Game trail monitoring device

A device for monitoring the passage of a big game animal along a game trail has a battery powered, digital clock within a container with the container wall provided with a telephone type of jack which includes a pull pin holding switch contacts apart to maintain the clock in operation. A trip line is connected to the pull pin and exerts a direct pull thereon when engaged by a passing animal with the position of the pulled free pin indicating the direction in which the animal was travelling.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
For many years, birds and animals have operated unattended cameras by means 
of trip lines. 
It is, of course, well known that such big game animals as deer follow 
established game trails and a recent development of interest to hunters 
recognized that a trip line could as well be used to interrupt the 
operation of a battery operated, digital electric clock and thus provide 
accurate information of the time a deer came along the trail. The trail 
was perhaps chosen because of nearby evidence such as tracks, pawings and 
rubbings providing evidence that the deer was a large buck. 
The small and inexpensive electric clocks, otherwise well suited for such a 
use, require that their circuitry be modified by the addition of leads 
which, when connected, will stop the clock. In the above referred to 
development, the switch means employed to control the added leads had to 
respond to an indirect pull as it was a flexible and somewhat resilient 
member anchored at one end in the device with its other end seated between 
the contacts of the leads. The intermediate portion of the member was 
exposed as a bow to which the trip thread was attached. Furthermore, no 
means were provided to provide a reliable indication of the direction in 
which the tripping animal was travelling. 
THE PRESENT INVENTION 
The objective of the present invention is to provide a trail monitoring 
device which is positive in its operation and provides a reliable clue as 
to the direction in which the animal, causing its operation, was 
travelling. 
In accordance with the invention, this objective is attained by connecting 
the control leads, added to the circuitry of a battery powered, digital 
clock, to a telephone type jack as a switch which includes a pull or trip 
pin to which the trip line anchored across the game trail is connected. A 
passing big game animal, engaging the trip line, exerts a direct pull on 
the pin adequate to ensure its withdrawal thus to establish a switch 
position in which the clock is stopped. As the container holding the clock 
is tied to a tree, it is free to turn slightly so that the tripping pull 
is exerted directly on the trip pin and the pulled free trip pin lands on 
the ground at the uptrail side of the original position of the trip line, 
holding the trip line where it landed and itself providing a positive clue 
as to the direction in which the tripping animal was proceeding. 
Other objectives of the invention and the manner in which they are attained 
will be apparent from the accompanying drawings, specification, and 
appended claims.

THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The game trail monitoring device illustrated by the drawings utilizes a 
battery operated clock, generally indicated at 10 confined in a watertight 
container 11 having a removeable cover 12. The clock 10 records AM and PM 
times. The container is provided with a line 13, preferably Dacron or 
Nylon, the ends of which are to be tied together about an anchor, usually 
about a tree 14 at one side of the trail to be monitored. The trail is 
generally indicated at 15. 
As the clock is of a conventional, inexpensive, battery operated digital 
type, it is not detailed except, see FIG. 4, as to the added leads 16 and 
17 and the normally open switch, generally indicated at 18, by which the 
clock is stopped when the switch is closed. The clock 10 is manufactured 
for and distributed by Dig-Time, West Hempstead, N.Y. as MC-4. 
The wall of the container 11 has a port closed by the seal 19 of the switch 
18 which is a telephone type of jack. The switch 18 includes a pull or 
trip pin 20 which may be and is shown as a cotter pin extending through 
and frictionally held by the seal 19. The cotter pin has an eye at its 
outer end to which a trip line 21, in practise monofilament of a 6-8 pound 
test, is attached while its other end is so formed to enable it to be 
easily entered through the hole in the center of the seal 19 in which the 
pull pin is a friction fit. The trip line 21 is long enough to extend 
across the trail and there to be tied to an anchor such as the tree 22. 
As shown in FIG. 4, the lead 16 is connected to a capacitor 23 of the clock 
circuitry and the lead 17 is connected to a resistor 24 thereof of the bar 
type. The trip pin 20, insulated from the container and the contact of the 
lead 16A by the seal 18, holds the resiliently biased contact 17A of the 
lead 17 in an inoperative position relative to the contact 16A. It will be 
seen from FIG. 4 that the pull pin 20 has relatively long, sliding 
engagement with the contacts 16A and 17A. 
The use and operation of a trail monitoring device in accordance with the 
invention requires a selection of a game trail which, for example, is 
known to be used by a trophy buck. A site is chosen along the trail for 
the installation of the game trail monitor. Such an installation requires 
only that the clock container 11 be held in place by tying the cord 13 
about a tree or other anchors with the clock in operation and with the 
correct time set. The free end of the trip line 21 is tied about a tree or 
other anchor on the opposite side of the trail. Both lines are tied in 
positions holding the trip line above the trail a distance such that it 
would not be engaged by small animals, in practise, the distance is in the 
one to two foot range. 
The trail monitor should be inspected each day and should the clock 10 be 
stopped, the trip pin 20 is reinserted to start the clock to show the time 
at which it was stopped. The clock must, of course then be reset. 
In addition to enabling the time the animal passed to be learned, it should 
be noted that, while the lay or the trip cord 21 often indicates the 
animal's direction, the position of the pull pin 20 relative to the 
container 11 and the trees 14 and 22 is a more reliable direction 
indicator and it also serves to hold the trip line in its tripped 
position.