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everyone got started!!!

everyone on here got started coonhunting some how or some way. who was your biggest influence on getting you started coon hunting? and how many years have you been coon hunting? this post is for everyone no matter what kind of dog you hunt. lets here some good stories of how you got started.. gary woods

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JEREMIAH 51:20
Thou art my battle "AXE" and weapons of war:

My family has always had hounds. Coonhounds, deer dogs, bear dogs, beagles, you name it. My mom's people were the same way. Grew up with it. Been goin since I could keep up. (18 or 19 yrs now) My biggest influence was probably my Papaw. I've already had my son out hunting and he's only 1... like Hank Jr says, "It's a family tradition." Something about that hound music just stirs my blood.

My dad took me for the first time and carried me through the woods when I was 2. We had blueticks then and still do.......the dogs are much better in our kennel these days though. 22 years later we are partners on all our dogs.

Jake Appel

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Blue Oak Kennels
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Dad

Dad had a big thing to do with it.
When I was a little guy, dad would come in late and tell the stories. I could only waite till I was big enough to go. Dad would take me every once in a wile, but I could not get a real grasp on what was going on. Then dad quit hunting.
All I ever would hear about was the stories that dad, grandpall, and Pat had.
I asked dad severly times wile I was in high school to get a coon dog. He keep telling me that I did not wont a coon dog.
Then about a year after I got out of high school he brings in a young female. Five years later still going strong.

I got started by going with my buddy in school and his dad.My parents wouldn't allow me to have a hound.I was offered a free pup by his dad.Now several years later I'm at a place in life that I can do it.i just love it!!

My dad started taking me hunting when I was 5 years old. I am now 43 years old and still love to hear the hounds go. I lost my legs 3 years ago in a accident so I either ride a fourwheeler or just listen to them from the truck.

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Jeff Rusher

The movie where the red fern grows loved those redbones nice hounds. Also a good friend of mine Steve Harris gave me my first hound when i was 15 been hunting since.

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mitch armstrong

that's easy - my papaw

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Lynn Wilson Hill
Howling Hills Kennels
www.coonhoundcrew.com

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People may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel
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I GOT STARTED ABOUT 41 YEARS AGO. I HAVE QUIT 3 OR 4 TIMES AND ALWAYS CAME BACK. I LOVE TO TRY AND TRAIN YOUNG DOGS. THIS IS ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS TO DO IVE EVER TRIED. MAYBE THIS ISNT TRUE FOR EVERYONE. TO HEAR A YOUNG HOUND TO START RUNNING AND TREEING IS WHAT I LIKE TO DO. I BUY AN OLDER HOUND TO TRAIN WITH EVERY NOW AND THEN.

I have been hunting in general since I was about 6 that I can remember. My Grandfather is who taught me about hunting, I have had hounds that ran deer , treed every kind of varmit from tree rat to coon, and nabors cat's, nothing no pertty than a young hound learning and treeing his 1st coon. I have hunted just about all the breeds and some mixed from midnight get togethers. One thang Pappy taught me ws a dog has to earn his keep, dont hunt , won't tree, don't eat my feed and take space in my pens, take car of your dog and he will take care of you. Dont pamper him make him earn your respect and you will have a friend fer life

I had a couple of friends that aggravated me for years to coon hunt but never would go,when i finally went coonhunting,should have kicked myself for not going years sooner.

My dad, and

Mr. Russel Campbell, from Boiling Springs PA................gave me my first pup..First UKC hunt...........October 10, 1970........won fifth place with an ole Hershberger/Finley River bred Walker male.

My earliest memory includes black and tan coonhounds my papaw raised here in Mich. He had about 10-12 of them at a time, and i remember the wonderful baying at feeding time, the spring puppies and of course the UKC trials he would sometimes take me to. I was very young, 4 or 5, when i heard my first coonhound at a tree. The sound still raises the hair on the back of my neck....and bring back so many comforting memories....of course their all gone now....I didnt rediscover UKC untill just a few years ago, I own American Bulldogs now, I even have a few champions, but the sound of a good coonhound always takes me back.....I have to thank my papaw for my love of dogs and i have to laugh when i remember how mad mamaw would get with all those coontails on her porch!!.....

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Birchhaven farms, home of Ch. Birchhavens hard rock dozer W., Ch.Birchhavens Drew, Ch.Birchhavens Diesel of Willimar, and up and coming, Birchhavens sheza doozy too

As small boy

I remember sitting on the porch with my grandfather listening to the neighbor's foxhounds run. I always knew I loved a hound. I read the book "Potlicker" in the school library and it set me on fire. I had hounds around the house as a young person, but I hunted rabbits and squirrels with them until a brother in law introduced me to coon hunting. That was before most of you were even thought of.

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Johnny Williams

Bluedogman...

is that the whole title of the book, POTLICKER? I am always looking for good books for my kids to read (or books i like to read to them) I did a search for 'Potlicker' and had no luck, any additional info would be appreciated.

I love reading about the history people have with coonhunting with their families I stumbled into it almost two years ago when a friend asked me to watch her puppy for a long weekend. Four months later, when i realized the dog wasn't going anywhere, I went to the library and only thing about coonhounds I could find was the old movie of WHERE THE REDFERN GROWS, couldn't imagine cutting trees down for the coon, was very confusing. My dogs treed their fist coon last week, and it was awesome! Hope they don't wait another 18 months for the next...

Libby

I don't remember if that was the whole title. It has been many moons ago. LOL I posted about it once before somewhere, and someone else said they knew the book. I wish I could get my hands on it too, but I've never been able to find it anywhere myself.

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Johnny Williams

married into it...

1974, he had blueticks. he's quit and i'm still here...enjoying other breeds as well. my mentor was the likes of jeanne scheidts, who had black & tans with her husband. she lived in ohio. i use to read full cry magazine back then and was very lucky to see alot older ones at the time. i liked reading about jr lassiter and joe house and john monroe, but husband would have NO part of anything that wasn't bluetick and it HAD to be northern blue! lol!! of course, i did rebell.....lol!

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AMAZEN COONHOUNDS

My grandpa had coonhunted back in the 30's and 40's. He switched to coyote hunting with hounds and quit that before I was born, but I grew up hearing about his coonhunting experiences.

When i was a teenager, there was a big nite hunt at the fairgrounds less than a mile from our house. It might not be related but shortly after that hunt, a puny B&T pup showed up at our house. I adopted him. I had little clue about how to start him, except for the advice my grandpa gave me. His first night in the woods was also my first night in the woods. It would be stretch to call it coonhunting, lol. I buddied up with a cousin that had a pretty good walker male that helped me get my pup started and before long there were several of us teenage boys that had all kinds of hounds, mostly worthless, and we spent alot of nights in the woods chasing hounds around. That puny pup got to the point he could tree a few coons for me and my only regret was that Grandpa was not around to see it.

Me and a friend coon hunted for three years before we ever met another coon hunter. I was 13 and we were sitting on his grand mothers front porch when a old blue dog come walking into the yard. He didnt have on a coller so we kept him. We went hunting two nights later and didnt have clue. We were afraid to turn him loose thinking he would run off so we cept him on the end of a ten foot rope and let him trail in the woods. He stuck and treed right by the house with us on the end of that rope.We thought we realy had something untill we looked up the tree and he had a house cat. we had a spot light with a 1,000,000 candle power we shined the trees with. The only problem was it needed a car battery to run it so we took one in a backpack.(man that thing sure could get you tierd)We took turns one would lead the dog and the other would take the backpack.We hunted like that 6 to 7 nights a week until we met someone in the woods one night that was hunting and after he finshed making fun of us he told us to turn that dog loose. Well we did and never seen him again. In that three years we treed 1 house cat,one possum and run countless other things that wouldnt go up a tree. We sure did have fun but we have come a long way since then.

I Started when I was five years old. Twenty years later I'm still going, and with the same hunting partner. My Dad and I have had a lot of great times hunting, and had another last night. We own all of our dogs together. My wife has now started into showing dogs. We all get a long really really well. It is something that is near and dear to me and always will be. He is my mentor, idol, and friend! Larry Green and Doug Geesaman are a couple of Dad's hunting partners that always hunted with him. So they are somewhat responsible as well.

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-Dealer

Matt Lingo
Rock Creek Kennels
Houndsman Advantage

Well, I'm not sure how I got started. I always had an affinity for the woods at night. I can remember "hunting" with my shepherd in grade school. There was this fellow that moved to town that was in my class in grade school. He talked all the time about his dad coonhunting, and I finally went. That was 1979 (when I finally went, not grade school...LOL!). I got my first hound in 1980, and have been hunting ever since.We didn't have many coon then, but it didn't matter. We didn't have a care in the world about how good the dogs did. If they run a deer out of the country, we left them and came back later. We never worried about them leaving a tree, treeing a possum, moving a track fast enough or in the right direction, treeing quick enough and at 95 bpm, or being ill at the tree. I wonder when I changed...

It's was a family thing for me

My Dad, two of his brothers and my maternal Grandfather all coonhunted. I started hunting with my Dad and my Uncle and their dogs when I was 6. Then when I was a freshman in high school my buddy and I bought our first hound together, a B&T female. He had an old pickup that had sideboards on it, so we put a tin top on it and used it to hunt in. Neither one of us had a drivers lic but we drove and hunted were we wanted to or my Grandfather who by then had retired from milking cows would take us. Like Darrell we didn't really think about breaking them off oppossum and didn't care if they didn't tree hard or not as long as we treed some coon. Now 38 years later Dad and Grandpa have passed on both Uncle's have quit coonhunting. I'm still at it with a different hunting buddy hunt Walkers and they better not tree a oppossum! LOL!

i went for the first time about 3 1/2 years ago with a few of my dads work buddies i rode with terry highsmith and we talked dogs and about hunting they shot the coon out and that had to be one of the greatest things i had everseen when the dogs caught it after that i went to work on the old man it took a year and a half but i got a pup and went to work it gets funner and funner everytime we go even got some of my friends wanting a pup I have got to meet some great people in the short amount of time i ve been here like Bruce Conkey hope it only gets better from here.

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Blake Mangus
Keystone Heights,Fl

Libby one of my most favorite books that I read as a youngster was a book called "BristleFace" its better than old yellar and its better than "where the red fern grows" Its about a boy who finds a stray dog that is a Fox Hound. Wish I could find it, I would read it again.

I got started into Coonhunting by possum hunting a Fiest that use to belong to my Papaw.She was a heck of a Squirrel dog and one of my cousin's got into Coonhunting and I figured I'd try my hand at it.The Fiest never did tree me a coon but she sure was heck on them possum's.My Dad finally broke down and bought me a couple of hounds,one a Walker that I later sold to my cousin and the other a little Bluetick puppy.I carried that pup with the Fiest everytime I went.I would go hunting with other coonhunters but we would never tree a coon when I went with them then the night I wouldn't go with them they would tree a coon.HMMMM Now I wonder if maybe they didn't just tell me that.LOL My Bluetick pup finally treed a possum when she was 11 months old and a month later she treed her first coon ALL alone without ever being with another dog when they had treed a coon.
I was 13 when I started possum hunting and I'm now 38 and I guess sometimes I'm still a possum hunter.