Trail Cameras · GardePro

Where you may put a trail camera: what Wisconsin, Utah and Montana pages say

Three agency pages, read and dated. They show how much the rules vary by land, season and whether the camera transmits. This is not legal advice.

Short answer. The rules depend on three things: whose land it is, what time of year it is, and whether the camera transmits. Three official pages we read on 2026-11-01 show how much they differ. Wisconsin's DNR sets conditions for cameras on DNR land. Utah's 2025-26 guidebook has a public-land rule with a July 31 to Dec. 31 window and describes a camera that cannot transmit as the type permitted on private land; the full passage is in the table, read in the PDF. Montana's 2026 hunting regulations bar motion-tracking devices while hunting, and define them to include cameras that transmit in real time. None of the three says anything about your neighbor's line or about privacy. This is not legal advice.

This page is for a landowner who wants a camera on their own ground and does not yet know whether a rule applies. We are not lawyers and this is not advice. We read three official pages and we say which. There are fifty states and we did not read fifty. Rules change by season, so use these as examples of what to look for, then read your own agency's current page.

What three official pages say

State and sourceWhat it saysWhat it does not say
Wisconsin. DNR, Online Hunting Regulations, "DNR-Managed Lands" page. Read 2026-11-01.Placing a trail camera and leaving it overnight on DNR lands is authorized only under conditions. "Placement occurs in areas where hunting is allowed." The camera must carry the owner's name and address, or DNR customer ID number, "permanently attached or engraved to the outside of the camera" where it can be seen without moving it. It must not damage vegetation or other DNR property. Placement is "done at your own risk": the DNR is not responsible for theft or damage.This page covers DNR-managed land only. It does not cover private land, and it does not mention cellular cameras.
Utah. Division of Wildlife Resources, Furbearer Guidebook 2025-26 (PDF). Read 2026-11-01.The guidebook text: "All trail cameras are prohibited on public land from July 31 to Dec. 31", with exceptions for approved research and monitoring. A camera using internal data storage and "not capable of transmitting live data" "is permitted for use on private land" for legal hunting. The guidebook also bars selling or buying footage that could be used to take big game, cougars or bears. It defines a trail camera as "a device that is not held or manually operated by a person".It is a trapping guidebook, so it summarizes the rule rather than setting it out in full. It points to a Utah page, wildlife.utah.gov/trailcams. That address returned a 404 error when we fetched it on 2026-11-01, so we did not read it. The guidebook is for the 2025-26 season. It does not say what applies to a camera on private land that does transmit.
Montana. Fish, Wildlife and Parks, 2026 Deer, Elk and Antelope regulations (PDF). Read 2026-11-01."It is unlawful for a person, while hunting, to use any electronic motion-tracking device" designed to track a game animal's motion and relay it to the hunter. The page says the Fish and Wildlife Commission defines these as "remote operated camera or video devices capable of transmitting real time information, pictures, or videos", plus seismic, thermal and satellite or radio telemetry devices.It does not say whether a given cellular trail camera counts. It does not name trail cameras as such. Ask FWP.
Decision diagram. Where will the camera sit? State or public land: read that land manager's own page. Your land and you hunt it: read your state wildlife agency's hunting rules. Your land, no hunting: read state and local rules and ask a lawyer about privacy. Near a neighbor or shared path: ask a lawyer.
An illustration of questions to ask before mounting a camera. It states no rule. The rules we read are in the table above.

What we could not read

The Arizona Game and Fish page we tried (its fair chase page) returned HTTP 403 to our fetch. Idaho Fish and Game pages returned HTTP 503. We found secondary news pages about both states, and we do not use them here. If your state is one of those, go to the agency's own regulations page or call its regulations office.

How to read these without a lawyer

What none of these pages covers

Who to ask: your state wildlife agency's regulations office or a conservation officer for hunting and land rules, your county or town office for local rules, and a lawyer licensed in your state for privacy and property-line questions.

The cheaper or simpler option

The cheapest step is a phone call. Ask your state agency, before you buy, whether a camera that transmits is allowed on your land in the season you plan to use it. If the answer is yes, buy what suits the spot. If the answer is that only a camera that does not transmit is allowed, a camera with no radio costs less to run and has no plan. If the answer is no camera at all, you have saved the price of one.

If a camera with no radio fits your state's rule

Our reason to click: GardePro's E5 2.0 page describes a camera with no cellular features that records to an SD card. Whether that type fits your rule is for your agency's page to answer, not ours.

We earn a small commission on qualifying sales, and 90% of it goes to charity (you can pick which); your price is unchanged. Full disclosure.

E5 2.0 non-cellular trail cameraEight AA batteries, an SD card and no cellular radio, by its page.View at GardePro →GardePro non-cellular camerasThe maker's category for cameras with no cellular plan.View at GardePro →
The GardePro links on this page are affiliate links. We earn a small commission on qualifying sales, and 90% of it goes to charity (you can pick which); your price is unchanged. Full disclosure.

Next steps

Do cellular cameras need a plan?The plan question, from the maker's pages.GardePro: what its pages saySpecs, warranty and returns.Deer huntingMore guides for the deer season.

Sources, all read 2026-11-01