Raccoons - Where are they when you want them...

[primetime]

I've always enjoyed trapping Coons, and have learned a lot about there habits over the years, but it always seems that you are two steps behind them when it comes to trapping them. Sure you can take a good number of Coon each year just setting trails, or hitting the water, but many times a hot trail won't produce anything. Or a devastated corn field will get you one Coon and you scratch your head and wonder where all the rest have gone.

Take for instance a scenario I had a few weeks ago. My Aunt & Uncle have Sweet Corn in there garden, and sure enough the Coon's found it on a Thursday maybe Friday. She gives me a call on Monday and I come out Tuesday night. She has cleaned up most of the scattered corn, but I can see tracks all over in the dirt and I see the damage they caused. So I put out 6 sets around the garden. Next day - Nothing. Next week - Nothing. Nothing in the traps, and no new damage. They moved on... Just like that.

Same thing happens late spring. Every farmer tells me you should have no trouble finding coon - I trapped 13 out of my barn this spring. "Sure you did when they were hungry and your cat food, and corn were the only things they could find to eat!"

Come fall not a Coon within 300 yards of his barn. Where are they?

Here one day gone the next.

So what does it take to be one step AHEAD of them?

Are they in the Corn, hitting the water, eating berries...

I've more then once tried to trap some GOOD trails coming out of the woods and heading into a Corn field to get nothing. No other explanation then they just Moved On...

Do they get bored? Do they require different foods at different times?

Just tossing this out for some discussion.

[17HMR]

Good question, I have had the same trouble. The only places I can count on every year is feed lot areas.

[trappnman]

simple answer- gone.

it seems like they move to new food sources before the old are depleted.

In sunmac berries, they will hit them hard in an area for a day or 2 and move on. SAme with sweet corn- after it leaves a certain stage, they move on.

maybe they do get bored with gorging on 1 food, or perhaps their bodies are telling them enough is enough- so they change sources.

food supplies are a big factor. I've read many times, where coon keep coming to picked corn fields. here, consistently- that corn is picked, and they are gone. Even with cobs laying in the field.

I too feel that trying to follow the food, doesn't pay off long.

So I don't. Set up the travel routes. An oak line between a lot of corn fields, is going to be vistied. Look for coon toilets- to me, the surest indication of a lot of things- food used, amount of coon and regularity of return. The old advice of looking for the biggest tree first, then looking for big downed or half downed trees, pays off.

If you want to follow the food, you need to know where it is and when. For example, egular checking of the toilets (and you'll be getting coon there) show whats what. When you start seeing berries, gang set every berry patch close by- not the ones they are using, but set those up if you can't pass it up- but the untouched patches in the natural progression.

stock ponds aren't the magnet around here, for me, than you'd think. I catch far more upland coon away from the ponds, then at them. Ever notice how few coon incidentals you take actually at the ponds in canine sets? Yet, I know a coon guy that traps the flat country south of Roch, that traps nothing but the ponds.

[primetime]

Water does not seem to be that important - until maybe Mid-November, December, and even then you've got thousands of Coon that den up FAR from any water source in the winter. Those Coon most likely will never run a creek or even touch a pond for that matter.

You've also got Acorns and I think Coon eat a good amount of them. To try and find what Oaks are dropping and when would be a lost cause.

What is consistent?

Is it road culverts? Is it fence lines? Is it a point or raven???

All get used by coon, but if you don't know what's up that draw or around that point, or across that road it can be tough to pin point.

[lumberjack]

One thing that really opened my eyes around here are the amounts of farmers/landowners killing them during the summer.
Same with coyotes here, everybody and their brother is killing them every chance they get all year long.
Sometimes its simply a matter of overestimating the populations, also.
Whos to say that the neighbor didnt catch/kill them eating the pet food or garbage?
I dont think coon would stop coming around until every morsel was gone, with maybe a few rare nights of not stopping by.
One sweet corn patch can be found by coon from far and wide and landowners around here are very prepared with cage traps and poison.
So between farmers, coonhunters, coyotes/fishers killing coon pups, roadkills and natural diseases, not to mention other trappers, I know full well I will come up short in some areas.
I just wish I knew the areas that were depleted beforehand so I didnt waste my time.

[trappnman]

I don't know your situation, so can't tell you they are depleted there or not.

But here, is perfect habitat for coon, and its good coon country. But I never have really found them concentrated all there at one time.

I think coon move around a lot more than people think they do. I also think the majority of them do travel to the water during winter sooner or later. Its nothing to a coon to travel 4-5 or more miles in a night.

sweet corn here is a little different- not that they don't like it- but we have 2 big canneries in the area, and big sweet corn fields are very common. Overall, few get big damage. They don't produce concitrations like other places where the big fields might not be so common.

[primetime]

Not to mention acres and acres of Milky field Corn.

Does a Coon need open water? Could Snow alone quench there thirst?

Also how many coon actually seek out a den each night? I think many just sleep in Corn Fields or CRP Fields or in some brush pile.

When that cover is depleted then I think your big trees and rock cliffs are more of a draw.

[trappnman]

Coon for sure do sleep in such areas- we've both seen them asleep in the middle of the day pheasant hunting.

But overall, I'd have to guess that most find a "den" whether it be trees, rocks, barns or brushpiles. Although, I think not too many brushpiles simply because we used to hunt rabbits so much, that over a winter we hits100s of brushpiles and the dogs never kicked out a coon. Log piles, now thats another story-

They say that you can never eat enough snow to quench your thirst, that you would burn up too many calories, or some such. Don't know if thats true.

Looking at it like domestics- all domestics I know, absolutely need water even though snow is available.

I don't think coon need it as often, because for the most part in winter they are not digesting food- but all tracks do lead to water. And melting snow provides puddles and moisture all over.

and any little springhole is wore down trails in winter.

good question....

[coonhangman1]

trappnman said:

Coon for sure do sleep in such areas- we've both seen them asleep in the middle of the day pheasant hunting.

Very true

Seems every fall the dogs point out a sleeping coon or 2 in the middle of a CRP patch or in a waterway, sometimes miles away from water.

Beings, I'm from the bare part of Iowa, hardly any trees at all, except near farm places, coon tend to improvise with dens. Sometimes old badger/coyote dens in fenclines way out in the middle of nowhere.

[walkercoonhunter(Aaron L.)]

i have found here when the trapping season starts and the corn is still in the fields i catch way more boar coons than females....at the same time frame you trap the water and get alot more females and YOY....when they cut the corn here the big males go to the grapes or other food sources....i have learned alot about coon movement from hunting them with my dog.....i do also believe that coons move around and really dont have a HOME range sorta speak....1 thing i did to target coons is hang a coon feeder in the travel way...every coon in that area that knows its there will come to there and check it.....but key to that is put it out early enough prior season to let the coons know its there....

[SgtWal]

Coon are like muskrats in the way their sign lingers long after the move on. And a coon or 2 can leave alot of sign over time. Just as a rat or 2 can dig holes and dens everywhere in a pond a few coon can leave trails like highways, and over a few nights make a mess of a garden.

[garman]

From my experience coon will not be in the barns (for the most part) until hard winter or denning times. That will change also if a old boar is in the barn. Lessons I have learned for myself, big # trappers, and dog hunting is this (of course there are always exceptions BUT) summer pups and mama around berries and nightcrawler hunting with a central den that can change if disturbed, boars live tall grass feed off night crawlers etc, early fall (august till late november) almost all are living in corn around around the food source in tall grass or in home den tree (YOY) feeding off corn, this changes immediately upon first heavy snow, if field was plowed. They appear to strt back to open water I suppose to feed on dead frogs, chubs, suckers, and crawdads, etc. Then winter they den up old badger holes etc. , barns, trees. BUT old boars and sows have been known to just curl up in grass or reeds and live for winter ((like a old bear). spring denning, breeding and finding food sources as available. Of course non of this is set in stone and I will be anxious to hear whether you guys have found the same or different.

[primetime]

To bring this back to the top and to ask another question...

It's been mentioned a little already, but I'd like to see some more opinions. When Coon are working the water what are they hunting for?

I can't imagine they are the greatest hunters and seldom if ever could catch a life fish or rarely even catch a crayfish unless it's living in the bank and they dig it out. In the water they are just to quick.

A small pool containing fish - yes they can get them, but in a stream, river, pond most likely not.

So is it mostly dead stuff?

[trappnman]

clams, frogs, worms, eggs in season, nesting birds, grubs, rough fish in winter are very slow, crayfish in the rocks, and yes, they scavenge. A lot.

but keep in mind, in winter, IMHO its not food that takes them to the creeks, its water.

In late to mid Feb- you see the pattern change- and the wandering coon, become feeding coon.

[Wright Brothers]

Just to add another twist.
Recently I found a BUNCH of raccoons in a residential (old city) area.
No corn or grain for miles. Lots of hard and soft mast trees and I suspect they get a lot of pet food and garbage. These coons seemingly have to be different from the country ones, and may even have different fur for all I know.

It got me to pondering what these city slickers feed on. Much the same I'm sure, but no grain in their area, except bird feeders.

Being the pan handlers they are, they seem to flourish.
The amount of sign is huge, I was really surprised.

If I could study this "different" habitat I think I could pile a few up at the right spots and techniques.

[frenchman]

Every year, we see coon raid our bird feeder, for the seeds. It amazes me, yet they do it. But never when fall comes around. Maybe they know better than to come close when their fur is prime...

[mountainman]

I once had a coon to just show up in my canning shed. I suspected ht was a semi tame one, but never did know. I set a live trap I had built with fish for bait and the coon not only wouldn't go in the trap, it got angry when I tried to steer it towards the trap. I gave it another choice for bait with a good handfull of fat juicy cooked steak trimmings my mother gave me. The coon immediately sniffed the air and went straight into the cage. It appeared not to even care that the cage door shut and continued to eat until the scraps were gone. I kept that coon for a good while experimenting with it and feeding it grasshoppers and all kinds of stuff. Fat greasy meat was its favorite. It sure liked grasshoppers too. I could hide them a little bit out of sight and he never failed to reach where they were and grab them..

[SgtWal]

City coon are fat and heavy, and around here dark furred. Trees, attics, sheds, storm drains, cellars, empty houses, and junk piles are den areas. Every dumpster has tracks, and the yards have berry bushes and Mulberry trees. Backyard gardens, pet feed, McDonald's scraps in the gutter, and the old reliable trash cans in the alley.
I saw a small article some years back on urban raccoon trapping, and have often thought it might be a good subject to work on.
Cages and species specific traps cut down on pets, but the risk of theft and hassles is very high, ask any City ADC trapper.

[Wright Brothers]

Yes Sgt. and the license I have now is useless as I would be in ten peoples safety zone. I need to work on that part.

[johnthomas]

i worked in grain elevators for many years, several times i had the opportunity to watch early fall coons work the water for food, the place was lit up for months so the coon go used to it and paid the lit areas no attention,i could stand on a platform and turn a light their direction and watch them , after a minute or so they paid no attention, they worked between the bank and the edge of the water, when they thought they found a good spot they would sit on their butts and work the area with front feet, now and then they tossed something to the bank, if it moved they jumped on it and began eating or tearing it apart, then back into the water, they turned over small rocks, dug small holes in the bank, jumped about in the water and grabbed a fish a couple times, twice i saw them catch a snake in the water and all fight over it, sometimes while reaching around one would make a screech and lick his paw for awhile, i assumed he hit a chunk of glass, it was intewresting to say the least.