Answering long range

[BigAinaBuilt]

I have mentioned on quite a few occasions I like my dogs very short range and able to stop the pig fast mainly because I was spoiled with my old pack and that is what I have come to expect of my new pack. It has gone extremely well until the last couple weeks, The first week my dogs took a mile to get the pig stopped and I couldn't hear them and then today my dogs tracked "long range" (dissappeared for 45 minutes) and again I had no idea where they went as I stood there and waited to hear them get one up.

So my question is, Back in the day before tracking collars were used how did they keep track of dogs??Bays?? Did they run long range dogs on hogs back then and chase after them to stay within hearing range?? Thank you for any advice anyone can offer! I am frustrated and awaiting a "new" system to come out before going that route!

[BarrNinja]

This old school system has worked good for me and I still use it to back up my Garmin.  




In the old days before electronics, all a hunter had to rely on was his trusty steed, a horn, and/or a stout pair of legs. The horn worked both ways. Calling dogs or holding it to your ear to help listen for them.
You had to ride hard sometimes to keep the dogs in hearing.

Before I used a tracking system the only time I had to ride long and hard to keep up with a dog was when I was following a hound I used to own. I have read plenty of old stories where a dang good dog would get culled just because he wasnt loud or lacked a good mouth.

Times sure have changed huh?

[Jared H.]

I know I'm still new to this but I feel the same way BigAina.  I don't have a tracking system of any kind so I don't want a dog that is gonna go a mile or two.  I want my dogs to find a hog close and keep him close.

[Rockin-P-Ranch]

Bigainabuilt, Like Cward and a few others on here have said, Cow dogs. I use the same dogs that I use on my cattle. The trick is to stop the hogs one or 50 it dont make any difference. Knowing the country you hunt in and how the hogs are going to travel when you jump them to try and cut them off. We hunted off horse back 99% of the time in the old days also. I had a gelding back then that could smell a hog as good as any dog, and would go to blowing if he smelled one. He was really good in the wolf weeds we have down here. They get so thick that the dogs cant hardly get through them. But the hogs love them for cover. If a big boar broke cover before the dogs got to him we would run him down horse back and shot him. That always was exciting when one run under your horse. And yes I have had my horses cut by a hog. That is why they get to smelling them so good. If you look at Ktchwthcurs vidoes on here today you will see my lead dog on the ear. She has the red coller on. Her name is Kate. And the Mama of his Tracker dog.

[Hog Dog Mike]

When I started we did not have any tracking collars. One of the guys I hunt with alot was the absolute best at picking up a bay a long way off. We did not hardly have any 4 wheelers either.

Rusty would point the way and we would start hoofing it.

[johnf]

i was readin a bear huntin story the other day.it was in the old days in the mountains.they used a little bulldog on a lead to track to track the hounds.i thought it was interesting.

[txmaverick]

In this area before tracking collars when I was a boy only full blood hounds were run on hogs so you could hear them every step of the way and the more you had on the ground the better you heard them.

As I got older and started hunting without those old timers I went to more of an RCD type dog, not that I ran only RCDs but I ran some RCDs with my strike dogs to catch what ever they started, the idea was to shut things down before they got to far out of pocket and out of hearing. ( i lost lots of dogs this way )

As I got dogs killed and had to start over several times and tracking systems came out and got cheaper, I have changed my style of hunting to how I hunt today which is what I have done for about the last 12 years. I would never go back to hounds or RCDs for any amount of money, and I am to the point that if my tracker isnt working for some reason I wont go.

[txmaverick]

Why wait on a "new" system to come out? Do you not have one now? If you dont have one now what is wrong with the ones on the market already?

Are they hunting out that mile to start one or do they start one and it takes them a mile to stop it. I ask this because there is a difference between "range and drive". And many hog hunters now days dont understand the difference.

Range has nothing to do with how far a dog takes a hog or stays on a hog or how long a dog works a trail. Range has only to do with how far out does a dog hunt from you the handler trying to find a trail.

Drive is what kicks in after the dog picks up a trail, he has ranged out and found a trail. Now the drive kicks in this is what determines how long a dog will stay with a hog. You have a dog with high drive and high grit then you will catch hogs, you have a dog with high drive and med grit then you will stop and bay hogs, you have a dog with high drive and low grit then you will have long races more like old time hound races.

Then mixed in with Range and Drive is if the dog is a cold nosed dog or a hot nosed along with that does he wind or trail or do both? (I wont go into that right now that is a how diff can of worms)

I said all that to say this, I am not sure range is your problem as you seem to think, it sounds like they have the drive but not the grit of your old pack.

Sounds to me like you either need more stop in your pack or more bark.


 

[BigAinaBuilt]

Thanks for the responses everyone! I appreciate the insight inot how it was done before the advent of tracking collars.
Txmaverick- I have looked into getting a Garmin on a few occasions but always get hung up on the problems people are having mainly with its durability, Which then lead me to look into a Quick Track but got hung up on its price and bulkyness. I actually sold my Guardian Kevlars in order to purchase a Garmin but unexpected bills came up and the $ went that direction! Now as far as what my dogs are doing, I started my tracker with my old one before retiring her and so he picked up on the "check in every 10-15 minute loops" I like but the last 2 hunts he has chased one a mile before gettig it stopped and then yesterday I have no idea if he just got on a "good track" and wanted to finish it and I should have let him work it out or if he ended up on a chase again. I am convinced I need a system of some kind so I can see the dogs working but have been told by a few people with experience with a Garmin to just wait to see what the new system is like. Thank you for your input!

I looked up a bull horn to use to "better hear them"! That seems like fun and interesting! 

[Tusk Hog]

   Up to about a year ago I did everything the old fashion way. Listen, drive a ways and listen till I either found  the bay or give up and throwed a coat on the ground. The next morning my curs would be at the coat. Purchased a Garmin about a year ago. Now I really have some long range dogs because they know sooner or later I will be there to help them. It seems to me the good dogs will just keep hunting deeper if they know your going to be there. The Garmin is costly, has given me some problems, but in my opinion money well spent. At least now I don't have to leave them in the woods and wonder. Had one dog that didn't like being left all night so he hunted short usually around 500 yards or less. Now he's going up to 2 miles if he's smelling fresh. Something to think about? Good Luck!

[txmaverick]

I just bought a Garmin and its the best thing I ever did for these medium range, driven, stay till hell freezes over dogs of mine. I know lots of people that have them and no one has complianed about durability that I have heard, of the ones I have hunted with there was no complaints once the DC30 came out.

Even in the hills here with just the rubber duck atten that comes on it i am getting a mile - mile and half on it if I get on top of a hill which are everywhere here. My ole 9 yr old took one 5.5 miles a couple nights ago, I would loose him at .75-1.25 miles drive to where I lost him and start over. It worked like a top and 1/4 the time of fooling with my old radio system maybe shorter than that. If you spend a dime and dont spend it on a Garmin you need to see a Doctor.

[makenbeans]

I would believe the old timers would have used a dog inside the pack that barked on trial.
JMO.

[BigAinaBuilt]

I would rather stay away from that route Makenbeans, Thank you for your input though! I think I may just have to get a single collar Garmin until the Marshall system comes out and I can make decision then. I still want to get me one of them bull horns and see if I can hear further with it! 

[coach]

Used horns, or long funnels. Sometimes knowing where the creeks and hill tops are help very much. When they started using those high tower blinds those things came in handy listining for the dogs as well as Windmills.  Always raised my pups and dogs with an old shirt of mine they would learn to track back to the scent we left behind and left a shirt on the ground the dogs would be laid up on the shirt like a blanket. But again those were the good old days.

[bob]

I luv my garmin , if I loose my dogs on it , I atleast know the direction to go to pick them up again , heck there problems with everything , but the bull horn wont need batterys , good luck

[chainrated]

Get a Garmin and you will be wondering how you ever hunted without it after the first few hunts.. They have their problems like all the rest but it's worth every penny..

[raider54]

Back in the day there were HOUNDSMEN!!! no tracking collars, no 4 wheelers, no radios, no GPS! Just men who knew thier dogs, they knew thier quarry, and they knew the land they hunted on! there are a few left but they are fadeing away. Technology has made it easy to become a dogger! Now we have Ready Made, bear hunters, coon hunters, hog hunters, and cat hunters. When the batteries go out on the GPS, they are lost all nite. When thier tracker quits on them, they have no idea how to find thier dogs. BUT THE CELL PHONE?? Well thats a different story! When I end up 5 miles from the truck with all my dogs caught up, I can use one of favorite life lines!!!!!   PHONE A FRIEND

[BigAinaBuilt]

That was me this weekend Raider54! I stood there in the pouring rain wondering "where are they?" I actually went away from a stream that borders this forest so I could hear them better but the downpour definately didn't help! I had a friend with me but he went bakc to the truck to get out of the rain!  :'(  It was his first hunt so I won't hold it against him!

[BarrNinja]

Get a Garmin and you will be wondering how you ever hunted without it after the first few hunts.. They have their problems like all the rest but it's worth every penny..

Aint that the truth!

[raider54]

Get a Garmin and you will be wondering how you ever hunted without it after the first few hunts.. They have their problems like all the rest but it's worth every penny..

Aint that the truth!

I once was a HOUNDSMAN!  but I have said the same thing...lol