Life span of raccoon

[woodbeard]

Hello everybody
I just got a nice e-mail from Tom who remarked that I had not been here in a coon's age, and upon reflection, I believe he may be right on the mark about that. Anyhow, it is nice to be remembered, and good to see this place and all its residents are doing well. I am not doing so bad myself; still living in Dismal, building geetars, and enjoying life as much as possible.

[ely]

i had a coon that lived to be 13 years old as a pet. i know you have not been away that long. ;D welcome back

[ARKANSAWYER]

   I had a pet coon and he only lived to be about 2 years old.  He liked to go out and walk around the dog pen which just had a 2x6 on top of the post to hold the top of the wire.  The pen was only 6 ft tall as all I owned were beagles.  One night after hunting coons I broung my friends blue tick and red bone hound home with me.  That morning my coon went out and shinned up the corner post and started walking around the top of the pen to get the dogs stirred up.  Well when that red bone hit the wire that coon fell into the pen.  It was not a pretty sight but the coon gave an account for himself. 
  Glad everything is well in Dismal.

[WH_Conley]

Not very long for the ones I found in my sweet corn patch.

[Banjo picker]

My bulldog caught one in the fenced in back yard when I let him out to take care of his nightly business...and it lasted about 20 seconds...Banjo got bite once under the eye...Coon was a mess....I don't like him getting coons as a dog can get a diease called coon-dog paralisis from being bitten from one...My boss has a pair of fiest and one of them contacted the diease...It was paralized in its back legs for a while...its better now...Tim

[Tom]

I don't know what to think of someone who builds guitars with old license plates as pick guards.  :D

I'll never forget the dead-end road we followed on the map, trying to get to your place.  Then we found that we had turned the wrong way back at the still.  Once we forded the big creek and found a place to park by the log foot-bridge, we were OK.   I can see why they never have put electricity in there, the extension chord cord would be too long.

What are you sawing logs with these days?

What's paying the bills, guitars or furniture?

[fishpharmer]

Wow, those guitars are works of art.  Makes me wish I could play, so I had a reason to buy one. 

Good to see here woodbeard.  Nice website.

[CX3]

The life of a coon is not long here in MO especially when he's in a tree above a good redbone ;D

[woodbeard]

Well, they usually live a lot longer as pets.... usually :D
Never had one myself, but I did have a cat that lived to be 20 or so.
Likely would have kept going too, if she hadn't picked a fight with a raccoon.

Haven't sawed a log since I sold the Woodmizer a couple years ago. My shoulder is a lot better than it was then, but I can't do that sort of work anymore. Can't even split firewood, for that matter.
Always plenty of other things to do though.
My partner works full time now, so I play housewife and turn barns into guitars.
It's a pretty good life ;D
The guitars don't quite pay the bills yet, but I am working toward that.

[Mr Mom]

life span of a coon is short around my chicken coup.

Thanks Alot Mr Mom

[flibob]

Along these lines.   What is the biggest coon any of you have seen.  My daughter and I were having a discussion about size and I said probably 30 lb  max.

[CX3]

a captive coon can get upwards of 60 pounds.  The biggest coon I ever treed and knocked out in the wild was in southern Iowa and she weighed 38 pounds.  I have friends in wisconsin that kill a few 40+ pounders every year, wild coons. Here in  southern mo a biggun is 18-20 pounds

[Jeff]

We've got some big ones up at the cabin cause we feen em lots of bear bait. :D   

Here is a clip we took a couple years ago while bear hunting. No big ones in the video, but they aint shy about coming out during the day for a barrel full of donuts. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1VEdiaapvc

[Coon]

 I don't know about this situation but this ol' coon here has outlived his life expectancy by y'alls standards.  Also, it kinda reminds me that I don't know if'n I wanna come around your neck of the woods cuz I'd either be shot or your ol' bluetick will lambaste me to death.  ;D  :D

[woodbeard]

Love that video, Jeff!

When my daughter was little, she had one of those toys with the plastic donuts that you stack on the cone, and one summer, the yellow one kept disappearing. Just the yellow one though, and we would find it down in the creek.
I can just picture the coons chattering on about our darn stale bagels. :D

[Bandmill Bandit]

Much as i love those little critters the best answer is way toooooooooo long

[tyb525]

We have been overrun with coons the last few years. Just in the past week, we have shot on average 2 every night, and we always catch one in the live trap. Caught this gal last night, there's one more coon factory gone.



I skinned her, first time I've ever skinned anything so it was mostly just to say I did. Do any of y'all sell coon furs? Is it good eating?

[Jeff]

Coon fur from this time of year I believe is worthless. I know people that eat coon, but Not me.

[tyb525]

It would be nice to have a good way to get rid of them, throwing them back in the woods is starting to smell the place up.

[Troublermaker]

I had a coon when I was a kid that live till he was about 9 or so. He would stay lose doing he day and at night he go back in his cage. One night I couldn't find him. He was gone a couple of days. After that he would stay a couple of days to fatten up and take off for a few day. Then he was gone for 3 months till I found him in the chicken house with a 220 conibear trap around his neck. Something had been coming thru a hole in the wire eating eggs. The reason I knew it was him cause Daddy and I had cut him when he was small.

[easymoney]

i have a neighbor that catches them in a live trap. last summer he showed me 2 half grown ones he caught at once. they must have walked in the trap together. he does not kill them he takes them to a creek a few miles away and lets them go. they can be pretty mad about being in that trap.

[Tom]

Raccoons are eaten here.  I've not knowingly eaten them, but might have.

Mr. Shippey would trap coons and give them to a black man in Dinsmoore (a community down the road about 5 miles) who kept them in pens and fed them for when "the family" came by.  They would have a "Dinner on the Grounds."  His coons were also sold for about $35 apiece to others who wanted them for supper.   

Those who eat coon here compare it with many of the high-priced meats at the grocery.  It is usually cut up into 1" hunks, battered and fried, or cooked into a meat and vegetable stew.  The meat is dark.

[WDH]

I know people that eat coon, but Not me.

I had it once roasted in a big roasting pan with potatoes.  I don't make it a habit  .

[Banjo picker]

Bar b que... ;)  Tim

[pigman]

Last week I looked out the front  door at the pear tree about 50 ft away and saw mother coon and five little coons under the tree. The coons heard me and the five little ones ran up the tree and mother coon took off for the barn. I tried to get a picture, but it was to close to dark for a picture.

[Burlkraft]

Coon fur from this time of year I believe is worthless. I know people that eat coon, but Not me.

Why not?

Cleaned properly and BBQ'd coon is pretty DanG good!

[Bro. Noble]

Mom used to cook about anything Dad would bring in.  We had lots of rabbits and squrril,  but I liked coon better.  Possoms were real low on my favored fare. ;)

[Banjo picker]

Bro. Noble I totaly agree about the possum...Mom cooked up one for grandpa when I was a kid ....the absolute worse thing I have ever put in my mouth...the grease sorta slicks over on the roof of your mouth and you can't seem to get rid of it..Tim

[Tom]

My Old Timer friend, Mr. Shippey, tells me that roasted/baked (?) possum is the best thing in the world.  He ate it as a kid and spooned the grease on sweet potatoes.  You can see his mouth watering as he tells you about it.   Then He said, "I'll sop the grease with some light bread.  It's good."

I guess I would eat possum if it were presented to me, but I have no desire to bake one when there is Beef available. 

Opossum got a lot of people through the depression.  You could catch them with your hands.  Only the young fellows could run down a rabbit.

[WDH]

There is a reason that man domesticated cows and not possums  .

[pigman]

Sometimes I have seen a possum catch a person's hand instead of the person catching the possum. Most times a possum will just "play possum" , but sometimes they use those sharp teeth.

[dukndog]

In the small southeast town of Gillett, Arkansas they have an annual coon supper for their community fundraiser. It's got to be the big political thing with the local politicians...even Bill Clinton has eat coon...among other things!!!

[tyb525]

There are coon farms around, mostly for the furs.

Coon meat is a "best kept secret", so I've heard. Who knows, if history had taken a slightly different course, we might've been eating coons instead of chicken

[clww]

The latest residential oak tree I'm taking down, I had a mama coon in it for over a month. I tried live traps, leg holds, dead-falls and snares and was never successful in getting her. She is really smart. I got 6 feet from her in the tree when she was stretched out taking a nap and tried to get a loop around her. She woke up and batted the pole and rope away from her head, then went higher up the tree and promptly fell back asleep. She ended up moving across the street two doors down and into another hollow tree. I've been told by neighbors that she had another litter.

[pigman]

Four of the young coons are back today under the pear tree in mid afternoon.
  I wonder at what distance I should be to get all four with one shot with the shotgun.

[rbarshaw]

When I was about 10, Mom cooked a coon That Dad shot, I remember that it was very good. I think it was cooked as a roast with vegtables. That evening Dad was eating a bowl of tapioca pudding, first time I had seen it, I asked him what it was, he said 'raccoon brain pudding', I believed that for many years till I recalled it with my mother and she told me what it really was. :D

[Ron Scott]

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,771.0.html

[Taylortractornut]

Cant blame a possum for how they taste look at what they  eat and which end that start eating it.       Dad said when they were  kids growing up at Turnpike MT in Burnsville everyone was poor.   Dad said  when ever a possum was caught  it was put under a weighted down  wash tub with  water and ear corn and  garden scraps to purge. Them

[WDH]

Taylor,

That is exactly how it was done down here to.

[Magicman]

A possum is just a buzzard with 4 legs.   :-\

[customsawyer]

I think there is more meat on a possum than one would think cause I took one to a church supper that had about 75 people at it and there was still a lot of possum left for the next day. ;D

[WDH]

Yes, possum is very filling. 

This porch possum eating the cats food is just shy of getting filled with lead  .

[Jeff]

Creepy Coon Video.

[dukndog]

Now that thar is funny Jeff!!!  You should try puttin a bigger item there to get his trapped like say a walnut!!

[Ron57]

  Years ago I had a trapline for  muskrat and my grandmother said" Bring in a couple of those and Ill fry em up!!" Tastes like chicken digin_2 
Grandma did make me cut off the rat tail before I brought it in the house.
Last year my boys had a trap line muskrat were bringing $8.00 top price. Coon was only $5.00 ave.

[Troublermaker]

Every since I was big enough to know anything we would eat rabbits, squirrel and muskrat. I have eaten coon when I was a kid and I love deer. Back then we eat most anything but I am not eating a possum. Anytime a dog will not eat it I am not going to eat it.