EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Guess I'm living in the dark ages since I don't have one of these Garmin Astro tracking systems yet....SOOOOO....I've read about them on the website, kinda vague I thought, I've checked out a couple of videos on youtube about them and I still don't know just exactly what they will and won't do. I do understand that you can track about 5 or 6 dogs at once with it and it works off of a satellite....I have a fair understanding of what they do I think, and since our dogs often get out of hearing running a hog (most of the guys I hunt with use Plott hounds), I think one of these would be quite an advantage to us. I just need someone that's a dog hunter to tell me what it will and won't do and why you like or don't like it......thanks in advance.

If you have long range dogs and dont get the long range antenna for it, you will HATE it.
Use the search box up top and you will find PLENTY of info on them.   ;)

It will SHOW you how far your dog is from you and what direction, it will SHOW you how fast he is running and what direction, It will SHOW you what is in front of your dog. (road, creek, river, high line) You can keep up with your dog or head them off at the pass. It will even show you when your dog stops for 5 seconds. It is a neat way of tracking. Best thing is find someone that has one and hunt with them and then you decide if it is for you.

i just bought one today. hunted with a bunch of people who have them. what wrong with the long range intena? i bought one of them with the system.

I think you may have miss read my post.
The only thing wrong with the long range antenna is its hard to carry around with you even if you take the antenna off the handle due to its length, especially if you walk hunt.
What i meant in the previous post is that if you have long range dogs that are consistently hunting out more than say 800 yards, you will lose signal alot with the regular antenna depending on the terrain.

Another question....how far will this unit pick up a signal from your dog with a long range antenna? I know that depends on the terrain, but it's pretty flat where we hunt in GA. I'm just curious as to whether it's a half a mile or several miles. Oh...thanks for the info I've gotten so far....I really appreciate it folks...thank you.

oh ok. i was reading it on my phone and the print was real little.

The farthest my dogs have gotten was 1.8 miles. Im sure it will work alot farther than that.

Well that's good to know.....our dogs don't get a lot farther than that regularly, but they will if we get after a long-winded boar hog and we do at least once or twice a year. Thanks T.

FIREMEDIC, where are you huntin Georgia ?

A bit south of you.....Pulaski and Bleckely counties mostly.

I like the fact they are waterproof and I can swim these canals with it on my side  ;D I also like the treed alert because we run some rough dogs that don't bark a whole lot.  O0

You are not alone...I don't run a Garmin yet either. I have hunted with several guys that have them and they are neat. However, the two biggest complaints I hear are short range and poor battery life. Without the longe range antenna you may get 800 yards out of it before you lose signal with your dogs. At least that is all we get where we hunt in Fla. I have seen it lose signal at 500 yards in thick swamps.

And the batteries will usually only last about 24 hours, so if you lose a dog and go back after work the next night to look for him, you may or may not be able to get a signal due to the batteries being dead.

Once Garmin corrects those two issues, I will be first in line for the new improved version!!!

Garmin's are the neatest thing since sliced bread. I own one and just about everyone I hunt with owns one... but every dog we put on the ground will have a radio collar on also.

You should get pretty good reception where you hunting. Obviously the flatter and more open an area the better. I run both systems as it makes the hunt so much faster. Seems like everytime we pull out the big tracker the dogs bark. You can run through a thicket and still track the dogs. It is worth it.

the worst part of the astro 220 is not having one O0

Well I've heard what I wanted to hear...the yeas and nays. I will have one before next season in GA. I'll put my regular tracking collars on as well as the Garmin. I sure do appreciate all you folks taking the time to write your opinions about them....please feels free to post anymore that you have, I'm all ears.  8)