garmin?

az_gogetem · Post by **az_gogetem** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:02 am

Got to use mine for the first time yesterday and I must say it's a pretty cool little gadget I liked the simplicity of marking every scratch I'd find and having tracks of all the canyons we covered. It really worked well. I was never very far from the dogs as we cold trailed most of the day but i liked it.

couple of beefs, the handheld ate right through a set of double AA batteries in one day. it was on from about 5 am to 3 pm. this may be normal i wouldn't know. ALSO every time my dog would make a lose and stay in one place for a few seconds working it would send me a notification saying "Spider has treed quarry" I thought it was funny the first time cause she was actually smelling a tree but after that everytime she stopped on a rock or to smell a twig for longer than two shakes of a stick it would send the same message with the accompanying beep. got old real quick i changed the settings to update every 10 second instead of 5 but it didn't seem to matter. doesn't come with any kind of maps preloaded and my delorme topo usa program does not allow me to upload maps to anything other than a delorme gps. but they do transfer routes and waypoints so thats a plus. anyone else using one of these got any tips for me? I hooked it to the e collar and once i tightened it up enough didn't really have problems with keeping it upright. i'm not sure i'll ever run a dog without a quick track but i still liked it. I think it may be more handy during bear season when the races get faster and longer. we will see.

TREESOMECATS · Post by **TREESOMECATS** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:37 am

i have used mine almost a month now all i can say is you gotta get one they are awsome ihunt some very nasty country and every once in a while lose signal from dog but there is no guess work on these i wont run any dogs without my marshall collars as back up but these things are truely awesome

houndogr · Post by **houndogr** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:22 pm

i've used mine for a little over a month now in colorado and montana. haven't had any trouble with it yet. I still put my wildlife collars on for backup, haven't had to use them so far. the gps sure saves a lot of walking and time finding dogs. my only complaint is when you first turn it on sometimes takes a while to pick up the collars. most of the time seems to be the same collar that takes longer to get signal. other than that they work great.

duster · Post by **duster** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:21 pm

If the antenna breaks off, are they user replaceable, or do you have to send it in to Garmin?

TREESOMECATS · Post by **TREESOMECATS** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:34 pm

they are user friendly just screw on and off. i dont really care for design but they are a very flexible antenna

larry · Post by **larry** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:10 am

How close to the line of "using electronic devices to pursue or take game" do these things come? Any concern from anyone that Fish and Duck will start writing tickets and confiscating game animals?

nightrider · Post by **nightrider** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:22 pm

If you have cell coverage this will beat Garmin hands down and has been around a lot longer! here's a link, http://www.pointersolutions.com/eng/hunting_dog_gps.htm

broncobilly · Post by **broncobilly** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:20 am

nightrider,

Do you have one of those yourself.

Bill

beardog-treed · Post by **beardog-treed** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:48 pm

Yeah if you had cell coverage it might be better, but come on how many places do you not have the cell coverage while out in the woods?

buddysusie · Post by **buddysusie** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:02 pm

i hunt with a couple guys that use the garmin astro.
it seems to work awesome for them
i was considering getting one myself

3bigelk · Post by **3bigelk** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 5:38 pm

All of you will eventually adopt this technology! It is by far way better that your old collars. Yes, there are some things that will need improved for hound hunting, but overall the basic premiss of these units are fantastic. I bought mine in July when they first hit stores. (Yes, I am a guinee pig you could say) I have made modification to increase durability and function for our type of hunting in Idaho. Overall this unit has saved me and my buddy(he bought one too) tanks of gas and countless hours. With your old boxes, when you loose a signal you have no idea what direction your dogs are truely moving. With this unit, you not only know what direction but exactly where you lost them at.

The houndsman that I run with have stopped pulling there anntenas out and just ask were my dogs are. Once we get to a tree, if they are missing a dog the hours of searching begin. If I am missing a dog, I just look at my map and go pick it up.

az_gogetem · Post by **az_gogetem** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:26 am

hey 3bigelk what kind of modifications did you make i've been running one for about a month now. No real complaints it loses signal everyonce in a while but i hunt in some rough stuff. i like looking at a map and knowing where my dog is at especially if you upload the maps to it it'll give you roads and trails makes life a lot easier. im gonna buy two sets of rechargeable batteries for it i know that.

3bigelk · Post by **3bigelk** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 4:22 pm

az_,
The biggest modification we have made is to the DC20 units. They are not real durable so we have beefed them up. I did not want to use the stubby antenna and loose range so I slide a 3" piece of ridged rubber pipe over the exsisting antenna and waterproof taped it to the unit and antenna. It does not look pretty but it works great. Also, we tried the vests and all they did was rub hide off our dogs so the DC's are now on the collars. Since you want them to ride upright we counterbalanced them by attaching it to our shock collars. This allows the prongs on the shock collar to kind of help hold the unit inplace with the shocker on the bottom of the neck and the DC on top of the neck. I also wrap the unit with tape because I do not trust those 4 tiny screws in the plastic to hold up to the constant abuse that these hounds put them through. Since these modifications in December I have not had any problems.

Also, use the lithium batteries, they last forever. We also loose signal during a chase, but we know were they are going and the closet trail so we just move and then we know were our dogs are again! This thing is awesome!

BlacktailStalker · Post by **BlacktailStalker** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 4:11 am

Is it true the range on the astro is only 2 miles ?

dmack · Post by **dmack** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:24 pm

supposedly 5 miles under ideal conditions. been using one for 6 months and still think its great

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