My dad was telling me that my great-grandpa used to smoke coons out of hollow trees, but he wasn't sure how he did it. Anybody know anything about that?

Yes... when i was really small kid we smoked a couple out and man you talking a wild ride,you have to build a small fire with leaves that smoke like crazy and cover the hole at the base of the tree with your coat or jacket until the air in the hollow tree fills up with the smoke,they will come tearing out like a wild cat hell bent ona fight and the coon dogs will be right there waiting with all this going on right at your feet,its wild to do...It is illegel to use smoke now days in my state while hunting... but back then there were not as many laws as today and we made extra sure the fire was put out before leaving...come to think of it ...just about everything is against the law now....Good luck and have fun its something you will never forget,i am for sure on that!
Thanks for the memories,I was about knee high to a grasshopper back then..

Not sure, but likely not much different than using smoldering burlap in the tin smoker to smoke out bees in a hive.

thanks for the info. I'll give it a try...I'll check if it still legal here first.

We have done it in Maine ...,. Some of the trees had hollows that went all the way up to where the forks were and the coons would climb up and out on the limbs where we could shoot it ... Worked good ........

gumboot458,

Did you just simply build a fire inside a hollow spot at the base of the tree or did you use something else. How did you keep from burning the tree down?

I would get ahold of a hand full of smoke bombs and just dig a hole in the dirt to keep from catching anything on fire....Try that and see if it works..

You can cover the opening up with a old levi Jacket,Get one of your friends to be waiting with a burlap bag and tell him to let the coon run into the bag when he comes flying out/you know catch alive indian style...That would be fun hoot to see I would paya dollar to see that one,I dont care who you are that would be funny to watch,Might win that $10,000.00 prize on Americas funniest videos!
I bet Those crazy wild boys would do it,stevie& weeman & Johnny knoxville will do anything crazy like that!Yea smoke em out into the bag trick...thats the ticket!FUN
Might could get Saeed and Walter to do something like that too one of there brave hero friends come to think about it.
What would really be funny is if the "coon "turned out to be a skunk ..yikes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AX9QoFhEhI


A coon hunting story

I did it once, to a fox. I got a hold of some smoke tubes from a fireworks stand, things lasted like 2 minutes. Fox ran down the hole, I lit the smoke, waited...heard it weezing, stuck its head out, and good night Irene. The colored smoke washed right out, I had a red fox that had a strange green tint!

To produce the smoke just pile in some dead leaves and twigs then when you get a good blaze going throw on some damp grass if there is any dew out - or if not you can dip some grass in a creek or pond.

In all my hunts we only caught one tree on fire and it was out in the middle of a pasture. Since we had not previously secured permission to be on that property we did not stay around to watch it. It did not burn completely down and was still there and had leaves on it the last time I passed by.

That whole hunt was kind of a disaster. I had a college roommate named Ken from Chicago - a rich doctors son - who had never been on any kind of hunt. Ken kept pestering me to take him coon hunting so one time when I needed to go home I invited him. Ken had a white 57 Cadillac convertible with red leather seats and that turned some heads in our little town when we circled the square upon arrival.

I had a friend who had a friend that had some good dogs. The dog mans name was Benjamin John but everyone called him Bejo. Bejo did not like city people but as it turned out Bejo owed me a favor since I had a year earlier rescued him from an angry father of a girl that lived out east of town who had mysteriously gotten "prego" but thats another story.

So Bejo reluctantly agreed to show the city boy a coon hunt and my friend Sonny, Ken and I went to Bejos house right at dark.

We piled into Bejo's old station wagon along with his collection of bluetick, redbone and walkers who were real ripe and their smell was nicely accented by the scent of carbide from our miners head lamps and the rancid smoke from Bejos pipe.

It was winter and the windows were all rolled up, the excited hounds were leaping from seat to seat licking their balls, fighting with each other and trying their best to sit where I was, the window was fogged up from dog and human breath and farts and of course the defroster didn't work. Fortunately there was a bullet hole in the front windshield right in front of me that let in a refreshing bit of air.

Bejo kept wiping a small spot on the window and seemed to be oblivious to the mayhem the dogs were causing inside the station wagon. I was relieved when we reached an area he wanted to hunt.

Just as we got out of the car Bejo looked out into the pasture and said "there's two coons in that tree". Ken expressed doubt that Bejo could see coons in the moonlight. Sonny and I were both suprised that Bejo didn't flatten Ken right then and there but instead Bejo slid over the fence in pursuit of his dogs and with the long strides he was locally known for would have lost us quick except for the barking of the dogs who were already at the base of the tree.

When we got to the tree the coons had gone inside and Bejo was preparing to light her up. After maybe 10 minutes of the smoke treatment one coon came out about 40 feet up and Bejo shot him with the 22. The dogs accurately judged the drop path of this coon and tore into him even before he hit the ground.

To my astonishment Ken jumped right among the swirling mass of dogs, grabbed the coon, yelling seemingly to the dogs "hold it, hold it". Bejos mouth must have dropped because his pipe fell out. Ken was trying to shoo the dogs away and at the same time was now crawling around on the ground holding the coon up as high as he could reach.

One hound didn't waste the opportunity and tried to mount Ken from behind. I said "whats the matter Ken"? Ken said "I lost my contact lens".

With sparks coming out of a knot hole in the oak "chimney" about 15 feet up we decided the evenings activites needed a change. I don't know if the other coon got roasted or came out later. The landowner lived less than a quarter away and his dogs were starting to bark.

This landowner fellow was a bird and fox hunter and was known to boast of what he branded his "basement dynamite" shot loads. That was on my mind as the tree was sparking away in the middle of his race horse pasture and his dogs were raising Cain.

Another concern was that this landowner unfairly blamed me for the day my cousin Doug in his 55 olds ran through the landowners muscovy ducks that were sitting on the warm blacktop. I was in the car at the time but none of it was my fault.

So we left Kens contact lens, recovered Bejos pipe, abandoned for the moment two of the dogs that would not come back and hustled back to the car. Bejo gave me the finger to let me know my hunting trips with him had come to a quick and final end.