Garmin Alpha range question??

[mybeagles]

I had one for two months. I still think they are pretty big to put on a small beagle. Perhaps Im over reacting but when I ran hare in the snow the units had ice built up on them and the dogs were visibly aggravated.

As far as range, we coon hunted in some pretty big hilly country this fall and were able to pick up a treed dog at 1.7 miles. You would loose signal at times but then it would come back. Enough so you can head in the right direction and get stronger signal. I understand from pretty reliable coyote hunting buddy that if you get the truck mounted whip antenna and hook your handheld to it you can get 4-6 miles depending on terrain. Cant imagine why a beagler would need such a set up but for the coyote, bear, coon hunters it looks like the way to go.

I understand Garmins as a training tool but the issue I have is guys sitting on the tail gate watching the race from a computer screen and trying to broadcast the race. Get in and follow the dogs and see whats going on. Then get back to the truck after hours of hunting and have the "Garmin Guys" try to tell you what happened all day knowing much of it is BS. They are a great tool but they dont tell me what I can see with my own two eyes. I dont run anything but a name plate on my broke dog and a young dog wears the shock collar till I see them turn down deer and they understand they are hunting with me and for me.

My dad used my unit a few times for coon hunting and it proved to be good tool. It helps locate a treeing hound in the wind. You can determine that it would be much faster to drive around to the next road to link up with a treed dog. Perhaps the best feature for me was marking the truck so after wandering aimlessly in a huge swamp following dogs chasing coon or beagles chasing rabbits it would give me the most direct route back to the truck. For anyone thats ever came out the wrong side of a 5 mile section with 3-4 coon in tow and a gun you can appreciate what Im talking about.

The electronics are great tools but my take on it is they have become crutches for guys without a broken leg. They use them because its easy not because they need too. If you think Im crazy, the next hunt you go on with "Garmin Guy" just sit back and listen to all the speculative insights they have without ever seeing any of it. If your not careful you will start believing it.....after all the Garmin said so. If your one of those people that simply can't imagine getting through an entire day without cell phone, tweet, Facebook etc than you "NEED" one of these..... If it makes you sick every time you see people texting and driving or glued to their cell phone while you wait for them to complete a simple task then steer clear. These will ruin your idea of a man, his dog, and his gun in pursuit of buggs bunny!

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Owl Creek]

Mybeagles, good to see some of the old crew still on here.
i have lots of buddys that just run a TT. and they have Zero problems. and i actually considered this.
But for me its like insurance. i have to hunt 2 and 3 hours from the house to get into rabbits.
i go to OH,KY And MS every year to hunt/ run and fellowship with some friends.
a alpha is $800 the extra collar is 300. ( my 220 was cheeper) but anyway
i can not replace any one of my older dogs for $800.
you would be hard pressed to find what i consider a good dog for 300 when a good bred pup is 250.
when i started out, i started with a pack of pups. i did not have a pack old hounds to brake in a pup.
i am the nervous type, i would not want to ever leave one of my little hounds in the field. so for me , i like the piece of mind it gives me.

but i am with you on the tailgate guys i have not seen what you was talking about. but i can see where them things could happen. i just love it when someone tells me they went an looked at a dog to buy .
the owner tells them all the good things on the dog an how well he does this an that. when they get there they throw them down and then set on the tailgate while the seller gives a detailed description of the race laying out before them.

then when they get the dog home it dont do any good. but they cant understand why.

thanks for all the reply's yall. i appreciate them.
i will go see my ol buddys at Stavemill and look at this new model.
Good runnin and Merry Christmas everyone .
Steve

[DIXIEDOG]

Mybeagles the same thing happened before there were "Garmin guys" as you put it....folks sit around listening to the hounds and know exactly what's happening in the race just by sound. The again you have a lot of guys that get right into the action and still don't always see or acknowledge what's going on. I'll gladly take all the extra pieces of the puzzle I can to figure out what's happening.

[warddog]

Seems ALL us ole guys hunted for years without even a shock collar let alone a tracking collar as well. I never laid eyes on too many coon hounds and knew pretty much what my hounds were doing by merely "LISTENING" to them even in a pack of other hounds. Folks, coon hunters still do it in the dark with their ears and I never could understand all this hype about running after beagles to see everything they do. YES, I hunt along side of them but when they get on a rabbit track I do the same with them as I have for over 50 years. I listen and put myself in a position in the filed to kill the rabbit or hear them get treed. YES, I have had trackers when I coon hunted and still do have a shocker as well as a cell phone but use both of the later about as much as I used the old tracker that I sold years ago. I use(d) them ALL only in the case of an emergency and NEVER as common practice. Yep, I have read other guys ask, "what did folks do before they had all this technology? Answer is we HUNTED!

[Crow]

I love these questions. Easiest question for me to answer on the board. Sell everything but the dogs if you have to. I've had my alpha for a little over a year & best investment I've made from a tracking / training stand point. To answer some questions. Yes if you can track you can shock, but like most I don't really see a lot of situations you would need to shock from miles away but I guess if you ever need to it would be nice to have it. I use the long antenna for 2 reasons, range and convenience. Range with the short here in the East Tennessee mountains is 700 to 1200 yards typically. With the long I've not lost connection for any significant amount of time and have tracked at 1.9 miles. Convenience because my vest has a pouch on the front for a transmitter with a loop to feed the antenna through to help secure it. The short doesn't reach the loop but the long fits nicely. Both the short and long antenna ranges were driving just to check the range, dogs rarely get much past the 200 yard mark. One huge benefit is handling. Like most my dogs come to the tone. When I was running a TT only you never knew if ole knuckle head was on his way or not. Now knuckle head gets corrected right now instead of waiting and seeing if he's coming. The benefits of only needing to put on, charge, and keep up with one system. The ability to track other alpha users. Birds eye. It's just a very nice system, at least for me.

One thing to note is satellite signal has nothing to do with communication between handheld and collar. That is done by VHF radio like a police car or CB uses. The handheld receivers satellite signal & calculates its location then displays it on the screen. The collar does the same but instead of displaying it on the screen it "talks" to the handheld by VHF radio signal and the handheld interprets what the collar is saying then displays the collar location. As for shocking, it's the same thing, you push the button and the handheld sends the VHF signal to the collar. The collar then interprets what it is saying (tone, shock on 3 or 18 or whatever, turn collar lights off or on, change update rate or enter rescue mode or any of a thousand other things) then the collar does whatever the signal said. Its lik your TV remote kinda. Neither the handheld nor the collar really ever lose satellite signal. They just lose VHF signal with each other. Sorry for the rambling but hopefully this may help somebody. I know there was and still is a lot of confusion about how these things work. Find someone that has an alpha and use it a few times. I'd bet you'll like it.

[Hare Chaser]

My Beagles said, "They are a great tool but they dont tell me what I can see with my own two eyes. I dont run anything but a name plate on my broke dog and a young dog wears the shock collar till I see them turn down deer and they understand they are hunting with me and for me."

Dec. 31, 1999 I was running 2 hounds on hare. It was about 2 in the afternoon and the older dog (who I thought was broke) jumped a deer. The younger 18 mo. old joined in and in 20 mins. were out of hearing. Shock collars were on but at the point they went out of hearing I wasn't certain they were on deer. I had no tracking collars. I wenit back to the truck and drove around on the road trying to hear them. Went back to the turn out about 5:00 pm and the old dog was waiting for me.

I got the young dog back on Jan. 12th, 2000. She was on her own for 12 days and nights. Several of which went below zero. Jan. 13th I ordered a Wildlife system and 2 collars. That was the last time I left a dog out until Sept. 2008. Again I had a young dog trash and the old dog went along half heartedly. By the time I realized it was trash they were out of tri tronics range. I could get a signal on the tracking system. The country was big and no roads to drive on to get ahead of them. The young dog came in on his own but the old dog was across a fast moving river and I couldn't get her to come in. I was 4 miles from my truck and within an hour of nightfall with no light and had to leave her. Went home and returned the next morning with topo map to the last place I had a signal. I had a very faint beep and figured she was in 4-5 miles as the crow flies. Topo map showed I should be able to drive around and come back up an old road that looked to be closer. I drove 14 miles to get around where I felt she was and then had to hike in another mile to get her.

Had the present day Garmin with topo maps been a available then I'd have had my dog and been home before dark the previous day. I have no intention of ever turning another hound loose without one. I don't ever sit on the tailgate and listen to my hounds run. I always want to be right in the middle of what they are doing and watching all I can. I owned and trained many,many hounds for hare and coon for 21 years before I had a tracking system. I'll never go back to that again! To each their own I guess but I am very grateful for the Garmin system!!

[mybeagles]

Hare Chaser,

Not everyone that owns a Garmin is a "Garmin Guy". If the shoe dont fit, dont wear it. Even if you are a "Garmin Guy" it doesn't mean your a bad guy or even a bad houndsman just different. Simply pointing out to those making the purchase that it can be a slippery slope just like a cell phone if you let it.

Running hare is a different ball game than cottontail. Im sure the Garmin is a worthwhile tool to have.

[Hare Chaser]

No offense taken here. Just offering up a different perspective.

[rabbitatfarm]

TT and Garmins are just tool, like a leash or a whistle or.... I like the insurance of both. A bird dog guy recently saved his dog from a Conibear trap by having his Garmin. That right there is worth the price. Cars, thin ice, coyotes, wolves, thieves are all dangers. I want to know where my dog is and what he's doing.

Larry

[haderondah]

Had a deer chase 2weeks ago, by the time i made it through the snow to where the dogs had run to see what tracks they where on they were 970 yds out. Alpha shocking unit worked dandy at that distance.

[Owl Creek]

thats impressive. haderondah. me one this spring.
i'm sold guy's. i will most likely get one this spring.

[bigcfromrbc]

I like how you guys assume someone with a Garmin is a person that sits on the tail gate. I just got a Garmin cause I lost a female pup last season due to off game. My buddies where with the dogs, but they got on off game. Probably a deer. By the time I caught up to where they was last seen I couldn't hear my bells on my dogs. They tried to say it wasn't a deer, but when it takes three hours to find your dogs I know better. I was lagging behind in the group due to gaining weight and trying to walk up a huge hill. It's my fault for not being a better handler. Almost all the dogs came back in on their own, but I still had two missing. 10pm that night one was dead in the road with another sitting beside her.

I knew then I would do whatever I could not to lose another. I do work to get mine on deer so I can break them, but it's pitiful where I run dogs. Not many rabbits, and its nothing but hill side around you. They get around a point or over the hill you can't shock them. So in an effort to be a better handler I have been losing weight so it's easier for me to keep up with the dogs, but I also bought a Garmin. It allows me to know how far the dogs are out hunting, and if they go out to far I bring them back in.

It's not being a tail gate hunter and I never have been. It's about knowing that I can't replace the hounds I have right now, and wouldn't want to attempt it. I'm happy with my two older females (Not even three years old) and my two pups. I'm tired of raising pups or trying dogs to get what I want. I just want to hunt and run dogs now. Having to replace one would be more aggravating then I like.