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For coon hunters

alinwa said:
Dunno where those pix were from but I believe central Minnesota has the biggest coons in the world..... coonhunting in the late 70's the guys I hunted with (I would say "we" but I was just a spectator going along with my Dad and his buddies) got two coon 3 nights apart that went over 60lb each. My boss at the time hailed from Nakina NC and he mentioned that the winning coons from "Coon On A Log" contests back home had come from Minnesota..

These coon were corn-fed and numerous. I remember wheeling into fields making a racket and before we let the dogs loose we'd shine all the trees. sometimes get 3-5 coon before ever starting the hunt. And 6-8 coon a night wasn't uncommon. I think the record was 15 keepers in a night. The first yr I trapped my way through Gunsmithing school I remember furs were up and the guys I hunted with got over 60 coon, figured they actually made money over expenses.

The crew I hunted with brought two pit bulls for the ground action. They didn't trail, they just chewed the tree when we got there but they were very useful when a coon bigger than some of the dogs hit the ground like a busted garage door spring. I swear a big mad coon will send a bear packing.
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I'm not calling BS on 60 pound coon but I haven't seen any. I live in WI. and have coon hunted with dogs and spent a few years trapping hard, taking 500 to 700 coon in a season. Our coon are also corn fed. I had some boys skinning for me at one point and they told me that I had a couple like around 36 pounds. I can't verify that and my memory isn't perfect but the heaviest one I weighed was either 32 or 34 pounds. I have 2 mounted coon that are unique colors. One is about the same orange color as some house cats. The other has a snow white tail and other areas of white and gray. The orange colored ones are taken now and then, but I haven't see another one like the snow white tailed coon.
 
The biggest one I have ever seen was in 1986 or 87 at the Virginia State Championship coon hunt in Hopewell, Va. All I saw was the hide. This man had it dried and stretched and it was just shy of four feet long. Being stretched we all know that the animal could not have been that long in life. He said he didn't weigh it, but he said it was "heavier than a bag of dog feed". Being coon hunters we all knew what 50 pounds of dog food felt like. He said he shot it out of a big nest it had built in the top of a tree. Seeing this thing in person I would have to say that a 60 pounder is not out of the question, especially up north.
White ones are very rare. I have only seen 3. Two were mounted and one was alive at a neat little zoo in Virginia Beach, Va. I have seen quite a few of the orange looking ones. They are about like the black or dark ones, we usually get at least one of those a season here.
 
msinc said:
The biggest one I have ever seen was in 1986 or 87 at the Virginia State Championship coon hunt in Hopewell, Va. All I saw was the hide. This man had it dried and stretched and it was just shy of four feet long. Being stretched we all know that the animal could not have been that long in life. He said he didn't weigh it, but he said it was "heavier than a bag of dog feed". Being coon hunters we all knew what 50 pounds of dog food felt like. He said he shot it out of a big nest it had built in the top of a tree. Seeing this thing in person I would have to say that a 60 pounder is not out of the question, especially up north.
White ones are very rare. I have only seen 3. Two were mounted and one was alive at a neat little zoo in Virginia Beach, Va. I have seen quite a few of the orange looking ones. They are about like the black or dark ones, we usually get at least one of those a season here.
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A 32 to 33 inch stretched and measured paid top dollar. 48 inches would be real big. The biggest I got was 32 pounds. When i got married, I bought and paid for the refrigerator, stove, washer and dryer with trapping hunting money. Red foxes paid up to 80.00 back in the mid seventies early eightys. Grays brought around 65.00. Racoons paid 30.00 for large. Heck opposums even paid up to 8.00. Matt
 
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alinwa said:
I hear you....and on the memory thing.

I was afraid to post the weights without checking my numbers with some friends (the guys I hunted with are gone)

But here is a link from a MN site http://deertrail.us/minnesotawildlife/minnesotawildlife/raccoon.html
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Hi Al. There is always that one here and there that far exceeds the norm. What I was struggling with was 2, 60 pounders three nights apart. It's time to buy a lottery ticket when that happens. :) They always feel heavy when you are 2 miles from the truck and have to wade through a mile of multiflora rose and cross a 100 acre corn field crossways. I've always said that the only thing worse than leading a dog through a corn field was leading multiple dogs through one! :D I never did a ton of beaver trapping, but I did catch a 72 pounder, verified by scales. That is a big beaver, but I have seen a picture of one in a magazine that was a hundred and some pounds. Big as a small bear! It's all good!
 
timeout said:
Hi Al. There is always that one here and there that far exceeds the norm. What I was struggling with was 2, 60 pounders three nights apart. It's time to buy a lottery ticket when that happens. :) They always feel heavy when you are 2 miles from the truck and have to wade through a mile of multiflora rose and cross a 100 acre corn field crossways. I've always said that the only thing worse than leading a dog through a corn field was leading multiple dogs through one! :D I never did a ton of beaver trapping, but I did catch a 72 pounder, verified by scales. That is a big beaver, but I have seen a picture of one in a magazine that was a hundred and some pounds. Big as a small bear! It's all good!
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Far as I can remember those were the only two truly outsized specimens ever gotten while I was involved. "Coon Super Blankets" LOL

It probably was not purely coincidental.

Those nights of fury kinda' all run together but I think one of those was made furthermore memorable for the guy who got to pack it out. He shall remain nameless but he was a lineman for the local REA, 250lb of mustache and muscle. Hides were big bucks (I also remember "60lb and $60.00" but won't swear to it) and we were always looking for ways to save them. He'd made a club from 7200V CU mainline cable by twisting it and letting it twist back on itself into a doubled flexbar wrapped with electrical tape. A fearsome thing to swing about. And he loved to wade into the dogpile and extract the coon. He whacked this one and gunnysacked it. Only way to carry it was over his shoulder. He was out in front of me when he went haywire.... the coon had woke up, had the ball of his thumb thru the gunny sack and was clawing it's way into his clavicle.

There was some swearing and rolling about on the ground.

There was some hysterical guffawing and rolling about on the ground....

And there was some leaping and bounding, flailing and pounding and some loud expostulations of "NO! You WILL NOT shoot that sumbitch! I'll strangle it cold!!" and suchlike that while dancing widdershins around a burlapped coonhead before things cooled down enough to sort out individual features.

And it woke up twice more on the way to the truck.

I remember firmly believing that every story I'd ever heard, read or retold about killing wild animals with clubs had to be fabricated because if you can't kill a coon with a club that felt like would take a man's head clean off in one swipe.......

I swear..... grown men LEAPING thru the thicket in the dark over fences, cricks and rockpiles. I've hunted those same areas for grouse in broad daylite and marveled, "we COULDN'T'VE RUN THROUGH THERE!!!"


but we did

and only a coonhunter will ever believe it
 
BTW I really need to thank msinc and helmut in the bush

let me just say it.

"I'm not a dog person".

Sorry to all a' you'se dog people.

I haven't ever owned a dog since I've left my parent's farm.

But those pictures of real coon dogs are just too good..... Them aren't DOGS.....

Them are FAM'LY :)

Those pictures get blurry when I look at 'em.
 
Our coons aren't overly large here in N. NV, but from five feet away, in your living room, a full-grown adult seems yuuuge. I learned not to leave my front door ajar while watching TV in summertime. One sauntered in and stood there staring me down. Uh ...
-
 
alinwa said:
Far as I can remember those were the only two truly outsized specimens ever gotten while I was involved. "Coon Super Blankets" LOL

It probably was not purely coincidental.

Those nights of fury kinda' all run together but I think one of those was made furthermore memorable for the guy who got to pack it out. He shall remain nameless but he was a lineman for the local REA, 250lb of mustache and muscle. Hides were big bucks (I also remember "60lb and $60.00" but won't swear to it) and we were always looking for ways to save them. He'd made a club from 7200V CU mainline cable by twisting it and letting it twist back on itself into a doubled flexbar wrapped with electrical tape. A fearsome thing to swing about. And he loved to wade into the dogpile and extract the coon. He whacked this one and gunnysacked it. Only way to carry it was over his shoulder. He was out in front of me when he went haywire.... the coon had woke up, had the ball of his thumb thru the gunny sack and was clawing it's way into his clavicle.

There was some swearing and rolling about on the ground.

There was some hysterical guffawing and rolling about on the ground....

And there was some leaping and bounding, flailing and pounding and some loud expostulations of "NO! You WILL NOT shoot that sumbitch! I'll strangle it cold!!" and suchlike that while dancing widdershins around a burlapped coonhead before things cooled down enough to sort out individual features.

And it woke up twice more on the way to the truck.

I remember firmly believing that every story I'd ever heard, read or retold about killing wild animals with clubs had to be fabricated because if you can't kill a coon with a club that felt like would take a man's head clean off in one swipe.......

I swear..... grown men LEAPING thru the thicket in the dark over fences, cricks and rockpiles. I've hunted those same areas for grouse in broad daylite and marveled, "we COULDN'T'VE RUN THROUGH THERE!!!"


but we did

and only a coonhunter will ever believe it
Click to expand...

had one wake up in the back of my old jeep wagoneer with 3 of us in it. first thing i saw when i looked in the rear view mirror was that coon sitting on the top of the back seat beside my buddy darrel. he hadn't seen it yet. i hit the ditch and we all bailed out.

back when i was young and foolish and trapping a bunch one day i decided i was going to keep one live. had a buddy holding a croker sack and i stepped on that coons neck, got him by the ears with my thumbs under his chin and stepped on that trap spring. good thing i had a heavy coat on. they fight with all 4 feet and their mouth too. i never have figured out who had who but i wasn't turning loose and neither was the coon. my buddy was laughing so hard he couldn't keep the sack open and i am not sure he really wanted to get involved in my situation anyway. finally that coon got.tired or settled down enough to get him in the sack. after that i made me a choke stick.

I swear..... grown men LEAPING thru the thicket in the dark over fences, cricks and rockpiles

here in south georgia it is hardwood bottoms and cypress swamps. hope it is cold enough to keep the moccasins away. something that will stop you cold running through those bottoms is what we call wait-a-minute vines. a briar vine that grows about as big as your thumb. I will stop you cold. sometimes they grow in what seems to be walls.

wish i still had the endurance for it now. lots of fun listening to the dogs run and chasing through them swamps. guess i could sit on the hill, build a fire and listen to the dogs run.
 
Nothing like hitting the standing corn fields with multiple dogs, late in October. Until a coon climbs up on you they can get to your hat pretty quick. Still have my Wheat lite, with a hot bulb. 26 shot in 1 evening was my best, left the small ones up trees. We got telemetry collars for the dogs when the big grain bin fans started showing up, could hardly hear the dogs the fans are so loud.
 
Richard Coody said:
had one wake up in the back of my old jeep wagoneer with 3 of us in it. first thing i saw when i looked in the rear view mirror was that coon sitting on the top of the back seat beside my buddy darrel. he hadn't seen it yet. i hit the ditch and we all bailed out.

back when i was young and foolish and trapping a bunch one day i decided i was going to keep one live. had a buddy holding a croker sack and i stepped on that coons neck, got him by the ears with my thumbs under his chin and stepped on that trap spring. good thing i had a heavy coat on. they fight with all 4 feet and their mouth too. i never have figured out who had who but i wasn't turning loose and neither was the coon. my buddy was laughing so hard he couldn't keep the sack open and i am not sure he really wanted to get involved in my situation anyway. finally that coon got.tired or settled down enough to get him in the sack. after that i made me a choke stick.

I swear..... grown men LEAPING thru the thicket in the dark over fences, cricks and rockpiles

here in south georgia it is hardwood bottoms and cypress swamps. hope it is cold enough to keep the moccasins away. something that will stop you cold running through those bottoms is what we call wait-a-minute vines. a briar vine that grows about as big as your thumb. I will stop you cold. sometimes they grow in what seems to be walls.

wish i still had the endurance for it now. lots of fun listening to the dogs run and chasing through them swamps. guess i could sit on the hill, build a fire and listen to the dogs run.
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Listened to hounds run most of my life. Nothing much better than a pack of hounds driving a red fox round and round, all night long.
 
timeout said:
Listened to hounds run most of my life. Nothing much better than a pack of hounds driving a red fox round and round, all night long.
Click to expand...

Well yeah it sounds good....of course it aint so good when it's coon you are after. Running "off game" has always been the biggest problem hunting with hounds. They can really blast a deer, but you wont hear it long and they are out of hearing range!!!
 
msinc said:
Well yeah it sounds good....of course it aint so good when it's coon you are after. Running "off game" has always been the biggest problem hunting with hounds. They can really blast a deer, but you wont hear it long and they are out of hearing range!!!
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Well my experience with coon hounds is not stellar, as I have never owned a good one. I have hunted with one another fellow owned. The very few I ever owned if they treed, you better run to the tree or they might have already moved on. And yes, about the time you are walked in a mile from the truck, out they go on a high hopper. My experience was more with fox and coyote hounds, and while they are by no means immune to running off game, I was generally near the pickup. The problem is not nearly so difficult to resolve in more recent times. If you invest in a Tri Tronics Trashbreaker, you are solidly in control. I had the two mile, 6 dog system. With my last group of in the wild hunting dogs, all but one wore the trash breaker any time they were loose (along with GPS collars). I will guarantee you that if they were within earshot, and I pressed that little magic button, the matter was resolved. The early models were often in the shop and when they did work, they were often not so effective.
 
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