Predator Call

Years ago, my brother, Russell and I were calling after dark.  We were sitting back to back with a large live oak tree between us.  It was fairly open around us for 5o yards.  I was playing some sweet notes on a C-3 Long Range  Call and Russell was working a Winchester .22 Semi-auto rifle.  Both of us had flashlights, mine was a Ray-O-Vac 6 volt in the plastic housing. A couple of minutes into the call, the rustling of leaves told me that we had a critter on the way.  I turned on my flashlight and aimed it in the direction of the racket to find a rather large boar coon running directly at me.  Now one would have thought that a light aimed directly into the eyes of a hard charging critter would get your partner’s attention.  But for one reason or another, no shot came but the critter did; he never broke stride and ended up in my lap!  To this day, I don’t enjoy wrestling with a full grown coon but I really didn’t like it at age 12.  I attempted to get to my feet while trying to KO the coon with the Ray-O-Vac flashlight.  While I did not get the later accomplished, I was successful in getting him to retreat in the direction that he came.  Maybe this is another reason I don’t call much after dark anymore.

A similar incident occurred last weekend.  Last Sunday morning, my buddy Larry Symes was coyote hunting in southern Oklahoma.  He was sitting on a fence-line with a steel post as a back rest.  He could see approximately 500 yards to the north and 180 degrees from right to left.  Ten minutes into the call, he heard a rustling sound in the tall grass behind him and to his left.  He was blowing the Mini Blaster and it was in his left hand, tucked under his face mask.  When the critter broke from the grass, it was within ten feet and Larry could see that it was a big boar coon.  As a rule, he would have ignored the predator but this one was coming much too aggressively.  The coon never broke stride, jumped and grabbed him by the arm and started to growl and shake his prey.  Luckily, it was cool enough that Larry had on a lightweight jacket which served to protect his arm.  The battled raged on for at least 15 seconds until Larry could not hold it any longer and let go with what he described as a battle cry…I am betting it sounded more like a small child screaming!  At any rate, the old boar decided to release his captor and fled back to the safety of the tall grass.

Pound for pound, there is not much anything tougher than a raccoon.  An old boar that is a veteran of many battles is not afraid of a fox, coyote or a bobcat for that matter.  So when calling, especially after dark, watch out for that coon!