Hunting with technology

[royaltine]

I think hound dogging is on the verge of changing forever.  With the new GPS collars and todays mapping and aerial photography software,  you just might see hound doggers hunting with lap tops in the next few years.  The technology is here, its  just the pieces have not quite been put together yet.  The Garmin Astro GPS dog collar system is far from perfect at this point, but it will be perfected  and very resonable priced in the near future. 

Picture this, the dogs collars gives you the lat/longs of its position,  the info is relayed back to the houndsmen via radio signal.  Just knowing distance and direction is pretty great in itself, but now lets say we have our lap top with a wireless or satelite link with us and we can pull up an aerial photo, punch in the lat/longs, and it plots that point on the map.  (red dot left of center)  It would look like this.



Now, we not only know distance and direction, but we also have an aerial photo have the closest roads to take to get there.

The arguments for and against a system like this are that it takes the sportsmanship out of hounding.  On the flip side, with many areas infested with wolves now, it may be just the ticket to help keep your dogs safe.

Any comments?

[Beau]

I think safety for our dogs is the biggest issue going now and anything we can do to keep them safer from the wolves is good.  I dont think it would take the sportsmanship out of hound hunting, I think it would just give us a little peice of mind. knowing exactly where your dogs are could buy you alot of time and get you there quicker which in turn may save your dogs life if their in trouble and need your help fast

[rookie]

I have never hunted with dogs before but it sonds like a good idea to me. As a new guy to hounds I would like it but if you are old school you might not.

Justin