I’ve been reading some reviews on bird dog retail websites about the Garmin GPS dog tracking systems on the market. Quite frankly, I don’t think they have it all right. Let me tell you why.
If you want to know about dog tracking, talk to guys who run hounds on bears and mountain lions. I’ve recently gotten into big game hounds and have made some contacts locally and on the internet. These are the guys that know dog tracking. A bird dog runs big if he is 400 yards out from his handler. This summer a couple of friends and I ran a black bear for over 17 miles from where it was jumped. A lion hound may work a trail for 5 miles before catching up to the cat. Houndsmen use the tracking equipment for what it is worth and therefore know what works and what does not.
I currently have an Astro 220 with DC-30 collars. There is a new Astro on the market and also a newer collar called the DC-40. I have heard very few positive comments about the function of the DC-40 collar over the old DC-30. It takes longer to key in to the receiver and simply doesn’t track as well. I think it was a case of Garmin trying to get a new product on the market without much testing. Possibly Garmin will make the necessary improvements to the DC-40, but from what I’ve been hearing, they underperform the older DC-30. The problem is that it is becoming difficult to find the DC-30 collars because houndsmen are buying them up since they were discontinued early this year. Anyone thinking about buying a GPS tracking system should visit biggamehoundsmen.com and read up in the product review forum about the latest reviews from the guys who know.
