By Clyde Murphy
It was a cold night, cold and bright. February 21st only 7 days before
Alabama's coon season would be out, and believe me we were gonna hunt the
hounds hard this last week. We were hunting a new place tonight, a place
that hadn't had dogs run on it for over 30 years, and it was run over
with coons. We knew it, and the dogs knew it. We were hunting a friends
Walker dogs, Spark and Kate, Kate being a tried and true U.K.C Night Champion
at 9 years old, and Spark being a Night Champion at age 3.
Our first turnout was over a feeder, as soon as we cut em' loose from the lease ole' Kate
opened up, not long after that she was treeing away, and here comes ole spark
hitting in on it too. Not ten minutes after we turn them loose and
there treed, might be a good night after all, even though it is bright. We
get to the tree, only about 3 or 400 yards from the truck, and their still
hammering away. We lease the dogs, and start shining, can't find the
coon, shine some more, no coon, more, no coon. We shine it for more than 10
minutes, and no coon. We decide to load up and turn them loose again,
this time on a big 200-acre hardwood bottom, running down a creek. We cut
them loose and yet again they open up almost immediately, this time its
little Spark that opens up, and Katie that honors it. Before long ole' Kate
set in treeing, even at 9 years old this dog can still move a track
quick! We go on into the tree, and sure enough there is ole Mr. Coon, we shine it
up good, and shoot him out, as soon as he hits the ground Kates on him
like lightning, with one swift bites he's dead. We grab her, and the coon
and head for the next turn out, another feeder site on the other side of
the hardwood bottom, with a 400 acre pine plantation running down one side.
This time we put Spark back in the box, and get ole Joe, out to run
with Kate, He's not Night Champion yet, but a darn good tree dog, and his
win toward Nt.Ch.
We cut them loose, for about the first 5 minutes
nothing, neither dog opens up, nor so much as barks. Then theres Joe with his
ringing voice, sounds like thunder when he opens up, then Katie opens.
Before long there treed, WAY off in the bottom doesn't sound far from
the last tree. We get to the tree, and Kate and Joe are giving it a fit,
not many leaves on this one and we spot Mr. Coon right away. Frank asks if
I want to shoot him out, I said "heck yeah", so he shines the tree
good, and hands me the Marlin mod. 60. I take aim, shoot, and the coon flinches
and starts cussing, so I shoot another in him, and another, ends up I put 6
pieces of lead in him before he hits the ground, a HUGE Boar coon, we
had Joe leased and Kate was gonna do the deed of killing him, Well he acts
like those 6 shots never even touched him, as he precedes to rip into Kates
nose, well she lets out a howl like you've never heard before, and just gets
her angrier.
After she finally slings him off her and now she has
one big hole instead of 2 little ones in her nose, she goes back to work on
Mr. Coon, well this time she gets in a good bit, but not good enough, he
gets free and hits her lower jaw this time, blood goes everywhere and we
know he hit her pretty good, so I hurry and cut Big Joe loose, and he kills the
big boar pretty quick. We get ole' Kate and look at her, tore her nose up
good, and got a chunk bit out of her jaw, not real major but she's bleeding a
good bit. We take her to the closest stream, and wash her off real good,
while she's still bleeding.
We decide to call it a night, where Frank can go
patch her up, all in all a good night, we hunted about 3 hours with 2
coon, gotta be happy. That�s the night Ole Kate went down, though only for a
short while. This was also the first coon hunt I had ever been on, boy
did I love it, now it�s a addiction. Thanks to Frank for being nice enough
to take me hunting.
