Part VI. THE GAME

Chapter 16. Raccoon Hunting

A raccoon's comings and goings, to an in­experienced hunter, are deeply clothed in mystery by his noc­turnal habits. While occasionally he will be found abroad during overcast days, for the most part he starts his activities at dark. And what a range of activities they are!

Ever find fresh coon tracks along the marge of a swamp, and try to unravel the intricate wonderings? It is a most interesting and rewarding experience. For you will learn much about raccoon habit, and plenty about reading sign. Fact is, raccoons are your best teachers of sign reading. Become profi­cient in reading and interpreting the involved comings and goings of raccoons from their trail sign and all the rest is easy. Rabbit sign is an open book; that of deer is quite obvious. This masked bandit of the swamps and farmlands has had his wits sharpened by constant hunting over a period of two hundred years. He never does any of the expected things. And, while his curiosity sometimes betrays him, he never does any of the stupid things which are constantly tripping up lesser game.

Here, as the dark shadows lengthen across the swamp, and evening is still full of the vesper sounds of sleepy minded birds, his majesty, the American Raccoon descends from his den tree. He is out for a night of feeding, frolicking and fighting, a buc­caneering that is the hall mark of raccoons.

During warm weather he is very apt to sleep out the day in the forks of a sun-warmed, moss covered swamp oak, maple or other tree which affords him plenty of privacy. Afterwards, as the season advances, he will take to a warm hollow tree, snuggling in with anywhere from two to a half dozen of his kind. If the weather turns extremely cold, he will go into semi-hibernation.

But this late summer evening, when he descends from his tree, he has no thought of hibernation in mind. He wants food and adventure. Listen quietly along the marge of the swamp, or in an orchard or corn field, and often you will hear a squal­ling, rip-snorting, fight. This will be two old swamp coon stag­ing a knock-down and dragout battle over some choice tidbit they have uncovered. In my orchard, late of an autumn night, I have heard such fights time after time. Taking my flashlight and investigating, I may find two raccoons in a Baldwin apple tree. And even though the apple tree is loaded with fruit, there just isn't enough room for two strange raccoons to eat peacefully.

The only ones which seem to get along without fighting are those of a single clan, a family consisting of a sow coon and half grown young ones.

Follow the tracks of an old swamp raccoon and you will find that he has about three types of feeding on his mind—places which he will visit and inspect meticulously. First thought, once he is on the ground, is about those shallows and mudflats along the edge of the swamp. Here his nimble black fingers will probe all the likely places for frogs, fresh water mussels and crayfish. Each morsel of food is carefully washed before being eaten, except berries and other fruit. Even a frog which he has just snatched from a pond is carefully dunked before being eaten.

Trail sign of such raccoon activity is very apparent. You will see his tracks in the moist earth around ponds, flat distinc­tive prints, very much like tiny baby hands pressed into the mud. You will also see shells of mussels, clams and crayfish where he has shucked them out beside the pools.

The only way of hunting raccoon is with a pair of good coon hounds. These dogs must be smart, and they must love coon hunting as well as you do yourself in order to turn in a top performance. But the two in combination, good coon dogs and a smart old raccoon, will turn in an unbeatable night of hunting.

But just any dog will not do. There are certain distinctive traits which coon dogs must have. One is "bottom," as ex­perienced raccoon hunters call it. "Bottom" is the measure of a coon dog's ability to take everything in the way of a com­plicated trail a smart, well seasoned raccoon lays down, and keep going hour after hour, finishing at the tree eager and full of fight.

There are two types of hounds for raccoon hunting. One, and perhaps the most important, is a slow methodical "strike" dog. This hound is used to pick up and work out the trail of none to fresh coon tracks, follow them until they are freshened up enough to put the quarry on the move. Once this happens, a good fast, open trailing hound is put down to crowd and force that raccoon to tree.

That strike is important. When you put down a strike dog, the act must be predicated on raccoon habit to be consistently successful. You must relate your hunt to available food and range and game habit. If there are corn fields with roasting ears reaching maturity, these are the places for your first cast. Put your strike dog down about ten o'clock in the evening, late enough so that the masked bandits raiding the corn fields have had time enough to work their way into this favored feeding range.

In such places you can cut your fast dog in almost at once, for the signs will be smoking fresh. Many raccoon hunters, in fact, will have just one reasonable fast dog with a keen nose, and will not use a strike dog at all, depending on their own ability to put down their dogs close to raccoon on the prowl. While this works reasonably well where the trail is hot, the hunting of a wise old swamp coon, who moves much more at night, a slow methodical dog for the strike is almost a must.

Once a raccoon is jumped he has a bag full of tricks de­signed to fool even experienced hounds. Sometimes he will take to a river, swimming out in the current, as if to cross, then dropping down stream to come out on the same bank where he entered the water. At other times they will swim all the way across, touch the bank for a short distance to put down scent for the hounds, then return to the water. Not even the cleverest pack of hounds will tree all the raccoons they jump.

Even when a good fast pack of hounds forces one of those wise old swamp coons to take to a tree, he still has a few tricks he will use to confuse them. One, and the most misleading, is what experienced raccoon hunters call "tapping" a tree. A raccoon, pressed hard by hounds, will come up to a swamp oak, ash, or other tall growing tree and touch it, maybe run up the tree a short ways. Then he will come down, retrace his trail for several yards before taking to water. Sometimes, in retracing his trail, he will simply move back from the tree a hundred yards or so, then lay down a new trail toward more secure cover. By the time the hounds have unraveled his cross up trail, he is away with time to spare.

Truly great coon dogs know these characteristics of their quarry. Before a smart, experienced coon dog puts his stamp of approval on a treed coon by his mellow baying tree bark, he investigates thoroughly. It is amusing to watch him. He will carefully go over the base of the tree where a raccoon has touched it, his long nose aquiver with the pungency of fresh coon scent. Did this raccoon only "tap" the tree? Before giving his tree bark, a baying which is very distinct from his trailing voice, a smart experienced hound will circle the tree several yards out. He will take up his back trail and run it out for fifty yards or so, just to see that it is on the up and up.

If his methodical investigation tells him that no raccoon has left the tree, he makes endorsement of the fact with a long mellow tree bark.

Slower trailing hounds, coming up at this time, often make their own investigation before joining in with their treed bark. But the pup out on his first few hunting trips, with plenty to learn about the quarry he is trailing, seldom has any thought of investigation. The smell of raccoon scent, the baying of other dogs is enough. If he has the makings of a future great rac­coon dog in him, he is frantic about the tree, contributing more enthusiasm than judgment or ability to the hunt.

Eventually, those velvet soft ears will be scarred and torn from fighting raccoons. He will learn all the tricks of trailing and fighting from a master of the art—raccoon. Indeed, if one of those big swamp coons ever gets him in the water, you will be hard put to save him from being drowned, for a raccoon is the equal of any dog, regardless of experience, once battle is joined in the water.

Is there any special breed of hound who are superior coon dogs? The answer is a qualified no. I have yet to see a truly great raccoon hound which didn't have some Walker Fox Hound in his makeup. But by the same token I have seen ex­cellent coon hounds with a bit of practically all other breeding in their makeup. Coon hounds, like razors, depend a lot more on the temper than on the brand. Like a great grouse dog, a great coon hound is usually the product of a great raccoon hunter.

Good raccoon hunters are perhaps the scarcest type of hunter found in game territory. You can find a hundred good hunters of other type game to one good raccoon hunter—a man who knows the habits of his quarry as well as he knows his own. Maybe it is the nocturnal habit of raccoons which accounts for this. But in large part it stems from the downright cleverness of the quarry itself.

What a teacher of woodcraft a raccoon is! Follow a couple of coon hounds trailing one of these masked bandits, jump him and tree him. The lesson in traveling, of keeping direction, is an education itself. Once you acquire the ability to roam the countryside at night, following coon hounds, the deer woods during daylight are comparatively easy.

One moment you are skiriting a corn field. The next moment you are away through the deep woods, so dark your light serves only to accent the gloom around you. But always, insistent and mellow, the baying of your hounds call you on. You will lose direction, the sense of time, but eventually you arrive at the tree where your quarry has taken refuge. Afterwards, with your hounds lying at your feet, panting from the trailing and final fight with the coon, you try to piece together the directions of your travel. Sometimes it will be an impossible task. But with experience you will begin to have a picture of your back-trail in reference to your present position. A compass will help in this, if you take occasional readings when you make drastic changes of course. Watch the skyline on ridges and hills out­lined against the star studded night. In this way you learn the contours of your night country. But lost you will be occasion­ally—lost beyond any woods ability to set yourself straight be­fore the coming of moonrise or morning. Go prepared for this.

Most of the essentials have been touched upon in Chapter 13, The Makings of a Small Game Hunter. A good light is always a requirement. The miner's Carbide light, previously mentioned, is excellent for night walking, giving a bright flood lighting. In addition, you require a five cell flashlight to shine your game, once it is treed.

A rucksack with a lunch in it, a small handaxe, and a warm woolen jacket will put you on top of your hunt. If you have to spend a night in the woods you have the "makings" to do so.

I envy you on your first night afield after raccoons with some mellow voiced hounds setting the echoes ringing with their music and the frost jewels a glimmer on the stubble fields. It is a never to be forgotten experience.