Game Camera/Trail Camera Battery Questions....

[hoggs222]

I just picked up the 1st trail cam and was wondering what batteries you recommend. It will be used in Northern MN, so it'll be cold.

It's a Moultrie Flash and takes 6 D cells.

What can you expect for battery life out of the battery you recommend?

[Code-Man]

I have a D40 normal 2 months one set of batteries. If your going to leave it out for longer times I suggest the Solar Pannel for charging your batteries. That'll be my next purchase.

[lawdog]

I just bought a D40 Saturday, glad to hear the batteries last a while, that's one of hte reasons I bought a Moultrie because I had heard they had good battery life. Now I just have to figure out how to use it as there was no owners manual or info in my box?!?!?!?!!

[TDH]

I just bought a D40 Saturday, glad to hear the batteries last a while, that's one of hte reasons I bought a Moultrie because I had heard they had good battery life. Now I just have to figure out how to use it as there was no owners manual or info in my box?!?!?!?!!

Just go to the moultrie HSOforum they have online manuals.

[vister]

owners manuals are shipped in the battery compartment, have u looked there? i use duracell procell batteries

[Froggy4371]

I love mine and like they said they last about 2 months and in the cold maybe only a month and a half. I had over 400 pic's on my first set of batt's and just changed them last week.

Froggy

[Code-Man]

I enjoy it but I quit putting it on video though. It drains the battery fills the card and it seems I get maybe a 85-90% Deer rate with pictures and right now I'm averaging 10% on video. Don't know if it's just my luck but I enjoy it a lot. I can't remember what I used for batteries but just keep an eye on the battery level. When it hit 25% I figured it was time to change it and that was August-Oct. Can't complain one bit. I prefer to have two people when I set mine cause I have the person stand where they will come through and I use the Lazer aim and put it at the belt buckle for height. Seems to be perfect elevation. These were from a while ago but take a look http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2762073&id=13950794&l=0a4e39fee9 I think they do a great job

[lungdeflator]

the moultries are awesome with battery life. I put in duracells around the beginning of april and stillhave the same ones in with 65% left. the camera has only missed 3 days of not being on since april with thousands of pics. i have 2 wildviews and purchased rechargable batts for those as they only last about 2.5 weeks

[JK22]

I second the moultrie battery life. I bought a Moultrie I40 in June and checked it last weekend and it still has 80% after 115 days and taking over 1000 pictures. I had an older moultrie that took 6 Volt batteries and lasted 3 weeks tops in good weather. I spent over $50 on batteries for the older one and $5 for the newer one. I should have bought another I40. I tried a solar panel on my older camera and didn't seem to increase the life much. I wouldn't waste my time with a solar panel when I figure to get at least 6 months of battery life.

[Musky Buck]

I'm with lungdeflator, my Moultree will last from Sept. 1st until April 1st on 6 D's and take 1,200 pictures or so regardless of how cold it gets or at least last year it survived that long with 40 some percent battery life left so I put those 6 used batteries in my boat radio for the summer. My Tcam had maybe a half dozen pics out of twelve hundred that were false alarms. My cousin has already had to put new batteries in his and he had it out since August 15th or so. Mine still reads 74%, he's not happy because he wonders well what did I miss by having a dead cam in the woods.

[Up North]

the newer Moultrie's have very good battery life, a buddy of mine has a newer unit and with 6D cells it lasts a long time. Mine however...sucks. I've got one of the older 1.3 megapixel units that uses the big 6 volt lantern battery. 3 weeks at best, and it can't just be any 6 volt either, it has to be an Energizer or top quality battery. Anything less and it doesn't have the uummpph to operate the camera. Now I just bought the Moultrie rechargable 6 volt and charger, that seems to be working well and will save me big $$ over the long haul. But a big thumbs up to the newer models, they work great.

Buck

[JayinMN]

I am glad you guys have had a lot better luck with your Moultries then I have. I bought two D40s and in my opinion they are junk. An animal practically has to stop and stand there before it picks it up on the movement. They are okay over feeders, but half the time they miss even those animals or it just takes pictures of nothing. Funny thing is, it can pick up a mouse or a flying squirrel but miss a bear on a bait station. I get no where near the battery life they claim unless its in summer. Forget about winter, they freeze up and slow down so they hardly take any pictures. It seems like night shots with the flash drains them really fast. I got one 12v solar battery pack, but it does not hold a charge for long. I wasn't going to make the mistake of buying two of them. Good thing since its another piece of junk. It might last a couple days if the flash isn't being used and its sunny out. It does not work at all in cold weather and then you are back to the d cells. My other problem with both of mine are that they mess up reading the memory cards. It says that they are in there but you go to pull the camera and 50% of the time the internal memory is filled and nothing on the cards. I bought the D40s when they first came out and I know there were a lot of complaints about them, maybe they improved. I emailed Moultrie 2 times and never got a response so it has really left a bad impression of their products and company over all with me. I bought one of their first trail cameras and loved it. It lasted forever, till a bear got the best of it. I was excited when the d40s came out because of the "improvements" so I bought 2 of them. One of these days when I get around to it they will be going on HSO-Classifieds.

[Up North]

just a quick update on how the rechargeable 6 volt has been doing with my Moultrie. I put it out last Wednesday (Oct. 14) and just checked it yesterday (Oct.20) and it was still indicating a full charge. And yes, it did have pictures on it. So far so good, we'll see how long it lasts before needing a recharge.

JayinMN, I had an issue with my first Moultrie and they were real good about taking care of it. In all I think I've contacted them twice and both times it ended in good results. I think you may have gotten a couple lemons, and I'd try contacting them again. I've also had a couple buddies that have had to to send in their cameras and each time they've gotten back a newer model. Worth a try.

Buck

[fletcher]

I use a homebrew camera with 4 AA energizer lithium yields 1300 flash pics in any temp, very hard to beat, no recharging small and dont degrade sitting or low temps, memory card is the limiting factor 2gb