Pic referenced from Lowe's.com

As you know we?ve been videoing many of our hunts this year.  This is my first year attempting to hunt and video at the same time and it?s a lot to manage at once if you have a deer come out on you, but it?s very fun! The reward is worth it if you can pull it all off.  I?ve yet to scare a deer away by bumping the camera or making noise while trying to video, but I think it?s inevitable.  At some point?I?m going to spook a deer by moving around too much trying to video, but I?ll keep taking my chances with it though because it?s fun to watch and talk about with friends after the hunt.

Probably like most hunters, we have a couple different stands in the woods?some are box stands, some tower stands, some climbers, some ladder stands, etc.  (I try not to get in lock-ons because I?m scared of them and heights) With a couple of different stands it seems like we should be getting some good footage from different viewpoints.  Though, I got to thinking about that and noticed a trend in my hunts.  I am most frequently going hunting in the stands that I can film from easily.  Sure this may make for good footage, but what about the other stands that are in good locations, but are just difficult to film from?  I have been opting not to hunt in them and electing to hunt in the more spacious stands because I can fit my tripod in them.  Well this will no longer be a problem! 

Last week I went to Lowes with my wife and her parents and while the ladies looked at paint my father-in-law and I walked around the store looking to devise a way or find a product that would allow me to mount my camera to the stand.  Since my tripod will let me take out the center piece of it and turn it into a monopod (just one rod extending from the camera instead of 3) I had some room to get creative.  Essentially I needed something to get this small pole attached to the railing around my stand, but it needed to be quiet, small, not get in my way when hunting, easy to carry in, and strong enough to hold the weight of the camera.  After we walked a few circles around the store we finally found just the thing we needed. 

We were in the hardware section and picked up some different types of clamps and looked at them.  It turned out that Irwin made a product that was the perfect fit!  I ended up getting a two-pack Irwin Quick Grip Bar Clamp and I?m glad that I did.  Of course we had to test it out in the store first to make sure it would work, so we grabbed a flag pole and clamped it to a bracket on the metal of one of the isles in the store to simulate our task and ?voila? we were in business.  Since the grips have rubber padding on them they are very quiet and you only have to squeeze the grip to make it tighten up so the whole process is very stealth.  The grip is small and fits in my bag easily, is very lightweight, and can hold way more pounds of weight than my camera weighs.  I was excited about it in the store, but still wanted to ?field-test? it and make sure that it would work.  Oh and from the guy in the hardware section?s reaction to my explanation of what we were trying to do?I think we may have been one of the few who?ve ever bought clamps in hopes of using them to video deer hunts! 

The next morning I went into a stand that I haven?t hunt out of much and took my new ?camera-arm? setup and was eager to try it out.  I sat down in the stand and within 5 minutes I had my camera mounted on the railing around my stand and had done so quietly and the camera had full swivel and tilt.  What I did wrong on my first trip in was that I clamped it down to where the slider was on the inside of my stand.  This lessened the space I had to move my gun around a little bit, but I got it right on the second trip in and have been pleased with setup ever since!

Every time I go hunting someone usually asks ?Did you see anything? and I?m sure the same probably happens to you.  Videoing your hunts allows you to them what you saw instead of trying to describe it to them in words.  You may be thinking about trying it?and if so, I encourage you to give it a shot.  This is my first year filming and we?ve been having a lot of fun with it.  If you decide to try to film, there are a lot of decisions that you have to factor into videoing a hunt and one of them is the ?camera-arm? situation.  If you can?t take a tripod to all of your stands then you?ll have to think about it at some point.  Unless you only hunt out of lock-ons (that don?t have railing going around them, then I suggest you spend $15 at Lowes and give a clamp a try.  It is cheap, gets the job done, and will save you from spending more than you should on a camera arm.

A quick view of the set from my I-phone

The next day I gave Adam the other clamp from my two-pack and he?s already used it once and is going to be able to film more of his hunts now!

Now I?m glad that my in-laws wanted to go look at paint after all :-)

 Lowe?s ? Let?s Build Something Together

Regards,

Clint