I 
ebruary, 1923 
COON HUNTING IN NEBRASKA 
A GOOD COON DOG FOLLOWS THE TRAIL AT FULL SPEED 
AND HOLDS THE SCENT WITH HIS NOSE IN THE AIR 
T HE ringtailed raccoon is about the 
largest wild game left in Ne¬ 
braska, and furnishes the greatest 
sport in the hunt. 1 he many 
wooded rivers and creeks furnish an ex¬ 
cellent home for the coon, and the Ne¬ 
braska cornfields furnish an abundance 
of food. The coon is very fond of 
crawfish and grapes, and spends the 
early part of the evening fishing in the 
shallow water for his favorite food, the 
crawfish. In this way he becomes wet 
and is more easily trailed by the dogs. 
Coon hunting is done in the night, and 
as the evening shades appear the coon 
comes out of hiding, and starts in quest 
of food. 
In starting on a hunt the dogs are 
turned loose along the creek, their col¬ 
lars being removed so that they will not 
become entangled in the brush while 
hunting. They immediately go to the 
water and hunt along the edge until a 
trail is found. As soon as a coon clog 
scents a coon trail, he will start bawling 
and so attract the attention of the entire 
pack, who quickly gathers together . . . 
and the race is on. There may be a 
dozen or more dogs in the pack, but 
each one runs the trail as though he 
were the only dog in the race. Coon 
hunters soon learn to know the voice of 
each and every dog, and can tell which 
dog struck the trail, d his is an interest¬ 
ing time iu the hunt, as the hunters in 
By L. V. DOUGLAS 
this way can tell that none of the dogs 
have strayed. 
A good dog must have a keen scent, 
which enables him to run with his nose 
in the air and thus follow the trail at 
full speed. If the ground is dry and 
dusty, or if the wind is high, the dogs 
must run with nose close to the ground 
and the race will be slower and less 
interesting, so that coon hunters select 
warm, foggy nights as the best time to 
hunt. The different departments of the 
hunt for the dogs are hunting, cold 
trailing, hot trailing, treeing, fighting 
and killing the coon. Few dogs are con¬ 
sidered good in all these departments. 
Cold trailing is following a trail made 
hours before, where the coon has trav¬ 
eled in quest of food; such a trail is 
winding and the scent often faint and 
hard for the dogs to follow. When at 
last the dog closes up on the coon and 
the trail freshens, it is then said to be 
a hot trail. The bawl of the dog now 
changes and he travels much faster and 
bawls more often and louder. 1 hat is 
when the hunting crowd becomes ex¬ 
cited, and stamps out the fire and starts 
to follow the dogs. As the dogs close in 
the coon generally climbs the largest 
tree, preferably one which overhangs 
the water, and the dogs, when they come 
to the tree, will stand on their hind legs 
and smell around the trunk of the tree; 
they then circle the tree, often to the 
distance of a hundred yards in each 
direction. When they are satisfied that 
the coon has gone up that particular 
tree and has not come down, they assem¬ 
ble and bark the tree. 
The tree barking differs from the 
bawling on the trail, and is quickly 
recognized by the hunters who begin 
shouting, “He’s up." 1 his is one yell 
that soon becomes a habit and no coon 
hunter at this stage of the hunt can re¬ 
frain from shouting it, even though he 
be alone. Then a hurry-up trip is made 
to the tree and I am always sorry for 
those unable to run fast or who get 
caught in a wire fence. I have seen 
good clothes torn to pieces and with no 
regrets, on this race to the tree, amid the 
shouts of “He’s up.” The coon will gen¬ 
erally hide in the fork of the branches 
and lies so fiat that it is often difficult 
to locate him if the limb is a large one, 
but he always occupies a position that 
enables him to look down and observe 
what is going on below. Thus his in¬ 
quisitiveness enables the hunter to lo¬ 
cate him by “shining his eyes,” as it is 
called. This is done by the use of a 
strongly reflected light, generally an 
auto lamp, with dry battery attachment. 
W HEN the coon is located, the dogs 
are put on chains, except one or 
two, who are expected to fight and kill 
(Continued on page 94) 
Two great coon dogs, Dewey (left) and Polk (right) and three victims of their prowess 
