Not fishing or boating

[deputydawg]

I don't know how many here have ever racoon hunted before. If you have you know where I come from. If not, sometime find the chance to talk to any old coon hunter. They all have the best and funniest stories!<br />The other night a friend and I went hunting. We got into a stand of trees in the middle of nowhere along a winding creek deep in a canyon. We saw one sitting on a branch of this old tree. My friend took the shot because he is a better shot than I. His first shot hit the coon, but the animal was able to make it into a hole in this old hallow tree. Not wanting to leave a wounded animal out there, my buddie climbed the tree as we often do. About 12 feet up he hit the tree with his pistol butt to see if it was hallow. As it turns out the tree was hallow under the bark, and broke open exposing 3 very angry coons. Higher up the wounded coon decided to come out fighting. He was hanging in this old tree fighting off 4 racoons yelling and shooting until they all fell in a pile. Luckily he was not hurt. I was laughing too hard to be of any help by that time, and hiding from his random shots. As the saying goes he was spraying and praying. He ended up getting 2 of the 4. To top it all off, after walking 1/2 mile back to the truck carrying the 25 pound coons, he suddenly says "where the %$#%& is my rifle?" Turns out he left it at the base of this tree drawing his pistol for the climb. <br />I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Just glad he wasn't hurt, I would feel bad laughing then!

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Not fishing or boating

I've certainly heard of 'coon' hunting before but what the heck do you do with them after you bag them? I know that coonskin hats are out of favor but I'm not sure about coon tails hanging from your antenna.

 

[JB]

Re: Not fishing or boating

I have had occasion, many years hence, to be entangled with an angry (or frightened) 'coon.<br /><br />Don't want to ever do that again.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Not fishing or boating

A coon can single handedly wup just about any dog out there. My cousins coon hunt and one of them has lost several dogs. Each of these dogs would sell for a couple of thousand a piece, and each was wupped by a coon. <br /><br /><br />Boomyal- Some of us eat them. I have only ate a couple myself. The colored people (that is the pc term correct?) in my area will take them from you in a heartbeat. One woman who has long since passed could make a mean roast. We would drop them off at her house and she would show up the next day with a little something for us. Those sandwiches were very good. Those that we cooked never did taste right, but she had the knack.

 

[deputydawg]

Re: Not fishing or boating

Sell them for the fur. Growing up dad and I had several hounds. Season runs from November 1 until the end of Feb. We used to get around 30 to 50 dollars a peice depending on size. That financed Christmas and our summer vacations growing up. We could easily bag 2 or 3 hundred a season if we hit it hard.<br />Now they are around $10 each. Not much money. I don't have dogs anymore, doesn't pay to feed them over the summer. The money this year went to putting food on the table.<br />Never ate one, but know people who have. Dad and I used to hunt competition with our dogs, see how many the hound can tree. Dads pair of dogs won every competition for a lot of years running, until a trapper snagged one of tghe pair. The other dog just never hunted good again. My dog was killed by a coon, my other dog got a heart worm and died.

 

[AK_Chappy]

Re: Not fishing or boating

DeputyDawg,<br />That brings back some memories!! And laughter.<br />My Dad and I went out quite often when I was growing up. One night, when I was maybe 10, we went out. Treed three in one tree. Dad let me shoot one. He picked the biggest one out and told me to shoot it. Only one, so we could leave some "seed". Anyway, I shot it and my Dad finished it off. It was a HUGE one. Dad made me carry it. We got about 1/8 mile from the house and I was done. That thing got heavy! Dad put the coon in his "game pocket" in the back of his coat. We started walking, got about half the rest of the way and my Dad started doing a really funny looking dance. He finally got his coat off and the coon ran out and into the woods. Dad is yelling, telling me to shoot it. I am laughing so hard, I couldn't have hit the broad side of the barn. Dad was a little upset at first, but finally he just started laughing too. One of many fond memories I have.<br /><br />AK Chappy

 

[Stumpknocker]

Re: Not fishing or boating

I once lived in NC. A friend took myself and my son out hunting for coons. Dogs treed one and it went up the center of this hollow tree. Alan stuck his rifle up the hollow and popped off a few shots. Then he stuck his head up the hollow tree and shined his light upward. We were able to see it all as this long showering golden stream of Coon urine splattered all over Alan's face. Dead hit. I thought I would die laughing right there on the spot. Alan was furious and told us to wait right there with the dogs. He stalked off cursing and muttering all manner of evil Coon curses. After he cleaned up he brought back a ladder, a chainsaw and attacked that tree with a vengance. He finally got the Coon, but we never let him live it down!

 

[MTFishGuy]

Re: Not fishing or boating

One time, me and some forestry techs were marking trees on a planned timber sale. We come across a baby porcupine that seen us and immediately headed up a small pine tree. One of the techs went over and grabbed that porcupine by the hind leg and was pulling him down off that tree. We were all hollering, "leave that damn porcupine alone". The porcupine had a death grip with his front legs on the tree and started hollering and carrying on. Anyway, the tech thought he just about had him, when the porcupine sprayed him flush in the face with porcupine pee. I mean it drenched him bad. The tech unfortunately had both his mouth and eyes open at the time. He immediately goes to flopping around shouting," I'm blind, I'm blind, help me". The rest of us near fell to the ground, weak from laughing. We had nothing but snow to scrub the tech up with. The porcupine headed further up the tree, where no one else messed with him.

 

[Triton II]

Re: Not fishing or boating

About ten years ago I was testing a motorcycle for a magazine and took the bike up one of our remote mountain country roads for a “performance” test. Half way up the mountain, there’s a very good coffee shop which features a “one-shot” golf tee… the green being across a valley about 150 yards away. There’s also a resident grey kangaroo which bludges food off visitors. <br />To cut a long story short, the little ‘roo took exception to me trying to knock the living daylights out of a golf ball on his patch of turf and took a few swings at me. The little bugga also reared up on his tail to try and kick me to death. It’s amazing how your swing improves when you’re scared… and how hard my mates laughed at me for “attacking” this “cute little ‘roo!” Cute my ar$e! Anyway, I survived, as did little kanga, the coffee was good and the ride made all the more memorable by the incident.

 

[rottenray6402]

Re: Not fishing or boating

Thanks for a good laugh. The only coon story I have are from fishing/camping trips in Georgian Bay in Canada. Where we camped there were a family of coons that would come into camp right after dark almost every evening. We could usually chase them away by yelling or shining our lights on them. One night we had gone to bed in the tent when we heard some noise coming from our cook area. Apparently we had spilled some food in the bottom of the stove and a coon had one front leg around a tree and trying to get into the stove with the other. I walked up to him with our camp shovel and when he looked around at me I hit him in the face with the shovel. He dropped like a rock and ran off into the woods. We weren't bothered by coons the rest of the trip.

 

[ebbtide176]

Re: Not fishing or boating

LMAO, DD thats the best coon story i've heard, better than jerry clower.

 

[deputydawg]

Re: Not fishing or boating

Jerry Clowers story of John Eubanks and the huntin trip is much better. When he climbs a tree and pokes a lynx with a sharp stick thinkin it were a coon.<br />Almost as funny as when an old huntin friend of mine many years ago reached into a den hole in a creek bank after a coon that had been shot and sounded like it died. When he reached in and grabbed the tail of that old coon, he found it wasn't a coon and it wasn't dead. It was a very upset badger. What happened next was too funny to tell!