If your looking to just get into coon hunting let me offer you some advice as someone who picked it up in their late teens. I would not try to buy a whole pack right off. Coon hunting is a solitary affair mostly and you'll do better trying to control one hound instead of 3-4. I'd pick a breed thats easy to handle, and get em as a puppy or buy an older broke dog. Don't look at any dogs in the 1-3yr old range that can't be proven 100% Broke. I personally am fond of Blue-Ticks, Redbones, and Majestic's. My blue-tick Pearl is 2.5 years old, and is still learning all the time, but I was able to break her for the most part by first introducing her to coon scent, and then a live caged coon. She was timid at first, but then like a light switch she went to howling and snarling at the coon, and rolled him twice before he hit the tree. She treed him and learned the basics. Then I switched to turning the coon out with a little head start at night, forcing Pearl to use her nose instead of sight chasing. She lost the first couple coons she ran this way. And so I took a big dead boar coon and tied a rope to his tail. Then I set up several drag scent trails through the woods, and set her on the track. She followed his trail all the way to the tree where I had tied him up about 5 ft in. She ran past it several times and became very frustrated, until she used her nose to check back on the trail, until she started to trail up the base of the tree..When she looked up the dead coon was inches from her face, and I don't think I've ever seen a dog tree so hard in my life. She's run with a couple buddies dogs, but she doesn't like running with others and will try to find her own coons. She's still not 100% broke on treeing them, but she's definitely getting there. I only hunt about 7 months out of the year for coons due to weather and my obsession with deer beagles during deer season. I prefer a cool summer night over any other time. Many folks would try to sell a dog like this as broke, even though shes not, and hasn't confirmed yet. I would really prefer her to be farther along by now, but since I've had her as a pup, and she hasn't hunted with other dogs it's a little slower going, BUT I know that the way I'm training her is the way I want her to hunt. My wife has cats, so I've broken her from treeing them, but I'd love it if she treed one of the numerous bobcats in the woods we hunt. Basically I just want her to play two roles, one as a beloved family pet and watchdog, and the other as a hunting machine, capable of running and treeing any scent I give her.
I'd rather take my time getting her 100% broke on coons, than risk ruining her with other trash running hounds or risk buying a "supposedly broke" dog.
Look on EBAY and Craigslist for used Head Lights and belts. I found mine in a friends' father's garage. I offered my buddy $15 bucks for the thing since he didn't know what it was and it didn't have a helmet. I charged it up, and it worked, so I took one of the several construction hard hats around my garage, screwed a short screw into the helmet and attached the light to it. Then I used a piece of black duct tape to tape down the wire from the light down the back of the hardhat. I use my mag-light more than the head-lamp though cuz it's a little bulky after walking for miles, and I carry my pistol more than the little .22 rifle. Truth be told, both my dog Pearl and I enjoy just getting out of the house and having a couple beers. If your looking for a pleasure hunting dog, you'll be able to find one for under 100 as a puppy, but if your looking for a registered dog with papers and a history of field trial champions in it's pedigree, then expect to pay upwards of $1000 a dog. Goodluck and Hope to see some more Coon Hunting Discussions on here. By the way where are you located? I'm in Central VA and would love to take ya'll hunting anytime. Let me know..
by rabbitbuster28 » Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:38 pm 
