around to exchange pleasantries, well,
that's just the way it goes sometimes.
Now, I'm admittedly prejudiced
when it comes to setters, so when I say
that Teigen's one of the best and most
complete dogs I've ever had the
privilege of hunting over, you can apply
whatever discount you feel is warranted
to that statement. But when Rick Snipes
gives a setter his endorsement, you can
take it to the bank. A dyed-in-the-wool
pointer man whose ranch in West Texas
is every bit as demanding of a bird dog –
and as quick to expose its limitations – as
the plains of Montana, Rick couldn't say
enough good things about Teigen.
As he told Brad McCardle: "Getting
to see Teigen made the whole trip for
me. He's the real deal, man."
T
his is where I need to back up and
tell you that Rick, Brad, Bob West,
Nolan Huffman and I were part of
a group assembled by Ted Gartner,
Garmin's director of Corporate
Communications, to put the
company's new Alpha 100 track-andtrain collar through its paces. For the
record, the group also included Steve
Snell, president of Gun Dog Supply;
Chad Love of Field & Stream; and
Anthony Hauck of Pheasants Forever.
For the record, too, it was as
companionable and like-minded a
group as I've ever been around –
proving that Ted Gartner knows
how to pick his hunting partners.
I wrote about the Alpha at some
length in my November/December
column, so I'll add only that it's one of
those rare pieces of technology that,
once you've used it, you can't imagine
not using it. The tracking function
alone puts it in a class by itself.
Not that Ted applied the hard sell,
mind you. After giving us a short
familiarization session, making a few
observations about the Alpha being
designed from the ground up and
stressing that it's not simply an
improved version of the Astro,
Garmin's earlier GPS-enabled
collar, he took off his corporate hat
and became just one of the guys on
a Montana bird hunting trip.
After lunch, with the image of that
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