When night falls

In pursuit of the ringtail bandit

Hunters watch for the golden eyes of raccoons at night.
Hunters watch for the golden eyes of raccoons at night.

Raccoon hunting in Arkansas dates back to the time of the earliest Native Americans. In recent decades, however, the sport seems to have fallen out of vogue. That’s a shame because raccoons are more common now than ever, and skyrocketing populations are causing problems such as the spread of rabies and the decline of ground-nesting birds that hunting raccoons could help resolve.

Becoming a raccoon hunter requires an extra measure of dedication, but the rewards are many: the pleasure derived from being outside listening to the bawl of hounds on a raccoon’s trail, the camaraderie with fellow hunters and delicious meals prepared from the bounty of the hunts.

Raccoon hunting differs in several ways from most other hunting sports. For example, while other nimrods are racking their guns, hungry and tired after a long day afield, the coon hunter is just getting started. When supper ends and darkness falls, he fills a thermos with coffee, loads his hounds in the back of the truck and disappears into the night. As writer Bob Gooch once said, “He is bassackwards in his living routine.”

The minor role played by the firearm also sets coon hunting apart. There may be several hunters, but only one gun for the entire party, usually a .22 rifle with iron sights. Additional guns may be carried but are unnecessary. One is ample to kill all the coons the dogs will tree in a night.

Unlike hunting for rabbits, squirrels, deer and other animals, which can be done equally well with or without dogs, coon hunting seldom produces unless the hunter has a good hound to tree his quarry. That’s another way in which coon hunting differs, and one reason many hunters never take up the sport. Training a coonhound puppy requires a great deal of time, effort and knowledge. And buying a trained dog may not be an option for the would-be coon hunter. Crackerjack coonhounds command

premium prices, usually several hundred to several thousand dollars. Upkeep of dogs is expensive and time-consuming as well.

It is because of the dogs, however, that many take up coon hunting in the first place. Raccoons are delicious to eat, and their pelts bring a good enough price these days to make that an incentive for hunting them as well. But most coon hunters hunt coons simply because they enjoy the music of the dogs.

“Listening to my hounds trailing and treeing coons on a cold winter night soothes my soul like nothing else,” a grizzled old coon hunter once told me while we tuned our ears to the sounds of his redbones giving chase through the river bottoms. That, in a nutshell, is why so many who enjoy coon hunting are willing to spend what is necessary to own a good coonhound. It’s the reason these hardy citizens stay out on freezing winter nights when more sensible people are home in their warm beds. It’s the coon hunters’ motivation for following their canine companions wherever the chase may lead, from the lowest swamps to the highest mountaintops.

Other breeds are sometimes used, but the most popular with Arkansas coon hunters are the black and tan coonhound, bluetick, Plott, redbone, American English coonhound and treeing Walker.

Equipment

In decades past, the coon hunter carried only two essentials: a carbide light on his head and a loaded .22 rifle in his hand. The headlamp lit the way through nighttime woods and illuminated the glowing eyes of raccoons treed high above the ground. A lightweight .22 was handy to carry on a long hunt and adequate for the close-range head shots needed to kill the quarry. Rubber boots were worn to keep the feet dry, and the hunter usually carried a compass, some matches and a lead for his dogs.

Today’s coon hunter often uses more sophisticated gear. The gun is probably the same, but is now often outfitted with a large-objective scope. The hunter will want waterproof footwear as always. But the carbide headlights are antiques now, replaced by more reliable lighting systems featuring long-lasting, rechargeable power systems and bulbs that last thousands of hours. Gun lights are available as well that fit on a rifle scope and allow the hunter to shine the coon and make pinpoint killing shots.

Hunters of yesteryear often spent days searching for a dog that strayed, but today’s coon hunter can use high-tech electronics such as radio-

frequency or GPS tracking collars to pinpoint his dogs’ whereabouts up to several miles away. Some units actually allow the handler to know what a dog is doing by using behavior systems that are part of the collar. You can tell if a dog is moving or has stopped, if it is barking or if it has treed.

One other piece of equipment often used by coon hunters is a specialized caller known as the coon squaller. When the hunter doesn’t have a clear view of a treed raccoon, he blows the call to produce the raspy sounds of a fighting coon or coon in distress. This coaxes the raccoon to look down so its eyes are more easily seen, and sometimes brings a coon down a tree ready to fight.

Hunting

Some hunters train their hounds to range out in search of game while the hunters sit and talk, and others train their dogs to hunt while they walk. Arguments can be made for both sides.

A hunting party using the range method will often choose a spot to sit and talk, build a campfire and let the dogs strike out on their own. The dogs may cover a lot of ground, so the hunters must be alert for distant barking and go to the hounds when they tree, no matter how far or how hard the going. Good coonhounds know their master will never desert them, never fool them, and that makes them stay at the tree. When that feeling of security is broken, the hunter can no longer be assured the dogs will stay. It is for this same reason that hunters who train their dogs to range usually stay at their starting point unless the dogs tree. For if no coons are found, the dogs will return to the hunting party at that spot.

Hunters who walk with their dogs depend on their own knowledge in taking their dogs where coons are most plentiful and then remaining in territory where hunting is likely to be good. In this case, the handler must exercise some control over his hounds, keep in touch with them and hasten to the site when they have treed.

With either method, when the hunter arrives where the dogs have treed, that leg of the hunt comes to an end. For some hunters, there is no killing. When the eyes of the coon are seen, the hunter leaves the tree with his dogs in tow, and they find another coon to hunt. If the pelt and meat are desired, however, the coon is shot, and the chase begins anew.

There is much more to be learned about coon hunting than we can cover here, but the basics just presented should be enough to help you decide if you truly want to be a coon hunter, and if you do, to get you started. Should you take up the sport, there’s little doubt you’ll find it a most satisfying pastime that will bring many years of enjoyment.

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