Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5106

Beautiful night to hunt. Just didn't take the right dog. lol
We started out with two cotton mouths we had to put to rest. Never fun when you step out of the truck to cross a ditch and see 2 snakes laying there.



Once we got the snakes out of the way the two young dogs decided to burn a deer up. I am not real sad because this time of year down here a good deer dog comes in handy.

Then we decided to come home and we saw a momma coon with two very young ones feeding in a ditch. I took a couple pictures before I watched them wonder off.

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Last edited by Bruce m. Conkey on 11-17-2017 at 10:56 AM

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Registered: Apr 2015
Location: church hill tn
Posts: 5738

Sounds like you had fun, I know that I did when reading this post! Sometimes we can find happiness without looking real hard. Happy hunting. Dave

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Registered: Nov 2015
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Glad u got the snakes. We have rattlesnakes and copperheads here. I think they're both protected, but not sure about copperheads. Haven't seen any hunting, but I've had to stop my horse for a couple of rattlesnakes on the trail.

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Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
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Dave your right. It was FUN. Seeing that momma coon and two young ones feeding on the ditch was interesting. When we stopped she nestled down in the reeds while the young ones scurried out of there. I blew the squaller and thought she was coming out of the ditch to attack us.

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Registered: Jun 2012
Location: McRae Ar
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quote:

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Originally posted by Bruce m. Conkey
Dave your right. It was FUN. Seeing that momma coon and two young ones feeding on the ditch was interesting. When we stopped she nestled down in the reeds while the young ones scurried out of there

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Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5106

Joey on these coon we never put a dog out on them. We had just got outside the hunting club gate and they were working the ditch along side the road. We just took some pictures and watched them wonder off. But you are 100% correct. Coons will hunker down and not move. Just like a lot of deer will.

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Registered: Aug 2004
Location: North east Texas
Posts: 323

Bruse at least they had enough drive to put a deer on the run.You can change that over to coon fairly easy and they should be some track drivers .

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Central Michigan
Posts: 6544

Cool picture Bruce.

Rex,

HMMMM ... protected snake. That is just plain ole two words that should never go together!

Typically, I am all about following rules, but in this case doesn't SSSsss stand for shot & shut up stupid?????

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quote:

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Originally posted by Larry Atherton
Cool picture Bruce.

Rex,

HMMMM ... protected snake. That is just plain ole two words that should never go together!

Typically, I am all about following rules, but in this case doesn't SSSsss stand for shot & shut up stupid?????

---

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Registered: Dec 2013
Location: Nichols Ny
Posts: 1566

Bruce what would you do if your young hound had caught the deer? Reason I'm asking is a good buddy and I were out at the pkc world hunt and his young English dog caught one on a cast. And 2 other dogs joined in with him. Just curious to see what you would've done if anything.

We laughed pretty hard about it. This hound's average speed when cut loose is any where from 12 to 14 mph. That's not on a track, that's just his hunt speed. His track speed goes up to about 16. I've always thought my old female was fast. But she's extremely slow in comparison to him.
He's far from being a broke dog. He'll take any kind of track he can find and fall off on a coon. When he parks, you're looking at eye balls. He can be fun to hunt but he can also be miserable too. He's not really suited for our country but out in the Midwest is his turf. Better keep your eyes on ole' comanche Doyle.

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Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
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Novicane we run deer with dogs down here and this dog is probably going to be used on nothing but deer from now on. A good trailing deer hound is a valuable thing to deer hunters down here. The funny part is it is just as aggravating to try and deer hunt one and have it run a coon during a deer hunt as it is to try and coon hunt one and have it run a deer.
I have had some pretty good blooded Treeing Walkers that have made me some fine deer hounds. I had a female out of Hardwood Swamp that was a dandy. I raised two female pups around 2001 and choose the one with the worse mouth to be in my deer pack. The other one I trained as a coonhound and Buck Monroe won 3rd in the PKC SS hunt with her. The hardwood swamp female when she was about 6 stopped the deer running on her own and made a nice coonhound. So pups I am undecided on, I let them tell me what they want to do. Now I have two pups here that now going into coonhound training and I will tell you what I would do if they run or CATCH a deer. I will make it very unpleasant for them. Catching a deer can be something you don't want to happen. It can change one real fast into forgetting about coon and loving deer. There is a difference in what a dog hunts for and what it ends up running. A lot of coonhounds leave the truck looking for a coon and get on a deer. Thats something you can live with and correct. A dog leaving the truck looking for a Deer when your coonhunting is a bad thing. Very bad.

I think I might need to apologize about the picture of the snake. I was informed on Face Book that the snake was not a cotton mouth but a harmless water snake and I should be ashamed for killing it. I see a lot of snakes and when I am standing in a creek with one I don't spend a lot of time figuring out if I should love it or kill it. So if anyone thinks I killed a cute snake and posted it on here to make you think we have all these killer snakes down here. I apologize. We have a bunch of all kinds of snakes and I shoot first and figure out what it is second. All snakes can make me hurt myself getting clear of them, when I get on top of one. So therefore all snakes can harm me.

Back to the deer hound subject for a minute. Because I can't trust this young dog on either coon or deer. The way it will be deer hunted is to put it out on a track. I don't prefer that type of deer hunting but many deer hunters check the roads early and put a dog or two out on the track the find. I like to cast them into a swamp and let them bring the deer out. But because this dog is into running coon and deer. I will control what it does by sending it on a deer track. Once the foundation is built and it responds well to deer it will be broke off coon. Same thing you do with a coonhound but in reverse.

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Last edited by Bruce m. Conkey on 11-18-2017 at 12:22 PM

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Registered: Dec 2013
Location: Nichols Ny
Posts: 1566

I agree Bruce. The whole catching a deer can be very bad news. But the good news is this hound has slowed down on the deer. He still bumps them from time to time. But doesn't leave looking to run deer. He makes treeing coon look pretty easy most nights. But can look like a cull for the next few too. And that's with any young dog.

Now the snake thing, I'd be doing the same thing as you do. Snakes aren't my favorite thing in the world.

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Registered: Jun 2003
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Posts: 737

Bruce,

Just a question from a northerner. How many litters of kittens do your coon have in a year there? Up here they only have 1 in the spring but in your climate do they have 2 or just continuously reproduce? Guess I never thought of that before.

THANKS,
Hoosier

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Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5106

Hoosier that is a very good question and I don't have an answer. I have hunted them for 50 years and I think they are very adapted to their location more than a time of year.
Some experts say the have one litter per year in early summer. I know without a doubt I have taken very small kitten coons out of a den on Halloween night a few years ago and raised them at home. The one I saw the other night might have bee a couple months old, maybe 3 at the most.
I know certain areas of the state have times of the year the water levels change 1-4 foot and I feel the coons in those areas tend to cycle with the conditions.

Like the deer rut in our state. We have hunting seasons that start as early as august and others late nov. We have 5 different hunting zones at least because of it.

I also think in some areas they might have more than one litter per year but I will leave that to the scientist to figure out.

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Registered: Feb 2009
Location: wi
Posts: 165

How can you tell it is a male snake? I usually don't stick around to get that good of a look and the ones I seen I have never seen any private parts on them. Is there some drag marks you notice ?

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Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Fayetteville.Ga
Posts: 2167

I would like to add a little more to the mix, I think food source adds a little also, on the property I look after we have 38 deer feeders out year round with 30 cameras and I feel like I can say with a little confidence on this 2600 ac track we have 2 litters of coons I say that by what the cameras show. NOW I may and could be wrong but that is my belief anyway.

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