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.

First Coon Hunt of the Year

My father-in-law (Mike) and I went on my first coon hunt of the year last night and even though we didn’t come back with a coon we still had a good hunt. 

Old Jim treed what seemed like a mile away and he sounded pretty good. It was a big old den tree and we couldn’t find the coon so we walked Jim off the tree. He was pretty convinced there was a coon there because he went back to that tree three times. I swear I think I could find that tree now with my eyes closed. Mike was a little frustrated and he finally got it through Jim’s head that he shouldn’t go back to that tree and he didn’t. After that Jim led us on another merry chase but I was happy because he was at least heading in the direction of the truck. Up and down a couple of hills and through a creek we found Jim again but he wasn’t treed yet so we gave him some time. He was milling around this one area for so long we decided to go take a look and see what the problem was. We found a little opossum in a tree and to give Jim credit he didn’t bark at it but it sure had him a little confused. We got him out of that area and off he went again. By this time it seems like we’ve walked twenty miles but it was probably more like one or two. We were back on our own forty acres and we noticed a lot of deer sign. I was pretty happy about that since I’ll be hunting there this weekend for the second firearm deer season. We hadn’t heard from old Jim in quite a while and I was starting to get worried that he may have taken off after one of those deer. There’s nothing worse than hearing your dog’s bark get farther and farther away as he chases a fast moving deer. You never know when he’ll stop. We got the radio locator out and it was telling us Jim was pretty far away so we got in the truck and drove down the road a ways. The long and short of it is we drove up and down the road and ended up right back where we started. We were just cussin’ that old dog when all of sudden here he came. We called him in the nicest voices we could muster so as not to make him think we were mad. There’s also nothing worse than wanting to end the hunt and have your dog within reach only to have him bolt and have to spend the next two hours looking for him. We got him gathered up and called it a night. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a very fine line between coon hunting and coon dog hunting. I’m not sure which one were doing last night but I still had a pretty good time just being out in the woods.