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Garmin Astro 220w/ dc30 collar?

I am thinking of buying the new tracking unit from garmin. I have read about all the reviews i can find but however i would like to hear from the people who either own one, have owned one, or hunts with a buddy who has one. I would like to hear the pros and cons both please. any help would be greatly appriciated.

thanks, justin

wouldnt ever think of hunting without it.

be sure to get a map card and truck antenna and you caint go wrong.

it has saved me and my hounds many a night.

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walkers do it best

hunted with it for little over a year saved me lot of walking and guessing

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PR' POOR BLUE HOBO
PR' SWEET SOUNDING CASEY

Just got mine monday, been messing with it and learning how to use it, around the yard with my beagle, waiting on some of the 15 inches of snow to go away to get the hounds out!!
www.quailhillkennel.com
$525.00 for combo and a free map card and the extra collars are $179.00 and good people to deal with!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Once you hunt with one you wont want to hunt without one.

Best thing ever created for the houndsman.

Do a search on here there are several post about them.


You'll never go back to a beep beep once you use the Garmin.

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Swampmusic Kennel
Remembering Our Past......
Gr.Nt.Ch.Gr.Ch.Dohoney's Lobo
Ch.Swampmusic Lil Bit Sassy
Ch.Swampmusic Misty Shadow
Gr.Ch.Swampmusic Boone
Gr.Ch.Swampmusic Pride
But Looking To The Future...

Nt.Ch.Gr.Ch.Swampmusic Big Hoss




Dennis Robinson
Cell 540-295-3892

garman

they are very nice. if your dog trees next to another road u can drive to it if you have the map. I left collor at home and drove off to end of road and got 3.9 miles with it still telling me what dog was doing in pretty good hills. i could of kept going. Farthest dog ever treed from me was 1.3 miles and still had good signal. with the other trackers if u loose signal you are lost and have to drive around looking, with garman it points in the direction the collor last go signal and u can see his trail to see in wich direction he is heading and you will pick it back up by time you reach the last known spot. if you do get it get the 330 collor, and charge it every time befor you go so you have the stongest
signal.

best money i've ever spent on hunting supplies, wouldn't know what to do without it now.

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R.I.P 'PR' Big Timber Toby
4/26/99-1/21/2011
Miss ya old man

Cant imagine ever hunting without one, greatest tool for the coonhunter ever invented.

well when you have a dog that if you turn it one way, and it may end up a mile the other, then its great. Has saved alot of walking this year. Its certainly worth the money.

The best I have gotten with out the long range antenae was 978 yds. It was nice knowing where the dog was at.....until I realized there wasn't a road to get around to him and I had a 2000 yd round trip..... BUT, I knew where he was at and that I knew how to get back to the truck!!!!! Seriously, atleast twice I picked my dog up just yards from the road. You know right where they are at....not "somewhere right in front of us..."

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UKC GrNtCh PKC Ch Pa HTX Sniper (Deceased) Four time qualified for World Championship
Duane and Seth Jones/Jarret Davis partners
Beaver River Kennels/Team Pa
USAF proud!!! 6 Years active 19 Reserves MSgt (ret) Raven 457
Carpe Nocturnum-Seize the night!

Some of the early fears about this system were:
1. Battery life of the collar
2. Keeping the DC20 collar on top of the dog's neck
3. picking up in heavy cover
4. Price
5. Other, better brands coming out

I've used one of these systems for over a year and never had a collar go dead while h unting.

The DC30 collar is a good improvement because it allows the collar to ride underneath dog's neck. Be sure thats what you get.

I've never had an issue with a collar picking up in heavy cover that I know of. The Astro handheld has never lost a GPS signal for me. The collars do lose communication and seems the limit for most is 1/2 to 3/4 mile. But then if you use one of the optional antennas, you will increase that alot.

Price of the units has come down. At the beginning the MSRP on the collars was $200 but you can get them in the $160 range.

Some time back I read where Tracker and Pointer Solutions had GPS dog locating equipment coming out, but so far I haven't seen anything. IMO, Garmin is way ahead of other tracker companies on this and I don't see any real competition for a few years, at least.

I will say its a more complicated system than a beep-beep. There are more things to go wrong. BUT, the advantages FAR, FAR outweigh the disadvantages. If you are a serious coonhunter the only question is WHEN you will get one of these, not if...

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it will spoil the way you hunt.


and most won't admitt it, but i think it's a positive, you find out the real truth on what your hunting on your lead strap.


how far it's really going.
how fast it really runs a track
how far them tracks really go
how quick your dog really locates a tree
stuck on water(if you got the map card)
leading he pack or playing catch up.



i don't have one yet, but have a good friend that has one, can't wait till i get my own. the other positive is people who can't afford one, you sure can pick up a beep beep onepretty cheap instead. no hound should ever be cut loose without a tracking system of some sort.

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LUCKING'S MIDNITE REDS
"A FAMILY OF DUAL PURPOSE HOUNDS THAT CONTINUES ON GENERATION AFTER GENERATION"
Home of:

'Pr' Lucking's Code Red Mountain Dew ( Owned by chad porter and myself) ( Daughter of Desperado) 2 1st place wins ukc nite hunt. 1 best of show with comp , bench show.

'Pr' Lucking's Northern Red Tucker

AND THE PAST:
NT.CH.CH.LUCKING'S KN. LAKE TROOPER
NT.CH.GR.CH.LUCKING'S RAISIN KANE(son of trooper)
NT.CH.CH. LUCKING'S MAD MAGGIE(niece to tornado)
GR.CH.NT.CH.LUCKING'S RED TORNADO(son of trooper)
NT.CH.GR.CH.L&I RED HOT WYLIE(son of tornado)
'pr'lucking's northern red cowgirl (daughter of wylie)(needs just a 1st given to mark barnett)
nt.ch.gr.ch.Lucking's Midnite Desperado (son of cowgirl)(sold to bill tabler)
Nt.Ch.Ch. Desperado's Midnite 3 D(son of Desperado) (given to larry tabler)

The garmin system was the absolute best money I have ever spent. It makes hunting safer for your hounds and saves you time instead of guessing. I hunted with the beep beeps for years and when the garmin came out was very skeptical and waited. My only regret was not getting one sooner.

My experience

I purchased my Garmin when they first came out w/the dc 20 collars. I live in North West PA and hunt in Ohio and New York as well an I LOVE my Garmin. I have the entire North American topo map down loaded onto a card and installed into my gps(a plus)
I still use the dc 20 collars (3 of them) w/no problem, I can get a range from any where to 1 mile to 2.5 miles w/out any problem.
The dc 20's cut out and in because of the antenna hanging down but that’s not really a problem.
I changed some of the settings so my batteries on the gps last about 2 and half weeks(I hunt 3-5 nights a week until the snow is butt deep on my dogs like now.)
The dc 20 batteries get charged every third week or so, the hold a good charge.
My GPS reception works well in every season and every weather possible. I also Geocache w/my gps and it works really well too.
If you think you want one, then buy it because you can’t go wrong in my opinion.
Also purchase some rechargeable batteries if you hunt a lot, and keep a spare set of AA's in your bib's pocket or jacket pocket just in case.