You see a great buck at 100-200 yards and decide it is too young. You want to get it on film so you can show your hunting buddies or for tracking purposes. How do you do that?

Most of you are like me and try to use a cellphone and your scope or binoculars. Filming through a pair of binoculars is an art. I have successfully done it many time but I have also messed it up just as many times.

I was in a Buc-ee’s a few years back. (If you don’t know Buc-ee’s, It is a convenience super-store that started in Texas and originally geared towards the outdoorsman.) I found a camera that would fit on my binoculars or spotting scope.

SME- Spot Shot–

SME Spot Shot– This little gem was less than $100 and Bluetooth’s to my phone. It works on any kind of optic that does not have eye-relief. (eg: spotting scope, binoculars, monocular) It does not work on a rifle scope since the camera mounts directly to the eye-piece of the optic. They make two models. One has a viewfinder and the other doesn’t. I have both models and find that I do not use the viewfinder often. Since it is connected to my phone or iPad, I do all of my adjustments looking at my phone or iPad. I realized early that my spotting scope had too much magnification and I didn’t like tying up my binoculars so I started taking a small monocular with me that I could put on a mini-bipod and film independently of my hunting optics. The SME Spot Shot is well worth the money.

Tactacam FTS-

I was looking for a camera that I could film my shots at the range without having to worry about my spotting scope or binoculars. I found a lot of cellphone attachments that did not appeal to me. Eventually, I found the Tactacam FTS. This is a great little gadget that attaches to your scope and can be turned out of the way so you can still use your scope just as you usually would.

The camera is sold separately from the FTS system. I didn’t have trouble finding the FTS component but had a harder time finding the camera that fit the system.

I have noticed a lot more shooters on social media using this system. I think it is priced a little higher than what I expected but the other option was using a GoPro with attachments and it was much more expensive and didn’t fit or function as well.

Last, I am going to go a direction that is not really for hunting but more the target shooter. Anyone that looks through optics on a warm day understand what mirage is. The two item I have listed above are great but unfortunately a bad day of mirage can mess with the best spotting scopes. Shooters can usually work through the mirage but spotting a hit on a target is still difficult past a few hundred yards. I have started using a target camera system.

Longshot Target Cameras-

LongShot Target Cameras are absolutely awesome! I didn’t realize until I started writing this that they are based out of Pearland, TX. The first set of these cameras I saw was at a shooting range on west Westheimer Rd. In Houston, TX. That’s right down the road from Pearland.

Let me give you the general lay-out of how these work. You set the one with the camera about 6 feet from your target and you set the other (receiver) near your shooting position. The camera projects an image back to the receiver and you Bluetooth the receiver to your phone or iPad. Bam! No mirage! The best part of the whole thing is that it tracks your shots for you.

No more keeping up with what shots were on the target before you shot. This tracks your shots and marks them so you know what order they were sent down range.

There are a lot of other range cameras out there but I know this one works. I would love to hear any comments or suggestions on other optics cameras. Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email at [email protected].