Garmin questions.

[Harold Pickens]

I know many of you use Garmin GPS systems and like them a lot. I have a Garmin 300i and continue to be somewhat frustrated with it.. I also have it paired with the Instinct Solar watch. I have a few questions.
1. How often do you have system refresh, I was told to put it on every 10 seconds, hell, my dogs could be over 100 yds away by then, so I moved it to every 5 seconds. That's better, but thinking about moving it to 2.5 seconds, battery may not last as long, but the 300 system is supposed to have a super battery.
2. The only time I get the dog on point signal is when I lay the collar on the tailgate for a minute or two. I had Doodle on point for 70 seconds today, absolutely solid, but no point signal on handheld or watch.
3. Where/how do you carry the hand unit, extremely poor design by Garmin to clip it to the vest, guess they want you to lose it. I've seen a couple holsters on line, thinking of the Kydex one with a spring steel clip. In South Dakota I just put it in the game pouch and used a lanyard to secure it. Without the Instinct watch , the hand held seems quite awkward/cumbersome.
4. Damn ticks again!! Ran the dogs this morning in the cut hayfields in back of the house, they were covered in ticks. Was 35 degrees, but was almost 60 yesterday. Have seresto collars on them only 4 months old, think I'll put them on an oral also. At least there were no ticks in SD. Hate to even run the dogs in these conditions..

[Andy]

Harold I have the 300i and TT25. I do not pair with a watch because it's just too much stuff to manage. I think mine refreshes every 2.5 seconds and it shows Raisin on point pretty regularly and reliably. I have hunted an entire day and never came below 50% on the battery, so yes it seems good. I also have an outlet in the back of the 4Runner and when she's done the collar and transmitter get plugged in and it's always charging in the car and that's worked very well for me. I use Simparica and have had bad luck with flea/tick collars. I was going to use both but my vet said no. Ticks are active above 32-34 degrees I believe so I'm not suprised about that. I have found my best success with Simparica Trio oral and spraying her lightly with a Permethrin spray like Sawyers or Advantage or Adams before a day of hunting. I just don't have many ticks on her after that. A good google search will turn up articles on the safety of spraying your dog with permethrin, but if you have a pointing cat, it's not for use on cats : )

[John Taddeo]

Harold, I have been running the 200I TT for a while now using the Dynamic and "2.5" setting for updates and it is pretty darn accurate... I have the unit paired to an Instinct watch and will usually Calibrate the compass at the start of the day (1 time), mark the truck location when I start to hunt and then lock the screen before I put the GPS in a pocket (with a tether to my coat). I did buy and carry a spare battery pack because they are so small but haven't had to use it yet. I have also set the backlight to time out pretty quickly for battery life. I have several collars paired to my handheld and when I am using only one, I have the others selected as "inactive". I did notice that hilly terrain will hamper to Garmin slightly, but it seems to me that in point mode I will get alerts even as slight as a kennel point almost to the place of being annoying. The old bulky foam cell phone cases with the flip cover also work pretty nice to slip into a pocket, once you trim one side for the antenna.

[Harold Pickens]

Based on what John and Andy have said, I will have it updated at 2.5 seconds. Now I just have to figure out why I don't get a dog on point signal even though I can see the dog on point.
Andy, I find the watch a lot handier to use than trying to look at the handheld, that said, most of us are generally pretty darn tuned into our dogs location. I got the basic Instinct Solar watch, Cabela's has them for $199 now, a with my Cabela's points paid 160.
In SD, I ran the Garmin along with their Dogtra beeper collar tapping the locator button only if I was unsure of dogs location.

[Andy]

Harold, double check your settings under dog type. I had the non pointing issue and it had gotten set to "treeing" by mistake. When Raisin put her paws up on my chest for a "hug" it started vibrating like she was treeing a coon so when I set it back to pointing mode all was fine. This has happened to me several times and I don't know how it gets changed.

[mobirdhunter]

I still use a beeper with my garmin gps collar. I have the watch too and carry the transmitter unit that looks like the pre-gps transmitters but has a small screen with a directional arrow (and vibrates to signal point). Elaine carries the unit with the screen. The gps signals point when the dog stays in one area, no matter what they are doing — pooping, peeing, sniffing pee, etc. The beeper tells me if the dog is on point and in the Northwoods alerts the wolves to get out of Dodge. The gps is my lost dog backup.

I’ve heard all the “beepers scare birds” and “they sound like a truck backing up” comments. For me they are like a bell and I can tell what the dog is doing by the subtle change in sound. I am sure I get more chances because I can get to the dog on point faster than the lag time search from the gps. The grouse I hunt seldom stand on ceremony and the coveys we hunt run more often than not.

[Phil C]

I have had great success using just the Garmin unit. Set it to point mode, 2.5 second update.
I use a hand held holster I bought off of eBay. Made a lanyard that clips on and off at each end. Stitched a strap directly to the hand held unit. I pair with a Garmin watch as I have a hard time hearing the on point tone.
My hunt starts with turning on the collar and hand held. Once it initializes I hit start new hunt and mark the truck. Then lock screen and place it in my shell pouch.
Here are some pictures it hopefully clarifies what I am trying to describe.

[Chris Pope]

I have a 300i and have used it a lot since late last summer. I agree with all the advice above. I do use a Fenix watch and keep the handheld in the left shell pocket on my vest with a Hammerhead Retractable Gearkeeper secured to a shell loop. I have never broken a gear keeper. The smaller gear keeper is plenty strong enough to keep tre handheld safe.
The one drawback I've found with the 300i is that the screen must be locked if the device remains in your pocket otherwise it will jump around to various screens.
For tick issues we use a flea collar and spray if we know we will be in significant numbers of ticks. We have some coverts in southern NH we don't even go to anymore because of tick infestation. Up north we rarely find ticks.

[Andy]

Chris,

I punched a hole and put a grommet in my vest near the chest pocket with a Gearkeeper, and tuck it into my vest while hunting. I can't seem to do a watch as it's always under my buttoned sleeve and hard to get to. I seem to just do better looking at the screen and my bell tells me where my dog is most times. I'll probably move to my beeper once my hearing goes, which is imminent since everything else is going : )

[mobirdhunter]

Gentlemen, it’s so much easier to have your spouse tote the device.