Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

30 to 50 mph winds are pretty common to Converse and Platte Counties.
Hold on to your hat!

That's the same way we cook pinto beans too. The ONLY way lol!

Yes, it's windy in those two counties for sure. We get some nice sunrises and sunsets from the amount of dust in the air because of the wind. This year they have been really nice because of other people's misfortune, the wildfires smoke in the air but that's still better than the radioactive dust from the atomic bomb trials of the mid- 1900's.

tell me more about the raccoons out there. Do they stay around the mountains more where there are trees and forested areas or do they live in dens and frequent the places where there isn't a tree for miles?

I have seen them up in the high country along the creeks but mostly in the lower areas along the rivers and creeks where they have trees and brush cover. The last couple of months I been seeing them traveling out some distances from the normal travel areas being out in some of the prairie areas. They have been traveling to some of the cattle feed lots a couple of miles from any body of water other than the cattle watering tanks eating silage and grain the cattle are being fed. When I was a kid, we lived up at 7000 feet elevation, during the summer months, and every evening a coon would come feed at the trash barrel, mom got to leaving her a pancake or some biscuits, by mid-June she brought her cubs, six of them, with her. she came back for a couple of years in the summertime. Even the birds left there for the winter. You can go up in the mountains here in January and February and not see even a rabbit track all day long or hear a bird. I've been up there to feed cattle, and it was a nice warm morning but by noon the wind was blowing 20 plus mph with snow picked up and 5 or 6 feet high where if you stood in the bed of your truck all you could see was a white blanket of snow moving at ground level and clear blue skies above. The snow drifting in so fast that you couldn't shovel it out fast enough. But I've also been up there when it would be calm and clear above freezing but if you were down along the rive at 4500 feet elevation it would be zero or below with the valley full of smog. Most of the racoons stay down lower.

I have only been out there two times and was curious if there were many coons or where they stayed. Then after reading you talk about them it peaked my curiosity. Anybody hunt them with dogs? Around here at times it seems you can find one in every other tree.

There are a lot of them at this time, due to the low prices of fur. Yes, there are several people that do hunt them with dogs. I'm not up on the regulations for hunting them with dogs and hunting them in general now but the Fish and Game department in Cheyene has a good web site and some toll-free numbers. They were at one time considered a varmint the landowners and those regulations would be a major concern with running dogs. Several years back A guy told me he had a beagle hound that came wondering in, it wasn't a beagle it was a walker I called the number on the collar, and she had been missing for a week. He had a 1000.00 reward on her return she was a high dollar coon dog, we didn't want the reward she got home and when he came to pick her up, she clearly was ready to go home with him. Gary a friend of mine in southern Indiana has a walker that he was offered 25000.00 for and turned it down.

I have an 8-foot snare, and an 8-foot extension cable laid out then connected to each other, every boiler maker, iron worker and millwright knows you don't hook two steel chokers or nylon slings together like this, but we all have seen it done. The third picture shows it hooked up to the post and the effective length reduced from 16 feet to 8 feet by wrapping it through the wire once, then how the extra cable is woven in the fence to keep it off of the ground but yet allow the coyote to pull it out and use it up for entanglement. The last picture shows a new dig under and maybe a better view of how the snare is anchored and the extra cable kept off of the ground and not allowing it to interfere with the snare's function or keeping it properly set up.

We are unusually warm this winter and it's okay, but we need some moisture in the spring. We got up to 53 today and the wind went down some it was only 20 mph with gusts of 30 mph here. There have been a lot of wind related wrecks on I-25 and I-80 this week with a few fatalities. It pays to leave early and take your time. Our speed limit is 80 mph on the interstate highway systems, but still people will pass you. When the roads are wet or icy, or we have high wind gusts, some people still want to drive 80 mph. Just because the speed limit is 80 doesn't mean that you can't drive slower for bad road or weather conditions, a little thought might go a long way toward saving lives.

I am hoping that everyone has a healthy and happy holiday season as well as getting to spend time with family and friends they get some time for reflection and just to have a few quiet moments to recharge and rejuvenate.

Thanks Dave!

Merry Christmas to everyone.

DSheetz said:

I am hoping that everyone has a healthy and happy holiday season as well as getting to spend time with family and friends they get some time for reflection and just to have a few quiet moments to recharge and rejuvenate.

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I couldn't say it any better so DITTO from me as well!