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Garmin Astro GPS Dog tracking system

Not sure if this topic has been beat to death or not but I would like to hear some first hand feedback on this system. Price is affordable but not sure if it will hold up over time. I hunt in eastern pa and run hounds in multiflora rose bush and greenbriar more than I like, so it definitely needs to be able to stand up to some severe punishment. thanks. Jesse

I hunted with a guy who had one. He really liked it but he hasn't had it very long.

Thanks. How did the dog react to wearing the neoprene collar around its back?
The receiver has a ton of functions, it will tell you if your dog is treeing, or not moving. And there is a covey counter feature you could use to mark den trees, how many coon you saw, and a crap load of other features.

i

herd they don't work well in heavy leaf cover

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if its broke dont fix it ill stick to my wildlife 1000 i have heard they dont give singal well in thick stuff either

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I talked to a man this past weekend that sells them . He has been using the unit and loves the accuracy but has broke the collar 3 times. 2 antenas and once where the receiver mounts to the collar. He said the collars have a 1 yr warranty and he had no problem getting the parts to fix it.

btt.

I think the collars will haft to be tuffind up a bit but I really like mine.So Far.

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what's the battery life on them !

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I love mine! How do you get more detailed maps?

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Thanks!
Brad McDaniel
Cordele, Ga USA

I bought one about a week ago. Give me a little more time with it before I give you the final verdict.

I can tell you this much. The vest is a waste of your time. They are made for dogs that "point" and not for dogs that run through the woods with their noses on the ground. DONT TRUST VELCRO.

As far as the functionality...It's a whole different ball game. Talk about pinpoint.

I have lost signal with the collar one time, and the dog was in a large tile......my Marshall collars would not pick up either...so there is no worry about "thick cover".

Shoot, for the price of this thing, you can't go wrong. The hand held GPS unit is worth the price of the whole thing.

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Joe Newlin
UKC Cur Advocate
Home of Oak Ridge Kennels

Does anyone know much about the range in rolling hills? Thanks

i had one but took it back. Gotta love the accuracy but im waiting untill they come up with a new collar system. Its dumb how you have to have an e-collar to use it on a collar. wish they would make it like a normal tracker unit.

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Mitch Johnson
Ellsworth, WI

the collar is a bit cumbersome. I'm sure they will improve on that. In the meantime, I'm willing to put up with it to know exactly where my dog is.

How 'bout it experienced users...... any help on the maps?

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Thanks!
Brad McDaniel
Cordele, Ga USA

Brad, you got mo sperience than anybody I know. call Lance, he knows.

quote:

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Originally posted by Brad McDaniel
the collar is a bit cumbersome. I'm sure they will improve on that. In the meantime, I'm willing to put up with it to know exactly where my dog is.

How 'bout it experienced users...... any help on the maps?

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Joe Newlin
UKC Cur Advocate
Home of Oak Ridge Kennels

How much is the card and map?

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figured it was something like that, but was hoping I just wasn't mashing the right buttons! Thanks for info, Mr. Joe. Let us know how good the better map is, if you would.

RodJ, I'm afraid our little buddy is kinda out of touch. When he called the other day, he didn't even know about that new power you got!

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Thanks!
Brad McDaniel
Cordele, Ga USA

quote:

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Originally posted by Russell Boyette
How much is the card and map?

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Joe Newlin
UKC Cur Advocate
Home of Oak Ridge Kennels

How do you like the topo, Mr. Joe?

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Thanks!
Brad McDaniel
Cordele, Ga USA

I would suggest that everyone that has this system to either purchase the maps that are pre-loaded on the memory chip, or to purchase the maps on DVD and load them onto a memory chip.

I loaded some maps in my local area and it made a big difference in the detail of the maps. Not so important for finding the dogs, but it makes a big difference in navigating to the truck!

Also the road detail on the pre-loaded maps is not very good...if you upload maps, you know when your dog is getting close to a road!

Not a whole lot of extra money, but it certainly adds to the system.

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Joe Newlin
UKC Cur Advocate
Home of Oak Ridge Kennels

I broke down and purchased one of these on Thursday, and used it two nights this weekend. I have a few thoughts.....

1) I've seen some complaints about collars and having a counter balance, weight issues, and stuff like that. Far as I can tell, if your dog can't carry around a this GPS transmitter attached to an E-collar for a balance, you might wanna check to see if you even have a hound, cause sounds more like an issue you might have with a rat terrier. I ran the transmitter mounted on my tri tronics ecollar and also put a regular tracking collar on two different dogs with no isses. I would almost try to mount the GPS trasmitter on the regular tracking collar but with those I don't have the collar space in the right spot to get it to balance right.

2) The maps you can purchase make this sytem's value more than double to me. I purchased the mapsource maps and downloaded them into the handheld unit. With this, I could tell exactly what county road or even possibly a trail was closest to getting to dogs once treed, and how I can drive there. The map also contains most creeks and rivers, even smaller sized ones, so that you can tell which way your dog is headed down which creek so you can head him off if need be. Also shows if the dog is hunting in coon terrain (ie, along a creek), or is just out goofing around. I like a dog that I can turn down a ditch and he will stay on it unless a coon takes him away from it, so this lets me verify that.

Overall, I'm not dead settled on the unit, but I sure am impressed. I can't say much about distance because the farthest the dogs got, according to the system, was right at one mile. Based on that signal strength, I think about a mile and a half would be achievable in wooded, rolling hill type terrian. If you were tracking from a high point, I think even better. I would like to purchase the stub antennas that mount on the transmitter to replace the longer flex antenna. And, given the 17 hour estimated life of the collar, I would always run a regular tracking collar. But I have no qualms with running both on a dog.

needs alot of improvement in durability!!!!

nephew and his buddy bought a system and the collars were done for in 10 hours or less!!!!and there has to be people that hunt rougher terrain than these. i believe it can be a good system but its not ready for the open market!!!!!!

I think you have to view this gps system as a compliment to the regular tracking system, not as a replacement.

But I know in two nights, it has already saved me several miles both on foot and by vehicle. But this was because I had the maps loaded in mine so I could see right where the closest road was to my dog and how to get there.

Does the GPS tell you where you are too?

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