If you are an avid hunter that uses hunting dogs the DC 300 GPS dog tracking Collar from Garmin might be the new toy your looking for. You simply attach the collar to your dog and it communicates with your (if you happen to have one) Astro 220.
The device tells you your dog’s position ever 5 seconds for 17 hours. You can improve the battery life by setting it to broadcast every 30 seconds, resulting in the battery lasting about 35 hours. Supposedly the DC 300 can tell you if your dog is pointing, siting, or moving (not sure how it knows). It can also tell you how fast you dog is going and how far it traveled.
I am not sure how many hunters read CrunchGear but this could still be useful if you were in to designer dogs. That way when your $1000+ dog runs away you can find the little bugger.
This device may actually lead to more dogs running away from their owners – especially the self conscious ones. Is losing your dog common while hunting – I don’t know never tried.
This hunter reads CrunchGear. Yeah, Paul G. is correct. It is goofy looking and not a hot item. Do dogs get “out of range” when hunting? Yes. Most long ranging dogs used for hunting coon, coyote, bear, mountain lion, etc. are out of sight as soon as they make scent and once they are on a track that is their focus, not returning to their handler. They are generally tracked with a radio transmitter and handheld receiver, if at all. Bird dogs that get out of gun range are usually still within whistle or electronic collar control even though they may not be in sight, but a dog on point that cannot be seen, or whose whereabouts are unknown, will not break point or return to the whistle until the bird is flushed. I use beeper collars that know when the dog is motionless and beep when they are on point. I then walk to the beep. The GPS collar is, meh, intriguing, but hardly necessary for most folks