LCS Universal Bird Launcher II

[torrentduck]

I ran "Widgeon" in her first upland training day with our club this weekend. Wasn't sure how she would do and mostly went to shoot live flyers for club and see what UKC UH is all about. Thanks to some generous club members at CFHRC, I ended up running the girl and she did pretty well overall. She sat steady on shot live flyer sent from winger just to side of the two of us, she did great on a walk-up, and she quartered sort of OK. She got birdie on the chukars and a pheasant in the baskets during the quarters which is what I wanted, but she totally gave me the paw on "sit" to flush even though she knows whistle and verbal sit. I wasn't surprised and as she has had some drive issues, I was willing to give her a "get out of jail free" card this day. I know that has the potential to bite me in the lower quadrant, but getting her to be steady has not been a problem and I really wanted to pump her up on the birds since she does not see them except on duck hunts or occassionally at club training days. Anyway -- I need to start some formal work on this and as I mostly train alone, I feel that I need to get a few box launchers (not an absolute necessity, but will work best for me). I have read previous threads on the products, but I am looking to not spend much. I have a dogtra system I use on the two wingers and have an email into lion country supply. I am looking to use my electronics on two LCS Universal Bird Launcher II units, using a 40 ft cable between the two units like I do with my wingers (not willing to put out the money for another dogtra receiver at this time). Does anyone have personal experience with LCS Universal Bird Launcher II or an earlier model. Seventy bucks a piece is hard to pass up compared to several hundred for other models. Thanks.

Don

[Tim McGarry]

Hi Don,

I just sold all my Lion Country Supply launchers, I live 45 minutes from LCS and bought them from their retail store. They worked very well, I had the LCS electronics though. I sold them bacuase I am switching over to Dogtra bird launchers. Like you, I already have a Dogtra RR for my wingers. You can get the Dogtra stye of launcher for $78 that you can just put you RR receiver on, they come with the solenoid already installed. If you buy the LCS, you have to buy the Dogtra or another brand solenoid, likely making you spend more than the $78 for a launcher with solenoid from Dogtra.

[Tim McGarry]

http://www.dogtrastore.com/ql.html

[torrentduck]

Thanks for the information. Wasn't familiar with that launcher before. Did you ever use yours for launching bumpers? LCS staff said theirs could be used with puppy bumpers, but was designed more for flushing live birds than throwing dead ones or bumpers. I will be using more of the dead birds and possibly bumpers for a lot of her upland training. Thanks again.

Don

[Tim McGarry]

Yes, I used the canvas puppy bumpers with two streamers attached to them quite a bit. They throw them about 16-18 feet high, I would always set them at an angle so I would get a 10-12 foot high arc throw.

I used them a bit with frozen chukars too, not a high enough throw with them though.

That size is really designed to be used with live quail, chukars or pigeons. I did quite a bit of upland training using them with live chukars and pigeons, they work awesome for that.