Quick and dirty camera build

[John-W-WI]

I received a bear tag this year (with plenty of preference points, just decided to take a tag this year rather than another point).

I didn't want to put my good cameras in harms way, so I bought some cheap cameras at menards and a 5 dollar "dry" box.

I put the two together to protect the camera as much as I could for $5 and put them on the baits.

Here is the cam and the dry box.


I put a piece of scrap plywood in the box to shim the camera up and give me something to put some screws into.


Out the back of the box I put a poor mans swivel in. This allowed me adjustment in all directions. (you can see the screws installed to hold the plywood in place through the back)


I drilled a few holes and used zip ties to hold the camera in place.


And I cut out the face of the box so the camera could pick up motion and take a picture.
I also drilled a couple of 1/4" holes in the bottom of the box to drain any rain that entered the enclosure.
​

Nothing fancy, but if you look closely you will notice that a bear investigated this one enough to knock the fresnel lens off the camera. I haven't opened it up yet, but I expect to be able to fix it pretty easily.

The bad news is, our zone had the worst bear season we've had in years. They just simply weren't hitting baits. Still not sure if it was a lack of bears or a lack of interest in baits?

-John

 

[JSE]

Hi John, my son has a tag in zone C and the bears have slowed down the last couple weeks. The berries are ripe and the fawns dropped. I have three cameras over four stumps and have not had an issue. I use the ladder from a metal stand and put the camera up 10-11' I did forget to take the ladder down after pulling the card and had pictures of the top of a bears head with an ear. Use rubber gloves when changing the cards

 

[JSE]

I do like your set up, great job

 

[John-W-WI]

Hey JSE - in the end last year was a total bust for us.

The year before we had baits with 10+ bears hitting them regularly. Where the heck they all went is still a mystery. Baits are going back out now, we'll see what this year brings (now that I don't have a tag).

Good luck to your son, share some 'after' pictures!

-John