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Mountian coons

I live in southeastern ky . Big woods not alot of farm land. Coon population isnt great. I have always wondered why we dont have a better coon population compared to others. We have plenty white oak acorns, creeks, and rivers. Whats everyones opinion?

Coons

Danny, I live in East Tennessee and we used to have the same problem [few coons]. Our clubs bought and stocked coons for years, now we have several coons in our area. You have the habitat, you just need to stick and let multiply. We hardly killed coons years ago, and now we can harvest a reasonable amount without hurting the population. Hope this helps. Dave

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Dave Richards Treeing Walkers Reg American Saddlebred and Registered Rocky Mt. Show Horses

You don't have corn. Corn fields=coons...

Mr Richardson

I've hunted around Williamsburg\Patterson creek\Jellico\Lafollett some tough hunting you might try trapping around those towns and populated area's and relocate some coons that's what I've done before. good luck and good hunting.

I am not far from jellico or ky but the problem I see we have is not the are or the problem with no feed it is people killing every coon they tree if we could cut down on that we would have more coons. But if you start trapping them in one area of the place you hunt you just hurt the population somewhere else .I wish our local twra would start caring about the small game instead of elk and turkey if they would stock coons like they did elk and turkey it would help alot

i live and hunt the mtns of tennessee and have asked this question several times. we have some of the best big timber and plenty of water about yr round. i agree that with people killing every coon it hurts way more than it helps. one thing that is really going to put a hurt on our coon population in tennessee is the opening of coon season during summer on private land. the kittens will still be hanging with mom and easy to pick off. we start killing year round and we might as well give it up. I wish more people would realize you dont have to give that young dog every coon they tree. i believe in making that dog want more and more by not giving them everyone...JMO...I wish the coon hunters would get together like the deer and turkey hunters and start leasing big areas and manage the population better. again JMO...i also trap in nuissence areas and transplant to hunting spots...and feed them after i release to get them staying. im open for any and all ideas on this.

There are several states with a year round season and it doesn’t effect the population. I don’t believe most kill every coon they tree. I knock out as many with the season opened year round as when season opened in the fall. I like most would give a coon to a young dog if I think they needed it no matter the time of year. With that said probally don’t kill 30-40 a year most years.

Coons move to,populated areas because that is where the food is. Relocating them won't help unless you feed them. Turkeys eat all of the acorns now. If you want more coons you will have to kill all of the turkeys.

Re: Mountian coons

quote:

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Originally posted by DannyRichardson
I live in southeastern ky . Big woods not alot of farm land.

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I think the post about early kill season is the truth I have talked to many young hunters when we were trying to lobby to stop it from oening that said they loved it they wanted to kill more and you are right if the coon hunters would band together like deer and turkey hunters we might see some changes small changes but changes non the less. . A few farms I hunt the permission was granted as long as I kill every coon I tree but I try not to hunt these farms that much there are coons there and I hope they stay for a while . So I take it easy and most time I can tree a few. Good thing is they don't want me to break the law so I have a couple months where I don't have to carry a gun. I also like what was said about young dogs not needing a pile of coons if they need one every tree cull it get a coon dog hides don't bring anything I don't have to eat coon yet thank the Lord so why kill a bunch just to hurt population and then throw them in a ditch somewhere

That is a good point Mr Felderman. In the North, they will have 100 acres of corn and a 10 acre patch of woods. That 10 acre patch of woods will have 10 coons in it. So do they have 1 coon per acre?

You can only have as many coon as the food source will support. That is how nature operates. If you have 3 sows one year, you will have 9-12 coons the next year if there is food for them. If there isn't then you will only have 3 coons again the next year. Up North or in West Tennessee they have plenty of cornfields so the food supply is abundant and so are the coons.

Mr Richard

He have a decent coon population here in west tn but it is hard to get permission because of the Almighty Deer Hunter! We have a state park with 48,000 acres but they are cutting all the timber off of it everyday. And since nobody can get permission we all hunt the state park so it is hunted to death. It's a shame but in 15 years we won't have anywhere to go.

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My father in law was out of a holler in coal country belfry kentucky. I asked him about coon population he said "son if it moved we shot it and ate it" not to many around here.

I hunt the high mountains of West Virginia mostly on public land. Our coon population is highly dependent on the mast crop of acorn, wild cherry and beech nuts. I also believe it depends on how bad the weather is in late spring when the kittens are being born. Sometimes we have snow up into late spring and food is hard to find for pregnant and nursing females making it hard to raise a good litter.
Some years we have a decent amount of coon and some you can barely find a coon but even our best years we have nowhere near the population as other places.

We don't have a handful of coon hunters in several counties so there's no way they're getting over hunted.

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Dave Richards are you anywhere near Powell or Knoxville?

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Bruce, I am about 90 miles east of Knoxville, Tennessee, bordering southwest Virginia. Dave

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Dave Richards Treeing Walkers Reg American Saddlebred and Registered Rocky Mt. Show Horses

quote:

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Originally posted by khester7923
i live and hunt the mtns of tennessee and have asked this question several times. we have some of the best big timber and plenty of water about yr round. i agree that with people killing every coon it hurts way more than it helps. one thing that is really going to put a hurt on our coon population in tennessee is the opening of coon season during summer on private land. the kittens will still be hanging with mom and easy to pick off. we start killing year round and we might as well give it up. I wish more people would realize you dont have to give that young dog every coon they tree. i believe in making that dog want more and more by not giving them everyone...JMO...I wish the coon hunters would get together like the deer and turkey hunters and start leasing big areas and manage the population better. again JMO...i also trap in nuissence areas and transplant to hunting spots...and feed them after i release to get them staying. im open for any and all ideas on this.

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as Mr Richardson said plenty of food but also a lot of country coons may be spread out so adding more coons can't hurt.

I am with Richard on this one, Food=Coons
I have friends in town who live in subdivisions and are over run with coon, can catch me one every night of the year, they are eating the dog food and cat food out of the garages and back porches.

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I have also noticed on our Mtns. we have Pigeon and Lookout that everything is fighting over the acorn crop, coons, Turkey, deer, squirrels etc..... So easy food is what keeps them.
We have some corn feeders with a camera on them and those "doe's" will wear a coons head out over some corn....lol

__________________
Striving to breed balanced Treeing Walkers.

"Life is short boys, Hunt an intelligent hound"

Born in sin, convicted by the Word, saved by Grace.

I've been trying to say food = coon for a long time. That's why our coon population here isn't what it was in the 60's - 80's. The farms have all pretty much shut down here. Where there was a farm or several on every road, there's none in comparison. The farms that are left around here I won't run a dog on. They're right next to busy roads or highways. Very few farms that still plant corn and are dairies.

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Coon population seems to be controlled by Food, Harvest (man or predators) and Sickness. I think the food and water have to be there first for the foundation of the population grow and stay. Then the numbers are controlled by harvest and illness.

Most areas have some type of food year round for the coon but there are some that food is available at times and then they have to wonder off to get something to eat. A lot of them never come back.

Have some property in the mountains of east TN and the coon population on the deer feeders seems to be good. LOL

People have opinions on deer feeders that their purpose is to make it easy for hunters to harvest game over them. In most states that is not legal including TN. The purpose of the feeders is to allow game to populate property because food is there. Then they raise young there and they have food. Just like it is with coon having food available year round and to stay within range of that food.

Sickness can put a dent in your coon in a hurry.

My Son lives in a semi populated area of the mountains in east tn and about every year a sow coon raised a litter eating the cat food off their front porch.

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Has she had her babies yet this year?

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Richard my Sons Daughter got married about a year ago and when she left she took the cats and the cat food with her. The coon stopped coming around also.

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