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Knowing how to hide trail camera from humans is one of the most rewarding experiences for any nature enthusiast. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a hunter hoping to track the spot with the fattest bucks or a wildlife biologist trying to study the animal kingdom. But once you’re sure your monitoring system is out of sight, you not only have peace of mind but also the advantage of high efficient recording.
Most of the best trail camera models in the market are not dirt cheap as you can find some costing over $400. And if you are working around a public location, you won’t need to draw attention to the prying eyes who are always looking for quick bucks.
Fortunately, this article is primarily on how to hide a trail camera from this kind of snoopy individuals. It mostly comprises simple techniques that you can apply on your existing device without having to spend a penny.
But before we come to that, let’s highlight some of the reasons as to why you should keep your game camera hidden.
Why You Should Keep Your Trail Camera Out Of Sight
Basically, there are more than two reasons you should keep your hidden while setting it up. They include:
Avoid attracting unwanted attention: this is one of the most crucial benefits of installing your trail camera out of sight. It helps ensure you can do your things with maximum secrecy without other hunters or botanists noticing. Hence, making possible you get to achieve your goal and desires with optimal efficiency.
Prevent theft: this is yet another crucial reason as to why you should set up your game camera at a hidden place. As we have just said, some of these devices are quite expensive, in which case it can be very painful to see your months saving lost. Furthermore, setting up a trail camera can be time-consuming, which means all those hours you spent climbing up the tree would be for nothing.
Avoid loss of important data: people use a trail a camera for different reasons, ranging from monitoring hunting areas to study purposes. Can you imagine spending a whole week hoping to collect some very crucial info on your research? Then, come to the D-day and find that your monitoring gear is nowhere to found. So, hiding your trail camera not only helps secure your investment but also prevent loss of important records.
Ensure successful stealth surveillance: This is also very important- especially when using your game camera to monitor your property. With the surveillance camera hidden, you can clearly see who visits and what happens around your compound when you’re away. Also, the collected evidence will remain safe, with the prospective invader unable to access or destroy it.
Avoid scaring away potential prey: most of the wildlife are very sensitive when they pick up some disturbance around their nest. But with your trail camera hidden, it’s not only undetectable to humans but the animals as well. Hence, enabling you to capture steady, crystal images and video of the prey without chasing them away.
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How to Hide Trail Camera from Humans
There are various ways you can use to hide your game camera from humans and enjoy maximum productivity. Some of the techniques are simple tricks that you can do in a matter of seconds without having to get back to your wallet. Whereas several will require you to spend a dollar or two to ensure the finest results.
Here is a list that outlines all of them together. We hope you can find the best choice for your situation.
Install Your Equipment High Up
A trail camera usually operates with batteries and keep the recordings in built-in local storage, mostly an SD card. As such, you’re not limited to where you can mount it as you would have when using a wired camera.
Even so, mounting your device at a high position, out of reach, can be better. Ten feet on top of the tree can be a reasonable height since most adults are about 5 to 6 feet tall. Hence, the casual passerby won’t see it, unless they’re walking with their eyes up instead of the ground.
As a bonus, the raised mounting point will provide your camera with an aerial view, thereby allowing it to cover larger space.
Keep Off Trails
Other than high height, mounting your trail camera away from the trails or spots with high traffic can also pay off. Even the majority of animals refrain from such places, which means you can’t pick much when your interest is on animals.
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The fact, nonetheless, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use your game cam to watch these areas. Particularly if you’re using the system for security reasons, you have to position it in the high-traffic spots for maximum safety. All you will need is to set it some inches back [around 25 feet] where it’s not direct eyesight from the trail.
Camouflage Your Camera
Of all the other tricks, this is the overall best one. It involves disguising the camera in a way that it blends superlatively with the environment, making it difficult to notice easily.
There are several ways you can camouflage your trail camera and make it invisible. One way is by dressing it an aftermarket suit that will allow you to blend with its surrounding patterns successfully. If not the skins, you can add the exterior casing with natural materials, mainly leaves and tree barks. Only make sure you don’t block the camera view as it will threaten its performance and effectiveness.
To avoid the hassle of all that, you can also buy a trail cam that has a camo print on the shell. They’re available online in varying designs, with some imitating a tree bark in a way that the passersby won’t identify easily even when walking nearby.
Box It Up
The method is more of a safety technique, but it will keep your camera inaccessible to unauthorized persons. These types of boxes are available in the market, whereby they feature a reinforced construction and a padlock. Hence, helping disrupt the evil intentions of the opportunistic burglar, who is less likely to be carrying demolish tools.
Some of these security boxes come in camouflaged styling, thereby serving multiple purposes at the same time. A good example is the SPYPOINT SB-300 and the Browning Sub-Micro Security Box, both of which consist of disguised steel design. Thus, protecting your precious hardware against detection, theft, and extending its durability in the long run.
Conceal the Game Camera in Something
This is a trick of disguising your game camera, but instead of camouflages, you put it inside something. The object you use to hide with depends on what you have in that area, with a rotting tree stump offering the best cover. All you will have to do is create a hollow space and insert your camera inside.
If you don’t find an old stump, you can go with the option of a fake birdhouse. The structure is one of the last places a trespasser will think of, especially when using an already existing one. With that piece that has a weather-beaten appeal, it will be easier to blend into the natural environment and avoid drawing attention.
Keep It Dark
Camouflaging and concealing your game camera is almost useless if it records with a visible white flash. It’ll certainly attract attention to the passersby and sellout wherever you have tried hiding.
For the better, therefore, you’ll need to go dark with a system that has low or no glow flashes. That way, no human eye will be able to notice where your camera is stashed. And as a bonus, the wild animals won’t detect it either with their sensitive eye. Hence, enabling steady and smooth recording without scaring away your prey.
As you go dark, also do remember even the slightest glint can get the attention of the human, as well as the animal eye. Therefore, consider mounting your camera at a cool place where the lens won’t reflect away light.
A Decoy Camera Can Bore Results
As stupid as it may sound, that’s the entire truth. It’s one of the best ways you can use to catch a dishonest friend or the potential invader without his/ her consent.
What you will have to do is to get a dummy camera that is no longer functioning but has its exterior intact. Once you’ve got it, you will set it at a place easy to access, rather not too obvious. Then, mount the real trail camera nearby, mainly within the range of the decoy so that you can identify the thief.
As for this real one, we’d recommend a camouflaged mode to avoid detection and well secured for extra security.
Quick Guide: Essential Tips to Consider When Hiding a Trail Camera
These are some of the best-proven strategies that one can use to keep a trail camera out of sight and avoid unnecessary attention. In most, you can apply multiple methods for better results, but it might depend on the application.
Even so, there are a few factors you have to consider if the need for hiding your game camera is to succeed. They include:
Size: when it comes to hiding objects, the size does matter a lot. Even with spy cams, security companies usually create them as small as possible for easier hiding. So, even for a trail camera, the tinier the better. This is so as it’ll be easier to disguise and also it’s less noticeable.
Range: even when a camera is undetectable and well-secured, it’s totally worthless if it has a short field of view. That’s to say, it has no benefit if it’s out of range after mounting at high heights. So, you have to make sure your trail camera has a longer field of view and it can still capture vivid images from far.
Housing: unlike security cameras that we can choose in respect to their aesthetic beauty, a trail camera has to have modest makeup. The reason you’re hiding it is to avoid drawing unnecessary attention. So, you have to refrain from the vivid designs and choose the rustic or camouflage constructions present.
Battery Life: when your trail camera is high up on the tree, the last thing you would want is climbing after every three days to change the batteries. Therefore, you will need to make sure your device has a decent power use, with a consumption rate of several months if possible.
Audio Alerts: for the best results, your game cam shouldn’t have the audible alerts like those we have in security cameras. If it’s memory error or battery low alerts, it would be nicer to have other means of signal like an on-screen warning sign. The audible beeping sounds can give out the location of your device, thereby compromising the need to hide it.
LED Indicator: similarly, a LED indicator like that showing a CCTV is active can be inconvenient to a trail camera. It can give out the location of your hidden system, as well as distract the animals you’re trying to observe. Hence, rendering the entire monitoring process useless.
Motion Detector: with your hidden camera, you probably will want it to capture everything that passes across the lens. As such, you have to attest the motion sensor is strong enough to detect movements when farther away. Don’t forget to go with the PIR technology so that you can be receiving only what is important.
Final Verdict:
When mounting a trail camera, you’ll need to hide it if you want other hunters and passersby not to spot. You will not only be preserving your investment but also ensure you get to make the most of the hardware. Including maintaining continuous and uninterrupted recording.
From our article, we have shared with you around seven pointers that you can turn your monitoring device unnoticeable. All you’ll need is to make sure you properly strategize, then keep your cam high, disguised, and soundless.
Furthermore, you have to be a little creative about where you mount, avoiding the trails and high-traffic spots. Most of such areas tend to be the first place a motivated thief will check due to their popularity. Hope you got how to hide trail camera from humans.
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