I went back down to Turkey Camp yesterday. I had several projects that needed work, and I wanted to get out and listen to the turkeys.

First off, let me describe yesterday morning’s scouting trip. Starting at 20 minutes before sunrise, a large flock started going off near the Honey Hole. I could not count all the gobblers; they were all going off at once. However, there were several hens in there as well. I think this is the final incarnation of the winter mega flock. The mass gobbling ended abruptly about 10 minutes after sunrise. It sounds like the birds are healthy and eager. I’ve gone well into late March before hearing a first gobble.

Target Camera

I will give you a heads-up on this next project. I’m still just starting with it, but I needed to get down and complete some component tests before the window for returning stuff to Amazon closes on these things. That has become an issue as of late. I’m sure the guy at the return desk at Kohl’s is getting tired of seeing me. Kohl’s takes free Amazon returns. Honestly, there are some days where that seems like the only trade going on in that store. Let me begin at the beginning.

I started noticing turnkey Target Camera systems coming online maybe 2-3 years ago. If you click on that link you’ll see Amazon has them listed for hundreds of dollars. I looked at designs like the Caldwell Ballistic Precision Camera and realized this wasn’t a hard thing to DIY for much cheaper. I already have a security camera system at the farm using Amcrest cameras. It would not be much of a problem to add one. If you look at the Caldwell product, those two rectangular boxes are just point-to-point wireless ethernet bridges. I’m recently retired from a life of working with that sort of thing. This is the same sort of ethernet bridge one might use to put a security camera or a computer out in a remote garage. Hook one end up inside the house; hook the other end up in the garage, apply power, and now there is ethernet out in the garage without stringing cable.

I had a spare Amcrest camera that did pan/tilt/zoom. I ordered a wireless bridge. The next step was providing power. I found a $20 12V sealed rechargeable battery and a 300-watt 12V-120V power inverter. Actually, I could have been more elegant about it and come up with a custom power supply that powered the business end (camera and bridge) without going up to 120V AC, but this was easier to pull off and test, and I needed to test. Amazon has a liberal return policy, but there is a limit. I needed to get the pieces tested individually before I could be certain the plan would work.

What is the plan? I have two target stands located 100 yards from the house. One is roughly on an N/S axis the other is E/W. I can turn the shooting bench 90 degrees to get the best wind. I also have shooting opportunities at 500 yards and 200 yards from the house. The problem is seeing the target. I’ve got two spotting scopes, but .223 at 100 yards presents a challenge. Rather than buy a better scope, this target camera idea makes the problem go away.

First, I got the camera going with the video security system. Amcrest has free software for that. Next, I tested out the bridge components and made sure they were working. I had already hooked up the 12-volt battery and the inverter and been able to keep a decent load up for over 2 hours. Now came the tricky part. I hooked a laptop up to the bridge and powered them off the truck’s cigarette lighter socket. I hung the Master unit of the bridge out the window of the cabin and set off in the truck, pinging the router in the house as I went. Blacksmith drove the truck. We tested out to 500 yards and were getting reasonable 2-3ms Ping rates. We lost signal when we went down a hill or went behind cedar trees, but as long as the house was in view, we had a signal. The bridge is fairly directional in that you have to have the front faces of the two bridge components roughly facing each other. I tested that by having Blacksmith drive the truck out towards the campground. The bridges were now oriented 90 degrees away from each other and there was a drop in signal. When the corner of the cabin got in the way, the signal died rather abruptly.

I’m not saying my DIY solution is going to be everybody’s best plan. In my scenario, I have power and wi-fi already in place. I only have to power the remote camera and bridge. However, I will be able to replicate something like the Caldwell system for considerably less than $350– more like $100. Also, I tried to go cheap on everything, and it cost me a lot of trips up to Kohl’s over the winter shipping returns back to Amazon. I tried 2 cameras, and 2 bridges before finding what I have now.

One other thing: A key issue with the bridge is attenuation due to obstructions. This is a real point-to-point solution. The bridge is rated to 1,000 meters. However that is the with the front face of the master unit pointed directly at the front face of the remote slave unit. Any thoughts of setting up a working live game camera at Midway went out the window with yesterday’s testing? It’s close to a half-mile from the cabin, and there are several tree lines to burn through to get the signal out there. However, setting up a rig like this at Hollywood or Jagende Hutte might be workable. The problem would be finding a solar panel to power it. My experiments yesterday proves out the concept. I still have a bunch of work to do before I can carry a bag out to the 100-yard target stand, turn on the camera walk back to the cabin, and see my shots on a monitor mounted on the bench.

Red Clover, Red Clover

Blacksmith and I originally met for breakfast to get caught up on things. He decided to tag along throughout the afternoon to see what I was up to. On the way back from Donna’s Place in Brooksville. I stopped at the Southern States store and bought 2 bags of mixing salt and a pound of Red Clover. I’d wanted Ladino Clover. That has given me the best results over the years, but Red was all they had, and I’m sure the turkeys and deer won’t mind. The mixing salt is for later. I’ll refresh the salt licks some time before May. There is enough salt still in the licks that the deer will hit them until I get there. Indeed, I have had a herd of doe stand their ground and try to deny me access to a lick in March.

Looking on the calendar and watching the forecast. Yesterday was the optimal day to throw out clover seed. Blacksmith and I took the pound of seed and threw it out around the new campsite over by Garbage Pit. Moose kind of went wild with the Glypsophosphate while I was having chemo. It DID clear the field. Nothing grew back even last year. The best time to get clover in is before the last full moon of winter. That’s usually right around the end of February. The weather between now and the first day of spring in a month or so does a good job of driving the seed into the soil and getting good germination. The full moon is in a couple of days. We’re going to have about 3/4 inch of rain today, and there is an inch of snow forecasted for next week. All we needed to do was trickle a little bit here and there on the ground. They say a pound per acre. The new campground covers less than 1/4 of that. Where there is not bare ground, moss has taken over. The moss is currently all torn up with hoof prints everywhere. The whitetail seem to be enjoying the campsite more than the humans. The clover should be up in time for turkey season.

Many thanks to Blacksmith for helping out on all this. I will keep you apprised of what is going on. This is not the last you have heard of either project.

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