Extreme excitement and Tracking collar advice!!!

[houndcrzy]

Well after lots of advice from all you guys, some days spent running my frozen ass off through the snow with the fella im learning from, and some sleepless nights thinking about nothing but runnin lions, I got my first dog comin and im gettin him this weekend!!!!! Im so darn excited i can hardly set still enough to write this!!!! We have been talking about this perticuler dog for awhile now and he finally has decided to let me take him! I have hunted with his mom and his sire is deceased but was supposed to be exceptional. His dam works unreal, and so do both of his litter mates I have hunted with. Hes been on about ten cats and has been doing great! The only deal is I have to let the guy im getting from use him to breed with and i cant sell any pups off him,only use them for myself.

I need to get a 2 dog tracking collar system and was wondering if you guys could reccomend what you think what would be best for me. I want something thats dependable and works well, but at the same time not to to expensive (if I can help it)any advice would be great. The guy im gettin him from gets his collars from gundog supply. Were up here in Canada so will have to order them from down there. Thanks alot to all you guys that have answered all my questions! Seems everytime I get to go out I just want to go more! Im pumped ill post a pic when I get him see what you guys think. Thanks alot.

[Luke J]

Johnson Collars and Wildlife Receiver. That is what I use and they work great for me. Also check into the Garmin Astro with the DC30 Collars. Some folks like them and some don't. I love mine.

[dsdogman]

I like the Tracker Maxima. It has takin me a long time to get use to it, but it sure is handy with the small size. I dont have any but the Tracker Striker collars seem to be good to.

[Hipshooter]

My advice would be buy at least a 3 dog collar system.
prefered 4 or 6 collars.
if u have a 2 dog, what are u going to do
when u want to start a pup or two.
You will regret it later not to get at least a 3 dog system.

[Spanky]

lots of good advice especially on size of system. Your new into it and trying to save money but when it comes to hounds you will see yourself owning more then you originally planned. The systems are built based on wattage output and the more collars the receiver can handle the more output (range), or so it seems.

I run wildlife collars and box, I have friends that run both johnson collars and box. I have been with other that run marshall and some that have owned tracker. You need a system that fits your situation. The trackers are nice especially when throwing them into a backpack and hiking into the hounds but I have seen in the mountains of idaho and montana where the tracker does not pick up as well as the johnson or wildlife when down in certain canyons or draws.

Wildlife makes several sizes of boxes like the trx-16 or the trx-48. These are both small in size but will require the bigger yagi which by the way you can use with the tracker for better reception. I myself would recommend you run with a few buddies up there and see what there using and how there units work. Your gonna get 100 answers here on what works best. Good luck....

[FullCryHounds]

28 years now running Wildlife TRX64 Box and Johnson collars. Never let me down and all 8 collars still running strong. But I do LOVE my Garmin Astro!

[Ike]

I have a Quick track unit with six collars, three Wildlife collars and a Tracker Maxima unit if I need to pack a unit afoot, and all of those seem to work great (the three wildlife collars are dead right now and probably just need charged) I must hunt too much cause I only get about three years out fo my collars and they need charged, whereas I've known guys that only hunt lions that get eight or ten years between charges..........

ike

[Spanky]

I myself have 2 TRX-64 like Dean and have owned them for over 15 years now. They do not make the 64 anymore but they do make the TRX-48. You might go on e-bay and find a 64 from time to time.

[high desert hounds]

If I was Starting over I would Start with a 5 dog tracker maxima with 3 johnson collars that way I could have one back up collar. The tracker can be changed over to a ten dog for around $100.00 if you ever need it. the power and ability of the tracker is the same wether you have a 5,10 ,or25 dog system. They do take a little more getting used to than the wild life and some of the others. Good luck.

[Mr.pacojack]

28 years now running Wildlife TRX64 Box and Johnson collars. Never let me down and all 8 collars still running strong. But I do LOVE my Garmin Astro!

Thats funny Dean you might want to update yourself a bit. Welcome to 2009 http://www.marshallradio.com/
I ran Wildlife all my life and Johnson and then I quit being stubborn

[roscosrokons]

Ran a Tracker Maxima for about the last 10 years. I really liked it. Light weight and small in size, easy to carry with you. If you needed more range you could hook it up to an external antenna,(never did). I bought a Astro 220 system this summer, haven't even looked at the Tracker system since. This thing is great. I do recommend getting the portable antenna though, it really increases your range. Also I would highly recommend downloading the topo map on to it. The map I got will show you all the creeks, roads, elevations, lakes etc.. It really is fun to see exactly what your dog is going through on a chase. I think if I was in some really rugged country that I wasn't very familiar with I would throw on the telematry collar also just for a little extra security. Ross

[houndcrzy]

Thanks alot guys I got a couple ordered up should be here this week!

[Nolte]

I have a Quick track unit with six collars, three Wildlife collars and a Tracker Maxima unit if I need to pack a unit afoot, and all of those seem to work great (the three wildlife collars are dead right now and probably just need charged) I must hunt too much cause I only get about three years out fo my collars and they need charged, whereas I've known guys that only hunt lions that get eight or ten years between charges..........

ike

Ike,

I don't want to get into a pissin contest with you, but you must have different collars than the 16,000 hour ones if you are changing them every 3 years. I've got a buddy who leaves his collars on all year long. He has to leave for work routinely and wants a way to track them down if one gets off the chain. If he is a day out, a dog can go a long ways in that time. Anyway, he usually gets 3 years on a Johnson/Klein collar and he has one Johnson that has been going for 5 years. He figures it's $40 to change batteries, so $10 to $13 a year isn't that much to pay for a little piece of mind.

We've got Johnsons and I've got a couple of Marshalls. The Marshalls got great distance and I put on my shock collars with them, so I've only got to put on one collar. Which is a real nice feature in the winter when a guy is putting them on every day. They are an overkill though in our country. In bear season my other collars go on at the start and get pulled the day it closes. Those have been going good for up to 10 years and the youngest is probably 3 years old.