# Thunder Launcher marking distances



## MarvBaumer (Nov 8, 2010)

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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## labguy (Jan 17, 2006)

MarvBaumer said:


> 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?



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.


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## Renee P. (Dec 5, 2010)

MarvBaumer said:


> 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?


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.


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## Tim McGarry (Jun 22, 2010)

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.


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## Steve Shaver (Jan 9, 2003)

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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