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 Viewpoint by Matt Cline To hear the "old" folks tell the stories of when they had "real" coondogs will make you appreciate modern technology at its best. They go on and on about how spoiled hunters are now adays, and how people just toss away dogs. Back in their day, you had to hunt the one and only dog you had because there were not a lot of means in which to purchase or even find another. The biggest complaint you hear is about our 17+ volt $350 lights, etc. Then they proceed to tell you how to operate a Carbide lantern and how real coonhunters used to do it. Us "young" folk are spoiled rotten in their minds. Most of us probably have never even climbed a tree with a stick in hand, right? According to them back in their day, to be a coon hunter you had to be part lumberjack and brave as hell. Today, we have these fancy thousand-dollar tracking systems to minimize the risk of losing our hounds. Back in the "good old days", if your dogs were starting to get out of earshot and you thought you might lose them, you had to track them down on foot! This is something I'm sure most of us haven't done in a long time. We all have Telemetry trackers and $25,000 four-wheel drive trucks at our disposal. On to the next subject . . . What did they do when they got separated from their hunting buddies? They tell you about how they'd have to climb to the top of a mountain and yell as loud as they could trying to get back in contact with a hunting partner. What do I tell them I use? What else but a cellular phone? I use an Ericsson phone. It seems to get a lot better reception and range, and it tends to have a longer stand-by battery life than other phones. Could we imagine building our own dog boxes? Heck no! Not when we can go down to the local feed store and pick up a $400 dog box that just happens to match the color of our trucks. Todays boxes are built to last. They have storage compartments, variable air vents and pad locks on the doors. What about hunting new territories in unfamiliar country? Back in the old days, you had to be part Indian to find your way out of a swamp. This is after you spent an hour getting turned around and losing your direction. Now we have handheld Global Positioning System technology (GPS). GPS is one of the greatest inventions of all time! Guaranteed you'll never to get lost again. Just follow a little arrow for the fastest way out of the woods, or use it to retrace your footsteps back to the truck. GPS units have an accuracy of 1 meter or so. For those of us that don't trust a GPS, you can always use a "backtracker". This gizmo electronically controls a timer that blows the horn on your truck every so often. It's not easy to get lost anymore. What about dogs running trash? The "old" folks had to catch the dog before they could reprimand it for running off game. I just couldn't imagine trying to catch a dog running a deer flat out. Guess that's where the whole telemetry thing comes back into play. Tri-tronics introduced us to the first version of "remote trainers" a few years back. Also known as shock collars, these units allow us to be a certain distance away from a dog and stop him dead in his tracks if necessary. We don't even have to break a sweat. Forget too about burning that $20 in gas running up and down the roads looking for your dog. Another big problem in days of way-back-when was trying to get started in hunting as a youngun. Most of these lads had to learn the tricks of the trade by trial and error. This would account for much lost time, money and a major headaches, I'm sure. In the present, all a kid(or anyone, for that matter) has to do for advice is type: www.coonhounds.com. We have unlimited access to a number of seasoned hunters who are more than happy to share advice on training dogs and a vast comradery of people we have never and more than likely will never meet. There are hundreds of people who, without hesitance, gladly post information on everything from trash breaking to teaching a dog to swim , etc, etc, etc. Are we a lesser breed of coonhunter? NO. I happen to think that all these technical advances and widgets and gadgets only help our sport. They help us to maintain a better quality hound with a superior bloodline and they help us to place emphasis on specific desirable traits that different hunters look for. The old days are gone. Modern technology allows many of us more time to hunt in a world where time is a valuable asset. Modern technology is a necessity for the today's hunter and his busy life. Among other things, most of us have careers that occupy quite a bit of time and a wife(or husband) that may or may not demand a certain amount attention. Without the benefit of modern-day advances, many of us would simply be unable to enjoy this great sport as much as we do. |
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