Once a year this group gets together for fellowship and a night of coon hunting. After a big meal of Appaloosa catfish and “Beau Jack’s” hush-puppies it was time to hit the woods. The hunt took place at Buzzard Roost Hunting Club a couple of months ago so the coons were in full rut. In other words, the male coons were out looking for a little love!

Ike was turned out and struck a hot trail along with a young female Treeing Walker owned by Andy Morgan. At the time we didn’t know it was an old male that had traveled a long way looking for a lady friend. Gone are the days that you walked behind the dogs. Thru the mud and muck now you ride on a four or six wheeler.

Modern day electronics with the help of special equipped dog collars not only tell you where the dogs are but, where they have the coon treed. How about that!? The first time I saw this it was really hard to believe actually looking at a picture of the dog treeing! We’ve come a long way.

(Put carbide light here)

Thank goodness we had all this up to date technology. That old male had gone over two miles before deciding to climb a tree. We had to travel several miles around old logging roads just to get close enough to hear “Ike” and his treeing every breath. Nothing comes close to the thrill of seeing a dog do what he’s bred for!

Jeff Peden got my Remington .22 rifle. It is still as accurate as when my Uncle Ernest Vaughn handed it to me on my 13th birthday 56 years ago. (Note! You can see me holding it in the photo) They headed to “Ike” and the coon and Jeff took care of business bringing down the coon from the top of a huge sweet gum tree.

Out of the woods they came lights shining, talking loud and laughing. Bringing up the rear, Ronnie Morgan was carrying one of the biggest ole boar coons I’ve seen in a long time. We stood around a while in that cold clear night air talking about hunts from long ago. We mentioned my daddy, Joe Vaughn, a coon huntin’ legend. You can still see Vaughn bred blueticks mentioned in coon magazines to this day.

Daddy took Danny along when he was just a kid and made a coon hunter out of him forever. I took them all with me when they were teenagers and I was in my twenties. See I’m the old man in this bunch now, but we are all still together doing what we all love; hunting, especially with a good dog.

So take a kid hunting. See you boys same time, same place next year.

I first started coon hunting with my daddy “when I was old enough to walk.” We had carbide lights. I know most people reading this haven’t a clue what a carbide light is (see adjoining photo). “Carbide” (impure calcium carbide) is placed in the bottom and water in the top. The water slowly drops into the carbide creating acetylene gas that is then lit with a match. Like magic you have a light. Coal miners used them for years; not only for light, but safety. If the light went out it meant no oxygen. Time to get out!