Best Coon Hunt Yet

Lonny and I went on a fantastic coon hunt Friday January 16th. We hunted with Mo and a guy named Kevin over by Huntsville, IL. We hunted several small strips of timber between corn and bean fields. We took old Jim and Mo had two of his dogs. Things started off kind of slow but we heard the dogs tracking really far away. After a long walk across a muddy corn field we came in on Mo’s dogs who were treeing. Jim had been on a track but it didn’t pan out so he came in to back up the other dogs. We found the coon and shot it out and turned the dogs loose again. Mo’s dogs tree’d the next two coons and we were started to get worried about Jim. All that changed when Mo’s dogs tree’d on one tree and Jim tree’d on another. Jim stayed on his tree because he knew he had that coon. We finally got that coon and went over to see what Mo’s dogs had tree’d and found out it was a den tree and couldn’t find the coon. We turned the dogs loose again and they tree’d at the end of a treeline. It was the opposite end of where the truck was so Mo and I walked back to the truck while Kevin and Lonny went to the dogs. Mo and I drove around closer to the dogs and waited for Lonny and Kevin to show up. After a while they came in with two more coons. Jim had gotten one and Mo’s dogs had gotten the other. Of course Lonny didn’t tell Mo that right away he was joking around about how Mo’s dog had tree’d an opposum while Jim had tree two coons. Lonny told Mo he shot that opposum out and let Mo’s dogs have it. He didn’t really do this but it would’ve been bad because you don’t ever want coon dogs to tree opposums. We loaded up and headed for home. It was the best hunt I’ve ever been on with a total of six coons.

Latest Coon Hunting Story

Lonny and I went coon hunting last Thursday January 15th. This was the first coon hunt we’d been on since Mike died and it just wasn’t the same without him. We talked and thought about him very often throughout the night. 

We hunted over in Schyler county and although we didn’t stay out too long we did get one coon. Tracking must have been extremely difficult due to the dry weather because it took old Jim quite some time to strike a track and when he did he was pretty far off. Lonny and I headed in Jim’s direction and he was stuck on a old log that had fallen across a creek. He knew that a coon had passed there but he couldn’t figure out where he went after that.

We walked him off that snag and he was off again. He struck a track and we had to crawl down in a big ravine with rock walls. Lonny and I talked about how some of the rocks made little caves and how in the old days this would’ve made a pretty good place to hole up in bad weather. We talked about how nice a fire would be after it warmed the rocks up making everything toasty. It was only about 25 degrees out so it sounded pretty good to me. By this time Jim was hot on a track so we made our way down the rocks and across the creek and up the other side. We climbed up right beside a frozen waterfall that looked pretty cool. After some huffing and puffing we got up the other side and walked across a corn field and old Jim was treed. I don’t know how but Lonny spotted the coon in the tree and we set up to shoot him out. Jim was right on that coon when it fell and it still had some fight in it because old Jim yelped a few times. Lonny moved in to help get the job done and then he skinned the coon out. Jim had a few cuts on his nose but no real damage so we walked him out of there.

We talked about it for a few minutes and Lonny said it was up to me whether to turn him loose for another run or call it a night. I said turn him loose and away he went. Well Jim was quiet for a long time and when we finally did hear him he was quite aways away. We found a four wheeler trail to a frozen creek and we walked the creek for a long ways. To my dismay Lonny was walking in front of me and breaking the ice that I’m sure I could’ve walked on without breaking. We finally got to Jim and he was having a hell of time tracking that coon. We waited and waited and he just wouldn’t tree so as bad as it is we went in a got him. We walked back up the creek and called it a night. Lonny was quick to remind me that it was my decision to let the dog go for another run. All in all it was a pretty decent hunt because at least we got a coon.