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This question comes from Western Carolina, I have a young black and tan hound that has no hunting experience and am looking to get into both coon, bobcat, and bear hunting. He handles decent in the woods (I road him about 10 miles a day) he'll go off the road and work the brush and creek beds, and sometimes he'll trail for a ways and then come back to the road. I squalled a coon out for him and he treed him for about 20 minutes before I took him off, so he seems to have the basics down.

Last night he struck a good trail and locked on a tree up the mountain about 100 yards from where he started it, yet when I got to the tree, it was empty. I have never coon hunted before so I'm curious, is it common for a coon to crawl from one branch to a neighboring tree? What are some ways to find them once you get there, or generally good places to look. Also the area I hunt is dogged pretty hard, any suggestions when looking for good terrain to turn out on?

McRainey,
I hunt W. NC and coons here will jump trees often. Really no way to locate a coon once it does this. I just pull my dog after he trees awhile and go look for another.
As for terrain to look for, just ride around a few nights and see where the locals are always hunting. Avoid these areas and find some for yourself....

don't pet him or say anything to him till you see eyes.if you see eyes get happy with him but if you don't then cuss him and move on. also make a big circle around the tree with him sometimes he will pick it back up and go on. good luck

Yes u don't want to scold him if u can't find a coon but u just might not see it

creek beds and cottonwood trees.