Registered: Jan 2005
Location: NE Indiana
Posts: 592

Gang,

We are at epic numbers of coons here around home.. It's almost to the point of absurdity.. I very much fear we will get a massive die off soon.. This reminds me of 94/95 ish when numbers exploded several years after high fur prices crashed..

I killed 29 coons opening night of 94/95 starting at dark and hunting until 3 am. We killed over 200 with dogs that fall and trapped another 180ish..The next year we had a massive die off and found dead coons all over in the woods and particularly near water in Sept/Oct.. And yes I knocked everything out in the tree that night, we were looking for head count.. We sold in two batches that year one to Jerry Kotterman in Peru, IN and the other to Phil Welty in Wabash, IN all stretched and dried- averaged in the high teens.. Last good money we ever made in fur..

There were still plenty of coons after the die off, just not at the numbers of the few years prior.. Harvest numbers probably cut in 1/2 or so with the same effort..

Last night a friend and I hunted from 9 pm until 11 pm.. Two dogs.. We made 7 trees, all split, dogs never treed together.. Looked at 11 coons in the 7 trees. Saw 6 more sitting up and had two run across the road coming back to his truck from the last tree (in my buggy) And I have been killing coons off this farm steady for the last week.

Crazy thing is my dogs first tree was 964 yards in straight and his was about 350 left handed.. My next two were 86 yards and 300 yards. His next was a hundred yards and then about 1200.. My last tree was about 1100 yards and the two dogs were treed 190 apart.

We cut them loose together on the first drop and each recast off our trees ended up in the same neighborhood at the end, that was actually kind of nice..

I can't help but believe we are going to see another die off of epic proportions again.. Back in the 90's I could still hide hunt all my farms and did so regardless of value.. Now the 7 places I'm down to on private ground I can only hide hunt two of them.. Have to stay out until after deer season is over and we are generally froze in by then or just get a very few days of hunting..

What are you all seeing in your areas?

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Registered: Dec 2009
Location:
Posts: 266

I live just north of Nevada Missouri and i am seeing lots of coons like you said and i agree I remember being told as a kid that hunters helped keep animals healthy by keeping the numbers down to a better population


Klay

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Registered: Dec 2003
Location: Sheridan, WY
Posts: 1164

I have the opposite problem is some ways... Our coon population is pretty low anyway... The private places I go all tell me "kill everyone you see". Up to me I'd never shoot a coon out again other than when starting a young hound

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location: NE Indiana
Posts: 592

Do you get much damage from the coons out there Houndsound?

It gets rough in the corn fields here and the farmer wants them all killed. But they lease to the deer hunters who lock everyone out who would reduce them in season.

It’s really a terribly stupid situation.

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

We have a thin coon population in these mountains, no large source of food. No cornfields to speak about, coons rely on acorns and natural food sources and are scattered pretty thin. A real good coon dog that's straight on coon can tree a coon most every night, but they have to hunt hard to do so. I agree that any place with large numbers of coons will encounter natural diseases to control the population, distemper, etc. Dave

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Registered: Dec 2003
Location: Sheridan, WY
Posts: 1164

quote:

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Originally posted by Larry Hall
Do you get much damage from the coons out there Houndsound?

It gets rough in the corn fields here and the farmer wants them all killed. But they lease to the deer hunters who lock everyone out who would reduce them in season.

It’s really a terribly stupid situation.

---

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 3464

The coon population in south Louisiana is the lowest I've seen in 60 years of coon hunting. And it ain't the dogs. We can't find coon tracks in the mud, and we've got plenty mud.

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Donald Bergeron

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location: NE Indiana
Posts: 592

Shading, that is tough hard to imagine that kind of hunting conditions.

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Registered: Jan 2017
Location: Miami, Ok
Posts: 387

I live in NE OK. I have bottoms where three years ago we treed 24 singles and looked at well over 100 by 1am one night. Since then we have had massive massive amounts of flooding and rain. It killed a huge majority of my coons being under water for 75-100 days straight. Im like shadinc, we had mud with no tracks. This kitten crop looked to be a good one! Finally getting some back!

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Registered: Dec 2013
Location: Nichols Ny
Posts: 1566

Depending upon what areas you hunt here it can be great or terrible. If I go a little more than an hour northwest the hunting is pretty good. But right here by me its not what I call good. You can get in small pockets of coons here but in between those pockets its makes you want to quit. Or you wonder if your dog just wants to go timber cruising instead of treeing coons. There's certain areas that I've never treed a coon in even though they look to be great hunting.

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