# Launcher?



## mnadams (May 12, 2006)

Going to purchase a launcher for training and thought I had made up my mind, but now I am not so sure. Just wondering what you would purchase for the "basic Joe" trainer who trains by himself with one dog and who wants a launcher for ducks and dummies. Include the electronics you would get too. Not independently wealthy so price is a consideration, but I want quality, dependablility, and portability most of all. I have a train rite stand with an old retrieve-r-trainer so I would like to get electronics that will work with the new launcher as well as the train rite stand too. :?: 

Thanks for the direction. 

Mark


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## Steve Shaver (Jan 9, 2003)

Zinger Winger and TT pro control hands down. There are cheap imitations but they are not worth it in the long run.


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## Granddaddy (Mar 5, 2005)

There are several good ones. ZW, Gunners Up & the Sure Toss from Dogs Afield included.

Personally I prefer the Sure Toss from Dogs Afield because of its versatility. If you intend from time to time to shoot flyers, the Sure Toss is the best on the market. Their basket design, helps hold the live bird in place, enabling one gunner to place, launch & shoot with ease with the Sure Toss.

Since most set-ups will require 3 or more launchers, cost, storage space required & weight have to be factors. The Sure Toss wins again. It is light weight, can be broken down into a small package (comes with a carrying case) & is priced substantially less than ZW or Gunners Up. It can also be equipped with both a kick release & the Train-Rite trigger which works with both TT Pro controls & Dogtra. As for electronics, I prefer the TT Pro controls because you can control 2 wingers (or a retiring gun mechanism) placed in the same location from the same unit, a substantial value advantage over other controls. The Dogtra controls are also very reliable & have better sound (not important to many that train for field trials) but not the ability to control two wingers/devices at the same location.


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## jcmesquite (Jul 4, 2005)

I have 3ea of the Gunners Up Wingers and love them. I also have2 Pro trainers that I train with and they also like them. They are about $100.00 cheaper than the Zingers. They are out of Tuylsa Okla. and are great to do bussiness with.


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## ducksoup (Oct 3, 2005)

Love the Zinger Winger.


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## lablover (Dec 17, 2003)

I have the Gunners Up SOG model, with Dogtra Electronics..
Works just fine.


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## Lil Dikens Kennels (Mar 30, 2006)

For some one training alone the best investment is a bumper boy 4 or 8 shooter. Wingers are fine but you need to reload each time and training alone it gets to be a long walk to reload. The bumper boy launchers can be made to fire in different directions and can fire a super bird dummy which has wings attached.This way you have 4 or 8 dummies to launch before reloading and they come with their own electronics.
They also have a lease purchase program which is great .Lown down payment and low monthly payments.


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## Misty Marsh (Aug 1, 2003)

$900 each :shock: $300.00 for a Gunners Up and $299.00 for a transmitter reciver combo, cheaper if you need a reciever only. Zingers run about $400-500 each!


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## Lil Dikens Kennels (Mar 30, 2006)

Gunners up - 325 each and the electronics Dogtra RRD3 654.95 plus tax
the Zinger wingers are around 549 each plus tax at gun dog supply
Son of a gun launchers are 299 and the mini wingers are 439
If you go with the Zinger winger with tax and shipping ,although shipping should be free you can pay around 700 each 
Gunners up is less expensive at around 450 for the winger and controls plus tax. when buying 3


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## Granddaddy (Mar 5, 2005)

Lil Dikens Kennels said:


> For some one training alone the best investment is a bumper boy 4 or 8 shooter. Wingers are fine but you need to reload each time and training alone it gets to be a long walk to reload. The bumper boy launchers can be made to fire in different directions and can fire a super bird dummy which has wings attached.This way you have 4 or 8 dummies to launch before reloading and they come with their own electronics...


Bumperboys are nice for cheating singles..............but no substitute for training with ducks.


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## badbullgator (Dec 20, 2004)

Steve Shaver said:


> Zinger Winger and TT pro control hands down. There are cheap imitations but they are not worth it in the long run.


At the test I was at this weekend the judges used both ZW and GU's. While I was gunning I counted no less than 8 no birds from the ZW, zero from the GU. If you want to spend more on something as a status symbol to show you have more money than sense feel free. Don?t they say people who do that are trying to compensate for inadequacy somewhere else? Me, I?ll spend the money saved on each unit on electronics. 
Thousands of birds through my GU's and not a problem at all. I have the TT pros' but after seeing the dogtra with sound this weekend I might switch over. Nothing better about the dogtra except for the sound.


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## mnadams (May 12, 2006)

*One more question....*

I appreciate the replies and opinions. One point that is confusing about the electronics. A couple of people have mentioned that TT allows for controling multiple wingers in the same area while you appearently can't do that with the Dogtra. What gives with this? Am I missing something. Obviously I want to control multiple launchers with only one control, but I am not seeing what the Dogtra requires you to do that is different from the TT? 

Thanks for the assistance for a novice trying to make a sensible purchase to train my lab....

Mark


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## Misty Marsh (Aug 1, 2003)

If I'm not mistaken you can run a second winger/launcher off a TT reciever if you run a length of wire to the second winger, but as you can imagine that is limited to it's length and realistically your not going to run a 50-75 yard wire in the field. The Dogtra remotes can be purchased with a realistic duck call verses the TT with it's tone. If your a hunt test guy the Dogtra will be a nice touch in your training. Wingers start at $275.00 for a Gunners Up SOG and up a coupple hundred bucks a piece more for a Zinger. In regards to the Zinger and the "no birds" my experience tells me it's likely more a matter of the peron using the unit, low batteries in the reciever, or a indented release arm on the release as it's a pretty nice piece of equiptment.


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## badbullgator (Dec 20, 2004)

You can run multiple ?locations? using TT or Dogtra. By this I mean that you can set up 6 different launchers using TT and I am not sure how many using Dogtra (multiple). I think where you might be confused is with the TT you can place launchers side-by-side in the same location (i.e. two or more launchers at the same station) using a cord to connect the launchers.
As to the no birds?it happened with multiple users with the judge operating the release. They were fully charged. The unit fell over twice while shooting the bird, failed to launch three other times and hung the bird in the basket several times (not to mention numerous launches with no ?shot? being fired from the launcher). While it might have been the people loading the unit it still says something when the same people are loading both launchers and only one has problems. If nothing else ease of operation! How hard is it to cock the unit and place a bird in the basket? It was bad enough that the last 3-5 dogs were run having the BB?s hand throw the mark.
To be fair I have not encountered similar problems when using ZW. They are a fine product and other than this incident I have had very few problem with ZW ever. This was only pointed out because of the cheap imitation remark above. Sorry but ZW is no better and no worse than GU. They just cost more.


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## brockdb (Dec 28, 2003)

With Tritronics you can operate 10 receivers or 20 wingers with one transmitter. The Tritronics release has 2 plug-in ports on each receiver that allows 2 wingers (or 1 winger and 1 retired gunner) to run off 1 receiver by pushing the left or right button on the transmitter. The Dogtra only has one port and you can only operate 6 receivers off a single transmitter. Tritronics use tones as an attention getting sound and Dogtra has uses a realistic duck quack. I'm leaning towards Tritronics as I can set up 2 Wingers at each gun station and launch the 2nd winger if the dog gets lost. Although Dogtra's sound is better I'd have to buy 3 extra receivers at $170 each, I would be maxed out on the transmitter and I would be unable to operate a retired gunner or another Winger as a diversion. Does anyone here think the Dogtra's sound is important enough to outweigh the advantages of the Tritronics release? Why can?t Dogtra just add another port or Tritronics add a duck call and make this decision easier?


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## badbullgator (Dec 20, 2004)

brockdb said:


> With Tritronics you can operate 10 receivers or 20 wingers with one transmitter. The Tritronics release has 2 plug-in ports on each receiver that allows 2 wingers (or 1 winger and 1 retired gunner) to run off 1 receiver by pushing the left or right button on the transmitter. The Dogtra only has one port and you can only operate 6 receivers off a single transmitter. Tritronics use tones as an attention getting sound and Dogtra has uses a realistic duck quack. I'm leaning towards Tritronics as I can set up 2 Wingers at each gun station and launch the 2nd winger if the dog gets lost. Although Dogtra's sound is better I'd have to buy 3 extra receivers at $170 each, I would be maxed out on the transmitter and I would be unable to operate a retired gunner or another Winger as a diversion. Does anyone here think the Dogtra's sound is important enough to outweigh the advantages of the Tritronics release? Why can?t Dogtra just add another port or Tritronics add a duck call and make this decision easier?


Sound is not that important, although I do like the dogtra sounds with a young dog. Dogs learn the TT tone means the same thing as a recorded duck call. The duck call just sounds more like what you will hear at HT. Most dogs that train with launchers learn the sound the launcher makes without any other sound involved (primer, tone, quack). I think the only advantage to the sound is that it come closer to actually running a HT set up, but then again some test use goose calls and I have seen dog that did not recognize that as an attractant.
As far as the duck sound being added to TT, I heard somewhere (not sure if it is true or not) that it is a patent issue with the duck sound. I may be wrong, but I know there is some reason that TT cannot, or does not want to make the investment ($$$) to add the sounds.


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## Mark (Jun 13, 2003)

I will hazzard a guess that the failure to release with the Zingers was due to the person loading the unit putting the ring of the pouch on the wrong side of the trigger. It is easy to do if unfamiliar with the units when using both GU and Zingers since the release look the same but act in different directions. On the zingers the ring goes on the left side of the trigger, the right side being the striker for the primer. If you put the ring on the striker side the force of rubbers prevents the trigger from releasing.
I own both and while they perform similarly, The zinger is clearly the better made piece of equipment.


Mark


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## badbullgator (Dec 20, 2004)

Mark said:


> I will hazzard a guess that the failure to release with the Zingers was due to the person loading the unit putting the ring of the pouch on the wrong side of the trigger. It is easy to do if unfamiliar with the units when using both GU and Zingers since the release look the same but act in different directions. On the zingers the ring goes on the left side of the trigger, the right side being the striker for the primer. If you put the ring on the striker side the force of rubbers prevents the trigger from releasing.
> I own both and while they perform similarly, The zinger is clearly the better made piece of equipment.
> 
> 
> Mark


Had nothing to do with the release itself. It released every time, but the birds hung up and/or the basket flopped over causing the bird to hang up.
I guess you could argue that the BB did not know how to load the bird, but he had already loaded it through out the first series with only one no bird and most of the second series (at least 90 birds). If it were in fact that the BB did not load the bird properly you would think that he would have had the same number of no birds with the GU.


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