Dan Moultrie hunted on family land in Harris County, Georgia, which was bordered by the Callaway family, famously known for the Callaway Gardens near Pine Mountain, GA. The Callaways owned nearly 40,000 acres, including a significant amount of agricultural land. So, naturally, after harvest, there was plenty of grain left over for the wildlife. Each fall, Dan watched as deer left his family’s land to forage on the neighboring property, where there was plenty of food. This led to poor hunting and frustration for Dan, but it also was the catalyst for what led him to create Moultrie’s first deer feeder. (Moultrie photos)
September 01, 2025
By Mark Olis
In the late 1970s, deer management, food plot planting, and deer feeding were not standard practices. While many hunters went afield at that time, they didn’t make much of an off-season effort to improve habitat or plant crops to attract deer to their properties. This is precisely where Dan Moultrie found himself more than 45 years ago.
Dan hunted on family land in Harris County, Georgia, which was bordered by the Callaway family, famously known for the Callaway Gardens near Pine Mountain, GA. The Callaways owned nearly 40,000 acres, including a significant amount of agricultural land. So, naturally, after harvest, there was plenty of grain left over for the wildlife. Each fall, Dan watched as deer left his family’s land to forage on the neighboring property, where there was plenty of food. This led to poor hunting and frustration for Dan, but it also was the catalyst for what would become the number one deer feeder brand in the hunting industry.
Fresh out of college, Dan worked for a large electrical utility company in Atlanta. He couldn’t shake the thought of all those deer leaving his property each fall, so he began thinking of ways to keep them on his land where he could hunt. Clearly, food was the missing ingredient, but how would he consistently provide food at his place, a couple of hours’ drive from Atlanta? That’s when he came up with the idea of building a deer feeder to dispense corn regularly in the morning and evening. One evening during Christmas holiday, he sat down with his brother, an electrical engineer, and they sketched the feeder’s schematic on a napkin. Dan took that sketch and bought enough parts to build 10 feeders in his apartment closet after work each night.
The original Moultrie feeder consisted of a metal bucket with a spin-cast motor attached to it. The feeder was hung from a tree limb with a rope. The motor had a photocell built in and when the sun began to rise in the morning the feeder went off. The same thing happened in the evening with the setting sun. The feeders worked so well that Dan’s friends started asking him to make feeders for them as well. (Moultrie photos) The feeder consisted of a metal bucket with a spin-cast motor attached to it. The feeder was hung from a tree limb with a rope. The motor had a photocell built in and when the sun began to rise in the morning the feeder went off. The same thing happened in the evening with the setting sun. The feeders worked so well that Dan’s friends started asking him to make feeders for them as well. So, he built 10 more and sold those, constructed 10 more and sold those, until he finally realized there might be a business here.
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The business took off straightaway, and Moultrie Feeders was born. Moultrie’s vision was to sell more feeders than any other brand. To achieve this, Dan relentlessly innovated and began building business relationships that have lasted to this day.
In the early 1980s, before the internet and Amazon, retail sales were the lifeblood of a business. Dan worked tirelessly to establish a connection with Walmart, knowing Moultrie Feeders would grow significantly if he could catch their attention. On his third attempt to meet with any decision-maker inside the corporation, he found himself at a small restaurant in Bentonville, AR, where he was introduced to several Walmart executives and buyers.
They asked Dan about going quail hunting, and he replied that he had one of the best places in the country for it. One of the executives noted that every vendor offers to take him golfing, but he didn’t want to go golfing; he wanted to go hunting. That’s when Dan began taking Walmart buyers and retail customers from all over the country on hunting trips. Bear hunting in Canada became the go-to hunt.
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Dan’s winning recipe for entertaining business customers took shape during this time, but it also led to one of his most significant innovations yet: the trail camera. “Black bears come in a variety of different colors,” explains Moultrie. “Some are black; some are blonde, and some are cinnamon color phased. Everyone wanted a color-phase bear.” Originally, Dan would weld large fishhooks to the bait barrels to snag hair from the bear when it put its paw in the barrel. That worked ok, but he wanted a better way.
Dan eventually came up with an idea to use a rat trap, a 35mm film camera, and a piece of string to build his first trail camera. At first, the rat trap was too strong and slapped the camera shutter button too hard! So, Dan disassembled the trap and removed some of the springs to lighten the impact. Once he had it set up as he wanted, he screwed the camera body to a board and placed it in front of a bear bait barrel. He then ran a piece of string to the barrel and attached the other end to the trigger on the rat trap.
“The first time I walked up to that camera, the string was snapped, and the rat trap was triggered! And that camera showed it had one picture,” recalls Dan. “That was as good as it got back then. We rushed to town to get the 1-hour film developed, and there was a picture of a black bear.”
Dan perfected his rudimentary trail camera and used it for years to entertain guests at bear camp. When Dan’s guests arrived, he would show them pictures of the bears they were pursuing. His guests couldn’t believe it and asked how he obtained photos of the bears. They thought he must have been sitting out there taking pictures.
Dan Moultrie’s original “game camera” was a homemade job featuring a disposable 35mm film camera, a mouse trap trigger and piece of string. From there, his design evolved into the hunting industry’s first-ever trail cam (shown below), and later into digital cameras and finally cellular cameras. Today, Moultrie’s Edge series of cameras, as well as the Moultrie App, is regarded as industry-leading in innovation, technology and user friendliness. (Moultrie photos) The genius of Dan Moultrie grew within the industry as he kept this invention closely guarded, until one day a good friend urged him to develop it. Through extensive trial and error and engineering, Dan invented the first trail camera, featuring a 35mm camera, a motion sensor, and protective housing. It was sold in Walmart and sporting goods stores nationwide.
Dan developed and released several models of film trail cameras that became bestsellers. However, over time, it became evident that technology had shifted, with digital cameras gradually replacing film cameras. As a result, Dan recognized the necessity of creating a digital trail camera. At that time, digital cameras required continuous power to take photos, consuming a significant amount of energy as they remained active.
Dan’s initial prototypes needed connections to car batteries. But through meticulous engineering and collaboration with camera companies and others, he successfully designed and manufactured the first digital game camera that could operate on disposable batteries. This innovation revolutionized the industry, allowing hunters to store hundreds of images on an SD card and eliminating the need for costly film development.
During the reign of digital trail cameras, technology enabled these devices to become smaller. What once weighed pounds and stood out like a no-trespassing sign could now fit in the palm of your hand. Advancements like no-glow infrared flash bulbs eliminated the game-spooking flash bulbs of the past. While these new technologies made the cameras smaller and more effective, they still required going afield to pull SD cards every time you wanted to view your trail camera pictures. In true Moultrie fashion, Dan was already onto his next idea: the cellular trail camera.
The technology was available to create the first cellular trail camera, but making it communicate properly and function as intended was a significant challenge. Around this time, Dan began discussions with PRADCO Outdoor Brands, which is owned by the largest privately held company in Alabama, EBSCO Industries.
Dan knew he would need help getting the cell cam off the ground, but soon discussions turned to PRADCO purchasing the legacy brand from Dan. Dan had poured his life’s work into the company that bore his family’s name, and he didn’t take this decision lightly. “Treating people right and taking care of the customer is how I built my success,” explained Dan. “When it came time to sell, I was very diligent that the buyer would carry on these same values, and that’s been true to this day.”
With the financial backing and manpower of PRADCO and EBSCO, the cell camera game was off to a strong start. Moultrie introduced the first cellular camera in 2009. This 1G model functioned, but the limitations of technology prevented it from being widely adopted.
It wasn’t until 2016 that Moultrie launched Moultrie Mobile. This new system included cellular hardware and a mobile app where all images would be stored on cloud-based servers. At the time, Moultrie was the number one digital game camera company in the market, with millions of its digital SD card cameras in the field. As a result, Moultrie Mobile’s first hardware device was a 2G cellular modem that connected to Moultrie digital trail cameras. This allowed existing cameras to become cellular.
In 2018, Moultrie launched its first all-in-one cameras: the XV-6000 and XA-6000. The XV models featured a Verizon cellular modem inside the camera, while the XA included an AT&T modem. Moultrie’s cellular cameras were adopted at a rapid pace over the next several years. However, the innovation from Moultrie didn’t allow the team to rest, and they continued pushing forward to create a product and system that customers would never want to give up.
“The best advice I ever got in life was from my mother,” recalls Dan. “She said you better do the right thing in life because your deeds will find you out, good or bad.”
Dan said that this approach resonated with him throughout college and in business. That’s why Moultrie has a history of taking care of its customers. In the 1980s, Dan replaced feeders and parts even when a customer was responsible for breaking the feeder. During that time, companies often argued with consumers over returns. Dan thought, what if we do the opposite?
One day, a very successful businessman from the Birmingham area came through with a broken feeder and needed to get it replaced. Dan handed him a brand new one. The guy said, “No, I want to pay for it.” And Dan told him, “That’s not the program we run here.”
The older gentleman looked at him and said, “Son, you’ll go out of business if you keep this up.” Dan, trying to be respectful toward the older gentleman, replied, “If we don’t do this, we’ll go out of business.”
Just like in the beginning, Moultrie is owned and operated by hunters and land managers, just like you. The brand’s loyalty remains with its customers, as is evidenced by its U.S.-based customer service reps who are available seven days a week and know the products inside and out. (Moultrie photos) To this day, Moultrie’s customer service is unrivaled in the industry. Moultrie’s U.S.-based customer service reps are available seven days a week and know the products inside and out. That drive to help the customer doesn’t begin only when there is a problem; it starts with building products from the ground up that enhance a consumer’s experience and make it more enjoyable.
That’s exactly how Moultrie changed the game of cell cams with the EDGE Series of cameras. Before attempting to create a better camera, Moultrie examined its extensive database of customer service issues and inquired about the top ones that could be addressed.
Customers main concerns boiled down to reliability and ease of use. That’s why EDGE cameras don’t have an SD card. The SD card proved to be the weakest link in a customer receiving their images. It didn’t matter whether it was the wrong SD card, a corrupted SD card, or user error. If a customer didn’t receive their images, it was a Moultrie problem. Reliability skyrocketed once the EDGE was equipped with internal memory.
Next, there was ease of use. The EDGE camera only has a couple of buttons, for simplicity. It features a cellular system that finds and locks onto the strongest cell signal in the area, regardless of the cellular carrier. No more wondering whether Verizon or AT&T are the best option in the area. Now, you just turn the camera on, and it does all the work for you.
Powerful Connection Today, when you hang a Moultrie camera on a tree and walk away, all your interactions occur through the Moultrie App. Moultrie has a dedicated software team that builds and maintains the powerful Moultrie App. The main motivation for this team is to create a single app for all your hunting planning needs.
Inside the app, you’ll find all your cell cam images, as you’d expect, but here’s what else you’ll find:
Maps: The Moultrie App features a robust mapping system, complete with property lines and plat info, topo lines, satellite imagery, and more than 100 pins to map out your hunting property. The line distance and area measuring features come in handy for finding the acreage of food plots and more. You can save the ideal wind direction for each tree stand location and easily see at a glance which stands are good or bad to hunt that day.
Weather: You don’t need to bounce back and forth when planning your hunt. The Moultrie App provides daily and hourly forecasts with clear wind directions and posted sunrise/sunset times.
Deer Movement Prediction: The Moultrie App features Game Plan, the most advanced and accurate prediction model available. It’s the only predictive deer movement system that uses actual local trail camera input to track recent deer movement alongside predictive models that consider weather factors. Now you can plan the best times to hunt.
Activity Charting: Quickly review game movement at your camera locations. With Activity Charting, you can identify the hottest stands and filter each location by species, such as bucks, turkey, bear, hogs, and more.
Deer Survey: Become your own land manager with the powerful new deer survey feature. Wildlife biologists have been performing trail camera surveys for decades to help establish buck-to-doe ratios, fawn recruitment, age structure, and overall herd health. This is a very time- and labor-intensive project. The Moultrie App will now automate and calculate all of this for you, allowing you to be a more informed hunter and plan your harvest goals and habitat projects more effectively.
Powerful Filters: With artificial intelligence (AI) built in, you can quickly filter the images in your gallery by buck, turkey, people, vehicles, bears, hogs, predators, and more. You can also set up notifications based on species. If you want to receive a text whenever a mature buck shows up on camera, you can do that. For security purposes, you can set up notifications to text you whenever a person or vehicle appears on a camera, too.
Shared Galleries and Saved Properties: Share cameras with other hunting friends or family using the shared gallery features. You can choose which cameras to share, allowing them to view via the app at their convenience. The Saved Filters function is excellent for organizing folders for different properties. If you hunt multiple properties, you can save only the cameras from those locations, ensuring you only see what’s moving in that area.
What’s Next? Moultrie feeders have evolved overtime to include technology like Bluetooth connectivity, which now allows users to control feeding times and volume remotely via the Moultrie app. Today’s Moultrie feeders carry on the brand’s reputation for rugged reliability and proven performance. It’s hard not to trust a company that’s been making quality game feeders for more than 40 years! (Moultrie photos) While Moultrie cameras and feeders have been used together for years, they have operated independently of each other. But driven by customer obsession, the next wave of innovation at Moultrie is all about connection and convenience. With any new EDGE 3 series camera and Moultrie’s newest connected deer feeder kits, the camera and feeder communicate via Bluetooth connection. This allows you to change any of your feeder settings remotely from the app. Now, you’ll have feed level estimates, battery life, and all feeder settings in the app, just like you do for your cameras.
Moultrie will continue to push the boundaries of what connected cameras and feeders can achieve while addressing the challenges that hunters and land managers face. Moultrie’s goal is to provide quality products and services that tackle real-world problems, allowing you to spend more time outdoors with family and friends doing what you love. The future direction of Moultrie is guided by the same principles that brought it to where it is today: innovation and customer service.
