The Moultrie Game Spy 4.1 MP trail camera is packed full of features at an affordable price.

It's just as exciting as finding a big shed antler or laying eyes on a big buck feeding in a field before opening day.  What's just as exciting, you ask?  Checking your game camera. There is a feeling like a child waiting for Christmas when you're looking through your photos waiting to see if the next photo could be the buck of your dreams. Now with the modern digital age you can see your photos at the base of your tree, or e-mail the photos to your hunting buddies. You're just as proud of that photo as if you harvested that animal.

I feel that the invention of game cameras is one of the best products invented to help land owners manage deer herds on their property. It also helps hunters better understand deer behavior at all times of the year and what caliber of bucks you have on your property. I have learned more than I ever thought by the use of a game camera. I've placed cameras on food plots, rub lines, scrape lines, and game trails. Not only can you tell what kind of animal you have coming through your property but you can tell what time deer are traveling through at. On some models you can tell the temperature and moon phase it was when the picture was taken.  

I have used several different company's game cameras and different models.  I have also used thirty five millimeter and digital. In this review I am going to be talking about the Moultrie Game Spy Cameras, both the 3.1 and the 4.1 megapixel and both of them are traditional flash models.

The Moultrie 3.1 and the 4.1 I have are both powered by the 6 volt rechargeable batteries. I start placing my cameras in the woods around mid June.  At this time the battery will usually last until mid to late September before they need to be recharged. I feel that during the summer months and throughout the hunting season, the battery life on the Moultrie cameras using the 6 volt battery is something to brag about.  The great thing about this is that I have to clear my memory cards and move the cameras more times than I have to recharge the batteries. Moultrie also has adaptable 6 volt solar panels that can attach to the camera using a set of alligator clips to extend the battery life of rechargeable batteries.  

Now when the temperature up here in central Wisconsin drops, I notice I get much less battery life. Both models work great when the daytime temperature is in the mid thirties to the high twenties. The battery life will last for about a month even in these colder temperatures. However, once the temperature gets colder than this during the day, the whole camera seems to slow down.  That includes the trigger speed from when the deer passes within the sensor to the time the picture is actually taken. The new models that Moultrie has come out with recently have switched from the 6 volt battery power to using six D-cell batteries.  I could not tell you if this is a better switch for Moultrie simply because I have not tried them yet.

The easy-to-use inner workings of my Moultrie Game Spy trail camera.

The trigger speed on both the 3.1 and the 4.1 is very good. Very seldom do I have pictures without deer in them.  I have used other companies game cameras that the trigger speed is so slow and poor that you would have to place the camera facing down the game trail in order to get a deer in the picture.  The Moultrie Game Spy 3.1 and 4.1 are both good at taking a photo when the deer walks in front of the camera. Now the trigger speed is not perfect. To be perfect, the camera would have to take the picture the exact time the deer trips the sensor. Moultrie's trigger speed will work great for most applications, however, I will tell you that if a deer is running by the camera or on a fast walk you may get a picture showing a part of the deer, usually the rump (the end we see too much of in a season). As I mentioned earlier the trigger speed will also slow down when the day time temperature drops below freezing.  This is something to keep in mind when positioning your camera for optimal performance.

When choosing a game camera you need to look at what you plan on doing with it and where you plan on placing it. I hunt a lot of public land and some private land. The price range on game cameras can vary from fifty dollars to eight hundred dollars. With that being said, I'm not going to be putting a four hundred dollar game camera on public land only to have it stolen.  That is one reason I like the Moultrie Game Cameras. They are reasonably priced and work great for their cost. Now I'm not saying I want my game cameras stolen but if one does get stolen, I would rather it be a hundred dollar camera versus a four hundred dollar camera.

One thing I would like to see Moultrie improving on their game cameras are the security functions. All they have is a small round slot to place a padlock to prevent a thief from opening the camera. For a thief to get past this feature all they would have to do is break off the plastic padlock tab with a hammer and the camera could still be removed from the tree and still work just fine without the locking tab. This winter I will be welding up lock boxes for my cameras to deter thievery in the woods until Moultrie comes out with a better way to secure the camera.

These elastic straps work to secure my Game Spy to the tree, but they certainly could be improved upon.

Since we are on the topics of securing the camera, the other thing I would like to mention is that the Game Spy's are held to a tree by two small elastic cords. I wish they would improve this method because the common problem I have is finding the perfect tree to attach my cameras to. Often I find myself tying knots in the elastic cord to shorten it up to fit a smaller tree or wrapping the cords around the tree several times to tighten up the slack to hold the camera in place.  To improve this Moultrie should use a nylon strap that is adjustable and synchs to adjust for the tree's diameter.  If they can't come up with a better mounting system, I may just look into getting an AT-5 from Pine Ridge Archery to solve this pesky issue.  

For those of you that don't have the electronic skill and know how (myself included), the Moultrie Game Spy is very easy to use and set up. With easy to follow directions and ease of use, you will have your camera up and running in no time.  On the face of the camera there is a display that tells you how many photos taken, how many more photos you can take and how much battery power you have left.  A great feature on Moultrie cameras is they have laser aiming. What this means is that with a flip of a switch, a laser will shoot out from the camera and a red dot will show you what height and what angle you need to move your camera to get that photo of a lifetime.  I like to hang my camera and step back to the deer trail or scrape that I have my camera facing and use my body as a canvas to see what height I have the camera set for. I like to have the laser aiming just above my knee, approximately three to four feet off the ground, when I'm standing on the deer trail looking back at the camera. At this height I seem to get the best pictures with the deer centered in the photo. Other game cameras that don't have this feature may be set too high or too low by the user. 

The photo quality of the Moultrie Game Spy depends on several factors which all work together.  With digital cameras the more megapixels the larger your photo will be, which is nice when increasing the photo size to see the finer details of a buck's rack.  Both the 3.1 and the 4.1 megapixel versions take great photos and I don't notice that much difference in quality between the two. When deciding on how many megapixels to get you first have to ask yourself what you plan on doing with the picture once you get home. If you plan on printing your pictures and cropping or zooming in on that big buck, you may want to go to a higher megapixel like the 4.1 versus the 3.1. If you just plan on printing the photo as it is the 3.1 will work just fine. The only negative I have about Moultrie's picture quality is that at night time the flash will give the deer a "deer in the headlights" look (I know it sounds cheesy but its true). The deer's eyes have a large glow to them giving your dream buck a buggy eyed look.

The powerful flash of the Moultrie Game Spy has a tendency to give that "deer in the headlights" look.

Now if you are as impatient as I am, you just can't wait to see what you have for photos (I can't wait long enough to make it back to the truck).  What I like about the Game Spy is that it can take the SD card for memory. The amount of memory or the number of photos you can take depends on how large of a SD card you use in your camera. What I like about the SD card is that I use my photo digital camera (the one used to take photos of your dead dream buck) to read the SD card taken from my Moultrie and this allows me to view the photos right at the base of the tree. I can delete the ones I don't like and keep the ones I do. When I'm done I just put the SD card back into the Moultrie, activate the game camera and you're good to take more pictures. If you don't have a digital camera to view your SD card, you can also buy a card viewer to look at your pictures out in the field. Some of the new Moultrie cameras come with a small LCD monitor to view your photos right on the game camera itself.

The Moultrie Game Spy cameras that I have can take both photos day and night and video during the day and photos at night. The problem I have with the video is that the video quality is very poor and very grainy. So much so that I don't even use the video feature.  Now I will say that the 4.1 takes better video than the 3.1, however, the video is still poor and I would rather just take a good clear photo that I can actually count the points on.

Overall, I am very happy with my Moultrie game cameras and I wouldn't hesitate to buy more of them. They take good photos, good trigger speed, and very easy to use. With the price being very reasonable for the quality of the camera, an average hard working man or woman on a tight budget can afford one or more cameras.  Now, I know in this article I mentioned things I don't like or things that could be improved on them. I'm just mentioning things that you too will notice about the camera to better help you make the call on what camera you want to get and what feature you may be looking for. Don't let the little things like the elastic straps to attach the camera to the tree or the locking system on the camera deter you on your decision making. These are things that with a little ingenuity and time you can come up with a way to secure the camera or make your own lock boxes.  Overall, I feel that this is a great camera and worth your time to take a look at. I have taken more photos of "shooter bucks" with Moultrie cameras than with any other game cameras that I have used. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rank The Moultrie Game Spy 3.1 a seven and the 4.1 an eight.