Love my Garmin

Last week I traveled over 300 yards and found 9 month old Buck on a large covey after the Garmin showed him on point. In the old days I might never have know he was on birds and may not have stumbled on to his find. GPS best hunting tool in years and years.

A poster (Zzeims? (sp)) told us a few years ago about losing a dog, but finding it wedged between walls in an old barn, head down. She would have never found the dog but for the Garmin and it would have died for sure. My hunting buddy extended the career of his late Brittany for two years because of a GPS collar. Dog was stone deaf and couldn't hear whistle or commands. We found her several times locked down on woodcock 200 yards out in thick cover. It also helped us find her when she would get lost temporarily. Even with her age and infirmities, she was still the best dog on the ground. We miss her. For woodcock here in the lowcountry, a gps collar and bell are unbeatable. I wouldn't want to hunt without either. Gil

Wow, great stories, a tool worth it's weight in gold.

Cuts down on a lot of wasted time looking for dogs on point. My dogs have gotten so collar smart that they can hear the vibrate and tone sound in my pocket and they start looking for the dog on point. Usually will start backing when they hear it or follow me to the dog on point. Much better than those noisy beepers on my upland special.
I have had some problems with the collars. They don't seem to last more than 2 seasons when used a lot.

David, I'm using the Alpha 320 system that I've had for 5 seasons with Abby and 2 with Willa Everynow and then, I'll drop a dog, but cure it relatively easy. Of course, I am mostly weekend warrioring while you are out a lot more than most of us. Is Garmin standing behind the product? Two years is not very long. Of course, in dog years, that's 14 years. Is it the collar or handheld that gives the problem? Gil

What a tool they are to be sure. The only week point in them is in the thick grouse woods, the beeper tells you exactly where your dog is without having to look at your receiver. I'll add the point only garmin beeper to the collar, though, next season.

& Hey, what about taking you right back to the vehicle. That is priceless, too! ;-)

As far as holding up, My unit has never failed. Astro 220 w/ the same dc30 collars.
I actually bought 2 more used receivers and 2 collars for back up. but, have never had to use them.

One thing that I always make sure to do, however is keep the gps collar on top. No bells, or e-collars to bang it. One thing that may help, too is changing the antennae out on the collars. I have done this once on every collar since I've had mine. (I'm thinking I've had mine close to 10 yrs now)

I probably don't hunt my crew as hard as coveyrise, though, eh?

GLS said:

David, I'm using the Alpha 320 system that I've had for 5 seasons with Abby and 2 with Willa Everynow and then, I'll drop a dog, but cure it relatively easy. Of course, I am mostly weekend warrioring while you are out a lot more than most of us. Is Garmin standing behind the product? Two years is not very long. Of course, in dog years, that's 14 years. Is it the collar or handheld that gives the problem? Gil

Click to expand...

Gil,
It's the collars that have given me problems. I have the new TT 15 collars. The warranty is one year and they have been going bad at 1.5 to 2 years. I have been paying 180.00 for new collars with trade in of my old ones. I use them probably 6 days a week during the season.

Well like Gil I only use mine 2-4 days a week. I'm running a 430 and T5's for the past two years with no problems. Prior to that I used a 320 with T40s and no problems. I guess I just count myself lucky so far. But the best investment I made was an add on long range antenna. It scopes out to 4 or 5 feet and solved a lot of problems for me. We have several large/deep draws on the lease and several times I lost contact with dogs that dropped into these draws and ran the length of them. One dog was lost for 3 days before he showed up. Since using the long range antenna I have had no contact problems. Would not turn a dog loose without the collar on.

Could it be that just like a car with all the "extras" (pwr door locks, pwr windows, etc.), they have more things break down on them?

Hasn't there been quite a lot of negative feedback on the new alphas? I can't say I have heard anything negative about the collars, though until now.