AZMONSTERBULL

With 90% of trail cams placed at water being used to help aid, or take wildlife that leaves 10% that might be legally set. I just don’t see hunters leaving 9 illegally set cams alone because there’s a chance one cam might be used legally.

Congrats to your dad on the tag! I would go with Shadow Valley, because they’ve taken some amazing bucks. Probably a good thing he drew it this year even with antler growth down, next year the guides will have it much tougher without trail cams! Good luck to your dad should be a great hunt!

They won’t need to enforce this law, because hunters will take care of any cams left. Cameras won’t last long on water!

Thank You for the Trail Cam Ban!!!!! We appreciate the effort of the AZGFD Commission to implement a law that supports Fair Chase in Arizona!.... Sir Royal this article Nixon and yourself came up with sounds like a couple whiners that didn’t get their way.... Let’s get into the article a bit...In 2018 live cams were banned which was ok with you. Makes sense you would be ok with this, because you were still able to place your battery and solar cams at every water source.... In 2018 when it came to the rule on not allowing trail cams within a 1/4 mile from water you completely disagreed with that, because you said that’s where hunters use them. ...Well, that’s the main reason they’re now outlawed because most guides placed 10-15 cams on every water source! .....You mentioned it was wrong for the Commission to ask for a rule-making session because trail cams present a threat to public peace and safety....Overall I think the Commission highlighted the public peace and safety threat as well as Fair Chase throughout the process. The Fair Chase concerns with Trail cams alone were enough to lock this ban up, nothing else was even needed. I assume the commission didn’t explain it to your comprehension level when they voted 5-0 to ban them. ....Sir Royal/Nixon stated this trail cam ban is driven by one Commissioners opinion? That’s why we have five Commissioners that each vote. It is not one Commissioner forcing the others to vote against cams..lol! ....Sir Royal/Nixon you mention just because you have a picture of an animal doesn’t mean you are going to pattern let alone kill an animal.. Of course you might not pattern/harvest every animal your Trail Cam takes a picture of, but trail cams do significantly help your odds at locating, patterning and harvesting game. By not being present and in the field to locate and harvest game is directly against Fair Chase.

I agree, they’re banned time to end this thread!

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The guides that depend on trail cams for success are generally the ones you hear from the most about this topic. This type of guide will soon disappear, and overall I think guiding in general will not be as “popular” when they are unable to gather interest with use of trail photos.

Good luck to them too!

It won’t be me smashing your trail cam, it’s going to be whoever draws the same tag as you! Good luck!

They aren’t banned, but good luck trying to keep one on water. I think hunters with the same tag you draw will do a good job cleaning out any trail cams left behind. We all know trail cams are used to find game, with the hope of harvesting that animal during their hunt. With this rule in effect do you think a hunter who draws a tag is going to let guides set all their trail cams at all water sources just because they now claim to be a wildlife watcher? Nope I don’t think so...LOL! All it’s going to take is a couple $40 cordless metal cutting angle grinders to solve any so called wildlife watchers. The AZGFD knows they won’t have to control this issue going forward, hunters will be doing 99% of it for them. Great win for all hunters, not so much for all that relied on trail cams to do their scouting for them.

Sir Royal let’s stay on point here. Nevada has already limited trail Cam use, Utah is in the process of banning, or limiting their use, and same thing is going to happen in Arizona. When multiple States choose to ban, or limit an items use there is obviously a major problem going on that you seem to be ignoring. You mention you have the hunting skills, and that you are out in the woods more then most. Well soon you will have every opportunity in the world to use the skills you claim without the use of trail cams.

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Might as well sell your cameras now while they're still worth a few bucks!

Yeah looks harmless and safe! Someday you will have to tell your son that the guides tend to take it to the extreme on trail cams, and spotters which has resulted in the reason for the banning of trail cameras!

For a Governors tag if a trail camera is involved in the scouting, or taking the animal yes it's currently legal, but just like any hunt that takes place in Arizona I wouldn't consider it fair chase due to the use of trail cams.

Trail Cams will soon be Banned in Arizona, no doubt about it! The reason they will be banned is because a lot of guides have chosen to cover units water sources with hundreds of cams at a time so they don't have spend extra time and money to locate the animal themselves with glassing and boot leather. This also allows Guides/DIY sportsman to have the sense that once they have a photo of the animal that it is now their animal and others should not be able to hunt that animal. When hunting season rolls around and multiple hunters know where the biggest animals are watering and at what time, this ultimately increases the chance that hunter conflicts will occur. Another reason Trail Cameras will be banned is because it is not fair chase. When setting trail cameras on all water sources and having them track the majority of animals throughout the entire unit while you are at home, or work is not what scouting/hunting was intended to be. To be in the field and present when an animal is found, or harvested is fair chase and what hunting should be. Another reason trail cameras will be banned and not the laser rangefinders, long range rifles/scopes, binoculars etc, is because you have to be with those items in the field to harvest that animal, and not at home sleeping. Another reason trail cameras will be banned is because Sir Royal does everything I just explained, and although he won't admit it I think the majority of sportsman are tired of it! 🙂

You ban trail cams and that's going to eliminate a lot of guides that rely on cams to do their hunting for them. Before trail cams were placed on every tank in Arizona a lot of guides didn't make it, and that will be the result once this trail cam ban goes into effect.

There's trail cam problems in unit 9 and I know your fully aware of it but might not ever admit to it! Go to any tank in 9 or the strip and there's cameras loaded on every tank up there every year, nothing has changed with that! In fact it just continues to get worse every year! After placing all of your trail cams out at every tank, determining the best tank, and then walking to the highest point near that tank is that when you decide to pull your binoculars out? Of course you can find game with your binoculars that way, that's why trail cams need to be banned it makes it way to easy to scout and locate the best locations, making it effortless when locating your targeted animal near that tank! They won't ban your binoculars, because your really going to need them once they ban trail cams!

Banning Trail Cams is needed badly in this State!!! Thanks bowhunter4life for providing us with a link to add our comments on why Banning Trail Cams will be so important for the future of hunting in Arizona!

Well it looks like it's 85 that want to Ban trail cams or limit their use to 42 who want to continue using them as is. Oh yeah, we need to add the the 5-0 Commissioners vote in, so now 90 want to Ban, or limit trail cams and 42 who want to leave it as is.

A Trail Cam Ban is really the only thing that makes sense. If the AZGFD was to have a season, or a 1/4 mile rule they would still have to deal with the headache of people calling and complaining about the use of trail cams being too close to water, or cams that were left up after the season closed etc.. If there was a season guides and DIY hunters would still leave the cams up and it would be too difficult and time consuming to control. The AZGFD has decided to move forward with the complete ban of trail cameras, they're tired of guides placing 200+ cams on each units water source, the need to check a game cameras SD card during prime hunting hours which screws up other hunters, and the unfair advantage a game camera allows a hunter in pursuit of an animal. What it comes down to is Fair Chase, and sitting on a couch while your cameras do all the scouting for you 24/7 should never be considered Fair Chase.

How will this petition do anything to stop the trail cam ban that's coming, you can create unlimited emails and place any name in the box. Also you could have a 1-2 million hunters in Arizona and if you get 10-100k to sign to sign what is that proving??

^^^ Right on here, the only thing is the last paragraph-AZGFD will never go to any kind of license or fee for cameras, too time consuming and difficult to control. Much simpler for them to ban them and not have to worry about trail cams again.

It appears the Trail Cam Ban is going to happen. Also if your looking for more discussion on this check out the campfire section.

What you said is right on ^^^....Trail cams were not a very useful scouting tool 15-20 years ago, but as technology improved trail cam popularity increased to a point where the use of them has become excessive with the majority of guiding companies throughout Arizona. What we are seeing is one guide company chooses to place 200+ cams in a unit, then the other guide businesses must do the same in order to compete, if they choose not to then they are taking a big risk in losing future clients. As we all know animals need water to survive, so why spend extra money scouting when it's much easier to place trail cams on all water sources throughout a unit. With trail cam battery life easily lasting 3-12 months on most cam units sold today, an all day/night trip out and a quick check later on is really all that is needed to scout an entire unit for their clients. It's not entirely guides contributing to the excessive use of trail cams, DiY hunters also feel the need to compete as well and place their fair share of cams out to help level the competition to locate game. I'm not for regulations in hunting, but I think what the AZGFD is seeing is more of a fair chase issue with the use of trail cameras. Fair chase-is a term used by hunters to describe an ethical approach to hunting big game animals. Trail cam use has been considered an ethical tool to be used in hunting, but if the department feels the use of trail cams are currently being abused or no longer an ethical approach to hunting then they will have no choice but to limit their use, or ban them entirely. Being that the use of trail cams around water sources seems to be the major concern, I think the department will be leaning more towards a ban on trail cams within a 1/4 mile of water sources, much like the rule the department seemed to be focused on implementing during the last round of the trail cam debate.