Another Chukar hunt when the chukars didn't win.

Happy to see us?

Ever since I extended my love and pursuit of good hunting dogs from bird dogs to include hounds, I have been torn at times which to hunt. In Idaho we have five months of bird season and I do a lot of bird hunting. I also run bears with my hounds in the spring and summer when there is no conflict. But the other day I had a big decision to make: Should I try for cougars or chukars?

It was the end of chukar season, but I had been dying to get out again for lions. I decided I’d try lions in the morning and then Chris and I had plans to hit the chukar hills before dark. After waking at 3:00 am to drive some canyons for lions, my friend Mike and I cut tracks of a cougar right before daylight. The track was two nights old, but we each put a dog in the race. My walker dog, Okie and my friend’s Spike dog took the track well over a mile and by some lucky chance of freak mountain acoustics we heard them jump and tree the lion way up the canyon. When we made it to the tree we were greeted by an old, yellow toothed female lion that was not happy to see us. We took some pictures and let her free to run another day.

On the way home I texted Chris to let him know it would be too late for me to join him. By the time I got home it was after 4:00. I got a call from Chris. He told me he had found a covey and I should get up there. Decisions, decisions… I put the hounds in their kennel, grabbed my Brittany, Kenya (who knew we were going hunting…they always do) and shotgun and jumped in the car. I met Chris on the mountain with enough time for 30-45 minutes of hunting in the prime area. The sun went down before we could get into the covey again, but it is always a good time in the hills with a friend and some fine hunting dogs.

I’ve been reading some reviews on bird dog retail websites about the Garmin GPS dog tracking systems on the market. Quite frankly, I don’t think they have it all right. Let me tell you why.

If you want to know about dog tracking, talk to guys who run hounds on bears and mountain lions. I’ve recently gotten into big game hounds and have made some contacts locally and on the internet. These are the guys that know dog tracking. A bird dog runs big if he is 400 yards out from his handler. This summer a couple of friends and I ran a black bear for over 17 miles from where it was jumped. A lion hound may work a trail for 5 miles before catching up to the cat. Houndsmen use the tracking equipment for what it is worth and therefore know what works and what does not.

I currently have an Astro 220 with DC-30 collars. There is a new Astro on the market and also a newer collar called the DC-40. I have heard very few positive comments about the function of the DC-40 collar over the old DC-30. It takes longer to key in to the receiver and simply doesn’t track as well. I think it was a case of Garmin trying to get a new product on the market without much testing. Possibly Garmin will make the necessary improvements to the DC-40, but from what I’ve been hearing, they underperform the older DC-30. The problem is that it is becoming difficult to find the DC-30 collars because houndsmen are buying them up since they were discontinued early this year. Anyone thinking about buying a GPS tracking system should visit biggamehoundsmen.com and read up in the product review forum about the latest reviews from the guys who know.