BigGameHoundsmen.com

I have seen a bit of discussion on this site pertaining to the Astro GPS tracking system although not much since Garmin cam out with their upgraded collar in the DC-30. For those of you who have them what are your opinions. I am mostly interested in any range and durability improvements over the DC-20 collar. I run Wildlife MN-10 with Johnson collars right now and it does a pretty good job and has pretty good range but I am contemplating running both...
Any info would be helpful.

I'd like to know more too...My concern is battery life on the collars. I dont wanna loose dogs for a couple days and run out of juice!

All I can say is they are the next thing when folks can let go of the past. My hunting partner and I use them. He owns them I get to use them. This year with the new design we don't even use the normal tracking collars anymore. With a 7 mile range and more output power we seem to have no problem with loosing signal. I tell you what it is deffinatly worth the investment you will not regret it

I'm using them this year but still using my WM with Johnson collars. The range is plenty for 99 % of the hunting situations around here. I run in very rough, steep and heavily treed mountains but rarely find myself more then 2-3 miles from my dogs at any time. No problems at all with the DC30 collars. The 20's are OK once you fix the antenna issues. The battery life of less then 20 hours is my main problem with the 30s and that is why I'm still running my old collars. GPS is the way to go for the future, the advantages are huge getting to your dogs in a hurry.

Thanks for the info guys!

Spokerider thanks for the link. I am not sure how I missed your post. I thought I searched for DC-30 to see if this had already been discussed. Guess not. Anyhow very good information. Keep us posted on this winters "real hunt" usage!

Thanks again.

HAD THE UNIT FOR ABOUT 1 MNTH AND PUT THE TOPO AND CITY NAVIGATOR ON AND IT IS AWSOME. ADDING MAPSOURCE TOPO IS LIKE A GAZETTER IN YOUR HAND. CITY NAV. IS TURN BY TURN DIRECTIONS TO ANYWHERE, ADRESSES, HOTELS, GAS,TRANSPORTATIONAND MANY OTHER OPTIONS. AS FAR AS DOG RECEPTION HAVENT USED IT YET BUT AROUND THE HOUSE AND AM WONDERING WHAT ANYBODY ELSE IS GETTING FOR RANGE.
BIG J

Go to the "Garmin Astro Review" thread. All the info your looking for is there.

You better not let your wife read that Fullcryhounds (with Valentine Day coming up) or you might be sleeping outside with those hounds...........