OK, then, the dog understands that you cannot control (or correct) him from a distance. You need to be able to make an instantaneous correction, regardless of the distance.
Therefore,you have three choices:

1. A long (or very long) checkcord with a pinch collar............ or
2. An ecollar
3. Get some running shoes and hustle yourself to the dog, take him to the point of infraction and correct him " on the spot" .

I trained my first Lab with #3 (I' m too old for that now). I use #1 when the distances are reasonable for using a long cord (but when you get out very far, you lose effectivness). Basically, I' ve moved into the modern world of dog training and have found #2 to be excellent, but it must be done 100% correctly to attain the desired result.

What are your reasons for not wanting to use an ecollar?

When USED PROPERLY, an ecollar is no different than a choke chain and a checkcord (that' s a half mile long).