When to use the German Pointer

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xOEDragonx
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Re: When to use the German Pointer

Post by xOEDragonx »

Almost all the puma I've killed so far have been with the assistance of my dog. While I'm not 100% certain yet, I think I've noticed a pattern to how they function with the pointer and the e-caller.

If the dog detects a cat, you can call the dog off, tell it to stay, and the puma will almost always come to the e-caller (if the dog can detect the cat, it's gauranteed within e-caller range).

If the dog detects a cat, you can set up the e-caller right away and turn it on. The puma will start coming to the e-caller and the dog will continue towards the puma. In this situation, the dog will typically point the puma and follow it as it approaches the caller, so you know where the cat is most of the time. The puma ignores the dog.

If the dog detects a puma and you let it go on the track but don't set up an e-caller right away, the dog will almost always trigger the puma to enter the nervous state. I haven't seen a dog scare a puma off yet but if the dog gets too close to the cat before you try calling it in, you're going to have to wait until the nervous state ends before you can call the cat in.

With that in mind, I almost always hunt puma with the second method now. If the dog detects one, find a good set up quickly and put out the e-caller. Turn it on right away so the cat starts coming to it. It seems like once the cat is attracted to an e-caller, it becomes entirely ignorant of the pointer. Then, lay down and watch where your dog goes. He'll either go stand and point at where the cat was indefinitely or, more likely, he will point at the approaching cat for about 30 seconds, move closer to the cat and point again, repeat, repeat and using that you can tell exactly where the cat is approaching from.
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Brutus969
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Re: When to use the German Pointer

Post by Brutus969 »

Interesting xOEDragonx, thanks for that. Do you find that the puma spooks from further away if you are pointing him with a dog? Because I've found with most(all?) animals that can be lured, if I have a dog with me, no matter what type of dog or what it is doing, the animal will spook say when it is within 40m of me, rather than within 30m of me, if I didn't have a dog. i.e. the distance from me (I'm always prone) the animals spooks at increases if I have a dog with me.
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knott
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Re: When to use the German Pointer

Post by knott »

New test and it did work. Will feel much better waiting now does this work with lynx as well? Lynx takes three times as long to arrive so it would help a lot if it´s worth to wait or not...

How rare is the grey variant? Almost wanted to taxidermize it but the game think I don´t need any despite owning all three. https://photo.thehunter.com/46/a5/46a5c ... 8eb1d3.jpg
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InvisibleFlame9
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Re: When to use the German Pointer

Post by InvisibleFlame9 »

xOEDragonx wrote:Almost all the puma I've killed so far have been with the assistance of my dog. While I'm not 100% certain yet, I think I've noticed a pattern to how they function with the pointer and the e-caller.

If the dog detects a cat, you can call the dog off, tell it to stay, and the puma will almost always come to the e-caller (if the dog can detect the cat, it's gauranteed within e-caller range).

If the dog detects a cat, you can set up the e-caller right away and turn it on. The puma will start coming to the e-caller and the dog will continue towards the puma. In this situation, the dog will typically point the puma and follow it as it approaches the caller, so you know where the cat is most of the time. The puma ignores the dog.

If the dog detects a puma and you let it go on the track but don't set up an e-caller right away, the dog will almost always trigger the puma to enter the nervous state. I haven't seen a dog scare a puma off yet but if the dog gets too close to the cat before you try calling it in, you're going to have to wait until the nervous state ends before you can call the cat in.

With that in mind, I almost always hunt puma with the second method now. If the dog detects one, find a good set up quickly and put out the e-caller. Turn it on right away so the cat starts coming to it. It seems like once the cat is attracted to an e-caller, it becomes entirely ignorant of the pointer. Then, lay down and watch where your dog goes. He'll either go stand and point at where the cat was indefinitely or, more likely, he will point at the approaching cat for about 30 seconds, move closer to the cat and point again, repeat, repeat and using that you can tell exactly where the cat is approaching from.
Thanks for these helpful tips Dragon! I’ll try this out on my next puma expeditions.
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knott
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Re: When to use the German Pointer

Post by knott »

Dog still doing fine but I think I got a puma getting startled. But there was a female grizzly involved at the same spot as the puma so she maybe reacted to the dog and in turn to the puma. The puma didn´t run but did give that warning bark and then didn´t appear to go for my call. Didn´t run though she crossed the river so I could find her strolling very cautiously across the river. Maybe more realistic with cats running over rivers do they really want to stay that long in cold water and open terrain :D
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Re: When to use the German Pointer

Post by Sudge »

Sc00bied00 wrote:I was hunting some White-Tail ptarmigans earlier with my German Pointer, but the dog seemed to be doing more harm than good. Birds never really got close to us, would hardly ever come back like they usually do and seemed to just get spooked by the dog all the time. When trying to use it for canines, deer and turkey, I have had fairly similar results, often spooking whatever it detected before I'm able to get line of sight on the animal. So far I've really only like it for Rabbits, Pheasants and (surprisingly) Willow Ptarmigans.

What has everyone else's experience using the Pointer been? What species do you use it for, and when do you just leave it in the lodge?
Hi Scoobie.
I love hunting white-tail with my pointer! I’m 72 and as blind as all hell with reflexes that match! Never see the White-tail and rely on the pointer to locate them. I’ve found starting at 6 or 7am best with a dog that can point at 30mtrs+ ideal. I crouch and follow and bypass the dog once it starts pointing. Always shoot them in the air as in the air is the only time I see them.
There is however, a day timer thing, for me around 9am to 10am game time the white-tail run! For me it’s hopeless hunting at this time. I restart hunt or I simply work my way through it. It’s a half hour actual time frame and then the ptarmigans seem to stop running!
For many canine and deer you simply have to command your pointer to STAY when it’s 50-100m away and either call the animal in or stalk the last few metres on your own. Even when your dog is on level 50!
For canine and deer I personally like my dog in the STAY position and call the animals in as that way you can pick the best to harvest.
Don’t give up, experiment, you’ll perfect it and enjoy.
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VonStratos
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Re: When to use the German Pointer

Post by VonStratos »

The pointer works like a charm to find ptarmigans, and rabbits, for other animals you cant depend completely on the Pointer, you need to "point him" (lol) on the right animal, because sometimes you get a call, or find a track of lets say a nearby buck, and you send the dog to track it, but then you see the dog start going somewhere else, and then you realize he was tracking a doe that you didnt see, so you need make sure he goes after the right clue, sometimes is as easy as give the command, but sometimes you end following a wrong animal.

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knott
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Re: When to use the German Pointer

Post by knott »

Can´t point her to the right animal goes for the closest. But it would be nice if you could point him to a track and he then focus on that and ignore all the rest. Not that realistic perhaps. But if you have got him tracking the right animal once you can quite easilly have him keep focus on that one by not disturbing her. Not that safe for deer anyway because of the herds though. Had her surrounded by 6 mule does. But it did take a while for them all to spook :)

Deer overall seem to be quite able to detect the dog but may just be due to the more then two eyes thing :)
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VonStratos
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Re: When to use the German Pointer

Post by VonStratos »

knott wrote:Can´t point her to the right animal goes for the closest. But it would be nice if you could point him to a track and he then focus on that and ignore all the rest. Not that realistic perhaps. But if you have got him tracking the right animal once you can quite easilly have him keep focus on that one by not disturbing her. Not that safe for deer anyway because of the herds though. Had her surrounded by 6 mule does. But it did take a while for them all to spook :)

Deer overall seem to be quite able to detect the dog but may just be due to the more then two eyes thing :)
That is what i meant by "pointing to the right animal" as you said it goes after the closest, so if you are after a specific animal, and there are other similar in the area, you need to do some tracking to get close the the prey, and make certain there wont be other animal in the way, then you make sure that giving the command to the dog will go after the right animal.and he will do the rest, this in my experience is very treu when going after foxes in a forest, but if you simply need the detect a pack of animals, like coyotes, the pointer shines and is very simple to use and enjoy, a great investment for bird/rabbit hunting.

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