Coon activity in the Summer

[ALEX]

How do you guys think coons tend to shift their activity patterns in the summer when it can get well up into the 90-100+ degree range and change their moving schedules to avoid being out in the heat even well after dark? Would coons shift to an early morning activity schedule to feed when it is coolest? I've just been thinking that perhaps early morning day hunting might be more profitable than hot night hunting this summer. Coons are nocturnal by principle, so would getting after them at night always be the best choice? Thank you.

[livetohunt]

We run them all summer long (training season) and tree just as many in the summer as in the winter its a little more work for the dogs with the heat but just as much fun. The only thing we do different with summer hunting from winter is we start later going out after 9 or 10pm.

[Redwood Coonhounds]

Once coon season is over and most places shut down to hunting, and the foxtails come out, I rarely coon hunt. I head back to the Mtns and run fox at that point. But in what little summertime experiance I've had, it seems to me that the coons move a lot earlier in the summer. I think as soon as the direct sun is gone, they come out. About 7 pm. Most of the good tracks have been from about 7-10pm then it seems to hit a slow point until early morning 3-6 am. Morning/Daytime hunting is just as good, if not better IMO. Coons move when they want to.

But again, I really don't put much thought into coon hunting. From Dec-March I go 3-4 times a week, night and day, and catch coons, but I don't have top notch coondogs, so for what its worth.

[ALEX]

Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate it.

[Gary Roberson]

When it heats up like it does down here, I change to hunting mornings only. Not only is it cooler, it is great training for your dogs as they have to learn to trail more. It is rare to hit a track that is smoking hot.
Adios,
Gary

[Tracknthetrail]

Gary I am with you on that morning hunting for training, I just found an old video of such a hunt and uploaded it to my youtube channel. http://youtu.be/IPNSrRyGttU

[Gary Roberson]

I love the morning hunts but have been having heck with wind and dry lately. I can take wind or I can take dry but dogs don't do well with windy and dry.
I have already had two dogs rattlesnake bitten this year so I am avoiding some areas that I would like to be hunting. When I get a change in the weather, I plan to hit some of these good ranches that have a snake problem.
The country in the video reminds me a little of the area I hunt in the Trans Pecos except that it does not have all the thorns and stickers and not as rough. I am a little surprised that the dogs did not latch onto that coon...perhaps too many youngsters. I am hunting four hounds now and I promise that the battle would not have lasted that long.
Are you hunting there in Medina County?
Adios,
Gary

[Tracknthetrail]

Gary, the walker and bluetick were both older dogs that never jumped in the middle of any game, they were great on lions out there and bears up in Nm. The other three were young dogs and the black walker pup grew into a game grabber for sure. The fights didnt last long after that, I sold him to a guy in Co and he caught a ton of lions behind that dog. That country had its fair share of thorns but not that particular canyon, I caught several big cats out of that same header over the years, it was a perfect highway for cruising toms, they would drop down in that bottom and hunt javalinas and mule deer does liked to have fawns in that bowl.
Those dogs have since gone with the wind, and I have started a new pack down here that is just about ready to head up to Co this winter and try their hands at some big cats out on the southeast plains and canyon country. I do hunt Medina county as much as I can get permision, most ranches I have access to have exotics and ranchers are not so willing to let me run my dogs, but dang sure let me run a trap line! Working on getting one more strong hound out of Az that I can use to start running lions off kills down here. The lions are really sarting to blow up down here, ten years ago you would hear of the occasional cat coming through, but now with all these exotics they have really found a niche. My biggest problem has been running a cat to the high fences and they go over, but no place to get dogs over and or no permission to go after the cat. I have a young pack now, just lost my best bluetick back in April, just as I got two six month old sister outta southern Utah to train with him, that that was probably the most bobcat minded dog I have ever had and would absolutly smoke a coon track mid day or whenever.
Where are you at?
Kevin

[Gary Roberson]

I am north of you in Menard. I can come and go pretty much where ever I want to go around here but do have a problem with some high fencing and miles of sheep fences. I was born there in Castroville and raised on the ranch between Devine and Yancey. My brother is still on the ranch and oversees it. I go down there on occasion when I have time and a little moisture. I also hunt a little in NM and the Trans Pecos.
I raise my own blueticks and have been breeding them for about 20 years. They are shorter earred and tighter hided and very athletic. I still breed for nose as I am not a competition hunter nor do I want my hounds to act like competition dogs. I road hunt rather than cast my hounds as I can hunt them where I want them hunting. I want a dog to hunt for me, I don't want to hunt for the dog.
Adios,
Gary

[Tracknthetrail]

Next time you get a chance to get down here I would like to meet ya maybe for a cup of coffee or a hunt or two with the hounds.
I am with ya on the nose part, not sure about the competition part as I have never been to one or have desire to go to one, I got into hound hunting in big country following hounds mile after mile on some cold trails, I am guessing those guys want dogs that can only smell a hot track? I learned from guys that had been hunting hounds out west for years and years and bred their own line, I have never owned a "papered" dog but that never stoped that hound from hunting.
I have just started my pack back up, back in the early 2000's I followed my nose after a woman, from west Texas to the hill country and my pack headed north to Co and Nm(relized soon after that was a mistake!!). I have always had one or two hounds since then and had a young bluetick here in MV that was coming on stronger than some of my west Texas pack, so I decided to get a few more hounds, and all of the sudden in April he started going down hill and died a few weeks later of kidney failure........ So now I have a one young started hound outta some AZ bloodline that has been on 7 lions and 3 bobcats in colorado but not much here, and three pups under a year. Him dying on me so fast put a kink in my plan, but like I did almost 20 years ago, I will start off with "good" bloodlines and its up to me to teach them right from wrong and learn to hunt with me.

Kevin