“If anything can go wrong, it will.”
Do you know the origin of Murphy’s Law?
Edward Murphy was an American aerospace engineer who originally worked on the rocket sled experiments in 1949 at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. In his work, inevitably things would go wrong either by design failure or mistake.
So he coined the phase and it stuck.
And his rule of thumb certainly has application to the use of deer monitoring trail cameras.
“Sometimes you set into motion great plans with high expectations for quality results,” said Dr. Brad Carr of Byram. “That was my plan a couple seasons ago when I acquired my first three trail cameras. I found an active hotspot about 50 yards into a shallow, swampy area just off a utility right of way.
“How was I supposed to know that after a deluge of rain the water rose several feet in that swamp, totally covering my camera for over a week? It did not survive. I recommend avoiding hanging a trail cam in potential flood areas.”
The lesson is to think ahead about where you will place a camera, taking into account possible natural disasters.
But user manuals also are important.
“Be sure to read the instructions on your trail cameras to know how to correctly point the lens to capture the best photos,” Durant’s Andrew Dulaney said. “My first attempts with new cameras were less than stellar.
“I got lots of pictures of the ground, and some great shots of the tops of trees.”
The author discovered the importance of reading instructions when he switched cameras. He hung his new Moultrie camera overlooking an active trail in a perfect position: Unfortunately he got the settings wrong or neglected to hit the “On” switch.
He returned a week later to find nothing recorded.
Consistent monitoring can ensure batteries are fresh, the lens is pointed in the right direction and memory cards aren’t full.
But sometimes these trips into the field simply allow you to discover that Murphy\’s law has struck again: A friend of the author’s went to check on his camera after a couple of weeks and found the tree it was affixed to had fallen over in a recent wind storm.
You just never know when Murphy’s Law is going to strike.
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