This special ladies’ event came together perfectly. We planned and strategized for the first (of what we hope will be many all-ladies’ raccoon hunts) for several months. On day #1 of the Ruger Ladies’ Raccoon Hunt 2025, six women arrived at a cabin in South Carolina, and received care packages containing items perfectly chosen for what might lie ahead.
As you may recall, we prepped for this hunt earlier. We came well equipped, with adequate practice for the setup to help us harvest the masked bandits, employing a Ruger Carbon Fiber 10/22 (MSRP $649.00) along with an ATN X-Celsior Day/Night Optic (MSRP $599.00). Of course, there’s more equipment necessary for this adventure and we’ve had a lot of support to pull it together.
Before the Raccoon Hunt
We compiled a care package for each lady raccoon hunter with everything we needed to make this hunt enjoyable and then some. The ladies dug in like it was Christmas morning, unveiling the perfect gear for the hunt, such as Dan’s Briar Jackets (MSRP $109.00) and the Dan’s Game Bag (MSRP $24.99). They also received head lights, the Hot Shot Cap Light (MSRP $200.00) for the walk (as well as the spotting) and Yoder and Dryshod Hip Waders (MSRP $180.00) with a very special emblem on the side, Avery Outdoors. This emblem carries on the legacy of a special young outdoorsman that is sadly no longer with us, Avery Davis. The ladies and I were honored to bring little Avery with us on this hunt and hopefully, many more. Though his life was short, he had and is still having an impact on many.
As leaders, we had a responsibility to give the ladies proper expectations and not just leave them in the dark. Ashley Dangerfield, one of the dog handlers, and I led the ladies in a safety briefing. I went over the specifics of the Ruger 10/22 and the plan for handling it during the hunt. Ashley went over what to expect from the release of the pups, Ashepoo’s Jammin’ Jolene and the second dog handler, Shelby Snyder’s Rockin’ Red Ruth.
Though one of our hunters, Regina Corradina, has been raccoon hunting before, she didn’t get the opportunity to shoot a raccoon out of the tree. Regina and the rest of us knew in some sense what to expect, but Carmen Shaw, on the other hand did not. Carmen is a hunter, but her complete focus is on whitetail deer. She’s not a stranger to the woods but, raccoon hunting is a whole new world. She paid close attention and asked the necessary questions to have an appropriate handle on what to expect.
Standing around and talking about it is nothing like the real experience when you get to put your boots on the ground, or in the swamp. We grabbed our gear, loaded up and made our way to the first property.
The Raccoon Hunt Happens
Upon arrival, I loaded a couple extra Ruger 10-shot rotary magazines (MSRP $23.95) with Norma X-treme LR 43 grain ammo (MSRP $23.99). I inserted a magazine but didn’t load one into the chamber yet, as explained in the briefing. After we spotted a raccoon to shoot, and the shooter became ready to take a shot, she would load a cartridge into the chamber and take the shot. Wisdom is taking extra precautions with any rifle, especially a semi-auto one.
Sling mounts and a sling on the Rugers made it easy to carry this gun through thick, unforgiving terrain. Ashley and I utilized that feature for easy and safe carrying. With the rifles safely on our backs the ladies and I headed out.
It’s time to get the stars of the show ready, Ashley’s pup, Jolene, and Shelby’s old girl, Ruth. Jolene is a black and tan, almost two-year-old raccoon hound. Ashley has been training her for almost a year; Jolene already has treed several raccoons for her first official dog and gun raccoon season. Shelby’s dog, Ruth, is a well-seasoned 12-year-old Red Tick raccoon hound.
The hunters prefer this equipment for their dogs: a Garmin GPS Tracking System (MSRP $1,149.00) for tracking and training, a TT25X GPS Collar with a reflective antenna (MSRP $14.99), a personalized traditional collar (MSRP $14.95) for identification and a Treeing Tie Lead (MSRP $10.00) to tether the dogs until it’s go time.
On the first night, the ladies and I followed Ashley and Jolene into the woods. Ashley released her and gave her the command to find a raccoon. When Ashley turned her head light out, we followed suit. We stood in total darkness and waited to hear from Jolene while Ashley kept an eye on the Garmin handheld. This type of hunting doesn’t require silence, but it is a habit for most of us while we hunt to whisper.
When Jolene made her way back to us without a peep, it meant the raccoons weren’t moving in that area and we walked on. We all hoped that she would get on hot tracks, in other words fresh tracks, and tree a raccoon. Ashley knew Jolene’s language, including many different tones and barks.
When Jolene arrived at a tree with a raccoon, she barked with every breath. Ashley and Shelby’s responses appeared frustrated, and not delighted. I understood when we approached the first tree, a den tree that held a raccoon that settled into one of the holes leading to a hollow. Unless suicidal, that raccoon would not appear. Ashley and Shelby said, “DEAD! DEAD! Go find another one!” And the dogs did just that.
We soon learned what happened when the dogs hit a fresh track of a raccoon on the ground, putting pressure on us to keep up. Every breath expressed a bark telling Ashley, “I found one! I found one!” Jolene committed herself to chasing a raccoon across the road and a canal. The question became this one: could we commit ourselves to find a way across? I felt a little more hesitant to walk a log; after all, I’ve got the Ruger 10/22 on my back and it’s not the night to be testing its grit. It wouldn’t surprise me if it floated as light as it is, though.
Carmen crossed the canal first. She spotted a board on the bottom of the canal and began to make her way across when the board broke and left her sinking in the mud. She fought the mud for the release of her boot with everything she had, but couldn’t seem to break free. With nothing to us for leverage on the bank of the canal, she told us later that she saw flashes of her worst fears flashing in her mind, an anaconda. That gave her the fortitude to dig her nails in the dirt and pull herself out. Thankfully her waterproof gear, including Dan’s Competition Vests (MSRP $39.99), offered perfect protection for electronics like Carmen’s phone. That raccoon outsmarted the pup and got away.
This type of hunting is not easy, and one of the most difficult things to do is spot the treed raccoon. If given time, a raccoon’s goal is to find the tree with plenty of hiding places, holes, foliage or Spanish moss. The only way we’d see them is if they look at us with their shiny eyes. If lucky we might see their ring tails, but even that’s rare.
We classified the first two hunts as duds. The dogs treed, but we couldn’t spot any raccoons. A looming rainstorm caused animals to feed earlier in the days we hunted, as well.
We spent two very long nights of hunting, but we also had a lot of fun. We also made bets to see who would be the first to fall. Most of the ladies thought camera girl Ruth would be the first and they were wrong. After Carmen’s fall, I followed up with the second and most graceful, Ashely with the most epic came in third, and the camera girl Ruth with the fourth. The last two hunters remained unscathed, but came close.
Since we hunted locally, we decided we would extend the hunt until we had success because hunting isn’t always a harvest. We set out several more nights and successfully treed, spotted and shot four raccoons. We used an ATN BlazeTrek Thermal Monocular (MSRP $1,195.00) to spot the raccoons if they had treed, while others gave themselves away with the glowing of their eyes in our red lights. As we had hoped, most of the ladies got a raccoon.
Planning for More Hunts
The ladies felt thankful for a few things – the equipment and gear that helped them accomplish their goals on this hunt. Lastly, but not anywhere near least, we got to share these successful moments with other outdoors women with whom we have been knit together and hope to plan more hunts and adventures in the future. We also hope to bring Ruger firearms along with us.
I am a wife and a mother who loves the outdoors, I also review and test airguns and shooting products for various manufacturers. As Airgun Angie, I get to spend a fair amount of time outdoors hunting and shooting! I love what I do, I get the opportunity to test many different types of shooting and hunting gear. My current adventures can be found on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC764VE4T-i2XihiyISmkJKA You can also follow me on Facebook, @leadlife17 "Airgun Angie." View all posts by Angie Perry
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