mackesr

I am in the market of buying a beeper caller for my 8 month old GSH pointer. I am fairly new to bird hunting but remember an old friend of mine using one on his bird dog. It would beep every so often until the dog locked on point and then it would beep continuously. I hunt out here in the East and its thick and hilly terrain so I want to be able to tell when my dog locks up, even if I cannot see her.

I have checked on line at several different models, but wanted some input from you all that use them as I know experience is valuable. I have seen some with remote controls and some without and not sure what the benefit of the remote control is. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

JW

I am a gadgt guy and have used several. My current beeper is a G3 Upland Tri-Tronics collar/beeper combo where I can shut the beeper off remotely.
The second collar my dogs wear is an Garmin Astro DC30 GPS collar.

Why 2?
Well I am partially deaf and can hear the TT beeper but when on point I am directionaly disfunctional. that means I do not go necesarily in the right direction to the dog. Garmin DC30 helps me get there as it is a tracking device. My hand held GPS unit shows me where I am and where all my dogs are even buddies dogs if I have porammed their DC30 collars in my unit,. I even leave and old DC20 unit on the dash of my truck so my truck is always marked.

I like the fact I have an e-collar too if needed and is why the TT G3 Upland.
I like the fact I can remotely turn Off or ON the beeper function and can go from run and point mode to just point mode or none at all.
I like the fact that with a dog on poiint my Astro collars my hand held units beeps at me too.
I like the fact that trying to find my dog (is really the fun of all of this grouse hunting) my GPS unit tells me the direction to go and how far the dog on point is away from me.

What I don't like is the high tones of the G3 - but ya can't have it all.

just my 2 cents

mackesr

Thanks JW. I appreciate the info. I can understand why you are a gadget guy! My GSH stays pretty close to me while hunting so I was not planning on buying one with GPS like the Garmen. Basically I am trying to get some input on a basic beeper or beeper collar with input on functionality and tone sound pro and cons. Its not a huge purchase, but just thought I could get some info to help me pick a unit.

JW

My dogs do check in with me once and a while! But when it comes to birds = stay up with the dogs is tough to do.

JW

mustad

I have used Dogtra and TT's beepers and was fairly satisfied, but I always had trouble hearing the beeper. Also, I think the pitch they use is really annoying and spooks birds (at least the grouse that I hunt). Finally, I always had trouble keeping the beeper where it was supposed to be positioned.

Two years ago, my buddy turned me onto Lovett's very low tone (VLT) beepers and I use them religiously now. They are a much lower tone than either the dogtra or TT, and I have a much easier time hearing the beep.

They always stay were they are supposed to which is great.

Downside is that they churn through the 9v batteries. Also, it is very convenient to have the beeper/ecollar combo from either Dogtra or TT which enables you to control the beeper from the remote. The Lovetts has a magnetic on/off toggle. Once it's on, it's on. You need to use your magnet key to turn it off.

Despite the cons, I think this is, without doubt, the best beeper on the market.

You can find them everywhere. My buddy also sells them here...

https://www.uglydoghunting.com/beepers.php

Good luck

tndrbstr

I have an older model tri-tronics. Its tough as nails. It is strictly manual control with several differant sounds and variations . I like the sound of the one that JW has.....

mackesr

Thanks Mustad. Thats the kind of info I am looking for. I am pretty much a novice bird hunter with a limited amount of quail hunting experience over the years. Since wild quail are so few and far between anymore where I live I have not had a lot of knowledge gained from hunting them. Sometimes when we hunted them with a dog they would sit tight until we busted them and other times they would run off into the woods to get away from the dog. The dog we were hunting with had a beeper collar on that would go off on point and beep at a longer interval while hunting. I was not sure if the quail that ran off were doing so naturally or because they were spooked by the noise of the collar. Other quail held tight while the collar was beeping, so not sure if that whole scenerio is a normal part of quail hunting or not. The snows last year really devistated the local quail population here so we have been leaving them alone and I have been training my dog on pen raised birds just to get some birds under her and get the basics down for her. From my experience the pen raised birds dont seem to be bothered by a beeper, but I would prefer to go after wild birds and will be hunting Wood**** this fall and possibly grouse in the future. Other than dove hunting, thats pretty much the only wild bird oppurtunities we have around here. Even the grouse hunting would be done farther up North in Pa or West Va. If wild birds are spooked from beepers than I wonder if just using an old fashioned bell might be the best bet?

mustad

Mack,

I have found the low tone beepers spook birds less. The biggest issue I was finding was with late season grouse. Timberdoodles hold tight.

That said, a bell has its' good points and bad points. Its great because the feedback is immediate. When the bell stops, the dog has stopped. A lot of folks just hunt with a bell and are very successful. If you're in tight woods, the dog doesn't have to get too far away before you can't hear the bell anymore, at least with my hearing. If I could find a bell that I could hear at 75 yards in the woods, no doubt I would switch to it. IMO, the next best thing is the VLT beepers.

tndrbstr

Like i said, my tritronics is a pretty antiquated model by todays standards. It has several differant high pitched beeping patterns (locator) so to distinguise between multiple dogs if using the same type collar on each.
It has several point modes too, one being a hawk scream, that the premise being, it is supposed work with the birds natural holding instincts when a bird of prey is known to be around...I don't know how well it works tho,..hunting pressure seems to be the biggest factor in how well the birds hold or not around here...

mackesr

Thanks Mustad and tndrbstr, you both give some food for thought. Take care.