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[David_Heimann]

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[timothy]

Im no expert but it seems that after a couple days of cold weather in the teens, then a warmer night in the 30s seems to really be great. before lastnight that was the case for over a week were i hunt. last night it was about 30 where I hunt. I jumped a coon on the road entring the property. treed him, treed another right next to the first tree. then chased one into a hole. driving down the road I saw another coon in the bushes, and shined a couple in the trees. was a pretty good night, and made it out by 1030pm!

[David_Heimann]

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[Deff]

Coons will migrate a lot further than most people think to find a reliable food source and will stick pretty close to it all winter. We use to winter 200 calves and raised oats and barley to feed them in the winter. The grain was hauled to a mill to be steam rolled and molasses added. We would shovel it into wooden bins to cool and store it and it was flat out impossible to keep the coons out of it! It was amazing the amount of damage the little varmints would cause! I would shoot, trap and chase coons all winter and it seamed like an endless supply.

Now we no longer winter as many calves and simply buy processed pellets to feed them and store the feed in a steel bin. We have an easy time finding coons to chase from May until about mid October but after that they seam to vanish! I was talking to a man that lives about 8 miles away that grinds grain and hay and mixes it together to feed his cattle. He was complaining about all the coons this winter!

If I was going to try to bait coons, I would start in early September to try to get them to stick around.

[montananative]

Ive treed coons in every month of the year, winters slow way down, but like Deff and Timothy mentioned they will range out far to find good food, and you have to find out where they move to. IF it drops below the teens, stay at home and save some fuel. It was 50 today in Billings and tonight would be a good night to go. little warm spells will really get the coons movin.