BTW....Just a heads up. I talked to Art Powers yesterday. He tracks to the west of Montgomery around Selma and that general area. It sounded like he had a lot going on right now dealing with a sick parent and wasn’t able to track much this year. That area was thin already but now with him tied up its just another gaping hole. The reason I was calling him was about a call that came in from Wilcox Co that I believe just ended up going unanswered. I’m going to try to extend my reach a little over that way but about an hour and a half is as far as I want to drive.

Question: Do you have any idea about how much distance I can get out of that short antennae? Otis is still working pretty close right now so I’ve just been using the short one because it makes the GPS unit so much more compact that way. I worry though when we get in some of these really thick pine thickets with ridges that I may start losing good reception. I noticed you are using the long antennae.

CNC are your running and Alpha gps unit and what collar? If so I think the long antenna is good for a couple miles with a TT15 collar. I've seen hogwild track his dogs a long way when hunting hogs on our place. He runs the Alpha and TT15 collars.

Yes….It’s an alpha with a TT15 collar. I may just be better off to go ahead and use the long antennae just in case. A mile really isn’t that far if something unexpected happens and we get separated. It sure makes it a lot easier to carry though with the short one. I actually saw a Garmin youtube video the other day that had a sho nuff long range antennae that goes on top of the truck in case you had to go on a recovery mission. It wasn’t really that much, like $50 or something.

Serious request, please don't clutter this thread with OT posts. It really takes away from the IdahoMike adventures.

I've had some cool tracks tis year if you guys would like I could tell about a few?
That buck in gordo was a little interesting but pretty much routine, it was number 98 on the tail gate this season,,guy called said he had shot a cull buck this morning but had no blood no hair nothing just some scuffed up leaves,,I'm thinking.do I want to drive a hour and a half for a missed shot,I really didn't but the guy was so adamant that he hit it I said heck on it and was on my way,two hours later me, Lucy,and the hunter were all crambed up on a four wheeler intended for one person.going down a rough trail we about rolled over several times.finally we arrived at the hit site,and just as the guy said no blood no hair just scuffed up leaves I said to myself man all this way for a miss,about that time I though hey weres Lucy,I looked up just in time to see her disappear over the hill in front of us going at a pretty good clip,I said humm we better get going by the time we creasted the hill the GPS said she was 200 yards out and cooking so we took off at a pretty good clip ourselves,but she keeped spreading the distance between us,there were a bunch of draws between her and us just as we creasted one there. Was another one in front of us,now she was 400 yrds away and we weren't gaining on her,finally off in the distance I could hear her baying,so we really took off,I looked at the GPS and could see she was circling the buck over and over again,finally we snuck in to the mortally wounded buck and the hunter dispatched him,so much for my theory that he had missed.the buck was on his last legs and would have succumbed pretty soon,he was hit in the brisket, we could see the bucks heart beating through the wound.only problem now was how to get him out of there he was rt at 1 mile away from were he had been hit,good thing he had permission to tresspass because we were on his neighbors,but there were no roads,we had to leave the deer,he went back in with help later and retrived the buck,we followed Lucy's track off and on through out the trailing and never saw a dropped of blood for the whole mile,how she knows the deer is injured with no blood is a mystery to me,but she does it over and over again,I'm starting to think its magic!!!

Great story. Amazing what a good dog can do. If there are any interesting details about the buck from Ashland, please tell us.

My wife is from there and has family land my boys and I hunt from time to time. Well, I still call them boys anyway.

Good Stuff, man!

A good dog is an amazing animal. I don't think that the human mind could even begin to process the complexities of all their senses. Their nose and ability an ability to discern details is mind boggling.

Keep up the good work!

Sooo...should we change your name to MAGIC Mike? J/K...great story

Good story with a great dog.

Mike, you need to put a gopro camera on Lucy so we can watch

That would be some sweet footage!

They actually make a camera now that mounts onto a vest the dog wears. They gave two of them away as door prizes at the tracking convention last summer. It looked like a pretty cool setup but I just don't see how it kept from getting mangled in some of the places where the dogs go.

Good story Mike.

I watched a hog hunting show on TV where the dog was wearing one and it was pretty cool

Time to post another story. Come on I'm bored out of my mind.

Garmin makes a camera, Virb, that works with their Alpha Tracker.
Pretty neat!

got a doosey story from today will post as soon ss I can

Love reading your tracking stories Mike.

Please keep them coming!

LOL Sad ain't it? Thanks for what you do Mike!

just pulled into the motel from a great day of trackin its 3:45am ,need to take care of the dogs then get some shut eye.when I have time I will tell you about the second recovery today, quite an unusual one,but for now nite everyone.

Great work today!

If you get down into SW AL this year, I would like to get up with you and watch Lucy work. I do enjoy watching a good dog!