Garmin Alpha 200i Review
This is a review of the Garmin Alpha 200i, after using it for the 2021 Pheasant Season. In summary, it worked very well for my style of hunting and with the dogs that I have.
Update: June, 2025 While I will still continue to use my Alpha 200i I can no longer support Garmin as a company. Or rather,the employees of the company based on their significant contributions to candidates and organizations that are so negatively impacting our democracy.
Why did I choose an Alpa 200i?
I had an Alpha 100 that I used for the 2020 season. Overall, I was happy with the 100 but it had an issue with the touch screen that I either needed to have repaired or replaced. In addition, I was also planning on running two dogs at the same time which would have been difficult with the Alpha 100.
The Alpha 200i was released and it had a bigger screen plus I could display both dogs concurrently. To make it better, I was able to trade in my broken Alpha 100 on the new 200.
First Impressions of the Garmin Alpha 200i
Out of the box, the unit and screen were definitely bigger. This presented a challenge for how I would carry it on my vest. I will explain how I did that in another post.
The button layout was different. With some online research and playing around I got them setup the way I wanted them. Pairing the unit with the collars was very easy. Figuring out the dog grouping took a couple tries. One thing I do not like is that a dog can only be in one group. Originally, I wanted three groups:
- Both dogs
- Just my older dog
- Just my younger dog
That is not an option, so I just have the single group with both dogs. If I am hunting with just one dog, I ignore the other dog’s information. (I figured out how to easily change the display to a single dog. See this post. Scroll down to the “Garmin Alpha 200i … section.)
How I Planned to Use It
My dog’s hunting styles are very different.
Stella, my older dog is the seasoned veteran and requires very little management. She will keep track of where I am and will work ahead of me. When she detects a bird she will point and wait for me to come over, then she will track. So, I mainly use the handheld to see where she is and be alerted when she points. The only active management is for recall and when she goes after a deer or raccoon.
Willow, the younger dog is totally different. She is so focused on hunting and birds that she will lose track of me and the group. Because of this tendency, she requires a lot of active management such as constant reminders to turn or come back (vibrate), hold a Whoa (nick), or stop what you are doing (continuous). She also covers a lot of ground so I am always using the handheld to see where she is and what she is doing, especially if she is in heavy cover or ranging far out.
Configuration
There are three buttons at the top of the unit that can perform different actions. Using a side button I can switch between different configurations. I set them up as follows:
1: I do not use this config very often but it is handy to have.
- Left – Map display
- Center – Compass display
- Right – Mark a waypoint
2: Stella
- Left – Monetary stimulation
- Center – Vibrate
- Right – Continuous
3: Willow
- Left – Monetary stimulation
- Center – Vibrate
- Right – Continuous
Using the side buttons it is easy to switch between the configurations. For the buttons with stimulation, I can config the level specifically for the dog associated with the configuration. If I use a stimulation button, the display will change and I can adjust the level using the side buttons. Not something I did often but a nice feature.
I have location alerts setup to alert me if either dog is more than 50 meters from me. Depending on the dog and what they are doing, I might use the vibrate button to turn them. I set the handheld up to display metric values. My old Alpha 100 would display distances in feet or yards and I was constantly mentally calculating distances. Meters are close enough to yards to make it convenient.
At the end of each hunt and/or multi-day trip I download my track and the dog tracks. Using that data I can determine can generate a plot on the “Garmin Birdseye Satellite” images and save that data in my journal. Here is a sample of a plot. The Cyan track is me, the red track is Stella and the black track is Willow.
Impressions at the end of the Season
I am very happy with the unit and how it performed. It only took a couple hunts to adapt to the new display and button layout. I really liked having both dogs on the compass screen at the same time. I could tell whether they were together or far apart.
The touch screen will not work with a gloved finger, but that is okay. Actually it is probably preferable. In some instances, I would look at the handheld and it would be on some obscure screen. I was never sure how it ended up on that screen but I assume that I somehow touched the screen.
Learning Opportunities
As with any new toy there are always opportunities to learn something new. Over the course of the course of the season here is what I learned:
You have to be cognizant of which button configuration (which dog) is active. My habit was to always have the buttons set to Willow. But you do have to check occasionally. I once stimulated the wrong dog. An added benefit is that it becomes easy to switch dog configurations without looking in the case of an urgent need.
There is a limited amount of memory for dog tracks. If you use the handheld for a really long day or over multiple days you will lose tracking. While this does not affect its use, it will prevent you from downloading history. The easy solution is to save the tracks when you break for lunch or at the end of the day and there is plenty of space for saving tracks.
I hunt the entire season, including into December and January. When temperatures drop the battery on the handheld seem to lose some of its capacity. I never ran out but did have a couple instances of the handheld losing its connection to a collar when it was really low. A reboot of the handheld reestablished the connection but it was annoying. The easy fix is to charge the handheld in the truck during a break.
My Alpha 100 touch screen was damaged, probably while it was in the storage bag. To prevent damage to the new unit I purchased a case that I store it in. The antenna sticks out but the screen is protected. I am very careful to put the unit into the case at the end of each day. Cheap insurance.
Changes I Would Like to See
There are several minor things that I would like to see changed that would improve the usability:
- You can only select one tone. Then that tone is used for any time a tone is used. Ideally, each alert type (point, treed, out of bounds) could have its own tone. Even better, each dog and alert type could be assigned a distinct tone.
- Change the three buttons to be bigger. In the late season with gloves on it can be hard to find a button and to know whether an attempt to push it worked. (See next suggestion)
- Sound a tone when one of the three buttons on the face are pressed. Ideally, each button would have a unique tone.
Recommendation
For my style of hunting and with the dogs I have I do not think I could be effective without a collar system like this. I highly recommend this system.
