Does anyone use a trail cam with mobile messaging?
Looking into getting one but would like some first hand reviews or suggestions. Have some Christmas money to burn and want to use it on cams but can buy 3-4 for the price of one mobile, is it worth it?
Added Info - I drive a bit over an hour to my property.

I have had one for a year. I read all kinds of issues with them but mine has worked fine. Now, we don't keep it out all the time but used it most of last summer. I've got a Covert Black Ops with AT&T coverage on a family plan, 10 line deal. It costs me $10 a month. We also use it at home for security coverage when we are gone.

This pictures were pretty good that came through on text. You might have coverage issues depending on the cell tower coverage and if you put to far in a dense woods or ravine. When I first put it out we put some corn on the ground and we would get 100 pictures a night of deer, raccoons, bobcats, rabbits, crows, squirrels, coyotes. I paid about $350 for it and it does "ok" on eating batteries. The battery life can be extended if you don't get as many pictures. Now, if they only figure a way out for me to be able to fly a remote drone with a camera so I can fly the property from two hours away every night I'll be happy!!

Id like one just to burn some scumbag thieves and trespassers.

would be nice to know the instant theyre in woods.

If I had one I'd prob be in jail by now. The next trespasser I find is probably not gonna go over well, since now I know the CO'S don't seem to take them seriously. Was very close this year to decking a guy. I don't do well with them. Be cool for deer and better for trespassing issues.

Great for trespassers IF you live close and/or have good relationship with local law enforcement. Now, put the camera up in a tree about 10 to 12 feet so it is not easily noticed. Helps keep it from being stolen. My camera has a feature where it can be tracked if stolen. That said, I use regular trail cameras to watch "people entry points" and every year send pictures to CO's for follow up. The neighbors this last year were a little ticked off apparently when the CO talked to them, they denied, and then he showed them the pictures.

Parke Co seems like a revolving door for COs. Everytime I get to know one it seems like they leave. Had one that used to check on our property for us but this last guy I talked to didn't seem very concerned about me catching someone. Gave them plate number, description, fact that the guy was almost a mile off prop line, and that he passes 4 different no trespassing signs, all info he needed. We've got permission from landowner to prosecute he asked for landowners #, but never contacted the land owner. I was more than frustrated. But back to topic, I'd like one but I'm too cheap to buy one. Only trail cams I have period have all been gifts.

I'm a big fan of the "blackout"cams. Don't know if I'd pay the money for the messaging types. Security would be the only reason for me to have one. Here is the reason I like the blackout type of cams. After riding through and knocking down a bunch of the neighbors corn, they cut our fence to get the horses across to our farm lane. You can guess what they were doing. It wasn't a "joy ride". I got 16 pics, and they were as close as 6' from the cam sticking out on a fence post. They never once seen it! Notice the fence pliers they both had in their back pockets. IF they had seen it, I'm sure it would have been gone. Another reason I wouldn't want to leave a really expensive cam out there.

So did you catch them. Was it drugs?

I figure it will cost about another $100 to secure the camera so I wasn't too excited about it but wanted to hear of anyones positive experiences with them. Acorn ltl or the like. Blackout is pretty sweet. I am far enough away from the property I thought it may save me a trip or two and help keep me out of certain areas to have the messaging camera.

What is the battery life like on yours delaney? That might not make it any different if you only check your cam every couple months. Going in to change batteries would be no different then going in to change memory cards.

If your getting lot of pictures, there is no way the batteries live two months in my experience. Last summer I was replacing about every three weeks because the batteries were really low, 12 AA's. I was probably getting close to 1,000 pictures per week. Keep in mind though that this is pretty much the same deer, over and over.

Now, here is the other thought I'd give. After the first month of feeding, I could go in and place food and there would be deer at the spot within an hour often times. The deer became predictable, you could almost time them and they didn't seem to care much about scent or anything. This went on for three months until we pulled the food totally out. Does, bucks, big and little, they didn't care. JB saw a picture of one of the bucks that was "on a schedule" for over two months and didn't seem to care about scent or disturbance. That buck was one that would have scored easily over 140's. My point is only that disturbing those deer, at that time of year, all the way up to October 1, was next to impossible regardless of how often we went in to change batteries or refresh.

shroom hunting sorta late in the evening...

So who were they and just what were they up to ?

Can't say much, and not going into detail. I have a friend on the Sheriff Dept. who is their drug enforcement Officer. He knew exactly who they are by name, before I gave him the pictures. They do all their growing, and other assorted activities off horseback. At a later date, when he went to serve a warrant on another issue, he handed them back their horse brush that they dropped, showed them a picture, and let them know he had more trail camera pictures of them up to no good. We did not press charges……this time. If it had been a good fence, and/or the cattle would have gotten out causing us more trouble, it would have been a different story.

Hmmm... you were nicer than I would have been.

Ohhhh…..and WHO called WHO a jackass a couple months ago!!!! :p

Richard Cranium.....

Nicer than me to I ran two Amish boys off acted real mean to haven't seen them since