Emma Levez
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 14/98) - Hunting, like everything else, is becoming increasingly high-tech these days. In fact, there are so many gadgets that a hunter could lose sight of the game in the confusion.

From rangefinders and protective headphones to shell carriers and gun rests, hunters can find plenty of ways to spend their money.

Bill Tait, owner of Adventure Northwest Ltd. in Yellowknife, says that laser rangefinders, which indicate to the hunter how far away game is, are a popular and useful tool.

"A lot of the better guides here use them," he says, "Also, GPSs (Global Positioning Systems) are great."

Laser rangefinders came out last year, but were only made available in Canada this year, says Dale Johnston, owner of Wolverine Sports in Yellowknife. "They will be popular," he predicts. He has already sold a few this summer -- they range in price from $400 to $600.

Rangefinders are basically a pair of binoculars, with a special feature. When a hunter has his game in view, he presses a button and the rangefinders tell him how far away that game is -- either in yards or in metres. This provides the hunter with an advantage because it allows him to adjust gun height accurately for the distance of the shot.

Margaret Lennie at the Banks Island Big Game Hunters in Sachs Harbour, says that they also see people using laser rangefinders, but other than that, gadgets are few and far between.

At Home Hardware (Norm's Building Supplies) in Inuvik, they don't sell any hunting gadgets. Their customers are local subsistence hunters, rather than sport hunters, and the former seem content to stick with the tried and true.

There is no doubt, however, that some of the hi-tech tools available can be useful to today's hunter.

Global Positioning Systems can assist hunters in locating game, marking trails and mapping country. It is actually possible to mark a trail on your GPS and then to retrace the route at a later time or date. The user can set alarms so that if he wanders off course, the unit will warn him by beeping.

When a hunter is in unfamiliar territory, having a GPS could be invaluable. With the help of a GPS, a hunter can determine his location anywhere on the Earth -- but the GPS does require a minimum of three satellites to read a location.

Still, Johnston warns that it is not a good idea to rely on a GPS unit as your primary means of navigation. They operate on batteries (which last for 17 to 24 hours), and you should always have a back-up.

Johnston says that he has found GPS units to be very popular. "The price has come down a lot -- five years ago you could buy a unit for $800 that today you could buy for $200." He finds that more American hunters have recently been buying at Wolverine Sports because of the low Canadian dollar.

Even though they carry both Eagle and Lowrance GPS lines, the best sellers at Wolverine are Lowrance. GPS vary in price, ranging from $150 to $1,000. The more expensive models will actually display a map of the land.

Protective headphones are another hi-tech "gadgets" on the market. These headphones have two purposes -- the first being to amplify the sounds around the wearer, making the hunter more aware of what is going on around him. The second purpose is to protect the hunter's ears from the sound of the rifle going off.

There are microphones on the outside of the headphones to serve the first purpose, but they automatically shut off when the hunter fires his gun. Within five milliseconds, the shock waves from the gun close the valves in the microphones, stopping the sound from reaching the hunter's ear.

The headphones are lightweight and easily packed. They sell for about $300, but have not proven to be very popular with hunters so far.