# Trail Camera for Cabin Security



## PDS (Jul 10, 2009)

Do any of you use or know of the use of trail cams as a form of cabin security to keep track of what goes on in your absence? What brands have you used? How long do the batteries last? Are there any do's or don'ts in their use. Do they make a discernible flash when it's dark? Do you mount them outdoors or indoors for this purpose? 
I have a cabin in a rural area, but on and visible from a county gravel road. I also have year round neighbors within several hundred yards of my place. I haven't had any problems in the year or so I've owned it, but that doesn't mean someone won't try something foolish, however.
I have never owned or used a trail cam. Perhaps their use is cost prohibitive or are not really designed for this purpose. 
I am open to any and all thoughts, experiences or opinions on this. Thanks, much.


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## mi duckdown (Jul 1, 2006)

do you talk to neighbors. have them check on your place. Heck my neighbors have keys to My Place.
You are way too ANAL.You got to have faith in people, unless you have had a break in.


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## tdejong302 (Nov 28, 2004)

I had problems at my camp. I bought some security decals off of the net which fixed my problem. I also put a trail cam facing the door of my cabin. It took pictures of what was going on. Usually the neighbor dog visiting. So tral cam can be useful. I found the decals to be more useful. Once people thought I had security they left me alone.

If do go the route of a trail cam go Infra Red. There is no flash.


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## slowpoke (Jan 30, 2001)

It is Infra Red also. The flash is red and you can see it when it takes a picture. I can turn it off and just have it work in the daylight. I'm thinking on building a bird house and putting it in the house. I have other bird houses on my property. As far as the batteries last it has been out overlooking a food plot for the last 2 months. Batters are getting low. In the summer I can get 4 or 5 months worth of pictures before the batters goes bad.


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## Big Reds (Oct 14, 2007)

Go with the security signs. Cheap and work well.
Trust is earned, not given.


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## Nork (Apr 29, 2009)

I bought a flashing light/audible alarm that is activated by motion from a catalog...Northern Products or something like that. It shuts off after a couple of minutes. I think it was around $40. It's battery operated and has a remote to turn it off when I get to my camp. Don't know if it's deterred any thieves but it gives me a little bit of peace of mind.


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## link523 (Dec 1, 2006)

I put up trail cams just to go up and find them with a 22 hole in them:rant:


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## Putman Lake Campground (Oct 4, 2010)

PDS said:


> Do any of you use or know of the use of trail cams as a form of cabin security to keep track of what goes on in your absence? What brands have you used? How long do the batteries last? Are there any do's or don'ts in their use. Do they make a discernible flash when it's dark? Do you mount them outdoors or indoors for this purpose?
> I have a cabin in a rural area, but on and visible from a county gravel road. I also have year round neighbors within several hundred yards of my place. I haven't had any problems in the year or so I've owned it, but that doesn't mean someone won't try something foolish, however.
> I have never owned or used a trail cam. Perhaps their use is cost prohibitive or are not really designed for this purpose.
> I am open to any and all thoughts, experiences or opinions on this. Thanks, much.


My self I invite my good neighbors use of the properties i can't watch, int turn they watch it for me.

Trail cam's make great target practice. but properly administered can work. 

My self I'm anxious to take a vacation to review trail cam pictures wondering if anybody had the nerve to step foot on my place, etc.

If you put them up high enough to keep them from being stolen you won't check the memory chip often enough and in the event you actually do get ripped off the card will have been full.

I've heard that trail cams are a great source of entertainment for folks that enjoy practical jokes also. (remove chip, replace deer pictures with nudies of granny from playboy's kinda thing).

Good luck, enjoy your vacation home and don't leave un-replaceables. be sure to hook yer neighbors up with a hind quarter now n then. 

Remember you bought your vacation home in their home area. They are always there and know your patterns, habits, etc. not much you can pull over on them by visiting even every weekend.

You can put in a phone line, hook up a wireless cam that sends signal to your computer at home buy a hard drive to store the footage, and spend your spare time reviewing that footage. that'd be the most secure route.


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

I'm a northern Michigan weekly newspaper editor these days and I write up, on average, a dozen reports a month about cabins and seasonal homes being broken into, and then, every spring, a whole bunch more when the owners return to the place for the first time since last fall...

in every one of these break-ins the county or local law enforcement will say something like the following:

The best security for your seasonal home is to get everything out of it that could possibly have any value at all every time you close it up-ESPECIALLY weapons, tools, chainsaws, snowmobiles or jet skis, riding lawn mowers, snowblowers, jewelry, TVs and computers...do not leave ANYTHING of any value at all where it can be seen through the window or from a road, and do your best to make the place looked LIVED in-either have the driveway and walkways plowed/shoveled, or have someone walk around there every couple of days or so, and drive up and down the driveway, and and always have a couple of motion lights on at night. 

Get any and all gas cans out...or at least emptied...and if you have an oil fuel tank, make sure it's almost empty or empty before you leave and have it filled up just before you come back in the spring...my in-laws had an entire tank of oil drained from their cabin at Hubbard Lake about five years ago. 

Stickers might work, for a while, but I wouldn't count on them lasting very long. And a trail camera would only take a picture of someone that no one can identify...most of the break-ins up here law enforcement believes are committed by people who drive up the freeway one night, do a whole bunch of break-ins in an area, then drive back to where ever they came from...they don't live up here and aren't known...a lot of the stuff recovered is found downstate somewhere...and since most of these people are young, few have mugshots on file.


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