Slick Trees and Off-Game

Forty-five minutes of walking through the dark, a creek crossing, brush in the face — and when you get to the dog, the tree is empty. The dog is chopping hard at an oak that has nothing in it. Every coon hunter has been there. What you do next — and what you do NOT do — is what separates a disciplined hunter from a frustrated one.

Quick recall

Quick recall from ID the Coon Before the Shot — which of these is NOT a valid reason to delay or cancel the shot at a treed animal?

Quick recall from ID the Coon Before the Shot — which of these is NOT a valid reason to delay or cancel the shot at a treed animal?

The dog has been barking for a long time and you feel obligated to shoot something The animal in the tree is a great horned owl The animal is an opossum and the raccoon-only season is open

Check answer

The slick tree

A slick tree is simply an empty tree — the coon bailed before the hunters arrived, or the dog made a scent mistake and treed a location where a coon had been but was no longer. It is a normal, common, unremarkable event in coon hunting.

What to do at a slick tree:

1. Shine the canopy thoroughly before concluding it is empty — the animal may be up high, tucked against the trunk, or in a hidden crotch.
2. Praise the dog regardless. The bark behavior is what you reward, not the presence of a coon. An experienced dog learns to check trees, not just bark at them — but that habit is built over many hunts, not in a single session.
3. Walk a slow circle around the base and look for fresh scat or disturbance — sometimes the coon came down and is running ahead; the dog may re-strike nearby.
4. If the tree is genuinely empty: call or leash the dog, note the direction the chase had been heading, and re-cast.

The why Why slick trees happen

A coon that hears the bark changing from trail to tree may bail quickly — especially if the hunters are noisy on the walk-in. Some coons will climb, come down while the dog is still at the base and the hunter is far away, and move off. A coon that was not pushed hard by the dog but simply scent- trailed to the tree is more likely to bail quickly than one the dog ran hard. The slower and quieter your walk-in, the more likely the coon stays up.

The den tree

A den tree is a tree with a cavity — a hollow limb, a split trunk, a natural hole — in which the raccoon has taken refuge. The dog smells the coon, barks treed, and you arrive to find a hole the animal climbed into rather than a coon visible in the canopy.

What you do NOT do:

• Do not attempt to smoke, drown, or force the animal out of the den.
• Do not chop or damage the tree to extract the animal.
• Do not shoot into the den hole.

What you do:

• Acknowledge the dog, praise it for the find, and call it off.
• Note the den tree’s location for future reference — raccoons reuse den trees.
• Move on and re-cast.

Off-game trees

Off-game (also called junk game or trash) is any non-target animal the dog trees instead of a raccoon. In the SC Piedmont the most common off-game are:

• Squirrels — dogs tree them easily; the bark is often erratic with pauses as the squirrel moves through the canopy.
• Opossums — legal incidental furbearer with its own season; does not make the shot legal in a raccoon-only season window.
• House cats and feral cats — the dog will tree them; cats are not legal game in a raccoon season.
• Owls — federally protected non-game birds; a dog will tree them and bark just as hard as on a coon.

For every off-game tree, the response is the same: identify the animal, confirm it is not a legal target under the current season, praise the dog minimally (reward the bark, but do not over-reward so the behavior becomes entrenched), and call the dog off.

Deep dive Training a dog off off-game

A dog that frequently trees off-game is a training issue. Common causes: giving the dog too many easy coons early in its career (“stump happy”), rewarding the tree too exuberantly regardless of what is up, or running a young dog in an area with more squirrels than coons. The fix is nuanced and beyond this lesson, but the hunt-night rule is simple: never shoot off-game in a raccoon season, never over-reward it, and never punish the dog harshly at the tree — negative punishment at the tree risks damaging the entire tree behavior. Consistent handling over many hunts corrects the problem.

The ethics of walking away

The single most important ethical rule in coon hunting with hounds:

Never shoot at an animal you cannot positively identify — no matter how long the dog has barked, how far you walked, or how many in your party are waiting.

A tired dog, a long walk, a cold night, and a dark tree are not excuses to lower the standard. The correct call on an uncertain tree is to not shoot, call the dog off, and re-cast. That is a successful outcome, not a failure.

Evaluate the situation — a decision flowchart

Arrive at tree — what do you see? Animal visible — confirm ID before gun up Den hole — praise, do not shoot, call off Empty tree — praise, circle, re-cast

Make the call

Decision

You walked 20 minutes through a briar bottom to reach your dog. When you arrive, you shine the tree for 60 seconds and see nothing — no eye shine, no silhouette. The dog is still chopping hard at the base. What do you do?

Shoot into the likely part of the canopy — the dog is confident and you're tired Change position and shine the tree again from a different angle Praise the dog, call it off, and re-cast — the tree is slick

Evaluate the situation

Knowledge check

You arrive at a tree. The dog is barking hard at a knothole about 15 feet up. You can smell a musty, strong animal odor but see nothing. What situation is this and what is the correct response?

You arrive at a tree. The dog is barking hard at a knothole about 15 feet up. You can smell a musty, strong animal odor but see nothing. What situation is this and what is the correct response?

Den tree — praise the dog and call it off; do not attempt to extract the animal Shoot into the den hole — the dog is confirmed on a coon Wait at the base for the coon to come out on its own

Check answer

Knowledge check

Your dog has been barking for 25 minutes. You arrive and see two eyes with orange-red shine on a narrow triangular face with no mask. It is the raccoon season. What do you do?

Your dog has been barking for 25 minutes. You arrive and see two eyes with orange-red shine on a narrow triangular face with no mask. It is the raccoon season. What do you do?

Do not shoot — this is an opossum; in a raccoon season it is not a legal target Shoot it — the dog earned a reward and you need to end the hunt Check if the opossum season overlaps — if it does, shoot it legally

Check answer

Take it to the woods

Before every hunt, know the legal framework so you can make clean decisions at any tree.

Pre-hunt ethics and legal prep

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Reset

• Confirm the raccoon season is open and know the current bag limit. Verify current SCDNR regulations — seasons change yearly.
• Confirm whether the opossum season is also open tonight. Verify current SCDNR regulations.
• Agree with your party: no shot without positive ID — mask, body mass, eye shine.
• Brief anyone new: den tree = praise and call off. No extraction attempts.
• Brief anyone new: off-game tree (owl, cat, squirrel) = identify, minimal reward, call off — no shot.
• Remind the party: a slick tree is part of the hunt. Shine thoroughly, praise the dog, and re-cast.

Sources

• UKC — Slick Treeing and Off-Game discussions: https://www.ukcdogs.com
• Coonhunting101 — Slick Treeing Dogs Could Be the Trainer’s Fault: https://coonhunting101.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/slick-treeing-dogs-could-be-the-trainers-fault/
• Bright Eyes Lights — Coon Hunting Terms (slick tree, off-game): https://brighteyeslights.com/blogs/blog/coon-hunting-terms-to-know
• SC Code 50-11-710, Night hunting rules: https://law.justia.com/codes/south-carolina/title-50/chapter-11/section-50-11-710/
• SCDNR Hunting Regulations (verify current raccoon and opossum seasons): https://www.dnr.sc.gov/regulations.html