I need to find someone with coon dogs who’ll let me go hunting with him sometime. I’ve been reading a lot about raccoon hunting, and it sounds like my kind of activity.
First of all, there’s the dogs. Most successful raccoon hunters use dogs to find and tree the critters, and I love watching hunting dogs work. I’ve already got a bird dog, a stock dog, and a dog I keep around because I apparently enjoy incessant barking and horrid dog breath. I could certainly make room for one more dog, especially if it had a useful skill.
And then there’s the hunting itself. By all accounts, raccoon hunting is done in the cold, and since it also happens in the dark, there’s a great chance of tripping over stuff, getting stuck by twigs and thorns, and maybe even falling in holes or nearly frozen cricks. If you ask me, that sounds like fun.
But overall, it’s another chance to get outside and do some hunting. And better yet, if you get a raccoon or two, you can actually sell the pelts to finance your next trip to the field. Last I heard, raccoon pelts are going for up to about 35 bucks.
There are a few rules to keep in mind if you go raccoon hunting, though. They’re classified as predators in Wyoming, so you don’t need a license. However, if you want to hunt them at night, you have to do it on private land, and you have to have written permission from the landowner that states you can hunt there, and that you can hunt at night and use a light.
It definitely has the makings of an addictive activity. A chance to get outside, work with a dog, get cold, and possibly earn a little spending money.
Now, if I could only convince my wife we need to add another dog to the herd we already have.
