Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Cutler, Il.
Posts: 1631

That was part of your coon hunting gear. It's still drizzling a little outside, & here I set instead of hunting. Looking at some of the threads about which light, tracking system, breed of dog, etc. is the best, got me to reminiscing. We have come a long way from the one room country school to the present. We wore the clothes that we did the chores in, along with the five buckle over-shoes when we went hunting. I was raised on a dairy farm so we had plenty of milk to feed the dogs. All the dogs were grade dogs, never heard of a reg. coon hound. Dad usually kept about 15-25 fox hounds, 8-10 coon hounds, & 2 shepards.
When you got ready to go hunting you filled your whiskey bottle with clean water, filled the Prince Albert can with carbide, & made sure you had several pieces of screen wire to clean your light tip out with. Get your 2-3 cell flashlight to shine trees with, put a waded up hand full of binder twine in your hip pocket, just in case you ever had to lead a dog, get the 12 guage shotgun & plenty of shells, & step out on the back porch where all hell broke loose. Here is where you young guys would have a high speed melt down. there would usually be 5-6 dogs including the shepards running loose, then you would start turning dogs loose that were tied up to dog houses, & get the ones that were locked up in the barn, & you ready to head for the creek. HELL, I remember a lot of nights we would have a rabbit race, a possum treed, a coon treed, & fox race going on at the same time. There were dogs barking every direction. Hunt 3-5 hours, come home eat a snack & go to bed. Get up around 4:30- 5:00 & help with the chores, then get ready & walk one & a half miles to Plum Creek school. Got sent home alot because I smelled like skunk. Oh yes, if we drove off some place to hunt, we hauled our dogs in the trunk or back seat of the family car. Trucks usually had feed or something on them & were used for farm use only.
I tried to condense this as much as possible & still tell you a little bit what it was like back a FEW years. Yep, it sure has changed. My first competition hunt was a possum rule hunt in 1948. Hope to see you at one of the hunts.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: waldo wi
Posts: 3221

we got a pup from a beagle mix and ab&t that we started training on coon with our shepard mix cowdog(3 legged)and purebred springer (herby)and he was catching onwell .then one night fire trucks went out ,dad turned him loose to see where,he got smaccked on the road,could have made a good story.----------------oh ,the whiskey bottle .prince albert can are still up on the barn beAMM WITH THE TWINEalways thought that was history till i got to grade school!

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Registered: Feb 2004
Location: martinsville, il.
Posts: 1468

them little cannisters that had a flint on the reflecter and you put your hand over the reflecter, trapping some gas and strike the flint. Man that thing would go pow and the light was on. Them coons looked at those lights better than they will at the bright lights now. You had to fill those little cannisters quite often. Then I got one of them big canisters that hung on my belt, it was state of the art, lasted a long time til you had to fill it up again. I remember my first wheat light, bought it at autumn Oaks at Green
Castle, Indiana. Now, I was one of the big boys. John, I remember the trunk and back seat of the family car. Tail light wires got chewed into and momma raised ole cain bout the back seat gettin tore up. In those days it was a man thing, don't think I ever seen a woman go huntin, they just worked in the kitchen. I think it's great that women today fully compete. They have proven to be tough competitors with the likes of my wife Rosemary, the late Teresa Keys and many many more. All outstanding ladies. ( I ain't no dummy ) In those days nobody heard of a leash, I led my dogs out of the woods many a nite with my belt or binder twine, balen wire and on occaision with barbed wire taken from an old fence. Like you said John, all the hunts were grade hunts. I will say that today there is a lot more good coondogs than there was then.

it ain't easy, being easy!

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: CT
Posts: 1014

I'm remember when I was young I met a girl who's father and grandfather coon hunted.I didn't know anything about coon hunting.I asked them to take me out with them and they where more than happy too.I thought it was great to get to ride in the back of the staition wagon with the dogs.They were even nice enough to always let me carry the coon.

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Registered: Dec 2003
Location: Indiana 32mi South of Terre Haute
Posts: 94

the carbide lamps and the long silver flashlight that had a rifle sling to carry it but in the early 70s I was too tight to buy a wheat light so I got a cheap 6 volt motercycle battery and wired it in an old womens sholder bag and it worked realy well plus I had room for every thing I needed to take a few years ago I ran across the old sholder bag still hanging in the shed still had a wiskey bottle half full of whisky a prince albert can with tobaco papers and matches in it a peice of leather strap to hang coons and possums for skinnig and leading dogs 22 short hp shells a pair of socks and bread sacks to keep my feet dry anybody else ever use the bread sacks

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Island Valley Kennel (Redbones since 1970)

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Registered: Oct 2003
Location: Hamilton Missouri
Posts: 709

I've skinned everything from a Goat to a Yote--But the frist coon i had ever skinned was a road-kill coon--back in early 70's
I was in 6th grade and was riding my bike home from school 13 miles, I found a big ol' dead coon on the road--got some barbwire
off the fence and wired it to my handlebars and headed for the house--sold it that season for 28 bucks

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Hillydale Kennels -Rock River & Finley River Bred Walkers

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location:
Posts: 319

"Thanks for the memories". Those were the days(nights). Done it all even the bread sack thing. Feet would get so cold that bottoms would crack and bleed. When SUPER GLUE came on the market, I used it to glue the cracks together and then wrap feet in tape before puttiin on socks and bread sacks. It was simpler then not to have to keep up w/your equiptment. Usually if you lost your lead(rope) your buddy would cut his in half for you. Usually the entire party could walk from the light of one lantern.Now we go to woods w/GPS,compass,cell phone,tracker,Tri-tronics,belt lite and MAYBE a coon dog,if you're lucky.

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Southern Illinois
Posts: 439

Holy cow, John you really are old. Thanks for the history lesson. It was great.

PS. I thought I smelled skunk at the last club meeting!

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Cutler, Il.
Posts: 1631

Jeremy, I didn't see you, Jesse, or Jason at the last club meeting, where were you guys. Probably getting those Redticks ready for the next hunt. Steve said you guys were going to guide out of Tilden. I'm going to guide out of Oraville. I'm not going to be hunting though because Sqeaky is coming heat. I'll make you a bet, I'll bet the cast I guide will score on more coon than yours. I'm not hunting or judging, just guiding. A six pack of Bud.

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Southern Illinois
Posts: 439

I was in lexington KY with work last meeting.
I was not signed up to guide with either club during walker days because of work. Its basically impossible to sign up for anything except on the weekends for me. Jason and Jesse has signed up for all nights out of Tilden.

On Saturday night I actually was going to guide but Betsy is on a roll right now and I need two more wins with Betsy in UKC to finish her out, so Saturday I am heading to Daisy Mo.

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Southern Illinois
Posts: 439

One good thing about these old message boards...
I was going back through some old threads and there is my old buddy John Wittenborn..... Passed away a few years ago but was a great guy and coonhunting friend.
He always had interesting stories.

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Registered: Apr 2015
Location: church hill tn
Posts: 5738

Thank you so much for bringing this old thread back up. I really enjoyed reading all the posts on this thread, they brought back so many fond memories. I remember most of the things posted on this thread, carbide lights, bailing twine leads, grade dogs and the thrill of the hunt possums or coons trees, made no difference to me as a young boy. Dave

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Dave Richards Treeing Walkers Reg American Saddlebred and Registered Rocky Mt. Show Horses

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: north ala.
Posts: 917

Back in the early 70's when we hunted EVERY night, on those rainy nights we used trash bags for rain coats, worked good but got awful hot! Lol

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Registered: Apr 2015
Location: church hill tn
Posts: 5738

quote:

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Originally posted by 2ol2hunt
Back in the early 70's when we hunted EVERY night, on those rainy nights we used trash bags for rain coats, worked good but got awful hot! Lol

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Dave Richards Treeing Walkers Reg American Saddlebred and Registered Rocky Mt. Show Horses

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 3430

I got a laugh out of the trash bag comment. A trash bag would last about 50 feet down here.

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Donald Bergeron

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: north ala.
Posts: 917

quote:

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Originally posted by shadinc
I got a laugh out of the trash bag comment. A trash bag would last about 50 feet down here.

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Registered: Jun 2023
Location:
Posts: 94

Back in the 70s I hunted with my uncle and a older gentlemen.they had bought a type of backpack that had different compartments in it to carry things.bullets,extra batteries for the 2 cell flashlight for walking and for the 5 cell for shining trees. Never knew anything about the wheat lights or nite lights till years later.didnt know anything about red or yellow lenses either.had a gambag in the back where the coon went.had a place to put a bottle of mogen david wine too. As I got older and started hunting on my own always wondered why we didn't skin the coon back then.i learned on my own how to skin them out in the woods.sure made carrying them alot easier lol.how things have changed.

Last edited by buff1978 on 06-13-2024 at 05:28 AM

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Registered: Aug 2013
Location: Seneca, Mo
Posts: 5898

A good old thread brought back up. Thanks for finding it!
The moment I read the words Prince Albert in a Can a memory of my daddy and his bird dog German shorthair pointer whose papered name was just that. Dad called him P.A.
Jen

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