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T. Edward Nickens Goes Coon Hunting
In northern Alabama, chasing baying hounds in the middle of the night is part hunting, part competition, and pure adrenaline...
T. Edward Nickens
"If it ain't black, don't take a sack," declares Scotty Phillips, his back against a counter stacked with pickled okra and paper towels.
"If they're blue, they're true," parries J.R. Puckett.
Phillips leans close. He wears a Red Man cap and a greasy Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirt. "Let me tell you 'bout them blue men," he growls. "Most of 'em, they hunt blues all their life, they end up killing theirselves."
The other men hoot and slap the table, sloshing coffee, and it's fuel on Phillips' fire.
"You want to hear 'bout a dog?" he asks, leaning forward with rheumy eyes. "I'll tell you 'bout a dog. A bluetick dog. Now, this was a sure-nuff pneumonia dog. Turn him out and you'd come down with pure pneumonia before you'd get him back. So cold-nosed he'd put his foot in the coon track for three minutes to warm that track up, then throw his head back-baaaoooh! He'd pick the leaves up to smell 'em. That's the truth."
It's the dogs that hold the center of coon hunting. The dogs bring the hunters to the sport, and sometimes bring them back. "I lost two dogs to a car in '79," says Wayne Gean, a carpenter and minister in a zip-up camouflage parka and black cowboy hat. "It just wiped me out. I quit for about 15 years, but once or twice a week, I'd be up in the middle of the night, walking the floor. So I finally bought another dog. I figured if I was going to be up and walking, I might as well walk in the woods."
In the woods or out, the talk rarely strays far from the competition hunts. Few things have changed coon hunting as much as the growing influence of the United Kennel Club (UKC) and the Professional Kennel Club (PKC), organizations that sanction competitive coon hunts in which dogs are awarded points based on their ability to strike fresh trails and tree coons. Founded in 1898, UKC is by far the older of the two. In UKC hunts, hounds and masters compete for titles (Grand Champion, Night Champion, Grand Night Champion, and the like) and trophies-bragging rights, essentially, and diehard coon hunters can name generations of UKC champions that have contributed to the bloodlines of their dogs.
"If they're blue, they're true," parries J.R. Puckett.
Phillips leans close. He wears a Red Man cap and a greasy Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirt. "Let me tell you 'bout them blue men," he growls. "Most of 'em, they hunt blues all their life, they end up killing theirselves."
The other men hoot and slap the table, sloshing coffee, and it's fuel on Phillips' fire.
"You want to hear 'bout a dog?" he asks, leaning forward with rheumy eyes. "I'll tell you 'bout a dog. A bluetick dog. Now, this was a sure-nuff pneumonia dog. Turn him out and you'd come down with pure pneumonia before you'd get him back. So cold-nosed he'd put his foot in the coon track for three minutes to warm that track up, then throw his head back-baaaoooh! He'd pick the leaves up to smell 'em. That's the truth."
It's the dogs that hold the center of coon hunting. The dogs bring the hunters to the sport, and sometimes bring them back. "I lost two dogs to a car in '79," says Wayne Gean, a carpenter and minister in a zip-up camouflage parka and black cowboy hat. "It just wiped me out. I quit for about 15 years, but once or twice a week, I'd be up in the middle of the night, walking the floor. So I finally bought another dog. I figured if I was going to be up and walking, I might as well walk in the woods."
In the woods or out, the talk rarely strays far from the competition hunts. Few things have changed coon hunting as much as the growing influence of the United Kennel Club (UKC) and the Professional Kennel Club (PKC), organizations that sanction competitive coon hunts in which dogs are awarded points based on their ability to strike fresh trails and tree coons. Founded in 1898, UKC is by far the older of the two. In UKC hunts, hounds and masters compete for titles (Grand Champion, Night Champion, Grand Night Champion, and the like) and trophies-bragging rights, essentially, and diehard coon hunters can name generations of UKC champions that have contributed to the bloodlines of their dogs.
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