Any One still Old School with collars

[MasonsBeagles]

OK was out a while got back in, the new garmins etc are neat but I still prefer Classic 70's/Trashbreakers. The G2-G3 are a improvement over the old old styles. While the Garmins etc are neat, i still prefer the old styles. Esp breaking pups. Im I just a Old Fart that doesnt like change or others with me? It seems whenever I run with someone with a Garmin they watch the garmin instead of the dogs.

[steve w]

I get what your saying about watching the Garmin, it's true because that's what I do as well. It's kind of hard not to with the amount of info available, I do try to see as much as I can though, I got into Garmin's because I had some unfortunate things happen to dogs I felt the Garmin's could have helped with or prevented. I can't say I regret it and by watching the screen it put a new dimension to beagling for me with the statistics and ability to see more of the race on the screen, as well as the ability to get the dogs when it's time to go and the peace of mind it offer's when I cut them loose have proved invaluable. To each there own and if it's not broke why fix it.

[allniter]

I have 6 exp collars 2 mile trashbreaker hand held and chargers ---batteries needs replaced magnum in NC. will replace batteries for 249.93 --I will take 200.00 for everything

[Shady Grove Beagles]

MasonsBeagles
I hear ya. Guess you could say I'm getting to be an old fart too but hate admitting it.
Ya, I'm old school on the collars as all I have and use is a Classic 70 and truth is I almost never use that.I have one dog that can be pretty independent and hates to quit and a couple times a year I'll put it on her to remind her that"when it's time to go to the house,It's TIME to go the house!"
My 4 females are all older broke dogs that pretty much handle and don't get in trouble so it's not needed for disciplinary reason.
As far as the Garmins.What a great invention! Wish I'd had them years ago when we were coon hunting in the mountains of New Hampshire.Spent many a night riding the roads and listening for hounds treed off somewhere deep.
I have friends in New Hampshire that have Garmins for their beagles and hare hunting. I'll tell you right now if I still lived in the north country and was hunting northern Maine or New Hampshire I'd sure make the investment. That's big country up there and there are several places where we hare hunt that are 15-20 miles off the paved road or nearest house. Lose a hound up there and he's not coming out to the nearest house or being picked up by some friendly individual.
That being said I'm basically a cottontail hunter with good handling/ straight dogs hunting on farms and W.M.A.'s where I don't feel the need to spend around $2,000 to watch them on the video screen. Plus I'm just cheap. That's a lot of money......

Oh well,that all coming from an old fart who for sure is old school and doesn't like to change.

[Beagle Huntsman]

Same here. I have the Trashbreaker setup with 9 collars, but generally don’t use them all. I always have more than 9 hounds out, but only running cottontail I just don’t feel the need to spend the $$ for a tracking system.

Now, last year I did lose an older male and would have loved a Garmin to find him. I actually found him last month almost 1 year to the day he was lost. I should say I found his bones, and his training collar and nameplate Slipcheck collar, so I know it was him. Apparently died while running in a cutover area next to a swamp. I had 17 hounds out the day he was lost and only 16 came to the horn at the end of the hunt. I looked extensively for him for days afterward. Just happened across him this year while working the pack through the same area. So a Garmin would have helped me find him immediately, but the end result would have been the same. Incidentally, his training collar charged right up and is back in use today!

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Mr.alniter;

Here is my Phone # 1-706-245-5391 give me a call, want to talk about, T.T.Shock Collars.

Yours In sports,
D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>

[kwolf]

Just last weekend I was running dogs with some good friends , we noticed that one of the dogs in the pack had not came thru in the race for 2 circles. We all had garmin collars on our dogs , Zach looked at his hand held and noticed that Duke was not moving , we all headed in toward the direction of Duke , we were all within 20 feet of the dog and could not see him . Kenney got down on his hands and knees and said I see him , he crawled in and found Duke was caught on a wire hooked on his regular collar. He had to take the collar off of the dog to get him released , believe me this dog would have neverbeen found without the tracker . I ran with a guy last spring and coyotes came in and blew up the race , they killed his best dog , we would have never found that dog without the tracker. Trust me if you ever get a tracker you will never leave home without it , gives me a piece of mind for sure. Over the years I have hounds come up misssing and never knew what happened to them , love the gps systems

[Hare Chaser]

I bought my first tracking collars (Wildlife) in Jan. 2000. I lost a young female Beagle on Dec. 31st 1999 for 21 days. I live in NH and there were several nights below 0° in that 3 week span. I went everyday looking for her. Finally my hunting buddy was able to get her on the 21st day. I ordered my collars that day and have never lost a hound since. Bought my first Garmin DC30 collars in 2009 and upgraded to the TT and TT-Mini's from there. The day I give them up will be the day after I've given up running hounds. I don't look at my hand held screen all the time! I enjoy hearing the race and all the other things that being in the woods has to offer while listening to my hounds!

Some things I've noticed about those who don't have tracking/GPS collars:

1. Most of them are willing to use one of yours when hunting with you if the offer is made.

2. If you've got GPS collars on your dogs and they don't, they'll often ask where your dogs are if no game is being run. Especially if it's been awhile since any hound has opened supposing that their hounds are likely to be near yours.

3. They often ask how far we are from the truck or where it is relative to where we are at that particular moment.

Everyone is different in their likes and dislikes. At the end of the day, most of the time it comes down to what people are willing to spend their money on. How much do you spend on a Carribean cruise? 10 days later and that $2500-$3000 is gone and your left with a bunch of pics. to post on Facebook and maybe a few overpriced trinkets you brought home.

Can get pretty well set up with a Garmin system or Dogtra system for that kind of money and get years of pleasure and use from it.

[reddog1]

Kind of hard to watch a dog or a pack that is 800 yards away chasing a hare unless you're looking at a screen. That being said I put off buying my Garmin until they made the tt15 mini's. I wanted to make sure most of the bugs were worked out. Now, if the dogs are out, the Garmin collars are on them.

[main event`s beagles]

when we started no such thing as a shock collar and when they hit the market boom loved them now the tracking and shock is out in the garmin it takes some getting use to but if you ever have one get away from you and you walk,drive or whatever the case the unit paid for itself in my opinion. you do look at the screen a lot because of the features. i look at it as insurance example if yourself gets lost or hurt or whatever someone will be able to find you with your handheld

[warddog]

I remember the first tracker I got way back when I had coon hounds. I had one that was a one way dog and when I cut him loose I lifted his tail and kissed his back side good bye. Many a nights I cam home without him only to get a call in a day or two that he was at someone's house. He went until he got treed or worn out. I even tried roading him during the day prior to cutting him that night BUT that didn't help. I ended up getting an ole quick track beeper which served it's purpose until I got rid of that dog as he about spoiled me on coon hunting. Had no [problem selling him as some liked that hunt style. I then got Dogtra shock collars and now I still have the Trashbreaker but hardly use it as I have two older females left in my kennel and been out of chasing coon hounds for years. I do know that I wished I had one of those fancy Garmins several years ago when I went mushroom hunting in northern Michigan with friends where I had never been before. had to drive up some fire trails to go in and I had no clue of the roads or directions of north, south, east or we. Needless to say I wasn't paying attention to these guys and looking the ground and picking mushrooms when all of a sudden I realized they had went off and left me. Called and called and NO answer. BOOM totally lost without a clue. I started walking to way I thought might take me to a road, the fire trial or another fire trail only to finally get someone to answer my call. The guy yelled are you lost and I said YES. Went to his voice and found out they were camping up top of the mountain on a power line. They had been coming there for years and when I described what I remembered about where we went in he knew exactly where we entered. He said get in and I will take you there and he was in a volkswagon bug. I said we won't get far up the fire trail in this and he said don't worry. Well we started up the fire trail only to run into my group coming out on their way to go to report me missing. I now at least carry a compass with me when I go into totally foreign areas. In all my years of hunting that was the first time I had really been post and I can say I didn't like the feeling one bit especially with it being in the evening and dark coming up on me. I kept thinking lions and tigers and bears! LOL Not to much big timber like that around here but it's ALL big when the lights are out.

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Mr. allniter;

Check is in the mail Thanks a Bunch!

D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

[MasonsBeagles]

ha ha i know they are nice i dunno guess I still feel like with less technology I have a better connection with my dogs. although i wish ive had them a few times last couple months with lost pups.

[Mike McPherson]

I grew up hunting back in the 70's and 80's no tracking collars and we spent many days looking for dogs. We ran coyotes and fox and coon. weren't many deer around back then. They would get out of a chunk and out of hearing and the dog hunt was on. Had some out for days. I use the garmin now and couldn't imagine not having one. Makes training so much easier you can tell so much better what they are up to. Hunt-Em-Up

[Rabbithoundjb]

Old school for me. One 6 dog set of tritronics trashbreakers and one 6 dog set of sport dog 2525's. I can see where the trackers could be beneficial though.