Me and my 12 year old son are brand new to trailcams. I always wanted my son to hunt but he really loves animals (wants to be a vet) so I figured this would be the next best thing and maybe he would recognize that hunting and game management is a very important part for wildlife to be able to strive. We also were going to use any pics on an upcoming science project

We have a state forest next to our house and placed out the camera late one evening, by 10:00 the next morning some sorry soul stole it. Now, instead of doing a report on Florida Wildlife in My Backyard he will likely do one on "Poachers and Other Unethical Outdoorsmen". I have to admit my son was a little worried that someone would steal the camera on public land by "stupid me" told him not to worry because most hunters and other outdoorsmen are honest people", boy was I wrong, and a lesson was learned quickly.

I want to continue this activity but want to find out what is available for locking/securing trailcams to keep sorry turds from stealing them?

i posted this as another reply for someone elsewho asked the same thing.

bear safe boxes are what i use. i have three for my cuddes and two for my wildviews. you can buy the ones for the cuddes at just about any sporting goodstore that sell cuddes. the other brands you can find on ebay. there is a guy that makes them for just about every kind of trail cam out there. get it lined up right on the tree and then take a couple big lag bolts and screw the back plate on, stick camera in, slide the front plate over, and then use a good padlock to lock it up. i use http://www.masterlock.com/cgi-bin/style_search.pl?dir=/residential/highsecurity/&style_id=A4&sub_style_id=B42these kind of locks. kinda pricey but i think they are worth it. hope this helps you some.

Careful with the screwing / lagging into trees, for some states it's against the law without written permission.

How can you leave hard earned money on public land? I doubt it was even a crime in your state for someone to take that camera. The public land I hunt it's against the rules to leave property over night in the woods. I wouldn't even consider chaining it to the tree.

Your answer is simple - don't put the camera on public land. Find a land owner that will let you put a camera up, promise to give them a copy of every picture. You should be able to find someone to take you up and it would get your son involved.