I coonhunted for several years, as well so did my father before my time. My grandfather was a houndsman in Oklahoma going back to the 1950s. I have owned a few walkers and one redbone. I gave it up several years ago as my hunting grounds grew houses and my drive three nights a week just became too far to make it fun anymore.

While on a duck hunting weekend as part of whiskeyandme's THF waterfowlers weekend hunt
http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2004229
I was invited to stay in Oklahoma in what had been an old coon hunters camp.



May be a Lab in this picture and may be only something a houndsman could understand; but it made me vision the ghosts of a dozen hounds laying about, and my grandfather.

In the corner of the cabin I noticed a bunch of trophys, some standing almost 4 feet tall and a dustly case full of memorabilia only its owner would understand. Some going back to old american coon hunters world championships. Here is a picture of some of the smaller trophys on top of the case.



A tribute to an old coonhunter.



And the scene in Oklahoma just before I steped in the truck and started home. I know it was not there, but in my mind I could hear the echo of a coonhound's bawl in the distance.

That's what it's all about.

Man that brings back memories. I grew up coonhunting 2-3 nights a week. Dad wouldn't let me go unless my homework was done, and I think that's one of the things that pushed me to do better in school. I didn't want to miss chasin them hounds for anything...

cool story cool cabin... just looks like a place everybody's grand pa would have hung out.

thanks for posting

Awesome story....nothin like hearin the hounds bellow!!! Hve memories like that from my grandpa "poppy". The one man that introduced me to many many things in life.

Realy cool story John thanks for sharing

cool story and pics! Thanks for sharin'

Really nice post Sniper John!

I used to hunt with my cousin back in the 70's. Walkers and Black and tans. He had a Walker named Lightning. That dog won us a lot of trophies! I will never forget one night a friend thought he was tough. The dogs had treed one in a short mesquite. Jess caught the coon with his hands and all I remember is a moonlit silhouette of him running to the truck screaming, holding that coon up high over his head trying to get it to the cage before he dropped it and the dogs got it! What a memory!

Very cool story thanks

Cool story and pics. ..Thanks for sharing!

Awesome story and pics man.

John I really appreciate the link to this. This is a good story. As most everyone knows I love to coonhunt. It's a dieing sport, but I love it none the less. This is touching to me. Thanks again.

Kent

Very cool!!

x2

omg..i know this is an oldie..but definately a goodie..thanks for sharing SP..and by the way i do understand..its in my blood..dna..lol

thanks for sharing

Awesome, thanks for posting. A real good read.

I still coon hunt around Menard County to keep my dogs in shape and train the youngster. I no longer hunt at night, I prefer to turn loose about daylight so that the dogs don't hit many fresh tracks and have to learn to cold trail. Training in this matter helps them when we are lion hunting...rare to come across a hot lion track.
I grew up hunting on the family ranch and have a lot of great memories of dogs and folks that I hunted with. I enjoyed the post and photos.
I agree with Redboneman that coon hunting is not nearly as popular as it once was but there are still quite a few guys hunting coons and cats in South Texas. Most are ranchers and don't advertise what they do. Lots more hog hunters across Texas than there has ever been.
Adios,
Gary

Nice story. Thanks for sharing. I never was that serious about it but coon hunted with friends in school late 70's to mid 80's. One year we entered a float in our small town's Christmas parade. We had a tall dead tree mounted to a hay trailer with three live coons up it and three of us at the base of the tree with .22 rifles and our dogs baying the coons. At the end of the parade we pulled the float behind the Dairy Queen and shot the coons. Good luck pulling a stunt like that today. We may have won "best float" if we hadn't shot the coons at the end.

edited to add: Our biggest fear was the tree falling over and three coons and a pack of hounds running all over Main Street. If that had happened, it'd be a much better story, I'm sure.

I would have loved to have seen that one. What town was the parade???? Sounds like something that we could still do here in Menard.
Adios,
Gary

It was in Rosebud. Good times back then. Not so much now. I still drive through there going to the coast but only because it's in the way.

Had a little bad luck last week. I was hunting my six bluetick females trying to take advantage of the cool spell when the dogs treed a coon off a windmill. Jill is my best hound on coons but is a terrible tree climber. Sure enough she climbed the live oak with the coon and fell out on some rocks before I got to the tree. I kept hunting and she treed a couple more before 9:30 AM and she never stopped hunting. She ate that evening but when I went to the kennels the next morning, she was dead. Apparently had some really bad internal injuries. Nothing good comes from a dog that climbs, luckily she lived to be nine years old.
Adios,
Gary

If anybody'd ever been there or heard of it, the Smith County Coon Club building was just recently torn down:



Spent a lot of time there as a kid, grew up about a 1/2 mile from there. Buddy of mine and me laid many a drag line, and sometimes the men would let us work the trolley for the water races.

Fun times. The OP's pics brought back some terrific memories.

So sad to see the building go. Can you imagine the stories that were told in that old structure?
Adios,
Gary