Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Weird Sunday - attacked by a raccoon on my back patio

During Uni, I volunteered at a rehab place. Use to have to clean the kennels where they were being held. Never had a problem, but I am sure they were tested when they came in.

An Osprey decided to take out my backside, whilst I was trying to replace his old fish with a fresh one, and leave me on antibiotics for weeks....but never had a prob. with a 'coon.

Wouldn't trust one I saw out and 'bout during the day....and didn't run off when yelled at...

BTW...ppl are goofy. A few of the farms I take care of have me put food out for their 'friendly' raccoons. I take care of the farms in the am so I've never seen the animals...but it makes me wonder why in the [bleep] you'd encourage it with FOOD. Some people are screwy!

The testing procedure may have changed, but at one time one was supposed to avoid head shots if one planned on testing the critter.

I forgot to add that I never touched the coon. I used a spade to pick it up and plop it in the garbage bag.

Thanks for all the input. I never thought the critter that would come at me like that would be frigging 15 lb. raccoon!

That's the same thing they told me about the cat that bit my daughter several years ago.
Game Warden on the phone: "Can you shoot the cat"?
"Me? Sure, it bit my baby. I'll shoot it a bunch"!
Game Warden: "I understand, but we need the head intact to test for rabies".

Turned out my daughter just needed some bactine and a SpongeBob band aid from her doctor. The cat did not survive the rabies test...

Yet another reason I believe in carrying a gun, one the city slickers can't seem to fathom.

i see coons all the time out here on the farm. almost all flee immediately upon seeing a human, but every once in a while one will come in for a better look. those i shoot on the spot. we have had a few that were rabid and all displayed actions just like you mentioned. it seems when they are infected by rabies, and it is in the later stages, they lose all fear of man. it also seems like their populations are cyclical, as some years they are everywhere and other years the are seen less frequently. one thing for certain, they can put an ass whopin' on a dog! a very interesting animal to watch.

We don't abide varmints of any kind around these parts, particularly of the coon/opossum/skunk persuasion. First thing is old Boone commences to bark. When he barks, there's somethin there. In the instances that the "somethin" is somethin that needs killin, then I kill it. The neighbors don't mind because none of them want the skunks eating bugs on their front porches either.

Yeah, probably not a good idea to mess around with rabies. I saw a movie the other day, "Quarintined", Rabies is bad news.

Alan

I've seen cool guns, cars, movies, etc. but now I can say I've seen a cool dick bone!! The things you experience on the 'Fire never cease to amaze me....

4 3/4" long.

Now, that sounds pretty puny in a human (well, maybe not to some less fortunate guys), but think about it proportionally in an animal that is only about 24" from nose to butt.

In a 6 foot man that would be the equivalent of 14 1/4"!!! You may have killed the Ron Jeremy of raccoons!

Seeing it and experiencing it are two different things,
By God.

g

I rolled a coon hunting off ditch banks one night with a .22 mag. He got up and took off running. The Mag light that was mounted under my barrel was getting weak batteries, and every time I'd stop to get the cross hairs on him, he'd disappear into the dark. IIRC he was running on three legs but still pretty fast. I was running as fast as I could behind him through some corn stubble. As I ran the light would swing up and down and he'd come in and out of sight as it did. Suddenly the light swung up and he wasn't where he should of been. The light swung down and there he was about three feet in front of me on the fight. I was going to fast too stop, so I jumped as high as I could -- may have set my personal jumping record that night. I came down on the other side of him, and as I turned, I saw him coming at me. I was backing up fast and levering up rounds. I won

Another time we spotted several in a tree, I had dropped them all but one with the same 9422M with the light under the barrel, except for one. I popped him and he fell out of the tree in front of me and ran straight at me. I took a step back and fell in a big root hole full of tumble weeds where a large cottonwood had blown over. The hole was six or eight feet deep and I was essentially swimming in tumble weeds trying to get out of there. I could hear the coon real close hissing and fighting weeds too, but I made it out before he got me.

I've had a few other run ins too but those are the most memorable. I never had one attack me unprovoked though, I'm thinkin' there was something wrong with him too -- rabies or something. I'll be interested to hear what you find out.

Several years ago I had a coon in the goat barn. When it saw me it ran to our little hickory tree next to the barn. I had it cornered on a limb try to figure how to shoot it and hold a flashlight at the same time. Soon Greenhornet came home from work and came out to see what was going on. I held the flashlight while GH was doing the shooting and we ended up shooting 19 coons out of that tree that night. All sizes and ages. Next morning it looked like a massacre out there.

Hook the light under the barrel, then wherever you point the rifle the light is there too.

I used tape at first, but soon I learned to rig some special clamps that fit the barrel, the tube, and the light, that I made of wood and felt pads, that I can put on or take off with a couple of wing nuts. It's for my trap checking rifle. Works great for nearby running 'yotes too. The center of a focused Mag light is usually close enough in the 10-20 yrd range, if you are in a hurry and don't mind slinging a lot of lead.

Prob'ly doesn't need saying that rabies is nothing to mess with. We had a Brit Volunteer die of it when I was in West Africa. Some weeks earlier a dog had come up and licked her leg in the marketplace, she thought nothing of it, but that was all it took.

Birdwatcher

The bone in the dick also proves, without a doubt, that God created racoons after He created man.

This is the NEW AND IMPROVED MODEL!!!!!

(You have to be old, like me, to appreciate that )

Steve

coons,



dad had some of the best coon hounds in a 4 county area of SW MO to my knowledge, he turned down $2500 for ole Sam back in the 60's coulda bought a new car with that kind of money, but they made cars every day, they only made one dog like ole Sam. Luke and Bandit were good coon dogs too, but Sam was from another planet, he was the coon treeingest dog I've ever seen and big and tough too.


Sam was a bluetick hound, Luke and Bandit were black and tans.


my dad would have coon hides stretched one above the other 2 and 3 hides deep on 3 walls of the garage. he always had several dick bones hanging from the rearview mirror on his truck. never heard of anyone using them as toothpicks though.


I must have had 6-7 pet coons at different times as a kid. great pets, but as they got older they'd bite my friends.


Phil I would have loved to been at that party and stepped outside to take a leak or have a smoke in time to see you trying to impersonate Davy Crockett! as an aside where at in MO?

they used to make those coonskin caps when I was a kid, but I had a real one that my dad, the local furrier and an old seamstress hooked me up with. I was the chit, or so I thought, had the head on mine.

man oh man what memories, but the most vivid is being short enough that you're in full run trying to keep up with the old man who has the flashlight, god he could cover ground, and the saplings that he brushed away with his elbows and hips would slap the snot outa my face while I was desperately trying to keep up and not get lost in the dark.

got the pizz slapped outa me doing it, but I was having fun. loved it when they'd stop and skin a few and build a fire.

UPDATE

The DWR and the Sheriff both showed up on Monday to take the carcass in for testing. They said they weren't aware of any coons testing positive for rabies but they had quite a few that did have distemper.

Today we got a call saying that the dead coon did not have either distemper or rabies.

So I guess I encountered an islamist suicide coon looking to kill this infidel or take a permanent dirt nap. Either that or he wanted me to use the gas grill instead of the charcoal grill.

I dunno. The whole thing was weird as hell.