Culling Comms

[Wmjas]

Hi Guys,

We have recently been doing a bit of culling of deer that have wound up in forestry blocks behind deer fences on the neighbouring properties that are getting ready to plant. We generally get together as a group, find one or 2 decent glassing spots and set up spotters while another 2-3 shooters go through the block, being talked into the deer as necessary. We have quickly come to realise that we need a better comms system for safety and efficiency.

The question I have for anyone in similar circumstances is what have you found to be the best way of using a radio without it “squawking” and spooking deer. We’re all fairly keen to avoid looking like Rambo if we can but I’m sure there must be a way of using the radios with ear defenders or earpieces.

Any help is much appreciated. Also any specific radio brands that you guys are using that you think we should look at would be a great help.

 

[Donkey Basher]

There are two alternatives I’ve used in the past.

First is to buy a lapel mic that plugs into the radio & your electronic ear defenders - not a cheap option & with the one I had it wasn’t possible to alter the volume of the radio comms through the ear defenders.

Second is to buy a ‘G’ or ‘D’ shaped earpiece with lapel mic that plugs into the radio with the earpiece sitting under the ear defender.

Biggest issue we had was the limitations of using PMR which is low power, unlicensed & suffers from chatter from other users. Ended up going to licenced VHF frequencies with Motorola radios.

 

[doric_prince]

Not used one, but a radio with that’s supports an ear piece input might help you control surrounding audio.
Signature.

 

[Wmjas]

There are two alternatives I’ve used in the past.

First is to buy a lapel mic that plugs into the radio & your electronic ear defenders - not a cheap option & with the one I had it wasn’t possible to alter the volume of the radio comms through the ear defenders.

Second is to buy a ‘G’ or ‘D’ shaped earpiece with lapel mic that plugs into the radio with the earpiece sitting under the ear defender.

Biggest issue we had was the limitations of using PMR which is low power, unlicensed & suffers from chatter from other users. Ended up going to licenced VHF frequencies with Motorola radios.

Thanks for the tip, what sort of range were you using PMR at?

Was it comfortable enough to to wear earpieces under your ear defenders? It’s something I’ve looked at but wasn’t sure if the practicality.

 

[lochty]

Tried using earpieces and clip on Mike's that connected to our radios a while ago. Tolerably successfull until the wind got up or it rained. Found much more success just giving the transmit button a couple of clicks as an alert.

 

[Donkey Basher]

Thanks for the tip, what sort of range were you using PMR at?

Was it comfortable enough to to wear earpieces under your ear defenders? It’s something I’ve looked at but wasn’t sure if the practicality.

PMR was pretty useless - line of site was reasonable but if terrain was undulating and/or wooded then sometimes restricted to 4-500 yards or even less. Annoying thing was that we couldn’t communicate over that sort of distance but could hear the conversation from the shoot next door!!

 

[Donkey Basher]

As for earpieces under ear defenders, I never really got on with these but the ‘G’ shape were better than the ‘D’ shape. Easier not to wear ear defenders as rifles were moderated.