while I dont mind the change you made, i should tell you that you didnt use a racist term. it is common knowledge that 'coon is short for raccoon, and the fact that it has in the past been used for racist comparison does not deligitimize the contraction itself. 'coon hunting was a common practice, and i have found no evidence of the phrase being used as a racist euphemism. I am guessing you were influenced by the reference to 'coon hunting in the film "true grit", where it is clearly not a racist usage.
insofar as people nowadays see " 'coon" and think only "racist", they will misunderstand things like " 'coon hunt" and see racism where there is none, historically and currently. censoring the term only strengthens the racist element. the only way to fix this would be to use the term in its legitimate form.
that being said, i can agree with your decision to remove it. there is no reason to host socio-linguistic drama in our hobby's publications.