For those that use a Thunder 500 or 1000 are you comfortable throwing marks at 250 yds. or longer. Do you think given a reasonable background your dog sees the Thunder bumper in flight at those distances?
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Thunder Launcher marking distances
For those that use a Thunder 500 or 1000 are you comfortable throwing marks at 250 yds. or longer. Do you think given a reasonable background your dog sees the Thunder bumper in flight at those distances?
Originally Posted by MarvBaumer
Depends............the challenge with those distances is that the bumper is half way through it's arc before the sound reached the line. Some dogs seem to do OK with this and some not as well.
I've ziptied black and white streamers onto the bumpers to make them more visible but it still isn't 100% bullet proof.
I now limit the use my use of launchers to a maximum of 100 to 150 yards as I find this to be a more consistent distance to give the dogs a fair chance at seeing the mark. Longer marks I use a human who shoots first, then throws......... I want to make absolutely sure the dog sees the mark.
If I/we/you can't continue to advance our methods that focus on making training easier to learn/less painful for the dogs, we have no right to be training them. (Alec Sparks)
FTCH AFTCH NOREMAC'S UNDERTAKER (DIGGER) QFTR JFTR
-2012 Canadian National Amateur Retriever Championship Finalist
-2011 Canadian High Point Qualifying Retreiver
BARFLY'S DEADLY AIM (SNIPER) QFTR JFTR
-2012 Canadian High Point Qualifying Retriever
-2011 Canadian High Point Junior (Derby) Champion
No. So I use my 500 for marks < 100 yds. I have only tried the white bumpers that come with it, and I have not tried attaching streamers.
I don't think they mark well off of wingers at long distances either.
Renee P
We use them regularly at distances over 250. Black and white duct tape streamers on both our white and our black bumpers. We select bumper color based on background. We have 10 shooters, if the young dogs dont see the mark we just shoot another one.
Tim McGarry Jr
AKC Retriever Hunt Test Judge # 95104
I dont care for them at long distance. Sometimes they are visible and sometimes not. Mine are black and white and have streamers. In some conditions I have used them over 300 yds but in other conditions had a hard time seeing them at 150. Duck out of a winger is much better, I regularly use them out to 400.
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