Alpha + TT15

[AK Zach]

So I'm looking to upgrade to the alpha w/tt15 collars. I would like to know for the guys that run this combo, realistically in the hills/mountains what ranges you are getting on BOTH e-collar AND gps. I'm hoping to add some range and cut lost collars down. Also hoping the GLONASS is worth the extra money. Are you really seeing much of a difference from dc40/dc50/tt10 to tt15? Up here in Alaska there aren't as many satellites that go overhead as there are in the lower 48. Even for personal GPS it's hard to get a satellite fix sometimes.
Thanks!

[mike martell]

Zach

The bobcat I caught yesterday in Central Oregon, if you look at my screen, I dropped all my dogs once they dropped over the ridge in the bluffs at about 400 yards...I have the complete set, Alpha& TT-15 Collars...When I'm running the same country compared to the older Astro 220 and DC 30'S are about five to One ratio...

What Garmin has offered me is my hunting, without the topo I could never continue hunting as I do today....I look at the screen and determine the best route of travel, for example, I don't want to cross deeps creeks etc. and make all my calls based on the screen prior to leaving my truck

From a standpoint of remote limited access, I spend less time driving around to another road system like I did prior with the 220/30 set up because I'm keeping my collars linked up in service longer with the Alpha-15 combos and this is huge! When you drop any collars, it becomes a guessing game if the hounds continued lining out or making a loop back, exactly why my race yesterday was incomplete on the map screen...Dropped all three collars as the hounds broke the ridge ...

I don't have Glonass so I can't speculate...I do have the landowner chip for Oregon...I call it my "bullshit spike meter" for the squatting hippies in S.W. Oregon who claim I'm trespassing while I'm on public grounds.

Not even a contest between any other Garmin combo in my opinion!
Take care buddy!

Mike

[muzzy]

Mikes right I usually pick up my dogs before any body using 320s and lose them well after they lost theirs and the batteries last way longer I don't even run telemetry anymore and I havnt for a couple years never lost a dog because you can always find em and if you cant the batteries will make it all night as long as you get after it early the next morning your good

[tigger]

I first got the 220 and 40 collars and couldn't believe how nice that was compared to the beep beep. This is my first year using the alpha and tt15's and it was almost the same kind of wow. Like others said the seem to pick up faster after a loss and as long as I'm reading the dog I've been able to tone from farther then before, still depends on the country but love this system. The only draw back is I'm sure there are a lot of good dogs getting ruined by the ability to tone or shock a dog from a long was of just because it's time to go home.

[AK Zach]

I agree whole heartedly. I have had this conversation many times with many hunters. The shock collar is the best and worst thing to happen to the hound hunting sport, depending on whose hands the controller is in. There has been a couple instances here where I have crested a hill top to look through binos and found my dogs baying moose. In one instance they were far out and my shock collar wasn't zapping them. In a situation like that, I need more range. You can always find specs and ranges of the GPS unit in the factory specs, but I haven't found anywhere that garmin puts out the range of the ecollar. To me there isn't a point in shelling out that kind of cash for a track and train system if the train portion of the system is sub-par.

[scrubrunner]

If you have communication with the collar i.e. tracking it, you should have training capability.
Here in the flat land and thick woods of Fla. when my TT10's get 1 mile I start getting ? with TT-15's between 1 to 1.25 before ? . I've never seen 2 miles on mine except to a ? where it last communicated with the collar. Sat. Communication here is great but the radio communication from collar to handheld sucks.

[Nolte]

Scrub runner is right. If you can track the dog you should be able to correct it. That distance varies depending on terrain. But if you can see the dog I have a good feeling you'd be able to shock it. And personally I don't press the button until I've made a solid conclusion they are trashing. And that's after giving them the benefit until I'm certain they are trashing. Snow hunting can be a big tattle tale on a dog.

Just to add I never got the specified ranges on a tritronics trashbreaker either. Had a young hard headed dog burn a deer and he got 400 out on me. He had some fun running until I got back within 400 yards again. Wasn't so fun then.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[AK Zach]

So on this setup you have to run track/train at the same time? You can't just do one or the other?

Appreciate the info fellas!

[muzzy]

you can turn the ecollar portion off and you can also take the contact points off the collar but in southwest Colorado and southern Utah where I hunt I usually get over a mile but rarely 2 miles of communication but if your tracking you can light em up but like was said be careful I don't usually use mine for trash breaking unless im positive I use it mostly for handling purposes and all my finished dogs will leave a tree now when called or toned kind of nice not having to drag them off