I was the lucky winner of the early bird drawing to hunt with Byron South at the 2012 Predator Masters Hunt and Convention. I had a blast at the PM Hunt and hunting a day with Bryon made it truly special. Here is a recap of how it went.
I met Byron on Thursday night at the first dinner event. We made arrangements to go hunting the next morning. The video photographer, Steve Phillips, accompanied Byron and I on the hunt. Some local hunters attending the PM Hunt gave Byron recommendations on where to go. Byron took me and the Steve in his truck to hunt coyotes near the Mexico border. It was a long drive to the hunting location and we did not start hunting until about mid morning.
I got the opportunity to call coyotes with Byron using the new e-caller that Mojo Outdoors will be starting production on in May 2012. The footage from our hunt will be used in the new "Coming to the Call DVD" and on television. If you are thinking about buying an e-caller, be sure to check out this new one from Mojo Outdoors. A picture of it is in the photo. It is an all-in-one decoy, tripod, and wireless e-caller that will be on the store shelves very soon. Here is how our calling action went with this newly designed e-caller.
We began hunting in an area that we had never been to before and basically followed our nose looking for potential sites to call. We had several dry stands at first then Byron called in a badger. My nonresident NM hunting license was not valid for badgers. We gave the badger a pass, watched it run toward the e-caller, do a quick U-turn, and run away. The e-caller Byron was rigorously field testing had been all over the world calling in all sorts of wildlife and this was the first badger he had called in with it.
On the next stand Byron called in a double. The first coyote appeared at about 250 yards out. It stopped coming in as I saw a second coyote running in from about 175 yards out. The second coyote was a hard charger coming in fast. A bush had blocked the view for Byron and Steve to see both coyotes. I whispered to Byron that we had a double coming in. The hard charger stopped about 100 yards out and I had a perfect opportunity for a shot, but Byron and Steve still could not see either coyote so I held my shot. The coyote came closer and went behind an obstacle blocking my view. Byron and Steve then saw the coyote and Byron made the shot dropping the coyote on video. Upon hearing the shot, the other coyote began to run away and was not coming back. It stopped for a moment to look back so I shot it through the front shoulders well over 200 yards away. It immediately fell and disappeared into the grass. I gestured to Byron that I got the other coyote and he was thrilled that we tag teamed a double.
We then repeated what actually had happened on the stand for Steve to capture all the action on video. It was fascinating to me how the calling stands were setup with a camera man, the shooters, and how things are done in the movies.
About the time Steve finished getting all the video footage, 2 Border Patrol officers came by on horseback. We told them what we were doing and they were cool with Steve getting footage of them riding by to add another element to our calling stand.
We then returned to the motel. I kept the head from both coyotes to clean the skulls later. I will be giving the skulls to Byron and Steve as a gift so they will each have a souvenir from me and perhaps they can also use them for photography props.
Thanks again Byron for providing this opportunity to hunt with you and thanks Predator Masters for drawing my name. I had a lot of fun being in the movies and now I might have to change my screen name to “Hollywood”......LOL!
This was my second time attending a PM Hunt and I will be looking forward to a third. Many thanks to the PM staff for organizing this first class event and to all the sponsors which made it fantastic.
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