Chasing a Walker
Tracker customer Gary Tullos recently
shared this story about hunting with his
Walker in the Kisatchie National Forest in
central Louisiana
On April 12, 2007 I traveled from Wyatt, Louisiana to the home office of Cajun Light Co., just outside of Pollock, Louisiana to go coon hunting with the owner, Bobby Barber. I arrived at approximately 6:00 pm, to have some time to visit with Bobby and his hunting bud, John King. After about an hour of “shooting the bull,” we set about rigging up to go hunting.
The Hunt
 Bobby and John planned to hunt an area of the National Forest situated between Pollock and Ball, Louisiana east of US Highway 165. By the time we had meandered down the many paved roads of the National Forest it was getting dark and time to cast some dogs.
I was hunting my female Walker, Candy, and decided to use my new Tracker Intelo collar. I purchased the Intelo specifically because it’s the only collar on the market with a bark switch, and was impressed at its range- it was stronger than any collar that I had ever used or tested.
Candy is a very independent hound and after being released she headed right when Bobby’s and John’s dogs started left. I told Bobby and John to ignore Candy and go ahead and try to stay with their dogs, knowing that we could track Candy and find her afterwards. After probably an hour, we caught up to Bobby’s and John’s dogs. They were treed so we walked to the tree, looked at the coon, and headed back to the four wheelers to look for Candy.
The Search
When we reached the four wheelers, I turned on my receiver and searched for a signal. From where we were I couldn’t pick anything up so John led us through the swamp trying to get better reception. After a couple of miles, I began to pick up a faint beep. With my old collars I could have figured the signal to have been 5-6 miles away but with the strength of the Intelo, I didn’t want to even hazard a guess so we just rode off toward the direction of the signal only to find, a few minutes later, that the signal had moved. After circling the National Forest for about three hours trying to follow the shifting signal, Bobby and John started to look at me like I didn’t know how to use a tracking system and politely offered to help. I have to admit that even I was having my own doubts by then.
We eventually ended up on the southern boundary of old Camp Livingston and were picking up a strong signal coming from the direction of the nearby town, Ball, Louisiana. Having gone as far as we could go on four wheelers, John volunteered to ride back and get the truck so we could continue our pursuit of Candy. While John was gone Candy’s signal began moving again, first to the southeast and then, by the time John had returned with the truck, to the west. We continued our search in the truck stopping periodically to check the signal.
The Recovery
Our journey took us into the town of Ball and after driving around for some time, we eventually turned onto a side street that dropped off into a little valley of sorts, where the signal peaked. Driving out of the little valley, the signal began to wane so we turned around and went back through the valley only to have the signal peak again. I asked John to stop the truck so that I could get out and walk.
As I was determining the direction of the strongest signal, I noticed a pickup truck parked in a driveway to my right. The truck had a dog box that just barely stood up above the tailgate. Curious, I turned my receiver toward the truck and to my surprise it swamped out. As I approached the truck I saw a flash of orange between the tailgate of the truck and the top of the dog box. Recognizing the orange Intelo collar, I dropped the tailgate, opened the door to the dog box, and grabbed a very anxious Candy. Relieved, we headed for home.
Although I enjoyed hunting with Bobby and John, I am even more pleased with my new found confidence in the reliability of my tracking system. Although at times it was quite a chase, had it not been for the strength of the Intelo collar, I am not sure we would have ever recovered Candy. I would like to thank Bobby Barber and John King for the hunt and Tracker Radio for the fine collar.
Gary S. Tullos |
