WEBVTT - Why Coon Hunting with Hounds Matters 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:04.640 You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network powered by 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:08.520 Interstate Batteries from your truck to your trail camera. Interstate 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.440 Batteries as you covered. Visit your local Interstate Batteries store 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:17.880 today or online at Interstate Batteries dot com. Interstate Batteries 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:27.160 Outrageously Dependable. My name is Clay Nukeoman. I'm the host 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:31.200 of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.800 host into the world of hunting the icon of North 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:40.080 American wilderness to bear. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation, 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.880 who will also bring you into some of the wildest 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:54.040 country on the planet Chasing Battery. On episode fifteen of 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:56.960 the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast, we go on a live 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.000 coon hunt with myself and a good friend of mine 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.759 named Jonathan Webster. We take my two plot hounds, Fern 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:08.640 and Jed here in the Ozark Mountains. We'll talk about 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.720 the history of coon hunting, the cultural significance of coon hunting, 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.440 the conservation aspects of coon hunting, the how to what 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.560 we're actually doing inside of coon hunting, and then we'll 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.960 take you along to a tree where we got a coon. 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.000 How does this hunt time with bear hunting. These dogs 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:31.760 of mine I got from a bear dog breeder, and 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.240 these dogs their whole family history for a long ways back. 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:38.759 We're bear dogs, but I've trained them to be coon 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.560 dogs and we have had a tremendous time the last 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:46.600 four years hunting these dogs. You're gonna enjoy this podcast. 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.640 It's something different. Stay tuned to the end. Don't knock it, 0:01:51.360 --> 0:02:01.000 tell you try it. Okay, Hey, we're a hundred and 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.160 thirty yards directly below him. I'm not gonna lie to you. 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:10.880 That's a rough piece of talk to him. Third to 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:21.240 talk to him. Good job, good job yet. Welcome to 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:26.520 the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. Tonight. We are going on 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:30.880 a coon hunt. The date, what's the day, Jonathan? So 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:35.680 he's a fifth. Today is January and it is about 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:40.320 six fifty in the evening, and we are we are 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:44.480 loaded up and I've got with me a long time friend, 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:50.280 Jonathan Webster. Jonathan, give us, give us just a little 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:53.679 introduction of yourself. Oh man, I am really excited to 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.800 be here tonight. Never been hunting before. Obviously we've been 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.400 friends for a long time, but uh, I've never been 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.520 hunting before, and really really excited. Left goals also being 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:08.200 on a podcast Life Goals Sam. Well, you know, it's 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:10.360 kind of one of these deals where Jonathan and I've 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.239 we've been friends for a long time, but we've we've 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:16.639 never hunted together. And just last last week we were 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.440 looking for some time to get together and I said, Hey, 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.280 let's go coon hunting and he was like, tell me 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.679 when and I'll be there very very much like that. Yeah, 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.720 and so this is a great actually a great opportunity 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:35.080 to talk about coon hunting raccoon hunting, and what we're 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.600 gonna do on this podcast is I'm gonna I'm going 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:44.280 to talk about basically two separate things that about coon hunting, 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:45.880 and I'll tell you what they are. And then we're 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:47.680 gonna go on a coon hunt and we're gonna record. 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.440 We're gonna record some of the kind of live action 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:56.080 of the hunt. And uh, and this is the spiel. 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:01.400 We got dog collars for the dash of the truck. 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:06.120 This is the spill that I give every single time 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.280 that I take new people coon hunting. And I really 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:12.840 really enjoy taking new people because it's a you know, 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:16.080 if you're trying to take somebody deer hunting. Jonathan, first 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.480 of all, they've they've got to have their own weapon. 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.920 They've got to be proficient with that weapon. They've they've 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:28.240 got to be prepared to deal with large amounts of 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:30.799 meat if they kill a deer. I mean not everybody's 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.000 really prepared or ready to do that. They've got to 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.240 have patience, they've that. You know, the seasons are more 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.480 are aren't as liberal as say a small game season, okay, 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:43.919 because like the deer seasons would be much shorter. A 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.640 small game season, like coon season here in Arkansas is 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.880 is nine months long. There's actually only three months of 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.960 the year that you cannot hunt raccoons in Arkansas. I 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.560 didn't even know there was a season. But yeah, I mean, yeah, 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:57.560 I know plenty of people who as soon as it's 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.839 deer season, they just jet from work. You never see 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:01.599 you don't see him for you know, ten days, and 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.680 so I didn't even know, right, And so so this 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.839 is a this is a great entry point for people 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:12.680 to experience hunting. And you don't you know, when you 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.600 coon hunt, it's a it's a it's safe in the 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.119 sense of like I take a lot of kids coon hunting, 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:20.719 and I tell their parents, you know, my friends, my 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.400 my children's friends come coon hunting with me, and I'm like, hey, 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:29.760 this is safe. Friends, friends, your children's friends. Oh no, 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:35.120 your children's y Yeah yeah, children's friends or friends children there, 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.520 we gon go either way, take him coon hunting. And 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.360 a lot of times people that have never interacted with hunting, 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.520 I think that it's it's unsafe. They think that their 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:46.600 kid is going to be running around with a gun 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.880 at night, and I'm like, no, no, no, this is 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.200 this is actually very safe. There only one gun. I'll 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.720 be carrying the gun. Um. And that's pretty unique to 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.640 hunting because in most times hunting, everybody needs a gun 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.039 butt in a not in coon hunting. And uh, and 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:05.960 we'll describe exactly what we are doing. But it's a 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.039 good entry level sport. And this is what I truly 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:13.760 love about coon hunting, Jonathan. That's in contrast to my 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.320 big game hunting, is that big game hunting is typically 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:22.600 a solo sport. Even even though even though I have 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.599 all these people that I connect with on a relational 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.000 level inside of bear hunting and deer hunting and turkey 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.400 hunting and all these different things, when you go on 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.960 a bear hunt, you're by yourself. Yeah, I mean, now 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:36.640 you may be in camp with people, but I mean 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.440 we're actually out there hunting. You're by yourself, man, coon 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:45.080 hunting I have taken last week, we took a group 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.960 of maybe seven or eight people, three or four ladies, 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.760 ladies that you would know, uh, that you would never 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.160 expect to go coon hunting. My wife was there with us, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:57.719 and my kids were there, and there were seven or 0:06:57.720 --> 0:06:59.800 eight of us. I think last year we went on 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.880 what we called the Cousins coon Hunt, which was all 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:07.640 my my wife, sister in law, and I think there 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.520 was seventeen of us that went, and I mean it 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.640 was just a blast. You get out in the dark, 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.800 you turn your hounds loose, and you're able to talk, 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.080 you're able to converse, you're not you don't have to 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.720 be quiet, you don't have to worry about your scent, 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.320 and most types of big game hunting there's it's really 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.400 there's really more stress involved because you gotta do a 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:32.800 whole lot of things right right to kill a deer, 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.040 to kill a bear, you know, there's a lot more 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.280 at stake. That's actually been an intimidation point for me, 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.560 as someone who does has no real exposure or entry 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:44.520 into the hunting world. To like want to dip atoe 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:46.840 in it that knowing that there's like a lot on 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.160 the line that I could mess up for somebody else's shot. 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:54.080 So like that's something that, uh, that's that's cool, that 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.600 that's not a factor here. Yeah. I mean, you know, 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:02.200 there's a term that that houndsmen have you used for 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:04.960 I don't know how long, but what we're doing tonight 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:09.440 is what you'd call a pleasure hunt, and that that 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:14.040 phrase may not make sense unless you're a houndsman that 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.400 you know, if we if we tree a coon or 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.360 if we don't, it's really not the issue. It's not 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.920 like we're out here trying to you know, three fifteen 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.800 coons and sell the hides and make a living for 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:32.719 our family. This is a pleasure hunt. Pleasure hunt we're 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.520 doing for fun, just purely fun. And obviously other types 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.760 of hunting is enjoyable and fun, but there's something about 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.120 turn to loose a hound at night that's a lot 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.520 of fun. So here's what we're gonna talk about, Jonathan. 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.440 There's two things I want to tell you about. I 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.320 want to talk to you about plot hounds and this 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:52.760 is I'm gonna talk to you like you're a ten 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.800 year old. That's basically that's my hunting age. Actually that's 0:08:55.800 --> 0:09:00.600 your hunting age. Well, when when these kids come with me, 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:07.240 like the life has to be interpreted or or you 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.400 don't understand it. I mean, it's like walking into an 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:14.080 art gallery and if you saw that same piece of 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:18.840 art out of context in somebody's garage, you might walk 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.320 by it and not realize that that's a world famous 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:26.120 piece of art that has some intrinsic beauty that is extraordinary. 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:31.320 So to me, on a coon hunt, you could be 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:35.000 fooled into thinking that all that these dogs are just 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.040 a diamond dozen and we just turn them loose, and 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.120 coons are diamond dozen't and they just run out there 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.560 and tryer coon and we go and shoot it and 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.600 go home, and we were coon hunters. But actually it's 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.760 a complex sport that takes a lot of dedication. It's 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.480 taken decades and decades of breeding in these hounds to 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:57.679 get them to do what they want. There's a lot 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.960 of cultural value inside of coon hunting that I think 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.280 some coon hunters don't even recognize. And so we're gonna 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.960 talk about We're gonna talk about ploth hounds and my 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:13.080 specific dogs history of plot hounds and what they why 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.000 I've got these dogs because this is a bear hunting 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:19.360 magazine podcast, and I'm gonna tie these dogs into bear hunting, 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.800 even though these dogs have never been on bear number two. 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.760 We're gonna talk about the way that we're hunting here 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.520 in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, with with dogs and 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.000 with hounds, and and we'll talk will weave in some 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:36.520 of the cultural significance of of raccoon hunting, Okay, And 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:40.040 I think we'll maybe start there is that in the South, 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:46.480 raccoon you know, coon dog is kind of a culturally 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:52.280 iconic and has this like special place in people's hearts 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.760 in real communities. You know, coon dog, coon do oh man, 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:00.280 he's got a good coon dog. Well, at one time 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:07.439 the coon hide was worth up to twenty five dollars 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.840 in the in the in the seventies, even up to 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.760 the nineteen seventies, a coon hide, Jonathan would have been 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:18.319 worth twenty five dollars. That was during a time period 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:24.480 when the average poor Southerner was probably making about three 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:29.280 dollars and fifty cents an hour. Oh Man, And I 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.800 could I could be wrong in my I did some 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:34.679 research a long time ago, and that's what I recall, 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:38.520 but you knows, was a lot of money in nineteen 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.000 seventy for somebody that was probably making maybe twenty five 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.000 dollars a day. Okay, you get a couple of coons, 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.440 you got you got a couple of days worth. You 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.160 had a good coon dog that you could take out 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.640 a couple of nights a week in the winter and 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:59.120 tree three coons, four coons, one coon man. You you 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:03.840 might make a month's wage, you know at the salt 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.200 you know, compared to what you're making at the sawmill 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.120 from this coon dog. And so this dog all of 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.640 a sudden had some real value in that family. He 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:17.480 became like a working piece of equipment. And in in 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.640 the in the further you go back in history. In 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.080 in American history, fur has been has gone up and 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.120 down in value, but I mean back in the eighteen 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.800 hundreds and all the way through the nineteen seventies when 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:34.040 fur prices kind of plummeted because the anti hunting communities 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.880 influence on the fur trade. So it's not that way anymore. 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:45.560 It's no fur today. These coons that we're hunting there week, 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.280 they they do have some market value, but they'd be 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:55.360 worth about probably two dollars of pelt. Wow, dramatic change. Yeah, 0:12:56.600 --> 0:13:00.600 and so these hides aren't worth money anymore now. In 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.320 different parts of the country, Jonathan, they would be worth 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.400 more like if you killed if you took a coon 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.920 way up in some of the northern states, the pelt 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.360 quality would be a whole lot better than the pelt 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.080 quality here in Arkansas because of the temperature, it's just 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.000 not cold enough here and so our coon's don't have 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:23.920 the fur density that northern colon would have. But you 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:27.240 see where I'm going with the cultural value that came 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.040 from a coon dog. Okay, And obviously it's kind of 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.800 been a you know, there's a stigma and coon hunters 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:39.000 that these are just like backwoods hillbillies, and you know 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:44.600 they were and they were. These were people that were 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.400 trying to scratch out a living from the resources that 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.560 they had, you know, and that's what I that's what 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.560 I like about it. And uh So to be a 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:59.360 coon hunter today is I think kind of a unique thing. 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.360 And there's a strong coon hunting culture very much so 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:07.839 alive all over the country where there's raccoons, and uh 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.560 there's a big competition coon hunting culture, which I'm not 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.960 really into, but I have competition coon hunted some but 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:21.640 but that's that's not a focus the reason, and I 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.360 want to jump right to the conservation side of why 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:27.560 we do what we do. And this is what I 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:31.280 tell all the kids that hunt with us. Coon are 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:36.160 they are nest predators. So one of the biggest challenges 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.240 we have right now and Arkansas is that we don't 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:45.120 have any turkeys, and coons are notorious nest predators, and 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:52.080 turkeys lather eggs on the ground, and so by removing coons, 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:57.480 you are given a chance for a nest of turkey 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:02.600 polts to survive. Um coons are because they don't have 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:07.000 value anymore, that very few people hunt them and trap them. 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.560 And so basically there is an unnatural amount of coons 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:16.560 in almost every place as compared to natural coon population 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:20.440 patterns that would have been here pre civilization, pre European 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:24.680 civilization in North America. So basically, by having farms, and 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.840 by having trash cans, and by having chicken coops, and 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.360 by having all the things that we've done to this place, 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.600 there's a ton of coons. You know. It is fascinating 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.920 how hunting works on a conservation level. That's one of 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.520 the that's one of the first things that I remember 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.320 you saying about hunting was that was the history of 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.440 Boone and Crockett, I believe, and incentivizing taking older males 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.560 out of the population. And and I had no idea 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:55.520 about that. I had heard many times on wherever, you know, 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.800 hunters called themselves conservationists, and that I never understood that. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.040 But that's cool to see that. It even goes to like, 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:03.760 I don't know, it's a raccoon of varmat, of varmat 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:09.080 level arm there's my knowledge. You know, there's a there's 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.200 a tenant of the North American model for wildlife conservation, 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:18.640 and it's called non frivolous use. So these would be 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.640 like the ethics of the North American model for wildlife 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:26.000 conservation that basically our whole hunting culture in North America 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.640 is built around, and people do this and they don't 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.240 even know. People have this built inside of them and 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.320 they don't even really know where it came from. But 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.800 non frivolous use, which means that any one of these 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.560 hunting dads out here would say to their kids, if 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.360 you shoot it, you're gonna skin it. You're gonna use it. 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.200 You're gonna eat it. Now. With coon, we don't eat coon. 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:52.040 I have eaten coon, but typically you're not eating eating coon. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.160 Coon is a predator. Typically we don't eat predators. Okay, 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.600 typically for you can it's like they're edible, but that's 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.280 not We're not killing this coon for meat. We will. 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:05.760 If we kill a coon tonight, I will skin it 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:11.040 and I will use that hide for personal use. I 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.000 get the hide tanned out if it's a nice hide, 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.800 and give it as a gift or use it in 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:22.280 some way. Um. But even if we didn't, we would 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:26.240 still be justified because we just need to kill coon's. 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.240 We just need to kill coons a population. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:32.840 This guy that we're hunting on a piece of private 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:35.280 land out here, and I texted him just a minute 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:37.760 ago and said, hey, we're gonna coon hunt it on 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:40.920 your place tonight is exact words where get them all? 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:44.919 I mean, this is a landowner that's trying to manage 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.960 for turkey. He's trying to manage for quail. Quail or 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:52.560 ground nesting birds, and coons are varmints. They will find 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:56.000 and get into everything. They'll destroy turkey, gigs and nest, 0:17:56.320 --> 0:18:00.360 and so there is a massive conservation aspect to coon 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.080 hunting aside from it just being fun and we enjoy it, 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.160 and it's a cultural experience to go on a coon hunt, 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.600 so there's a lot to it. Okay. So that's that 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.680 kind of gives some history of of why we can 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.520 number two plothounds. I want to tell you a story 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.600 about treehounds. Most people don't understand treehounds unless they have 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.280 some connection to the hound world. So it seems like 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:29.480 treehounds are different than plothounds. Well, okay, jumping ahead, plot 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.600 hoound is a tree hunt. So a plothhound is a 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:36.159 breed of dog. Okay, plothhound is a is a u 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:40.520 k C registered breed of dog. And that's what I've 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.119 got back here. I've got two registered plothounds in the 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:49.280 back of my truck. Um. But these plothhounds are tree dogs. 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.520 So tree dog would be a characteristic of a dog 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:57.160 that would describe its action and behavior. So when you're 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.520 hunting a raccoon, what we're doing is we're turning these 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.320 dogs a little and they are going out and going 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.840 hunting and looking for where a coon this very night 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.399 has climbed out of a tree and gone out about 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.760 his business, walking down creeks, walking down ridge, just looking 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.159 for acorns, catching, you know, whatever he can catch to 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.840 eat or find to eat. And he's leaving scent right now. 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:23.040 The coon that we're gonna tree here in an hour 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:28.800 leaving scent somewhere. And these dogs go out and find 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:33.119 that scent. And when they find that scent, they have 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:37.280 this instinct to trail it up. Now, what makes a 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:41.600 hound hound, now, pay attention, young tenure over, is that 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.880 a hound barks on the track when it smells scent. 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.959 There are many dogs that are trail dogs that do 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.040 not bark on the track, and they are typically not 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:56.880 they're not hounds. Like there's cur dogs and fice dogs 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:01.800 that are tree dogs. Okay, they trail stuff, but they 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:04.920 don't bark on the track very little. So the characteristic 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:10.080 of a hound is that when he smells sent he 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.119 lets you know he's found it, okay, and you have 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.600 to train that or is that just that's just inside 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:22.359 of him and has been for a long long time. Um, 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:26.679 So they trail this. They're trailing this coon, trailling this 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:31.600 coon er er, we're listening to him er or or 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.119 all of a sudden, that coon knows he's being chased, 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.919 and he goes up a tree. The dogs get to 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:42.400 the tree, and they smell up that tree, and they 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:45.440 circle the tree to make sure he didn't jump out, 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:49.560 and they decide that he's up that tree. A tree 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:53.480 dog will stay at that tree and bark and tell 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.359 his master gets there. That is in contrast to a 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:02.960 running hound. Okay, so treehound barks at the tree, stays there, 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:07.480 and that is a beautiful, wonderful thing. I mean, like, 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:10.320 I don't know what would be an example, Jonathan, is 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.120 something that that you would just be like a contoisseur 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.400 of that you would just be like, this is a 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:23.119 beautiful thing. Oh man, I don't even know a good 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:28.359 pay a good podcast. Yes, well, a tree dog is 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.560 a beautiful thing because they're hard to come by, and 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:35.679 not just because you've got a you know, a breed 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.359 of dog like plot that's that are typically tree dogs. 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:42.240 It actually doesn't mean they're gonna be a good tree dog. 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:45.840 Inside of that breed. There's gonna be variations. There's gonna 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.160 be some dogs that are really strong tree dogs. Like 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:51.719 when an animal goes up a tree, they start barking 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:55.959 and they'll stay there for ten hours. Uh. Other dogs 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.960 might you know, smell it couldn't go up a tree 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.800 and might bark around there for twenty minutes and then 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:05.240 peel off and want to go hunting. But here's here's 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.360 the Here's the thing about a running dog, a running 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:10.800 hound is that when he smells sit on the ground, 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.320 he barks. When he smells where that game has gone 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.080 up a tree, He's like, well, shoot, he read up 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:22.399 a tree. I guess I'll go find something. And and 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:26.639 and so that's a pretty common typehound that people use 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.520 for different things. For running foxes, for running coles, for 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.560 running game that does not climb a tree. You don't 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:37.760 need a tree dog, right, And so these are tree 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:45.679 dogs and that that is that is valuable. And these dogs, 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:53.400 specifically our plothounds. And this is where I'm gonna tie plots. Well, 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:56.320 I'm gonna tie this coon hunt back into bear hunting. 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:02.840 Is that these dogs come from a long, long line 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:06.760 of bear and mountain lion hounds. Now have I told 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:11.160 you that before I knew that you had gone to 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:14.320 to look at a dog in like another state some 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:16.680 months ago, and I assumed that there would be a 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.920 reason for that some sort of pedigree or something. But right, well, 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:25.800 so when you're talking about a coon dog, like there 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:31.080 there's certain mammals that we chase with hounds that climb trees, raccoons, bears, 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:35.520 and mountain lines. And there's some some characteristics that are 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:42.000 similar between dogs that would chase those animals like pretty much. Um, 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:45.000 and and and there's in each of those species of 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.800 animals that you're trying to trying to chase, there's going 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:51.520 to be there's gonna be characteristics and a dog that 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:55.600 you need really strong that you don't in others. Okay, 0:23:56.600 --> 0:24:00.480 and here's where I'm getting at Fern and Jedi, because 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:03.400 my two plots male and female. Ferns four years old. 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:09.800 Jeti's two or three. I think he's coming on three. Um. 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:13.960 All of their genealogy back for generations have been bear 0:24:14.080 --> 0:24:18.000 in mountainin dogs, a few of them coon dogs in Kansas. 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:23.120 And I got these dogs almost on accident. I had 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:26.720 written a legendary bearhound column, the very first one for 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:29.800 Bear Hunting magazine. We started a column called the Legendary 0:24:29.800 --> 0:24:33.360 Bearhound Column because I wanted to include more hound content 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:35.880 in the magazine, and I needed content that I could 0:24:35.920 --> 0:24:39.800 create myself. That like I could be that I didn't 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:41.679 have to go on a bear hunt a cow on 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:44.920 the side of the road just did you look, Oh 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:51.280 my goodness as a cow out in the ozark Um. 0:24:51.320 --> 0:24:54.360 I needed content that I could create, and so we 0:24:54.400 --> 0:24:58.160 started this legendary bearhound series, and I think we've made 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:01.880 like we've written twenty five legendary bearhound articles. The very 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:05.320 first legendary barhound article I wrote was about a guy 0:25:05.440 --> 0:25:09.240 named Steve Heard and his line of plots called Bluff 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:13.560 Creek Plots, and Steve Heard lived in Protection, Kansas. I 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:16.520 called Steve Heard I'd heard about him and told him 0:25:16.520 --> 0:25:18.119 what I was doing. I said, I want to write 0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:20.840 a story about one of your old dogs. We wrote 0:25:20.840 --> 0:25:24.320 a story about a dog named bear Path Gunner. Remember 0:25:23.600 --> 0:25:28.600 that bear Path Gunner in the nineteen seventies was one 0:25:28.640 --> 0:25:34.160