|
Author
|
Topic: Man, oh man, a new way to call critters!
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted January 15, 2006 01:28 PM
Just to tease y'all a bit, but yesterday, I was introduced to a new way to call a critter by Kent, aka Seeinspots, and it ain't a coyote or a bobcat. I won't tell you what it is, but I can say it is everything you always wanted calling coyotes to be, it's a helluva lot cheaper than running hounds and faster than running traps. Each stand takes, maybe, sixty seconds, and you can run and gun your way along like nobody's business. We'll be heading out tomorrow morning to try and rack up some dead fur. If it happens, we'll have pics. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted January 16, 2006 05:19 PM
Well, it sure isn't as interesting as me sticking my schnoz in a den tree to see if I can guesstimate how many raccoons might be living up there, but this weekend, I stepped up my efforts to learn how to call 'coons in the daytime. I know of two ppl that do it on a regular basis - Kent Constable (went to Colorado with me) and another guy you wouldn't know. Kent told me he wanted me to do an article on this because it was one of the funnest and most exciting forms of critter calling he had ever done. Well, by God, he wasn't lying. What a kick in the ass.
Yesterday, Matt and I were scoring goose eggs trying to call a predator, so we decided to cut our losses and see if what Kent showed me Saturday was worth a damn. We did manage to get one 'coon to peek out of a hole in a big cottonwood. At least Matt saw him. I wasn't yet convinced that the two of them had conspired to take me on a snipe hunt. When we both got tired of hunting, we decided that we would go all out for coons and coons only today and see if we could work it out.
This is going to make a fun story to do. Imagine taking the fun of seeing a coyote work its way toward you on a great stand. Compress all that excitement into, say, 15 seconds of shock and awe type shooting, occasionally running for your life, your target taking one shot, then another, and still charging you like a cape buffalo, more running for your life, then laughing your ass off when the dust clears. That pretty much describes our day.
The first place we saw a coon was a small barn with a loft. We no more than turned the caller on with the coon fight card and we heard thumping and bump right over our head. Moments later, this stump-tailed coon bails out of the hayloft and hits the ground about twenty feet away with all four feet peddling. He wanted nothing to do with that fight so he was gone as quick as we saw him and didn't get a shot.
Next stand, I sat up about twenty feet back off a large cottonwood tree with a hole in one branch. Moments after the caller is on, out comes a coon, and it gets hung up about midhsip and has a helluva time getting out of the hole. You absolutely want to make sure they're clear of the hole before shooting so they don't fall down into the tree where you can't retrieve them. After about fifteen seconds of gyrating and twisting, she breaks free and comes running down the side of the tree. It took three shots with the .22LR to bring her down and one coop d-gracey to anchor her once and for all. That was cool. Here I am at the base of the den tree with her.
We set up in one big concrete building where they doctor cattle with Matt alongside a squeeze shoot and me hunkered behind him and out of sight. I turn on the caller, and moments later peek over Matt's shoulder. There's this huge coon standing at the edge of the loft over the office staring us down. Matt shoots, the coon starts rolling and squalling, then over the edge he goes and bounces on the concrete floor twenty feet in front of us. Then, to our surprise, he's up and charging us. I don't have my rifle at the ready and young Matt's sitting there with his feet spread looking right over the jewels at a charging , very pissed off boar coon. About five more shots in rapid succession turned him to the right where he collapsed about ten feet from us. I didn't know Matt could move that fast.
After a couple of no-go's, we hit a river bend on the way home to try a couple more den trees before calling it quits. We find one medium sized cottonwood with a volleyball-sized hole in one branch. Matt sets up at my 3 o-clock with the caller at about 2. I get my rifle up, safety off, looking at the hole thru the scope. I hit the go button and before I can get back to the rifle, a big boar coon erupts from the hole and is making his way right at me. I'm having a bad time trying to acquire my target and luckily, he stops long enough for me to put one in between his shoulder blades. (Head was blocked) Down he comes, but grabs some bark with one front foot and hangs up. Two more quick shots brings him to the ground where he bounces twice before grabbing the truck of the tree and going right back up. Matt and I both start spraying and praying, each of us hitting him about four times before he comes down again, pissed as hell, and makes a break for it. Matt jumps up, runs him down and finishes him off.
Then, we moseyed around the bend in the river and stumbled upon a small opening in the side of another large cottonwood. We set up about fifteen feet back from the tree and hit the coon fight. Once again, within seconds, two coons appear in the hole looking around for the source of the sound. One starts upward and clears the top of the hollow branch. As soon as he's clear, I bring him down with one shot. The second one just peers out, looking for it's sib and sniffing the air. After about three minutes of staring at me thru the trees (I was fully camo'd), I switch the caller to raccoon and meadowlark and the coon's ears perk up and out it comes. Bap-Bap. Two shots - one from each of us, and down she comes.
This is the five we took of the eight we called total. The longest we spent on stand was, maybe, forty-five seconds. If things down't fire up in the first twenty seconds, you may as well move on. It's everything you ever wanted coyote calling to be, except at the speed of light. Perfect for ADHD people like me. Best thing about it is that it doesn't matter what phase the moon is in, the time of the day, cloudy or clear. Coons want to fight any time you challenge them and, frankly, it was a blast. Looks like a great way to fill a day of calling between calling coyotes in the morning and the evening, with coons in between.
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
|
posted January 16, 2006 05:34 PM
Isn't that a blast? I used to go coon calling as a tradition, opening night of coon season every year.
If you want a real rush, put the caller in a back pack, and go coon calling alone and at night. That will teach you a lot about shooting a rifle one handed while your other hand searches for the light that you dropped.
--------------------
Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted January 16, 2006 07:17 PM
For all the years I trained hounds, I always got opening night off to run my English dogs. We can't use artificial light here unless the coon has been treed with a dog or is restrianed by a trap or cable, so calling them is strictly a daytime affair. Matt is currently a houndsman and I think he's considering selling his dogs since we got more today than they do most nights, and didn't have to walk nearly as far to do it.
[ January 16, 2006, 07:18 PM: Message edited by: Cdog911 ]
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
seeinspots
Knows what it's all about
Member # 676
|
posted January 16, 2006 07:36 PM
that a buddy , thats what i'm talking about !!!!
whackin them coons is fun.
now you got a new vermin to chase.
great job guys !!!!!!!
Posts: 19 | From: kansas | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted January 16, 2006 07:45 PM
Thanks, Kent. I meant to e/m you this evening to let you know how we did but got swamped salting capes. Every one we shot, the both of us just stood there laughing our butts off at how funny that stuff is.
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
|
posted January 17, 2006 09:50 AM
That does sound like fun. I can count on my fingers how many coons I have called, on stand, over the years-day or night. Of course, I was probably using a bird sound and it was just lucky? Or, since I won't shoot them, unlucky. I have killed a couple at night that I thought were coyotes, but we never scored them for points, so they have always been a waste of time to deal with them.
But, what you are doing sounds like fun. Too bad we don't have more actual trees in the desert.
Which brings up a good point. I do see road kill coons occasionally. I wonder where they are hanging out? You have Palo Verde and Mesquite, neither have trunks big enough to have a hole that would accomodate a raccoon.
I remember seeing a few coons down where Tim lives, which does not look like coon country to my untrained eye? I saw one right near Elfrieda and I remember seeing a coon south of Hatchita....I don't remember large trees in vicinity?
I do know a place where there are miles of cottonwoods, I just might try it. What fight sound is the best?
Good hunting. LB
--------------------
EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32370 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
|
posted January 17, 2006 10:36 AM
Leonard,
It's funny (ironic) that you should pose your question today.
Sunday I was hunting in the scablands along the Colombia river, and I found a set of very large 'coon tracks. I thought the same thing you did, "where the hell does a coon live around here?"
I followed the tracks, since they were headed back towards the car anyway, and found a cubby hole in a short outcropping of basalt columns.
I didn't bother to "huff" it. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif) There were enough duck carcasses and cow/deer legs, raccoon tracks, and raccoon fur rubbed on the rocks to know it was being used by the 'coon.
I could see where a coyote came through, in the last day or two, and stole a cow leg (he left a noseprint and a right paw scratch, and the impression of the cow leg in the mud).
Krusty 
--------------------
Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
JoeF
resides "back east"
Member # 228
|
posted January 17, 2006 11:21 AM
Coons love a good ground den. Even here in the midwest with trees by the millions they will often live underground.
The most productive and easiest coon trapping I ever saw was on a farm that had a sink hole about every 50 yards. Each one of those holes was good for a handful of coons. The good news was that the houndsmen had a tough time hunting there because a typical "tree" was in the ground. The even better news was that they were worth about $35 then.
Posts: 658 | From: Midwest | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
JoeF
resides "back east"
Member # 228
|
posted January 17, 2006 11:30 AM
Finally had the time to read the whole thread - man that sounds like fun.
I've called very few coons and can remember only having shot one, and then only because I couldn't wave him off.
Posts: 658 | From: Midwest | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted January 17, 2006 03:34 PM
Leonard,
I use the Preymaster with the Raccoon #1 card in it, specifically the raccoon fight file. As in any calling, success is found by going with what motivates your target. For a coon, right now as they approach breeding sason, a good fight can't be beat. I think they have a trigger about a nanosecond long. Take the aggressive posture of an alpha dog coyote and multiply it by a thousand or so. How many times have we heard that coyotes aren't confrontatioonal animals and will go out of their way to avoid a fight. Not so with coons. They just love a good dust up. Maybe TOO much. Blind rage kinda thing.
One word of advice - use a .22 mag or at the very least, a .22LR semi-auto. If you're using a bolt gun, your ass is kicked coming out the gate. I was absolutely floored at how fast they react and come in. You can't be too ready to shoot when you reach for the go button. I don't think Matt and I have laughed that hard in a log time.
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
MULE
Knows what it's all about
Member # 63
|
posted January 17, 2006 04:14 PM
So basically.
To a racoon. You are the jehova witness that pounds on your door at 8am on saturday morning after a long friday night.
Just kidding
Good info ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
--------------------
Kickin' it on the Steppes. Livin' in my Yurt
My Hockey Mom can beat up your Community Organizer
Posts: 334 | From: Ulan Bator | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
scruffy
Knows what it's all about
Member # 725
|
posted January 18, 2006 07:08 AM
Ok, I'm going to have to try this. I'll see if westernrivers has any coon fight tracks I can download and try. If any of you guys have heard the westernrivers coon downloads, are they any good?
Before next season I'll also try and find the JS coon calling CD to get the MP3 files off of it. Unfortunately this season ends here Jan 31st, so I'll have to hurry out with whatever I can download off the internet.
All of my 22lr's are single shots, my 22mag is an NEF breech loading single shot. So in the rimfire department I'm thinking I would mauled. That leaves a mini 14 which is probably too much gun and a few 12 and 20 gauge pumps. Would #4 birdshot mess up the pelts too much to sell. My family has been using #4 birdshot on coons, possums, skunks, etc for 3 generations now around the farm equipment, in .410's up through 12 gauges (my grandpa used a 410, my dad a 20 gauge, me a 12 gauge, go figure...), so I know it'll put out their lights. But will I be ruining them?
Hey, how much are a coon pelt worth nowadays?
later,
scruffy
--------------------
Git R Done
Posts: 361 | From: south central Iowa | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Locohead
World Famous Smoke Dancer
Member # 15
|
posted January 18, 2006 09:31 AM
Lots of folks get pretty spooked around badgers because of their reputation. Some guys like Rich like to play around with them. I know a rancher that swears(his mom and brother confirmed) used to love to catch them. I asked him if they didn't scratch the heck out of him? He said, "No, those big floppy things can't hurt anybody...They do bite though!!!"
So back to the point. This Spring, Jacob and I chased a big raccoon through a church parking lot and through some yards. Our adrenaline was pumping and I wanted to dive on that sucker and catch it. I love catching animals. If he hadn't of got away, I was gonna wrestle with him. So back to the point again...Would I have gotten Whoopified? I suppose raccoons bite too!!!!
--------------------
I love my critters and chick!!!! :)
Posts: 2219 | From: CO | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bryan J
Cap and Trade Weenie
Member # 106
|
posted January 18, 2006 11:10 AM
Man you are living up to your screen name buddy. Those suckers bite, scratch and grab a hold. I can only guess that the encounter would have ended with some painful shots, and maybe a couple of traumatized critters.
Posts: 599 | From: Utah | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
R.Shaw
Peanut Butter Man, da da da da DAH!
Member # 73
|
posted January 18, 2006 11:14 AM
Loco,
If that coon had any size to him, he would have ate your lunch. Around here, some coons will weigh 30 pounds and have butt holes the size of a silver dollar. We call them ridge runners and nothing will mess with them, not even coyotes. They will come at you while in the trap.
Badgers will come at you in the trap too. I think they are tough. One short story about badgers. My grandfather and a buddy were coon hunting one night and bayed a badger. My grandpa put his dogs on lead and the other fellow decided his dog could kill that badger. Badgers have very loose skin and when the dog grabbed the badger around the throat, the badger rolled inside his hide and used the claws on his back feet to rake the belly of the dog. Dog's guts fell out on the ground. End of story.
*****
Posts: 567 | From: Nebraska | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
R.Shaw
Peanut Butter Man, da da da da DAH!
Member # 73
|
posted January 18, 2006 11:18 AM
Hey Leonard,
I just noticed I cannot sign my name.Just turns into dots. I know the reason and it is no big deal.
*****
Posts: 567 | From: Nebraska | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Rich Higgins
unknown comic
|
posted January 18, 2006 11:20 AM
Danny, I had a friend that had one for a "pet". It grew up to be a very large adult male.
They only look cute. If God made a more contrary critter I don't know about it. It was entertaining to me because I didn't have to live with it.
IP: Logged
|
|
InjunJoe
unknown comic
|
posted January 18, 2006 12:19 PM
***** must be an old ****** name.
IP: Logged
|
|
Locohead
World Famous Smoke Dancer
Member # 15
|
posted January 18, 2006 04:02 PM
So, that time I chased a three-legged coyote to wrestle with? What? Was I being Locoish then too?
Whoakay! I guess I better stick to bunnies and bull-snakes.
Say, Didn't NASA catch a wild burro once and throw it into his trunk? Something like that anyway...
--------------------
I love my critters and chick!!!! :)
Posts: 2219 | From: CO | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted January 18, 2006 04:31 PM
Tell ya what, Danny, I'll give you ten bucks to grab the ass of a wild coon. You pay the ER bills. But, you gotta hang on for ten seconds.
I've immediately learned that there's a bit of a difference between calling a coyote and calling a coon. If there's a coyote coming at you and you stand up so he can see you better, he'll turn inside out and run out his own ******* to get away. A coon, in contrast, will redouble his pace, start growling more, and still try to kick your ass for making him look stupid. There's a reason they call them li'l bears. I've spent more than one night applying my EMS skills to patching hounds back together that ended up going one on one with a good sized boar. A 30# coon can easily handle one 75# coonhound, if not two. Put three experienced dogs in the fight and the coon will probably lose, but not without inflicting a whole lotta trauma before going down. I've watched road smart coons lead trailing hounds out and onto interstate highways, and I've watched water smart coons tread water in a deep river until the lead hound gets too far from the bank, then climb on its head and force it under until it quits fighting back. Been more than a couple good hounds drowned by big boars and sows.
But, yeah. If you wanna grab one, drive on down, I'll get him in front of you and you can have at him. Maybe Rich will come down and video the ordeal so the ER doctors will at least be able to see what happened 'cause they sure won't believe it if we just tell them.
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
|
posted January 18, 2006 04:39 PM
Danny,
Some of us would probably pay good money to watch you ( Or anyone else ) wrestle with an old dry land boar coon.
Of course, we'd want it to be one of those locked in a cage type of fights. Cause about a half a second after you grabbed hold of that coon, you'd be trying like hell to let go of him.
I've known a number of coons to rip their way through the outside wall of an occupied house, because they could smell food inside. They are just little 30 pound grizzly bears, nothing but pure muscle and an empty stomach.
--------------------
Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
|
posted January 18, 2006 04:42 PM
Looks like Lance and I were writing at the same time.
Tell you what Danny, I'll make it $20, and you only have to hang on for 8 seconds. Just like a rodeo!
[ January 18, 2006, 04:42 PM: Message edited by: Tim Behle ]
--------------------
Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted January 18, 2006 04:55 PM
Tim,
My best two English dogs were named 'PR' Lance's Bandit Boy Cody and 'PR' Lance's Grin 'n Bear It (Cody and Bear). Half brothers. Cody was small and timid (50#)and a definite one handler type of dog. Bear was big (85#) and by our estimation, mentally retarded. Surprisingly, at two-+ years old, having shown me nothing at all for a hunting instinct, I returned Bear to the breeder and got a refund. Within two more years, that SOB became a Dual Grand Champion Grand Nite Champion and became one of the most sought after stud dogs in southern Missouri. Go figure.
Bear was a lover and bullheaded as hell. Cody was timid and didn't like strangers. One friend of mine would show anxiety around dogs and Cody got him more than once with a good bite. Ripped one pant leg clear off when they first met and he was standing inside the circle of his chain. Cody barked at him. He told him to shut up and tried to reinforce his point by kicking him. Didn't work so good.
Had a narcotics dog team that worked with my brother once asked to bury some drugs for training around my dog pens to see if the dogs could find the "stuff" when bombarded by all these other intuitively attractive smells. One of the cops had never been around coonhounds before and thought they would be docile. He reached over the fence to give Cody a pat and just got his hand back before Cody borrowed a couple digits. He was telling me about it later that day and said he didn't think potlickin, lop-eared coonhounds would be aggressive at all. I asked him if he would want to be thrown in a dark closet with a pissed off boar coon so they could fight to the death. He said hell no. I just laughed and told him that li'l old Cody just lived for that s h i t.
I'll go $30, Danny. And even provide the first aid when it's over.
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
JD
HONORARY OKIE .... and Tim's at fault!
Member # 768
|
posted January 18, 2006 05:05 PM
Coons are a blast Lance, that`s for sure. Glad you discovered it & enjoy it so much.
Coons are mean, aggressive SOB`s when provoked, I`ve got 2 dogs with the scars to prove it. & a few holes in my boots.
$30...hell man, I`ll go $100 if you come do it here & let ME video the event.
--------------------
Jason
--------------------------------------
What do Obama & TA17Rem have in common........both are clueless asshats!!!
Posts: 1456 | From: NE. | Registered: Dec 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
