I am late saying this...as this happened before deer season ended. But, I am fairly new to this hunting game. As this is my second season going for anything. This year, I was trying to go a little bit more for bigger game, ie deer/pig...stick with SHNF and what they have to offer. I got "lucky" and have a friend that sells land on the side, and he actually had about 3-4ac for sale, and the property butted RIGHT up to the border of public for SHNF. I was going to use that as an entry point to SHNF.

Me...not really knowing where to start. I put some cameras on the property and some corn/attractant, fairly close to the boundary...but far enough away. With hopes that I could possibly draw stuff off the public...and into view of my two cameras/food. Had activity once, with a doe showing up at around 5pm. So I got super excited, possibly could shoot them before she got onto the property (I had a doe tag for SHNF) so I place another cam and some more food. I thought, three to four weeks on a property that was owned by someone was a good amount of time. I had a FEELING there was going to be stuff on both of the cameras, and I couldn't wait to grab them and check them both.

After the hr drive, and the three minute walk, I came across where the corn used to be...and alas there was nothing. Some POS decided to trespass and steal my cameras. No idea if its a neighbor, potential buyer that just turned to be an a$$....or what happened. They were cheap enough cameras, so they did not have any cable lock or anyplace to place a cable to keep it on the tree. Cheap enough that I don't really care about the lost cameras...I care about the lost footage. But, because of that, I stopped going to the property, and kinda got frustrated/annoyed...

Does this happen often? I mean...I guess thats what I "kinda get" for buying cheap cameras....but I did not expect that to happen on property I had permissions. Next camera I get will have a slot for a cable...so you will at least need a chainsaw or cable cutters. Is there anything else you can do besides that?

have gotten pics of a camera thief/trespasser using a cheap old camera and a better camera higher in a tree looking down on the decoy camera.

cellular trail cam will send you their pic and has gps....you will also get game pics texted or emailed so you do not have to check the cards.

I hate to be a negative nabob, but your talkin about 3-4 acres right next to public land.

There is no tellin who comes & goes.

That doesn’t really happen on a normal deer lease.

it happens on every place i've ever hunted on in Texas.
there are some places it just doesn't get noticed as readily.
if you're not on a place full time, you can rest assured that
the neighbors know exactly when you come and go.

There is scum every where however if your that close to PUBLIC land the scum level probably increases. It's not the camera value if you had paid more and cabled they probably would have cut the cables and the pain would be greater for you!!!!!!!!!!!!.

That suxs.

The sad part is I have a buddy of mine that wanted to take a camera. We were on public land and he was like, "hey, someone left a camera!"

I had to explain to him that first, he didn't buy that camera, and second there is no law against folks leaving them behind to watch the trail. He's a good guy, so once he thought about it, he realized leaving the camera alone was the right thing to do.

Hope if you get the property you do well there.

I've thought about doing the same thing. Just make sure you can put a septic and drill a well.

The piece I found you couldn't put a septic tank, so that sort of killed that.

Still wished I had pulled the trigger and got it.

I hunt public land in east Texas a little. Some folks will steal cameras if they find them. It sucks, but it happens. If I'm planning to leave one on public I just buy the $30 Tasco's. It doesn't sting quite as bad to lose one.