Bushnell Cellucore 20 vs Browning Defender wireless pro Scout

[Brian662]

Anybody have experiences with either? I'm looking to add some new cellular cameras to my remote ridgetops and I know the Browning has better battery life but is almost twice the cost and doesn't have as good of cell plans.

Looking for some first hand experience before I purchase a few. Thanks!

 

[Wind Gypsy]

No experience with the bushnell cell cam but have or have had browning defender, defender ridgeline, and defender pro scout.

Have had pretty good results with the defender and pro scout. The ridgeline was garbage and I returned 3 of them.

The browning app is not great and their data plans are the worst of the 4 cell cam brands I have.

 

[Brian662]

No experience with the bushnell cell cam but have or have had browning defender, defender ridgeline, and defender pro scout.

Have had pretty good results with the defender and pro scout. The ridgeline was garbage and I returned 3 of them.

The browning app is not great and their data plans are the worst of the 4 cell cam brands I have.

Are you happy with the quality of pictures produced by the Brownings? How about the cell service and battery life?

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Are you happy with the quality of pictures produced by the Brownings? How about the cell service and battery life?

The no glow versions (original defender and ridgeline) take pretty lousy night images and the pro-scout (low glow IR) is just ok at night. I am typically fine with the compromise in lousy night pictures in exchange for no-glow but others might not be. My ridgetec cams do quite a bit better at night with no-glow but my spypoint link-dark and Link-s-dark are worse. In general i'd say thumbnails are average to a little above average in quality. HD pics are pretty solid. Like most browning cams, they can have a sensitive trigger and can be prone to false triggers with tree movement, branches, tall weeds blowing, etc.

It looks like they have multiple pro scout versions now. I would strongly advise against any version with an internal antenna (looks like the pro-scout max has this issue). That was one of the issues we had with the defender ridgeline, reception was terrible to the point of being unusable in some places where 4 or 5 other cam models have worked. On the OG defender and pro-scout models reception has been fine and battery life has been fine to good.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I've become a big fan of Ridgetec cell cams and have 7 of them now. You'll spend a bit more on the front end but I think it's worth it for a number of reasons:
1. They seem to be the most reliable option i've used.
2. The video capabilities and options are the best i'm aware of
3. By far the most flexible settings options though the app.
4. I think I pay $6 or $7/ month per cam and never run out of data. That will make up the cost difference with browning pretty quick and you get videos included, dont need to pay extra for HD images, etc.
5. quite good detection circuit.

If a cell cam requires me to be present to trouble shoot issues frequently, burns batteries quick, recovers slow as piss, or has a lousy detection circuit, it is likely to cause more negatives than benefits and I'd just as soon not have it out or have a standard cam I can pull cards from after season or when accessing a stand.

We also currently have:
Browning Defender
Browning Defender pro-scout
Browning defender ridgeline
Spypoint Link-dark
Spypoint link-s-dark
Tactacam reveal sk

 

[Tamarack]

Can't help with those 2 but for picture quality I'd have to go with Spartan's..I have the white-flash model. Love my Cuddebacks- being able to link them together, just wish the picture quality was better. Allow for an HD request at least.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I haven’t ever tried Spartan but that’s probably the next one I’d try if not set on RidgeTec. Good reliability rep, the thumbnails @SWIFFY posts look pretty dang good and I think you can get a really sweet data plan deal with them.

 

[SWIFFY]

I would recommend it!

I pay $125 every 3 months. With that I keep 5 cameras going year round. 3 GB plan. Ive never run out of data.