Location device for hunters

[doublehtech]

Hi im a senior in high school and for my senior tech project i may be working on a device that can help hunters stay with your party and stay away from others. It also can help with staying in formation if you are doing drives. I am a hunter too and i know something like this would help me in the woods sometimes. I just need enough people to also say it is a problem for them to show that it is a problem worth solving, so i would appreciate it if you could fill out a very short survey. It should only take a couple minutes. Thank you for your time. Just follow this link, http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JLMTYQH

[kellory]

doublehtech, I commend you on trying to make hunting safer. I have (on public grounds) run across hunters, well hidden in camo while bowhunting, or gun hunting (on public grounds) when their orange was small or covered (or missing)
In most cases, I think they would have preferred to remain hidden.

If you get out of formation while doing a drive, you are not doing it right.

As for getting lost....I'll take the Fifth. However, I have a ball compass on my collar, an engineers compass in my pack, and a GPS in a thigh pocket (with spare batteries in flashlight, camera, and loose in my pocket. There is a solar charger in my pack, and my flashlight will hand crank my phone (which also has GPS)

I don't get lost. EVER.

Side note: There is a GPS system on the market called RINO. Each RINO can see where every other RINO is in real time.

[doublehtech]

The problem is that when you are hunting and someone walks near you then all the game is scared away from that area and now there is a fresh scent trail where you are trying to hunt. Compasses dont work if there are disturbances in the area like metal deposits in the ground. And if you are a hunter and you pass out or something then there is no way for anyone to know where you are. Yes there are gps systems called rino's out there but i dont think you should have to own just one brand of gps and maybe someone doesnt want to buy that $200 gps but they may want to be recognizable with someone with a gps. Drives dont always go perfectly unless you have a gps. You have no idea where each person on a watch line is and the drivers dont know where they are. You can guess where everyone is but if you are in dense woods then they can walk right in between 2 watchers. Some things you cant help

What you say may be relevant to you. But it doesnt apply to everyone because we dont all hunt the same peice of property or for the same things. There are to many factors in hunting for you to say its not worth creating speaking for everyone

[kellory]

The problem is that when you are hunting and someone walks near you then all the game is scared away from that area and now there is a fresh scent trail where you are trying to hunt. Compasses dont work if there are disturbances in the area like metal deposits in the ground. And if you are a hunter and you pass out or something then there is no way for anyone to know where you are. Yes there are gps systems called rino's out there but i dont think you should have to own just one brand of gps and maybe someone doesnt want to buy that $200 gps but they may want to be recognizable with someone with a gps. Drives dont always go perfectly unless you have a gps. You have no idea where each person on a watch line is and the drivers dont know where they are. You can guess where everyone is but if you are in dense woods then they can walk right in between 2 watchers. Some things you cant help

What you say may be relevant to you. But it doesnt apply to everyone because we dont all hunt the same peice of property or for the same things. There are to many factors in hunting for you to say its not worth creating speaking for everyone

1)"]The problem is that when you are hunting and someone walks near you then all the game is scared away from that area and now there is a fresh scent trail where you are trying to hunt." I have seen deer shirt around behind the pusher during a drive and the pusher never even saw the deer. Neither did the deer see me. The last one to do that trick ended up in my freezer. That scent trail is not always a bad thing. It's there, so use it to your advantage. On public lands, it is not possible to tell someone else,"go away, this is my spot" It's free for all. And most hunters do not want other hunters knowing where they hunt on public lands. Too many hunters will not do the scouting, and will simply follow someone who did. Coat tail hunters are a problem now. Why help them further?

2)" Compasses dont work if there are disturbances in the area like metal deposits in the ground" Compasses always work, they have since the first lode stone, they simply work differently near large amounts of metal such as a flagpole or oil well,but it does not effect it once you get a ways away from it. Iron ore is found nearly everywhere. That is not an issue.

3)" And if you are a hunter and you pass out or something then there is no way for anyone to know where you are." There are more than a dozen locator beacons available now from multiple companies, and several countries. Some even monitor your heart rate and respiration.(these are used for mountain climbers.)

4) " Drives dont always go perfectly unless you have a gps. You have no idea where each person on a watch line is and the drivers dont know where they are. You can guess where everyone is but if you are in dense woods then they can walk right in between 2 watchers. Some things you cant help" Sorry kid, but absolutely false. Drives require planning and clear instructions, not GPS. I use GPS and we do drives, but they are not used together. Each pusher should be in sight at all times if they are pushing a line, so NO ONE is in front of the guns. If you are pushing past shooters on stands, everyone is i orange, pushers (1 or 2) are moving slow, and just bumping the game. It is not a race, and there is all the time in the world to identify who is pusher and what is game. No one should be doing anything but scanning the terrain, not a GPS screen. Full attention on what you are doing.

5)"What you say may be relevant to you. But it doesnt apply to everyone because we dont all hunt the same peice of property or for the same things. There are to many factors in hunting for you to say its not worth creating speaking for everyone[/quote]" That is the great thing about hunting Kid, There so many ways to do it. As long as your methods are safe, and your tools are in good shape, there is a lot of variety available. As well as different rules for different places. Somethings are legal here in Ohio, that would get you arrested in Illinois. Also, consider if you get that buck of a lifetime, but B&C will not allow it, because of a device you have with you at the time? Don't get me wrong, Kid, I happen to like tech in the field. Give me a heat sensing tracker for blood trails that actually works, and I'm all over it! And at no time did I ever say I speak for anyone but myself. You are on a forum of more than 9,000 members. Anyone can speak their mind on any subject posted. Good luck and hunt well.

[doublehtech]

I like that blood trail idea. I know thats a problem because i hate taking a shot and then not seeing any blood when there may be some there. I waste alot of time usually looking when there may or may not be anything there. I also dont like to waste anything so if a shot is fired by someone in my group i usually look until im told to stop. I should look into something like that cause i know i want something like that more than a location device. Thanks

[kellory]

I like that blood trail idea. I know thats a problem because i hate taking a shot and then not seeing any blood when there may be some there. I waste alot of time usually looking when there may or may not be anything there. I also dont like to waste anything so if a shot is fired by someone in my group i usually look until im told to stop. I should look into something like that cause i know i want something like that more than a location device. Thanks

I do not know the rules of your project. If this needs to be a new product, the thermal sensor has been made, marketed and sold. It just doesn't work worth a plugged nickle. It is useless.

If the product must be new, I want a tracker that unlocks from a mechanical broadhead on impact that will stay in the wound, though the arrow or bolt passes through. Tracker must be GPS friendly in real time, and barbed to stay at the point of impact. Tracker must be very light, durable, and have a battery life of at least 24 hours and switched on by release from the broadhead (or by the absence of a shaft down the center.) I told you kid....I like tech.

[Woods Walker]

I'm 60 years old. I've been in the woods for 52 of them. Never been lost, not once, and for while I lived and hunted in Wyoming which is so unlike midwestern farm country that it may as well be on another planet. Never shot anyone either. I've WANTED to, but that's another story.

I wish you luck with your project and I'm sure that many will want it but I won't be one of them. Other than not needing it, I make it a rule in the woods to never trust my life to anything that requires batteries or a microchip. Batteries always fail when you need them most, and if there's a microchip involved I either cannot operate it and/or it breaks (or whatever term is used for that stuff when it won't work right or not at all).

Since I turned 45, I've DECREASED the amount of gear I take into the woods with me, and for me that endeavor has increased my love of the hunt. It's funny, but when I started out I had very little gear because I couldn't afford it. Then as I grew older I could afford it and believe you me I acquired a LOT of it. Now I'm heading towards the end of my life and I'm going back to where I started, but this time it's by choice.

[Woods Walker]

I was just thinking about this topic and I thought of the kids you see nowadays in the malls or just on the street, walking around with their heads down, shoulders slumped over, and oblivious to everything but the texts that they're either sending or receiving and I just pictured the same scenario with a group of deer hunters on a drive.....walking into trees, stumbling over bushes, falling down ravines, and the best one, TALKING TO THEMSELVES!!!!!!

I can see the deer just standing there watching them go by thinking.......WHAAA??????????

Maybe there needs to be a location device on the DEER, then that way the cyber-hunters will notice them!

[shaman]

Yep, I've been lost a couple of times while hunting. It wasn't a big thing-- just got turned round a bit. If I'm going to be out on strange property, I've got a Garmin Etrex. I'm also pretty handy with a compass and topo.

As to the idea of a product that would let me know where other hunters are, we all hunt from fixed positions, or at least in fixed pre-defined areas. Usually that is enough. Where it gets tricky is when someone does not play by the rules. We've had poachers on the property at times. They come in and wander around,

The device that comes to mind in this is a walkie-talkie/gps I saw a number of years ago. It allowed the user to send and receive gps coordinates of other people with similar devices. This would probably work, but then you have the one guy who does not play along, doesn't have a device like this, and the whole plan goes splat.

[Woods Walker]

".......but then you have the one guy who does not play along,...."

HEY NOW! No need to get personal! Besides, it's hunting, not a football play. I can see John Madden now, with his chalkboard with all the X's and O's and the curved and straight arrows going all over the place!