Today I’m back in Southern New Mexico after my two day hunt with Tony Tebbe of Predator University(
http://www.predatoruniversity.com/predu/Welcome.htm). Tony is a Guide, Call Maker, Predator Controller, Coyote Decoy Dog Breeder and Trainer and one heck of a nice guy.
I picked two of the worst days to go on a hunt but wanted to get it in before I returned to Washington state. There were high wind and wildfire warnings for eastern New Mexico. Tony met me at the motel and although it was still dark the flag in front of the motel was already flapping pretty good. Tony took me into some country that I didn’t even think would hold a coyote let alone be callable. By noon we had seen seven coyotes. The wind had them so skiddish that even the decoy dogs couldn’t entice them into shooting range. By now the wind was drifting dirt over the roads. We took a short break and Tony picked me up again at 4:00 PM and we hunted till dark. The wind never really let up very much and we saw one coyote but it would not commit.
Day two. My camper rattled a little through the night from the wind and it had abated very little by morning. Tony took me to a pasture that the rancher had just turned out a bunch of weaned calves onto. It was a little discerning to be calling in the midst of a hundred milling calves. It also felt nice that Tony trusted me enough to take a shot there. After a pretty long calling session a lone coyote nervously worked in to the call. It stopped just under 200yrds in an opening between two groups of calves, with my back to Tony I didn’t know if he would send the dogs to bring it in farther but Tony whispered “Shoot him”. Not being used to this much wind I forgot and held on the boiler room. My shot had drifted a few inches downwind and I caught it too far back in the gut and shattering the rear offside leg. Tony sent the dogs and the they made up for my poor shot placement. After the shot Tony said that that coyote came in so nervously he thought that any more pressure it would have bolted.
Tony’s hunting rig , dogs and our coyote.
A few calves followed us back to the truck, the stand was beyond the power poles.
We tried a few more stands in some sand hills hoping the coyotes might be laid up on the lee side of the hills but by this time the wind was howling our tracks in the sand would fill with drifting sand before we could return to the truck. Tony tried using an e-caller to push out farther into the wind but even bracing the caller stand the wind would blow it over. On the walk back from a stand I asked it that was smoke from a fire out in the distance? “No that’s a dust storm out there”.
With a little encouragement from me we called it a day, I’m sure Tony would have spent the rest of the day trying to put me on another coyote. We headed back and we spent the afternoon talking dog, calls, trapping and predator hunting it was as much fun as shooting coyotes.
One of the things that impressed me were the sounds Tony could wring out of his calls and his willingness to teach and explain why we were making certain stands and the different sounds he was using.
I would hunt with Tony again in a minute
