BigGameHoundsmen.com

I have never used tracking gear. Last year I finally bought a garmin system, and will get it figured out this year. The only reason that I bought it was because of dog thieves in the woods. Since owning it, I have been shown some neat attributes of having it by others.

He turned loose on sketchy snow and his best dog peeled out while the others stood on their heads. He lost his good dog on a monster tom. The client flew home and the dog was found on the road two days later. Did it catch the cat? Did the client get his moneys worth? was this preventable? This was a return trip for the client because he did not harvest a cat last year. He could not follow the dog due to bare ground. If his dog was killed, how would he ever know? You can try to justify it, but to me anyone that turns a dog loose in wolf country with a paying client, needs to use what legal advantages are available. No serious houndsman runsnaked dogs these days. IMO

I don't know why someone would want to hunt without some form of tracking. I got to do it the old way as a kid with my dad and it sucked. We looked for dogs that fell out of races or got lost all the time. It really doesn't help you "connect" more on game, it just lets you find the dogs quicker. That might mean one less road to cross, one less bad bayup where a dog could get hurt, one less thief able to grab your dog, one less wolf that crosses the hunts path, or stopping a hunt one more time that crosses into land you can't hunt.

It also lets a guy hunt more. You can sneak in a quick hunt and gather up the dogs then be on to whatever plans you shouldn't miss. That is a lot better than driving roads and listening for hours on end or trying to cut for tracks. The days of waiting for a call because someone found your dog are long gone because they won't come back more than they will. It's just the way it is. I can't say it's better but it's what we've got to deal with.

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Yaak attack there are plenty of very serious houndsman that have already said that they did not run collars for years and some still don't come on

the ones posting that also dont have to deal with furry cockroaches everytime they cut loose.

I would think reading how it's stated that you could use regular telemetry collars without a treeing switches. I don't know. I don't see how they could know that rule isn't being broken anyways?

Im not guiding big clients with deep pocket books, but to me no animal (trophy or not) is worth the comfort of knowing exactly where my dogs are at all times.

silentnight wrote:I would like to here more about this as i have no extra money for all that stuff.

Just a word for silentnight: If you can not afford collars and all the fancy gear, dont let that stop you from going hunting. None of the great legendary hunters we still talk about had any of that stuff. They probably would have liked it an awful lot, but fact is, you can have a ton of fun with out it. I never owned any of it myself for the first 25 years of my hunting. (I got a job driving greyhound bus, and you dont keep that job if you show up late for a run. That is when I bought tracking collars).

I don't really like the talk that says you don't love your dogs if you don't go out a spend a few thousand dollars on electronics. That starts to feel like the people selling gold plated caskets that you will buy if you really love your mom, God rest her soul. If you love your dogs Silentnight, take them hunting. That is true love, (even if you haul them in a pine box).

The first key is to have your dogs under control. Number one, they come when you call them no matter what they are doing. Number two, you get them broke from off game. The first one will lead to the second one. They both can be done without electronics silentnight, and if you are not sure how to do that, PM me.

The second key to not loosing your dogs, is dont loose your dogs. I have not lion hunted much, but when I did, I never lost track of the dogs. I had the help of snow, however. Silentnight, I am guessing you are young and strong. Stay with your dogs. Not all of us can do that and thankfully there are electronics and stuff for us. But you can, so have your boots on and your day pack ready before you let your first dog loose, and dont stand there listening when you let them go. Get on them and stay on them.

On a different strain of thought: has anyone ever done a study on how the added weight might effect a dog? I cant think of any greyhound racers, human distance runners, or ultimate fighters that would choose to hang a heavy weight on their neck. I think by comparison (percentage of body weight), it would be at least a two or three pound weight wouldn't it? Somebody do the math. I think it would be interesting.

Now add the weight of a shock collar. Another three pounds on the human neck? I wonder how many lion or bear dogs have lost their lives because they were a fraction of a second too slow because of the weight or bulk of the collars; Or a fraction of a second too slow because of the added clumsiness from the fatigue of carrying them around all day? These dogs live in a world where six inches might be the difference between living and dying. In the bobcat world, thirty or fifty yards is the difference between catching the cat or not. I have never seen these things mentioned, and always wondered why.

Obviously dogs function well with the weight. I personally dont beleive they could be functioning at their physical and athletic peak however.

I was afraid things might turn south here. I think if you use the technology that you can afford you are doing right by your dogs. That said you can't compare the old timers not using something they did not have with not using it today. Fact is there are times when a 4wd will allow you to get to a tree that you would not have gotten to otherwise. Do you need a 4wd to hunt hounds, no. Do you need a shock collar to train dogs? No. Do you need tracking gear to hunt hounds? Of course not. What about gators or Goretex, the old timers did fine with out that stuff. They also spent days on horseback looking for dogs and many were never found. The first time I lost a dog for acouple of days, I started saving. If you don't run tracking gear you limit yourself. I don't care how tough and wirey you are, there are many races that your two legs will never let you see the end of. Sure it seems romantic to "Follow the dogs" Some times it is just plain foolish. If your dogs swim the river, you have to swim too. You have every right to hunt your dogs how you see fit, I am not telling you what is right or wrong, but I feel strongly about what is more effective and what what is less effective. We seem to learn by our mistakes better than any other way, and I hate finding a dog dead that could have been prevented had I been there sooner. This is not a question of who loves their dogs the most or who has the most money. To me it is cheap insurance.
I guess what I would call serious and others call serious are not the same.

Sounds like the perfect set up for predator calling. Down load some barking hounds on an electronic caller, yank the plug out of the trusty scatter gun, stuff it full of 00 buck, choke it down like a rifle and do some "pre-cat hunt" scouting. (kinda hard to get a rifleing pattern off of buck shot, and the empty cases are easy to pick up) With some properly placed gut shots (critters will crawl into a thick brushy spot die) the worries of running hounds with or without collars in wolf country should be minimized. Plus this sounds like a good time to me.

My two cents worth:
Garmin collars or their equivalent (if anyone else ever makes one) are pretty much standard equipment for big game hound hunting in the mountains. I suspect as time goes on the Boone and Crockett book will be filled with more and more entries that were taken with hounds so equipped (just not admitted to). Since wolves were not a factor earlier, I feel the use of a tracking system just levels the playing field a bit rather than creating an unfair advantage. I think that the integrity of the B&C would be better served by modernizing their standards. I personally don't give a rat's --- about the record books and am not a guide so it really doesn't affect me anyway.

Keep in mind this is a question about who has embraced electronic innovation that will only be seen and answered by those who have embraced electronic innovation.

Yaak attack wrote: just like to know what you think about this scenario.

Really?

I have hunted dogs long before tracking collers and still hunt my dogs with out them but if i have the chance too I WILL USE THEM EVERY TIME I MEEN EVERY TIME BEST THING SENSE THE E COLLER.

Brent, what happened to your old Wildlife lunchbox you used to have? I figured by now you would have at least moved up to the Tracker Maxima like I had Just kidding. you should get a Garmin they are so cool. I ran into Neil here in Kaycee a few weeks back. I had Ozzy with me and he said Ozzy looked just like Charlie