Sky - Prices are down considerably this year. Top I've heard (green) is about 15 bucks. Lot of guys are taking about an $8 average. Last year I had a $14 average. As you can guess, we don't do it for the money.

Bwana: Right now my favorite is my Magnum Research .22 mag. I've killed literally hundreds with a .22LR but the magnum definitely has improved "terminal performance". Time of day just seems to be a crap shoot. I know a guy who has been doing this since the 80s. He's a "numbers" guy and kept specific records for two years (over 300 hundred coon). Everything from time of day to temperature to barometric pressure. He says he envisioned a graph telling him the ideal conditions. When it all came out of the computer - *nothing*.

Today, partner and I hit the brush about 9:30 a.m.. Second set - coon came out he killed it. Fourth set - coon came out - he missed it. We walked for about three hours - called some gorgeous trees and nothing. We decided to call it good about 3 and I headed home. As I was passing a neighbor's I saw him out in the lot and wheeled in. I knew they had one big den on their place and they don't deer hunt till the weekend so I ask if I could check it out.

Had one coon peek immediately but wasn't showing signs of coming out of the hole. About a minute in I saw one coming out of another hole. Rolled him out and within 30 seconds another showed up in the same hole. He started down the tree fast and it took me two shots to roll him out. The other coon is still looking out of the first hole and can see the other two "floppers" on the ground. I went to the fight sequence and he couldn't stand it. Rolled that one out. Shut down the caller and went to skinning coon. Find out the biggest, a boar, had a big infected sore right in the middle of its back so that was hide ruined. When I got done I realized I had left my seat cushion by the tree I'd shot from. For some reason I looked up at the 60 foot cottonwood and there was a fourth coon coming out of a hole I hadn't seen. Gun, of course, was leaning against the tree with the coon.

So I slip back, grab the gun, sit down and punch the "distress" on the caller (which is now inside the pack). It was muffled but loud enough the coon came boiling back around my side and the last thing to go through it's mind was 40 grain WMR.