Coon Hunting..Where Angels Fear To Thread

A Somewhat True Coon Hunting Story

Of all the cunning beasts, the ole Coon is the wisest, and were it not for his imprudence and self-assurance, he would be less frequently captured. As it is, a coon hunt is an escapade that may be enjoyed by any boy or man who happens to own a coon dog.

Now a coon dog is any sort of a dog that has a sporting instinct and a large propensity for combat.

If you plan on coon hunting, you must be prepared to scramble through blackberry vines, thickets, tangled swamps, and to climb trees. The dogs busy themselves sniffing and working through the underbrush, crossing the creek back and forth, investigating old hollow trees, in search of the ole crafty coon.

The coon hunter knows well the distinctive yelps of his coon hunting dogs. Through a series of snappy, short barks the sound of long yelps are indicitive that the dogs are on a fresh scent of a nearby coon.

The coon dogs go tearing through the brush in anticipation of the confortation that is bound to happen. The race is on!

Running through the bushes and the brambles, down the slough, splashing through the mud, jumping logs, stopping long enough to pick up the sound of the dogs baying in the far off distance.

Hounds voices singing like a full chorus, deep throated, high pitched, bell-like tones, boys they got him treed. The hunters push forward, panting for breath, with the one with the most vigor arriving first at the scene.

Looking up high into the tree, we see a shadowy figure with two glowing eyes, perched out on a limb. Dogs are in a frenzy, trying their damnest to climb the tree, yelping and bellowing at heights enough to raise the dead.

"Put a light on em'" I said. Lester Hunt, the ace shooter in the bunch, quickly draws from his quiver a blunt arrow, (oh, in case you didn't know, we're not using guns) takes aim and the arrow whizzes through the cool night air impacting with a dull thud, hitting a limb right above the coon. Another miss and the next striking the head and with a snarl, a falling coon is greeted by an overly excited pack of coon dogs.

Now anyone that has ever hunted coons knows every shot isn't a clean kill. This is where the coon dogs come in, because you don't want a confortation with a mad, vicious coon who has teeth like needles.

As I said earlier, a good coon dog must have a sporting instinct and a large propensity for combat. A young coon dog has learned some valuable lessons when tangling with a mad, crafty coon.

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