Arizona Decides Trail Cameras Violate Fair Chase; Slap Hunters with Country’s First Full Cam Ban

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When prospecting a new area to hunt. I'll put a cam out for 2 weeks. 2 get an approx time game is in the area. Then check it. If traffic looks good. I'll do a sit and watch. Some do let them out year around.
 
Trail cams aren't as helpful as some think they are. I never used one in over 50 years of hunting until I got a hunting property. All they do really is let you know what is around. The deer don't operate on our timetable.

Maybe Arizona hunting is different? But I doubt it. Exclusionary rules do nothing to help hunting or hunters but the Antis love them.
 
Trail cams aren't as helpful as some think they are. I never used one in over 50 years of hunting until I got a hunting property. All they do really is let you know what is around. The deer don't operate on our timetable.

Maybe Arizona hunting is different? But I doubt it. Exclusionary rules do nothing to help hunting or hunters but the Antis love them.
On your own property is one thing I guess, but out West it is mostly BLM or NF land and open to the public. When my old IH Scout got a flat tire, my buddy told me to get it recovered quickly or by the next day, it would be full of bullet holes
 
. . . Says it violates the fair chase code of ethics.
Huh. . . I wasn't aware there was a Buck Nekkid Empty Handed hunting season in AZ. If you're wearing underwear, there's nothing fair about it.

Now, it makes sense as a way to reduce overall harvest, and bias that harvest towards the hunters who spend more effort on strategy vs equipment. I guess that would be excessively honest.
 
I’d like to offer a different perspective on trail cams. I think that they can be aids to conservation efforts. Specifically, they allow hunters to see what game is in a given area; this is beneficial to conservation because hunters can target the mature game and/or game such as spikes that have bad genes.

I think fair chase is not impacted by trail cameras as much or in the same way as it is devices such as drones. Specifically, trail cameras, generally, do not provide real-time feedback as to the location of game. On the other hand, I feel that drones are contrary to fair chase in that a hunter can gain a real-time feed as to the location, disposition, and actions of game with which he can then maneuver upon the game.
 
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When I lived in Nevada, if you camped or parked by a waterhole, you were in trouble; if you used dogs, aircraft or other non-traditional means, you were in trouble. If you used food plots, salt licks, you were in trouble - trouble as in major fines, possibility of felony conviction, loss of hunting privileges, loss of guns and gear in possession during those instances, etc. As one game warden told me a long time ago - "It's called hunting, not killing, for a reason"
 
How, exactly, do trail cams "violate fair chase"?

And the decision was apparently made and set in stone with no intent whatsoever to take into account any feedback they may have gotten during that one month public comment period they set. Their minds were made up long before.

Not to mention NONE of their concerns was backed by any historical evidence or studies.

If this violated "fair chase", then it seems to me anything which doesn't involve naked predator humans running down game barefoot and ripping their throats out with their teeth would fall under this.
 
I can see outlawing the ones that send a picture to your cell phone in real time. As for the regular ones with an SD card, it just tells me when I should have been hunting, or how nocturnal the bucks really are. I've never been able to pattern a deer where I hunt.

I do get some nice pictures of deer, especially during the rut and enjoy looking at them. Also the occasional coyote, bobcat, or fox.
 
I have one that I put up in the yard to see what types of critters are walking through the yard. Two or four legged. Never used it for hunting since 95% of my hunting is on public land. I don't see how one would be of much help.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but it seems like another senseless law to me.
 
I have cameras out to watch the animals in the yard. Its not for hunting. Captured a nice fox last night with an injured front leg. Also a Fisher, racoon, possum, and or course Deer. My dad no longer hunts but uses the cameras in the woods to see what is out there. I don't think for most animals they are fair or unfair as part of the hunt.
 
I have 4 I put them out a month before bow season. They only help to encourage you to hunt a certain track of property. Since I unfortunately live in a state that allows dog hunting, it serves to let me know about trespassers and the very nocturnal deer. I fail to see how it interferes with fair chase, any discussion stating this violates fair chase would probably also apply to scouting. With fewer and fewer hunters every year looks like the would do more to encourage new hunters rather than chase them away. I have used cameras for 6 years and can say I only killed 2 deer that I got a picture of and they were not near where I got pictures of them. Cameras helped keep my son interested in hunting.
 
I can see outlawing the ones that send a picture to your cell phone in real time. As for the regular ones with an SD card, it just tells me when I should have been hunting, or how nocturnal the bucks really are. I've never been able to pattern a deer where I hunt.

I do get some nice pictures of deer, especially during the rut and enjoy looking at them. Also the occasional coyote, bobcat, or fox.

Why outlaw the cell phone ones its not like they are going to drive out to the place when the phone rings, the only advantage i can see from them would be you can check your pics with tracking your scent in the area. I don't have that type because of the price and cell phone service charge, but don't see how this would be more help than a sd one except for the scent.
 
On your own property is one thing I guess, but out West it is mostly BLM or NF land and open to the public.

I have a lot less to say about how they want taxpayers to use collectively owned taxpayer land. Private land is a lot different, IMO though.

I personally don’t even use them for game animals myself. For me it’s really about knowing where the animals I don’t want are.

The deer at our place are not really fair chase either because we do not put enough pressure on them, for them to think to avoid us.



I guess they will want to make laws against being nice to them too now…
 
i was attempting to stay current on the Arizona game camera thing. It appeared that the game commission would ban real time trail cameras, then they banned all trail cameras.

Those cameras keep me informed of the status of wild hogs. This week i executed five little pigs and two adult hogs on one property. Since a neighbor was assessed a monstrous fine for poaching, some good bucks hang out on that place. My firing range is there and i shoot every couple weeks: That shooting does not bother the deer.

We've run a feeder on that place year around for 20 years, it helps the does and fawns. i don't hunt deer there because they are not afraid of me, my scent is everywhere. i've had deer approach me while shooting. Last day of Oklahoma 2020 deer gun season i watched a 170 B&C buck graze a game plot 40 yards away and gave him a pass.
 
It appeared that the game commission would ban real time trail cameras, then they banned all trail cameras.

Those cameras keep me informed of the status of wild hogs.

The “real time” cellular ones are the most helpful to me for hogs. As I get a notification on my phone when they are in the trap and can call and drop the gates on the unwanted pests.



“Hunting” them you might get a couple as you scatter the sounder have better luck keeping them from tearing up hay fields and grazing pasture if you can get more of them at once.

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Maybe someone in Arizona was mad that they legalized recreational use of drugs our Federal Government still hold as illegal, then again, maybe they are already hooked on it…..
 
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