Is GPS technology changing hound hunting

[B/T]

First I dont own any GPS equipment but do plan on getting some in the future. Any thing to help find/save a dog I think is a good thing.
I have been talking a fair bit to different users about them and reading up on them.
Are they better or worse for hunting I guess is a matter of opinion.
Lots I have talked to now say they run tracks they would have never of tried in the past both because of age of track and time of day.
They say its less work now just turn the dogs loose then drive around following the receiver.
Ive seen outfitter adds now sayng you basically dont have to be in the best shape because of terrain etc the hunts arnt that phyisical.
Read storys where the guys turn loose then drive around to within sometimes yards of the tree then shoot the cat. Sometimes not even there when the dogs are released.
I realize everyone is different and to some a dead or treed cat is the main goal not what happens inbetween.
Like I said I think there great for finding dogs but are they taking the human aspect of the hunt out of things.

[plottpappaw]

i just think its making hound guys lazy.

[redbone4me]

I suppose, if one chooses to be lazy, they will help in their laziness. But I think they would be more helpful in locating your dogs that might have gone out of hearing range. Plus, if these are like the GPS I have for bike riding, you can upload the route your dogs took onto google earth and see where they roamed. Might help you understand a little on the prey they were tracking. Just a thought.
Don't think its GPS making people lazy. Afterall, guns don't make people kill people, people kill people, just like some people are just lazy and don't know the true spirit of the hunt.

[Desert Hounds]

Your dogs are valuable asset and I would recommend a tracking device. If you decide to go with the Garmin Astro 220, like all tracking devices they have limitations. I choose it because it gives the azimuth and distance of the dogs. Like any piece of equipment you have to know its limitations and how to use it effectively. Battery life (DC30 collars: prefer 30 seconds transmit), hills valleys, power lines and tall thick brush play a role in keeping track of your dogs should they get further out of range. If you loose the dog signal completely, the Asto 220 will always give the location of the last lost signal until a new signal is receive. I use a MURS antenna (from FIRESTIX) attach to my truck for better reception. I just drive around until I get a new signal. Then reinstall the short antenna and go find the dogs. Hunting example: From my location I had two dogs headed west at one mile and another two dogs headed east at one mile apart (2 miles). They were trash chasing. By myself, without the GPS I would not found the dogs.

But you can always use your ears, the direction last seen and paw prints to track.

[George Streepy]

I am naturally about as lazy as a hound hunter gets, but since owning a Garmin I spend more time in the brush watching and working with the dogs. With the track marked out on the screen it lures me in to see what is going on. I am sure the technology has effected/changed hunters differently but for me it was for the better. I feel like I am more in touch with what the dogs are doing, which makes me want to get more and more involved. Not to mention it takes some of the guess work out of which dog is really doing the most, which again if the screen says they are only a few hundred yards away, in we go. I some how always forget that 500 yards to the Garmin can be a long ways on foot if there is a canyon between you and the dogs.

Sitting in the truck staring at a screen doesn't have any effect on what the dogs are doing or the outcome of the race.

[rebel2]

I lost my best dog for 11 days during a cat seson a few years ago, he died. Big huge valley deep snow and zero access and poor telemetry terrain caused this. With gps then I would still have him!!!! Also GPS or telemetry you still gotta get your dogs back from a tree or bay dont you??? Better to get there quick and easier then the old hard way. I respect my dogs more then that ecspecially since we have way more wolves now. GPS doesnt lie either, it will show you what your dogs are doing and whos leading races and who being a chicken shat on a mean bear or a bayed cat. Im glad I got mine two yrs ago...............

[wacker x 8]

I am not lazy by any meens but I will say I have seen way more game because of my garmin . I was able to cut game off as it came to the rd more often last year and let me tell you it was so fun to have those bears pop out and suck up into them selves when they see you standing there . the other bonus is when they are heading for a main rd you can get to them before the car does .

[BlacktailStalker]

It doesnt make hound guys any lazier than they were before they had hounds.
Bring your gps's to the island here and move the cursor to the elevation lines where they tree, do the math to figure out the gain you need to climb and now all the gps has done is made you REALLY start asking yourself why you do this!
Its much better when you dont know what you're going up against before you start
I think they're the worst, for some reason, even when i cant hear the dogs or they're barely in hearing, I still check to see how much farther.... thats the worst !

Seriously, all the gps's do IMO are allow a guy to NOT eat up a whole day on days he cant be out that long, giving him, his dogs more time in the mountains and more dogs come home when they may never have otherwards (keeps the Mrs happy too)
More dogs get intercepted before they cross a highway and get smucked, drown from being stuck in a river with deep undercuts they cant get out of and stuck on cliffs where signal bounce would have made it unlikely to ever find them again.
Its saved 3 dogs lives in the river in the last year alone for us.
They allow you to get to a tree in 2 hours instead of 5 hours... or maybe not til the next day... in wolf country.

They tell us what our dogs are/aren't doing and are crucial to evaluating and unfolding mysteries of the race and pack we spend so much of our time following.
Watching it all go down is just AWESOME and its fun being involved, to an extent, when they're out of hearing.
I would also be willing to bet, they've saved a few of some of our lives on more than one occasion as well.

[rickybobby77]

I would not let my dogs go to the woods without a gps collar around its neck. I makes all the diffrence in the world. I can hunt way more even on days I dont have a ton of time. I see more game and enjoy the races because I know where the dogs are at all times. I have two now so my hunting partners can be in the race also. Best invention ever. As far as being lazy. That comes at birth not because of a tracking collar. I have learned the fat slobs stay in there trucks one way or the other. Its a good place for them. Me I enjoy the woods and the chase. And a thin waist line.

[oldyeller33]

I can't imagine hunting without my gps now that I have used one. As stated numerous times in this thread, it allows you to stay in closer contact with your hounds. It allows you to see what dogs are doing what,(picking up loses, young dogs leaving a tree, etc.) As far as making hunters more lazy, I believe that is completely rediculous. All of my friends have gps, and we all spend more time in the woods with the dogs than ever before. The use of gps allows you to hunt more wilderness type areas that you may not have hunted before. It has allowed me to catch up to young dogs that have fallen out of a race and are wandering the roads. This keeps them from being picked up/run over by other people. At the end of the day, the dogs still have to have the ability to catch the game you put them on. A gps collar doesn't make a dog suddenly into a "super dog". It also doesn't build roads right next to your treed hounds. Just as it doesn't make the terrain any flatter or easier walking to your hounds. You still have to go to them.

[rebel2]

+1 to all those posts.

[STUNTMAN]

100% but so is everything else. Most cant just take a week and go chasing hounds or with roads now and no tresspassing its a big difference. I think the biggest change so far in the last 25 years is the atv/snowmobile.

[B/T]

Seeing lots of pros to the GPS system in bear runs or on dry ground, also with the help on young dogs and proving trash chases etc.
I ran into some guys this year during a run they were on so they showed me how the system worked etc. They told me where they let go and where it crossed, we watched the receiver screen and the dogs were paralelling the road so they took off I just followed behind and found them stopped on road at a narrow spot, again they showed me the screen which dog was in the lead how far away etc. Eventually they came out right in front of us, not on a cat track nothing just running. So yes it helped find the dogs but really shows nothing about went on inbetween. Having run that area a fair bit before and knowing the cliffs in there I have an idea where the cat went and what probably happened but they will never know for they didnt follow the dogs.
I will get one of these systems one day for a back up but since I run in snow most times, I will always follow the dogs. IMO you learn lots more about the dogs and the quarry this way, lots more then the receiver can ever tell you, but like I said any thing to possible help find/save a dog is a good thing.
I have had dogs go though the ice into a river, if I hadnt been following behind this dog would have been dead the collar would only have helped in a recovery of body if they work under water.

[B/T]

[aardemar]

I hunt coyotes almost every day and do not own a garmin. I would like to have one some day but here is my gripe with it. First off there are a lot of guys new to the sport who know nothing of houndmanship. They sit in front of their garmin like they are watching TV and now they are the best houndsmen in the world. They cannot tell you which dog is which by the sound of their voices and cant tell a bay from a catch. To them it is like watching their favorite show and it always makes them look good. I myself am not much of a houndsman either. I dont use a garmin and like to listen to the dogs. I am fat so it takes me a bit longer to get to the catch. I also like to hunt alone so I can know for myself what the dogs are doing without some one saying your dogs are doing this or that. I do know that garmin or no garmin the dogs are where it is at, to each his own. Maybe when I get one I will be the king of the houndsmen, but I doubt it
Rick