach your camera, and snug down the wing nut to keep it pointed exactly how and where you want it. If a camera does not quite have the downward angle that a lot of hunters prefer, simply apply a little pressure to the bolt and bend slightly down.
With your cams set and secure, you’re ready to get images of bucks and monitor how their racks are growing.–Kim
Great idea. Think I will have to try this out. Got half the food plot planted last weekend. We’ve had mineral out for a while now, will get the cameras out soon !
Where I hunt bears destroy cameras on a regular basis so I bought a steel box for mine but at $100 each and 10 or more cameras out at a time I needed to come up with a better idea of my own. I ran drywall screws thru a plastic 1 gallon ice cream bucket with slots cut for the mounting straps to pass thru, screwed it fast to a tree putting my cameras inside…end of curious bears chewing on my cameras…cost under a dollar.
Now that is slick, sometimes the simplest solution to a problem is the easiest but goes unnoticed until someone points it out. BD