Does Anybody Hunt Coons W/ Dogs and Trad?

[Gizzard]

Sounds like a good time and would be great practice for mtn. lions, Just wonder if anybody is in to it. If so please share some storys, gear, and pics.

Thanks Guys, Gian  

[Silvertip Marc]

great post...looking forward to the responses!!

[SilverTip]

I've coon hunted just about all my life, but never with a bow. I would think that a bow would get beat up pretty bad packing it at a fast pace after dark. I hunt in some pretty rough places, but i would love to try a bow if I could get permission to hunt on some of these nice horse farms here in Kentucky. But its really hard to get permission, the farmers dont like their horses upset. Please let me know how it goes if you ever try it. it does sound fun.

                       Billy

[702plmo]

Myself and hunt3r do a little coon hunting.  I put my bow in the truck a few times just in case we had a tree'd coon close to the truck.  that never happened but I will keep trying.

[slayer1]

They do it a lot here in the east. Our archery club has 3 or 4 organized hunts every year. One guy has taken 5 or 6 with a bow this year. I have never tried it myself, but they always have a good story to tell.

[Incognito]

I just got in from coonhunting, but I had a 22 pistol on my hip not a bow. We treed 3 and I don't beleive you could have got an arrow to any of them.

[mjc]

I raise registered mountain curs and coon hunt quite a bit. Even if you dont get a shot at a coon with your bow around here there are always possums that usualy tree low, and of course armadillos.

[Kingstaken]

Have coon and possum hunted with longbow here in the east... One time a buddy of mine and I were coming out of tree stand about 10:00 in the morning and notice a fat coon running across the gully then up a tree. My buddy a compound shooter missed 15 yard shot up in tree,,, the big sucker was laying flat on his belly on a limb with about 6" showing ....
I heaved one up there and got a pass thru. He looked down at me syaing "No way, you shot me with that thing"? He dropped right to the ground.
Still aiting for that quiver to be made.

[Woodduck]

I used to have a Mt.Cur and Treeing Walker cross and that's why I married late in life          
Way back then, never thought of carrying my bow. It was cool to be a 'two season hunter', as Fred Bear said.
You'll just have to go and carry your bow.
This time of year, around here, you can walk the swamp and on a sunny day catch brother coon asleep on a limb.
This would be a better shot opportunity, probably.
You never know, though.
When I hunted with one dog; sometimes you could 'squall em' down the tree, some.
It's all fun...take the bow if it's ok with the dog owners and get them to 'hold ol'Blue!'
And never climb the tree if you go with anybody what takes a monkey!    :rolleyes:    

   http://www.homestead.com/deehumor/coonhunting.html  

Go when John goes...

  http://www.homestead.com/deehumor/knockhimout.html

[madness522]

[hijack]
Sorry to hijack the thread.  But I am curious what you do with a coon besides using them for target practice?  I've heard stories from my grandpa about them being pretty grease and not taste good.  Coon skin caps come to mind but I have never seen anyone wear one.

[/hijack]

[B-DOG]

i squirrel hunt with dogs and have been thinking of taking my bow sometime, if anyone would like to try let me know and we will go

                        benji

[Ia Hawkeye]

Used to hunt coons with dogs back in the 60's.
We used trad equipment because it was BC.
Coon hides used to be worth up to (if my memory serves me) $60 .

[jeff / sc]

We've done it and it's a blast...we even got some coons!! Number one rule, since you will be shooting up in the trees, be sure that you are the only people around and that your group is all together, number two rule, same as number one...should also point out that dogs need to be with group and tied....not a good idea for a high priced coon dog grabing a coon with a broadhead sticking thru it. Wrap bands of reflective tape around your arrows and use sharp broadheads (reason for rule one).  Use arrows that you are not in love with.  Take a compass, it will help you find arrows and possibility your truck. The arrows that miss (most), and the ones that don't stick in the tree (a few), will be easy to find if you used the reflective tape, follow a compass line in the direction that you were shooting and the woods are resonably open.  We've had better luck getting shots on upland sites (smaller trees), most of the coons treed in the river bottom were way up high in real big trees.

[Jason Kendall]

I have done it at it is a blast, I have a picture from a few years ago I will try to post Friday (its at work right now) A member here and a good friend of mine that goes by Chieftain has a couple state champion dogs and one weekend we decided to give it a shot, I was amazed he hadnt done it before because he is a major trad junkie! Anyways, he carried his trusty .22 and I carried a 54" prototype longbow I was working on at the time. Now 20 yard shots arent that tough until you get them up in a tree at night with a spotlight! Now thats a tricky shot! We ended up with 5 big coon that night in less than 2 hours, 3 by .22 and 2 by my cedar shafts tipped with 135 grain magnus heads I found in the bargin bin for $5 at Cabelas. I lost 3 arrows out of the 6 I shot up in the air, reflective tape would have been nice but man it was fun!

[TBone07]

My cousin is big in to it with guns and if I wasn't as big of a deer hunter I would get a dog and try but for now whenever I visit him I just take my bow when he goes out, havn't shot one yet with dogs though. I've killed one out of a tree when I was in my own treestand and his picture is on a different post but usually we just shoot them around the barn and stuff trying to pick fights with cats. THEY ARE TOUGH! If you guys ever shoot one, make sure you fling an arrow perfect for a passthrough or else shoot one that you won't miss cause he's going to break it! They spin and growl and oh baby they're fighters!

[STOBBER]

I have never per say "hunted coons" But fer some wierd reason i seem to kill a coon fer a first kill with every bow i have owned. They seem to be my mojo makers......yeah.....i try and retrieve 'em and eat'em !

[Woodduck]

The meat is delicious.
Been to wild coon hunt suppers(befor a trophy hunt) and even the head was cooked and you'd take your Pepsi bottle and break the skull and eat the brain.
Some of the women would kind'a give you a loooong raised eyebrow look, and scrunch their mouth up, if you banged on it too much.
I think they didn't want you to scratch the table up, or something; so I only ate one brain.
I think I was too timid 'cause it was my first time there.
They were right nice looking table tops.      
Eat what you kill.    

[bretto]

Par boil for about 20-30 min. in large pot with diced onion remove let cool to touch rub with liquid smoke, sesoning put on grill on low heat cook until bones pull out. Dice up put in crockpot with your favorite bbq sauce.Cook on low til it falls apart and enjoy.(wont be greasy)

[Ryan O'Sullivan]

I hunt with Red bones, I killed a few with a bow but they were all during daylight hours. Theres just something about shootin up in the air/trees in the dark that kinda conserns me...lol.