Tony tebbe’s PREDATOR UNIVERSITY | Guided predator hunts and predator calling school in New Mexico and texas.
We officially kicked off the 4th Season at Predator University with back-to-back hunts this week. We had to deal with everywhere from 95 degrees to 50 degrees, blazing sun, 35+ mph winds, 2 mph winds, lightning, thunder, rain...and coyotes. Here are a few pics and stories that are interesting.
A long time client, Ken, brought 3 different rifles on his 2 day hunt, this year. He is into long range shooting and each rifle was a piece of art. Ken really put the hammer on coyotes this spring with his trusty .308. He brought it back with vengeance. This season, he was shooting 110gr V-Max's with a Suppressor. Man, that was cool! It was a joy shooting it at the range without any hearing protection at all. I could really use a coyote killing rifle like that. Of course, I was eager to get coyotes put in front of him to see how the coyotes would react to a suppressed rifle....they died. On two different nighttime stands, Ken overshot and missed a coyote and they hauled out of there. Gunner charged out and caught up with them, each time. He picked a fight and decoyed them back on a string to the hunting rig. This was excellent, considering he was not using his suppressor, but rather his custom AR in .223. One was a big male that came back from 1000+ yards to 70 yards, where he stopped on a small mound and let out a hair raising howl. Ken answered with a V-Max.
The next day, Ken brought out the .308. I was happy, as my ears were still ringing from the flash suppressor of the .223, from the day before.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
The .308 with 110gr V-Max was NOT fur friendly. That's the entrance!
The pup hanging on the meat pole, was a story in itself. It was one of the best nighttime shots I've seen. 342 yards! Not an easy task at night, especially on such a small target.
As usual, Ken and I had a great time together. We fought the heat and the coyotes laid low, prior to the oncoming storm front a couple of days later. He killed 6 coyotes in 2 days. I look forward to hunting with him again, next year.
The next day, I had clients, Stan and Larry in for 3 days. The storm front moved in and the coyote action picked up. These gentleman had the best hunt they've ever been on. We had a blast. Here are a few pics and stories...
The hunting rig got weighed down pretty good, last night. The wind had broke from the prior night's storm front and it was dead calm and cold. We were extra quiet getting setup on each stand, as it was quiet enough to hear a mouse fart. The stealthy setups worked, as 3 different stands produced coyotes that were bedded within 300 yards of the hunting rig. Nothing but a simple lip squeak brought them in.
We called coyotes on every stand, except the first two. Most were singles, but we had a few stand with doubles and a couple triples. On one stand, we had a hard charging pair, just flooring it to us. I went silent and let them hunt for us, as I didn't want them get downwind. I growled to stop the lead coyote at 30 yards and watched Stan put a full load of Dead Coyote T shot into it. That was cool, but the most memorable stand was the one just prior to it.
I had talked to the rancher, earlier in the afternoon, and he said he had a pair of coyotes hanging out in the pasture just NE of his house. We pulled into the center of the pasture and sat for a few minutes to let everything quiet back down. It wasn't 10 seconds into the stand and I pick up a pair of eyes hard charging in, from 1000 yard out. This coyote was bound and determined to head downwind of use at 300 yards or so. I barked and stopped her, right before she could get our wind. Stan shot, but the bullet fell short and hit the dirt right under her chest. She lit out of there like her tail was on fire, back to where she came from. Gunner was going to have no part of that and cut at an angle to close the gap. Over the hill they went. I could barely see glimpses of Gunner, over the hill, about 800 yards. I could tell he went from chasing to playing cat and mouse. I told Larry and Stan to get ready and hit the beeper on Gunner's collar. It took him a bit to come back over the hill, but here he came....with coyote in tow. This coyote was really pizzed off and was chasing him like a heat seeking missle. Gunner would run back, then slow down to the let the coyote catch up. I can only image that they couldn't see each other and was doing this by foot sound and smell. Finally, Gunner made it back to the hunting rig, spun around and was ready for the coyote. The coyote stopped at 25 yards from us and put on one heck of a show for the guys, barking and howling, throwing dirt, the whole bit. Larry dropped the curtain on the show with his .22-250 A could see the eyes of a second coyote watching all the action, but I could not convince it to come in to any coyote distress. Seeing some decoy dog action was high on their agenda and they said that that stand made the entire trip. I was proud of my dog.
I ended up calling 22 coyotes for Stan and Larry. There were a few misses, but they killed 9 of them. These long time hunting buddies are flat ate up with predator hunting. They've predator hunted in quite a few states, with a long list of predator guides. They had their best hunt ever and I believe I made long term clients out of them. I expect to see them back, yet this season.
I'm kicking myself in the butt for not asking my buddy Travis to come along as a cameraman. We could of filmed an entire calling DVD in the first 5 days of this season. I may need you on Monday, when I start back up, Travis.
The coyote population is high this year. Zero grasshoppers, and calving season will start in November. I'm booked solid for October, but have a few openings in Nov and Dec, if anyone wants to get in on the action.
Hope you enjoy.
Tony
