life before garmin

[adirondackjoe]

does anyone remember life before Garmin?

[andrew_kirby]

I do and I dont think I wanna go back. I remember losing dogs for the night or week on deer chases or when stubborn dogs didnt want to come in. I remember constantly wondering what dogs were where and if they were near roads etc. I remember getting turned around or ending up way farther down on the road coonhunting.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Sure.I'm old enough and have been running dogs long enough to not only remember life before Garmin but life before there were ANY type of tracking collars.Heck,I even remember life before there was such a thing as shock collars.
Try running bear dogs in New Hampshire's White Mountains before tracking collars existed.When I first started hunting with the Ware brothers I was in my early 20's and myself and any of the other young hunters were expected to try and stay within hearing of the pack until they treed the bear.
That meant that the hunters had to have a very intimate knowledge of where you might strike a bear,where he was apt to run,where he would cross and you had to be willing to bust a gut to keep the pack located.
And breaking dogs off running trash was a whole lot harder than just trying to figure out what level button to push.
Back then it meant cutting a switch and literally running the dog down or jumping in the pick-up and doing 50 MPH down a logging road to beat that hound to the deer or fox crossing then crashing through the underbrush to tackle the idiot so you could wail the tar out of him!

[adirondackjoe]

i hear ya shady. we used put a dozen pennies in a can, tie it to a stick and shake in there ears. old school but it worked.

[Ron Conroe]

Im old fashion I guess, I still don't use ant tracking devices. To me there still just dogs, you lose them you lose them. There's always gonna be dogs around. Matter of fact there is boat load of them lol.

[warddog]

Im old fashion I guess, I still don't use ant tracking devices. To me there still just dogs, you lose them you lose them. There's always gonna be dogs around. Matter of fact there is boat load of them lol.

I agree Ron, still do not and probably will not own a tracking device. Of course I don't coon hunt at night any more and hunt rabbits only, no competition any more so if I NEED it for my rabbit dogs where I hunt, I don't need the dogs. I will say that I have had dogs that got out of hearing usually running trash and as I said if I couldn't break them, I didn't need them and if they got hit doing so they finally got broke.

[S.R.Patch]

I use the wildlife when on those crazy running hare, at the end of the week when it's time to go home.
Ole Buddy patch had such a good homing instinct he'd always find his way back to you or where you dumped from the truck, never had to use a collar for him. When some hounds would spend a night or two in the woods, they learned to retrace their travel to come back or would come to check in more often during a hunt, that was the hound using it's brain. My buddy had a hound named Dexter that would hunt with anybody or any hounds and never had the brains to find his master. He walked alot of miles to retrieve that hound during and after most every hunt.
Hunting should be enjoyable and hounds should biddable and tractable. If you've got rogue hounds and your electronics fail you, good luck with that.
In breeding and raising hounds you cull along the way but sometimes hounds will eliminate themselves when their luck runs out, just the way it is. With modern tech-knowledgy there's the good and the bad side. Everyone has to be honest that it's not used to cover up faults for a good hunting hound. jmho

[Shady Grove Beagles]

I guess in a lot of ways I agree with Ron and Warddog
I don't coon hunt or follow big game dogs anymore.With the big hounds and running coon,cat and bear in the mountains where the hounds could easily get miles away and out of hearing, I thought the tracking collars were worth their weight in gold.
Here in Tn. and running cottontails with the beagles I'm keeping I don't find any need for tracking collars and I haven't needed to shock a dog off a trash run in years.I do still own a Tri-Tronics Classic 70 and I'll occasionally put them on the dogs when they start getting hard headed about coming in when I want to go to the house.
Several years ago a good friend of mine that I hare hunt with up in N.H. gave me his old Wildlife unit after he bought a Garmin.When I go up to northern Maine or along the Canadian border in Vermont I'll strap it on the dogs as I'll admit that it gives me some added assurance in that BIG country.Truth is that over the last several years hunting up there I've yet to need to turn it on to find my dogs.Here in Tn. I've never used it.
If I lived and hunted up in the north country in some of the areas we hunt up there where the nearest house or hard surfaced road is 20 miles away ,I would have to consider making the investment for my peace of mind.
But there is a lot of truth to what S.R.Patch stated.If you have straight hounds that don't trash,are biddable/handle for you,have a good homing instinct and are not the wild leave the country type then the need for the technology may not be worth the investment for you.I guess for me it's an economic consideration as i really don't have an extra $1,000.+ to outfit my pack !!

[warddog]

I agree Shadygrove that the terrain has a lot to do with it. Not much big country here nor mountains although we do have some hoops and hollers and some ole mine spill banks. Most of that stuff is gone as well but when I was a kid we hunted them ole stripper spill banks every weekend. Most of those were not big country either but they were rough. I rabbit hunt because I enjoy the hobby not because it is a way of life like it was when I was a kid. I don't have to supplement the diner table with game although I do eat everything I harvest and I just can't see $1000.00+ tracking equipment being a part of my hobby hunting during a couple months of the year. Seems like they would be nice to sit on the tail gate and see where your dogs are, how far and fast they are running but if I can hear them I'll be settin up at the jump area to harvest ole Mr. cottontail using the technology I was born with, eyes and ears.

[Will05]

I remember being a kid and rabbit hunting with dads dogs. We would get back to the truck after a long day and have a headache from screaming at dogs. When i started getting my own dogs i decided i didnt want those headaches anymore. I also like most of you have a ton of time invested in my dogs and i put a dollar amount on every minute not spent with my family. Where i hunt there is always a road close by as well. These 3 things made it a no brainer for me to buy a set of tracking/training collars. I use them on my beagles and bird dogs and i never worry about anything when im out in the field. Best of all i never leave the field with a headache due to stubborn dogs. I personally would never want to go in the field without them. They give me the piece of mind i need when im out there that my investment is safe.

[adirondackjoe]

ok guys here goes...for any of you guys who can't justify the expense of the tracking system i am going to start buying power ball tickets. when i hit it big, and i WILL hit it big, i'm gonna buy each of you a garmin. you can return it if you like.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Wow ! Thanks Fairy Godfather.I sure wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth ! I'll take a 4 dog tt unit please.LOL.

[PREACHERS KENNEL]

I hunted all my life.. rabbit since I was 9..56 now.... didn't use shock collars till about 15 years ago.../////do I want to go back to those days no way.

I was running today..a man was near to where I was at was listening to them I went over to him as,, went out of hearing,,,,he said man them dogs are driving deep into the vwoods are u worried about them running deer or something....I said no..first I have seen them turn down a lot of them even jumped out of beds ,,they kept running rabbit...but iuf they did,,i showed him my shock collar..he said oh u can shock them,,i nodded...then showed him my garmin tracker...I said I can also find them easy...peace of mind is nice...somewhat pricey but nice.....

[warddog]

Wow ! Thanks Fairy Godfather.I sure wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth ! I'll take a 4 dog tt unit please.LOL.

me too BUT beings someone else can afford it, I'll take a 6 dog so I can grow into it. By the way I'll also need some pretty personal hands on training on how to use the thing as this old dog is hard to teach new tricks. I'm just now able to half a**ed operate this computer and many times I have to get my wife to fix my screw ups. I also do NOT have a smart phone as most do these days as to me that means one has to be smart to use the technology which leaves me out! I'm NOT opposed to them just have yet to be able to justify the cost when they appear to be like the computers most generally are, obsolete when you take them from the box. I believe they are made that way so as to hook users into the newest tech. Oh I did have an old F&L beeper when I coon hunted and found many, many of my dogs using that ole thing which I bought as just that a dinosaur. I do also have TT shock collars and that technology is pretty easy, just set the stimulation number and push the corresponding collar color.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Warddog
I can't stop laughing ! You and I must be about the same age as I feel exactly like you when it comes to so much of today's "gotta have it" technology.
I just got my first ever cell phone a couple of months ago after a lot of pressure from my wife and kids to do so.I haven't wanted one and still don't hardly ever turn it on or use it. The family wanted me to have one for "just in case" as I usually hunt/run dogs alone and I guess for that reason it makes sense.
It's just a Wal-Mart Flip Phone with Straight Talk and I have managed to figure out how to use it.LOL.I also had to learn how to text message as that's the only way my grown children and grand children will respond to me !
Am I a dinosaur? You bet ! And it doesn't bother me one bit ! I'm all about keeping things simple and the older I get in this life the simpler things need to be.
Heck, I still drive a 6 cylinder,10 year old pick-up truck with standard transmission and hand roll down windows and it takes a key to open the doors.
I guess I'm really old fashioned as I've never used starting pens to get my pups going.Much prefer doing it myself on the outside and spending that quality time with a young dog.