expensive trip

[get the net]

Made it out today for a short walk with my fishing buddy this afternoon.  He is 67 and has not been out pheasant hunting for over 25 years.  Got out to a WPA, loaded up with steel and off we went.  Very slow pace as his legs aren't as conditioned as mine.  Duey started working a bird near the edge of the cats and before I could get my friend down in position the bird jumps.  Out over the cattails he goes, a load of # 2's from the Citori takes him down.  Duey crashes forward breaking ice and cattail fuzz flying, makes a great retrieve.
Few hens later, Duey comes back out of the cats minus a very important piece of equipment.  The tri-tronics collar is gone!!!  He had been out in the cats for at least 5 minutes crashing around, falling through, chasing up a couple of hens.  No way in the world of trying to find it, he had been out at least 30 to 40 yards at times, zigging and zagging back and forth.  The water was deep as a couple of times I could hear the dog swimming as he broke ice.
Collar was as old as the dog, 5 years, but it still worked perfect.  Only used it as a safety device the last two years, mainly to check him up if he was getting to close to road, sometimes to reel him in little.  Definetly will have to be replaced.
Will probably go with the same brand, this one was a Flyway special. 
My son lost the control portion once in a frozen cattail slough, but we found that back, actually the dog found it back, as he retrieved it back to me after about an hour and half of searching a grid pattern.
Noty quite sure how it could have come off but it sure as hell did. 

[jigglestick]

OUCH!

my collar is an INOTEK. it has about a 1/4 mile range and is far less bulky than the tri-tronics line. my trip to south dakota with a buddy was a good test of both brands. mine was new and my buddies was just a year or two old. he had the tri-tronics. the tri-tronics reciever(collar) was large and bulky as was the transmitter. it was about the size of a walkie talkie!
the inotek had a reciever that was smaller than a half a pack of cigarettes and the transmitter was about an inch and a half  square by about a half inch thick.
both units were rechargeable. both performed flawlessly.
the INOTEK reciever had an external antenna that broke off a couple years later. I called their customer service and they replaced the antenna with a couple new ones for free!
they have since gone to an antena-less unit.
I have one of these and it works as well as the first one.
they also sent along some new plugs for the hole over the charging outlet.
top notch customer service.
quality equipment.
great in-field performance.
a fraction of the size and weight of the tri-tronics.
by the time we got home he was ordering one like mine for his dog.

just my personal experience with collars.