One time a buddy got called to a lion depredation so he hung the dead goat on the fence and tied it to the magnet in a tracking collar. He parked the pickup and went to sleep in the cab with the tracking box on. When the collar came active, the beep woke him up, so he turned on the headlights and whamo, Goat Killer was down!!
Tracking collars are very multi-purpose!!
Some do Bingo, some do Sunday Church, Some do ball games,
... I DO HOUNDS!!
Ripper in 2002
I hunted for many years without tracking collars.Mostly coon and rabbit hunting. Lost 4 dogs that I never found out what happened to them. I would NEVER put a dog down without a tracking collar on them, NEVER !! If I forgot my collars at home, I wouldnt turn a dog out, period . I have spent hundreds of hours, probably thousands really, driving around aimlessly looking for dogs that were nowhere near where I was looking . Never again.
Homing instinct in a hound is a great thing. It is also useless when they are hurt and cant move,locked in someones garage, or riding to the pound in a cruiser ! At the very least with tracking collars, you wont spend time looking and yelling where the dogs arent. No sense yelling when you cant even get a beep .
I hunted for many years before tracking system,s came out.
If your dog would not home, he was worthless & soon culled himself.
Some of the tricks we used back then was.
1---we always raised our own pups & they learned where home was as they always run loose till about 7 or 8 months old. I would take them a mile from home, then 2 miles, then 5 miles then farther, practice for them to come home.
2-- When I went hunting I usally cast hounds, but before casting I would tie them out on a fence or tree for about 15 min before I cast, they would water the tree or fence post & they new this was where they were suppose to come back too. If i did not get dogs picked up, and before I went home I would put gunny sacks out that was always carried in the dog boxs. Then I would go back the next morning & they would almost always be back laying on the sacks waiting for me. If some were not back then I would put some dog feed out & then I would know if they had come back. We didn,t spend much time looking for them, dogs were cheap & we always had pup replacements comming on.
people back then would call you if they found your dog. they wouldn,t haul them to the pound, like they do now.
I Have had dogs come home from 20 miles, I had one dog that would come home 8 miles & was always home at 12:00 next day, I could set my watch on him.
Heh - I just got my first Telemetry collar system this last Christmas... Until now I've done all my hunting without it - never lost a Dog, but I'm a single dog hunter and I only have to keep track of my one partner. Of course lions aren't regularly on our menu - only when we join a friend's pack. And those times there was a collar system in use on thier dogs and I was duly impressed.
I've hunted Bobcats and Coons with three different dogs over the years, and never had a problem, but I do blame that on the single dog/hunter relationship. I can clearly see how a lost dog can occur with a pack - or a single dog with different luck than mine has been.
So I was really excited to try our new collar out when I unwrapped it on Christmas day - what a great wife I've got - and we did just that for the first time a few weeks ago. My dog got out of the truck with a bound, but didn't go a hundred yards before he stopped, stove up all shocky and sick, and I had to go pick him up... One second he was excited and ready to go, the next he was struggling to stay standing - quite concerning... A trip to the Vet found lots of large cancerous bleeding lymph nodes in his chest and an enlarged heart - his days as a hunter are over. I've got a big lap dog for as long as he lasts now, lol.
So I'm still waiting to try out my new system - and am excited about it. But it'll be with a new hound partner that I try my new technique with.
Did run'em without telemetry for a couple years, it SUCKS plain and simple. Dogs left out overnight or for days. And they DO certainly loose their homing "instinct" over time. They trail out to the turn out and if your not there in time they 'hit the road' and start traveling. Be smart get a Marshall and never turn them out without it!
if worse comes to worst and i make back to the rig alone i simply leave a bowl of food and water and the undershirt i wore that day. its been a while since i have had a dog that was not laying on the shirt waiting for me in a day or two. i lost two on a hunt far from home waited three days for them with no luck went back 14 days later and there they were half dead and laying on my shirt. most of the time if they dont make it back i have came to find means they did not live the race.
stymie wrote:has anyone ever run their hound with out collars? did hounds come to truck??
Buddie/ the answers i read here 2 your tracken collors question was some of the better ones most of us old guys could ponder ! Ya should get an award 4 the good replys mostly u received on it . The few too one reall that was against em/ hust didn`t understand the question or it was too hard 4 him....hahahaha Who was he tryen to impress or had he forgotten all those bad experience of fate that does happen/with-out haven tracken collors worken an on your kept houinds !? I kind of think maybe he didn`t actually take into account like the rest obviousle sure did ! I appcreated all them guys inputt and it was a kodac moment aroud the camp-fire polabberen circle/glad to hear it and to been seated in on this circle of hunters .
