CAMLOCKbox

Fit the game camera very, very well. But with two suggestions to improve ...

Posted by Bruce Weniger on 7th Oct 2018

Overall, the two-piece (front and rear) security box is very well made and strong, and fit the Browning Spec Ops (model BTC-8A) camera perfectly. The holes in the rear piece of the box for a Python cable line up perfectly with the holes in the rear of the camera when fully seated in the rear box. It has a quality coating that should resist corrosion quite well (except where I drilled it, requiring some touch-up paint).

Initially, it took some fiddling at home to figure out that the hasp flange at bottom (with hole for padlock) of the front piece holding in the camera fits into the slot BEHIND the hasp flange of the rear component that bolts or ties into a tree, pole, or wall -- not IN FRONT of the rear-piece's hasp flange.

My camera was mounted halfway up a standard, square concrete power pole using its factory-made holes spaced about 10 cm apart (to make vandalism more difficult -- my "game" is two-legged).

The two round, centered holes in the back face of the back piece were only ~9.5 cm on-center (o.c.) apart (upper to lower), requiring drilling both to permit fiddling for a somewhat diagonal alignment with the power pole's holes, as well to accept 3/8-inch (~10mm) diameter bolts through the centered rear holes of the box.

One suggestion for CamLockBox: One of these rear, centered holes should be vertically oblong (1-inch/2-3 cm in length?) so that there is flexibility in bolting or screwing into different on-center distances of holes in the anchoring tree, pole, or wall.

It was also easy enough to drill a bit to enlarge the two holes of the hasp flanges in the front bottom of the assembly, so that they would accept the 5/16th-inch (~8 mm) diameter shaft of my padlock: A "belt and suspenders" kind of insurance to secure with both Python cable and padlock.

One minor complaint is that after removing the front component of the box (in order to view the camera screen, program the keypad, or remove/insert the SD card), one cannot easily open the plastic cover to access the screen, keypad, and SD card if the camera remains fully seated in the rear component of the box. To get the plastic cam-latch of the plastic cover to clear the right-hand steel edge of the rear box requires pulling the camera forward and outward, which may be difficult if the Python cable remains tightly in place, holding it back.

So, a second suggestion: Create a small notch in the right-hand, front-edge of the steel side of the rear box, of height matching the height of the screen-cover latch, to allow the camera's screen cover to open easily, even when the camera is fully seated in the rear box.

Overall, a very high recommendation.