Racoon Population Estimation

bowhunter57

bowhunter57

Well-known member
I live next to a 30+ acre woods and have had problems with racoons destroying things and being a general pain. Basically, a nuisance. So, I started using a couple of Duke (dog-proof traps) traps with mini marshmallows. There seems to be no end to the amount of coons that I can catch with this setup. :sneaky: I've only been doing this for a few weeks and have managed to remove 30+ with just 2 traps, set about 8' apart.

What's your best estimation or guess as to how many of these varmints can be caught? :unsure:

I want them off of my property, but at this point, there seems to be an endless number. I kinda thought it would've slowed down by now.
 
I too have an endless supply of trash pandas. I have a major creek that divides my farm. Another major creek empties into the dividing creek. The holler behind my house is a feeder to the creek after it wraps around the ridge. South of me is the River. With all of these drainages and connections to fertile bottom grounds filled with crop, I see the endless migration of coons. My feist trees them of the night as they pass by. I trap them year round. The amount of skeletons behind my house is amazing.

I had my parents over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. Dad commented about how my buzzards he noticed around the house. I replied, "they like coon meat."

To OP, keep your traps baited! The turkey appreciate it this time of year.

The coon hunters don't kill them like they used to. My uncle, avid coon hunter and houndsman, wants them for his dogs to tree. If he trees 3, he'll shoot 1. Many times he'll pull his dog off without firing a shot. It amazes me how many coons there are around, when coyote hunting at night, the trees are filled with heat. If no coyotes show, zero is checked on the Indiana panda.

The other local coon hunters have been ordered to shoot all coons if hunting on my place. One buddy treed behind my house, I asked if he shot the coon and he said, "no, I didn't want to wake you." Pissed me off, he now knows to shoot! I hate the coons.
 
I have one property along a river 25acres. A guy traps it he gets close to 80 in a few months every year. It takes a lot to put a dent in them. I killed 39 groundhogs one summer off that place that bout wiped them out lol, I left a few to populate back up.
 
A new highway through a wetland can bring the numbers way down. Some years back a new highway got built just to the west of me. It took forever to complete due to tree hugger/rock licker litigation. But it finally got done. One of my neighbors had the landscaping contract for it. Part of that contract, was after the road got opened, was to scrape up and dispose of all the roadkill raccoons every morning. So that the rock lickers wouldn't see them and sue again. He was picking up over a hundred a day for the first few weeks. After a few months, there weren't any more... And haven't been enough to mention now years later. Knocked the snot right out of them.

- DAA
 
What's a ra-coon?
Guess living in the driest place on the continent has it's perks? Although I'd sure like having the opportunity to kill a few
 
crapshoot said:
What's a ra-coon?
Guess living in the driest place on the continent has it's perks? Although I'd sure like having the opportunity to kill a few
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You're not missing anything, trust me. If a strange virus walked thru this part of the country (east of the Mississippi) and totally wiped out the coon population, the ecosystem wouldn't suffer a bit.

Coon is a common usage word, when referring to a racoon. The animal name of racoon is the proper name, while coon is a shortened term for the same animal.
Coon can be a racist term for black people and I definitely avoid using it, when I'm around anyone of color. ;)

A buddy of mine was at a swap meet that included hunting dogs of all kinds, but most of them were the breed that would tree a coon....or at least a squirrel. He had a nice Redbone pup that he was attempting to swap for another breed of pup. He ran across a gentleman with a Walker and asked if he'd be willing to trade/swap. The gentleman was instantly offended and asked what he was trying to do by insulting him with the offer of a Redbone. :unsure: My buddy asked what he meant by that and asked him to explain. The gentleman he was talking to was a black man and he explained that a Redbone hound was what was used to track down escaped slaves. :oops: My buddy apologized and said that he'd never heard of any such activity with the use of a Redbone. He and the gentleman had a long conversation and became friends from their encounter. :cool:
 
DoubleLungRage said:
You guys are lucky. Here in SC coons are almost protected. Very limited in ways/times you can kill them. Needless to say, we have a LOT.
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Still blows my mind with the turkey populations dwindling. GA opened our season 24/7/365 on private lands and I take full advantage of it. Got 5 last week at just 2 sites and was gonna pull, but another showed up on camera last night, so I’ll wait.

Check out this pic, lol. Gobblers on the left and coon in a DP on the right.

IMG_4095.jpeg
 
I posted this on May 22nd with 30+ nuisance coons trapped and I'm still in amazement. Here it is June 8th and I'm on #49.
37 males and 12 females. :rolleyes:

I've been tossing the carcasses in the field to the west of my house and feeding the turkey buzzards, the other day they were having a company picnic, as there were 14 of them out there. :cool:
Eagle 2 14 Buzzards.jpg

Occasionally, a Bald Eagle or two will show up and the turkey buzzards give them all the space then want. :sneaky: A Bald Eagle's head isn't completely white until they reach maturity at 4 or 5 years. These two were youngsters.
Eagle 3.jpg
 
bowhunter57 said:
I posted this on May 22nd with 30+ nuisance coons trapped and I'm still in amazement. Here it is June 8th and I'm on #49.
37 males and 12 females. :rolleyes:

I've been tossing the carcasses in the field to the west of my house and feeding the turkey buzzards, the other day they were having a company picnic, as there were 14 of them out there. :cool:
View attachment 30455
Occasionally, a Bald Eagle or two will show up and the turkey buzzards give them all the space then want. :sneaky: A Bald Eagle's head isn't completely white until they reach maturity at 4 or 5 years. These two were youngsters.
View attachment 30456
Click to expand...

That's cool. I've tried to use them as coyote bait, but they won't mess with them. I may have missed it, but what state are you in?
 
DoubleLungRage said:
That's cool. I've tried to use them as coyote bait, but they won't mess with them. I may have missed it, but what state are you in?
Click to expand...
N.W. Ohio.
Also, coyotes won't touch coons and I'm not sure about their reasoning as to why they avoid them. Smell? Predator that they've ran into in the past and had a bad experience, perhaps? :unsure:
 
@DoubleLungRage
I've always enjoyed the coyote and cat battles. :sneaky: The cat arches its' back, hisses and snarls. The coyote has a mouth full of razors that will snatch a hold of that cat and shreds it to pieces. :cool:
 
My feist had another treed this morning. Awoke, heard him barking, opened window to confirm location, drank first cup of coffee. 4:30 I booted up with the 22wmr ar in hand. Whooop, fall, ferocious dog shaking, "good boy."

Last week didn't work so well. I went out with the 17hmr and only 4 rds.. Coon was up a cedar and getting the 17gr pill trough all the branches caused for a miss and a frag hitting the trash panda. He came down mad and my last shot was a shot that disembowled him. He jumped on my feists head. Being ammoless and it on his head, I beat it off him with the butt of the rifle. The coon commenced to laying on his back with his guts by his side fighting my dog. It was a he!! of a commotion. By the time I got back to the house for more arms and back he had expired. Last 2 have been with the 22 mag and there is no fight left in them after the first shot. I'm liking this 22mag upper.
 
@Rhett Steele
You're a good man for protecting your dog. :cool: I'm sure he's always got your back and now you have his too. (y)

I've sold my 22LR and 17HMR for their lack of killing power. I nearly purchased a 22 Hornet, but found a Bergara BMR 22 Mag. that has been working over anything it has come up against....with authority. đź’Ż The factory trigger in this Bergara is absolutely amazing. I've fired several brands of ammo thru it and the best grouping at 50 yards has been Hornady 40 gr. V-Max at 2200 fps. The other brands had good accuracy, but not as tight grouped at the Hornady offerings.
I have it topped off with a SigSauer Whiskey3 4-12x50, that has a red dot option in the crosshairs.

G-Hog 2,3,4,5.jpg


Upper Left: Hornady Critical-Defense 45 gr. FTX at 1700 fps.
Upper Right: CCI Maxi-Mag 40 gr. JHP at 1875 fps.
Lower Left: Winchester 40 gr. JHP at 1910 fps.
Lower Right: Hornady 40 gr. V-Max at 2200 fps. (Center of Target too.)
Bergara 1.jpg
 
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