doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Nebraska Nomads.

Very nice dog work and always great pictures, thanks for sharing.

Mike,
It looks like you had some great sharp tail hunting, congrats! I had hoped to make it to the eastern U.P. to chase sharp tails but there is only two days left in our season.
Karl

As to the Magellan nav thingy, I had a nice Garmin that I used last year- made a huge difference in the enjoyment of my hunt. I have almost no sense of direction, and joke that I can get lost in my own driveway. The Garmin was put in a drawer with the batteries removed, but when taken out to utilize for this year, the screen was mostly blank. I was able to find an older Magellan on Craigslist for 25.00 the night before I left, and was quite pleased with the last minute acquisition. I hunted solo the first day, as James was still traveling. It was warm, so I had on my light weight Beretta shirt with the game bag. At the end of my circuit, when I could see the vehicle in the distance, I took the Magellan out to confirm its operation. I put it in the game bag, and gave it a tap to push it around to rest snug in the center. I lost my footing on a slope, falling forward but protecting the gun. Got up and continued, going only a short distance before checking for the presence of the Magellan in the game bag: gone. It wasn't until we met up with some bow hunters and were taking them to the ridges where we saw deer that I was made to realize that there are aps for the phone that do not require cell service (I have not had any for 8 days). We learned a lot on this trip, and other than maybe a couple more pics, I'll let James continue the thread.

Mike, James, what a great looking place for hunting. Mike, if you don't already know how to, learn a bit of compass craft. I won't go in the woods without one. No batteries or satellite positions to worry about. My phone has gps apps that work without service. I also have a Garmin Fenix 3 HR wristwatch that Blue Tooths to my Garmin Alpha tracking system showing dog directions and distances. The watch has many functions including telling the time. It also has a gps tracking system. The Fenix 3 HR with Sapphire crystal can be found at a fraction of the cost of a new Fenix 5. Another gizmo to consider totin' is the Garmin InReach Explorer +. It has basic GPS functions, not nearly as much as what you already have, but also offers satellite texting and emergency satellite locator beacon for safety purposes. Since the Sandhills don't have cell phone accessibility, being able to communicate via texting can provide peace of mind without regard to its emergency locator beacon. I carry one when I go into areas that don't have cell phone coverage. If you have any questions, give me a holler on the phone. Gil

Thanks for that little rundown on options Gil, as you noted there're many places where service is lost. Thanks for the pictures and write up, wingshooter and cback.

Craig, I just discovered that since I bought the Explorer +, Garmin has a stripped down version at half the size and weight and is the inReach Mini. It offers the emergency beacon and two way texting features. It's cheaper, too.

Mike, think about attaching it with a lanyard of some sort. Hunting grouse and woodcock up this way in relatively warm weather, I carry my ecollar transmitter in the breast pocket of my hunting shirt, under a strap vest. Took a tumble in the UP some years ago, did not realize the transmitter fell out. Never found it. I now carry it on the same lanyard with my whistle.

Glad you found some good sport out there. I understand there's more pressure in the Sandhills in recent years than used to be the case. Nebraskans taking extreme measures to get as far away from Cornhusker football as possible.

Beautiful photos! I'd love to hunt there someday, wherever in NE that happens to be.

I just got back from a week of hunting in Wyoming. I used the OnX software on my cell phone and it worked great. It won't track your dog, but it will track you. More importantly, it shows you private and public land boundaries with high accuracy, along with many other features. I won't be hunting out west again w/o it.

I have a Garmin Oregon that is essentially broken after very little use. The phone has a far better screen and the ability to text (where you have cell coverage) is useful when hunting with a partner that "went the other way".

I agree on the use of a compass, and even better when used with topo maps. And that has gotten much nicer with the advent of websites that allow you to print a topo map of a new area you haven't hunted without the need to order a map from USGS. But just using a compass and being able to walk the right direction to at least hit the road where you parked your truck can save miles of walking.

I actually carry two compasses, because there have been a few times in my life when I didn't want to believe it was pointing me in the right direction. There was one time though, when I got my gear out before hunting season, and found that one of my compasses somehow flipped, and North became South. Both compasses were in the same box, but not real close together, and the box hadn't been exposed to any strong magnetic fields that I knew of. Nothing man-made is as foolproof as the Sun or Polaris. Even extra batteries for the GPS won't help if you are hunting in Nowhere, North Dakota and Chinese hackers or solar flares disable our GPS satellites.

Is that an AWS your hunting over?