Kayote outfitters Nilgai

[justindfw]

I have not hunted with him but my friend did and wasn't impressed. Day of meet up my buddy could not get ahold of him to find out where to go. Finally got him to answer and was sent with a guide that said the land was over hunted. They did see one small one and his son missed. So they did have an opportunity for a shot. Buddy said it just wasn't professional.

[one66stang]

Well I hope all the good things I have heard turn out, Kayote ran a special the other day and I had to jump on it. 2 Nights of hunting and can kill 2 bulls, 4 hours of fishing around SPI and one night accommodations for $1300. I have been watching him on Fb for over a year now and seems pretty legit. So S.Tx in July August here we come.

[Randy]

Anyone been recently?

[Texastaxi]

STGS had his weekend set, along with 8 pointer, and CMS. I had booked also, so I tagged along. Jeremy had to bail, due to work obligations.

I'm going to give you the short version.

Kayote is basically a booking agent. Very few hunters actually hunt with him. He sells a crap load of hunts, and then finds a guide, to accommodate you, shortly before you get there.

I had bought a two DAY hunt. The guide, that he paired us with informed us that it would be a two NIGHT hunt, Friday and Saturday. We all thought we were hunting FriDAY and SaturDAY. The guide, Tony, made some calls and got it fixed so we could hunt Thursday and Friday NIGHT ... which is the reason I was up for 28 hours straight Thursday/Friday.

The guide actually picks the place you're going to hunt, not Kayote. We only saw Kayote on Thursday evening, when he came to us, to collect money (from me). My hunt was $1200. Zach and Chad had a $925 deposit and $925 kill fee. When he showed up at the Wataburger, he didn't really know who owed him money, so we had to jar his memory as to what we actually bought and who owed him what. Not very professional or organized, IMO.

I will tell you that our guide busted his butt to make sure we had a good hunt. We were fortunate, and all 3 of us got bulls. Mine, after walking all night and shooting him at about 5:00 in the morning; Zach and Chad ended up with a double, sitting on a crop, early the next night.

He does sell some incredibly cheap hunts. I talked with Tony, about the $1300, 2 bull + lodging + fishing that someone mentioned above, and even he didn't understand how he could ever make money on that deal, but that doesn't really matter.

If anyone has any questions that I didn't cover, I'll be happy to answer.

[sotx]

Every Nilgai mount I've seen look almost identical. What makes these things a trophy? I'd like to get one for the meat, but not sure if it's worth mounting an animal that looks just like everyone else's. Are there characteristics that make one a trophy over another?

This^^^ and why did the King Ranch decide on Nilgai back in the 1930's to release?

[KX500]

Texastaxi - Thank you for this info. It seems like there have been several hunters who have been less than impressed with Kayote outfitters, but detail had been lacking. Some of the things you describe would drive many crazy - not knowing you're hunting at night, until you get there? Wow!

When I decided I needed to hunt Nilgai, I just figured I'd go with Kayote. But then no replies to messages makes that more difficult. And then I realized that they are one of the outfitters that hunts primarily at night, which is not what I want. Nothing against it, but having never been to south Texas, part of the enjoyment for me will be 'seeing' someplace new - which would not be the same in the dark.

Still, if you don't mind a night hunt & lack of organization/communication, sounds like Kayote is an inexpensive, high success rate option.

[Hawkpuppy 1]

STGS had his weekend set, along with 8 pointer, and CMS. I had booked also, so I tagged along. Jeremy had to bail, due to work obligations.

I'm going to give you the short version.

Kayote is basically a booking agent. Very few hunters actually hunt with him. He sells a crap load of hunts, and then finds a guide, to accommodate you, shortly before you get there.

I had bought a two DAY hunt. The guide, that he paired us with informed us that it would be a two NIGHT hunt, Friday and Saturday. We all thought we were hunting FriDAY and SaturDAY. The guide, Tony, made some calls and got it fixed so we could hunt Thursday and Friday NIGHT ... which is the reason I was up for 28 hours straight Thursday/Friday.

The guide actually picks the place you're going to hunt, not Kayote. We only saw Kayote on Thursday evening, when he came to us, to collect money (from me). My hunt was $1200. Zach and Chad had a $925 deposit and $925 kill fee. When he showed up at the Wataburger, he didn't really know who owed him money, so we had to jar his memory as to what we actually bought and who owed him what. Not very professional or organized, IMO.

I will tell you that our guide busted his butt to make sure we had a good hunt. We were fortunate, and all 3 of us got bulls. Mine, after walking all night and shooting him at about 5:00 in the morning; Zach and Chad ended up with a double, sitting on a crop, early the next night.

He does sell some incredibly cheap hunts. I talked with Tony, about the $1300, 2 bull + lodging + fishing that someone mentioned above, and even he didn't understand how he could ever make money on that deal, but that doesn't really matter.

If anyone has any questions that I didn't cover, I'll be happy to answer.

Yep, still glad I cancelled our hunt. I've guided a long time for some nice outfits that have always been professional from top to bottom with no surprises. If that makes me picky about a hunt to take my wife on, so be it. I don't tolerate half ***

[8pointer]

STGS had his weekend set, along with 8 pointer, and CMS. I had booked also, so I tagged along. Jeremy had to bail, due to work obligations.

I'm going to give you the short version.

Kayote is basically a booking agent. Very few hunters actually hunt with him. He sells a crap load of hunts, and then finds a guide, to accommodate you, shortly before you get there.

I had bought a two DAY hunt. The guide, that he paired us with informed us that it would be a two NIGHT hunt, Friday and Saturday. We all thought we were hunting FriDAY and SaturDAY. The guide, Tony, made some calls and got it fixed so we could hunt Thursday and Friday NIGHT ... which is the reason I was up for 28 hours straight Thursday/Friday.

The guide actually picks the place you're going to hunt, not Kayote. We only saw Kayote on Thursday evening, when he came to us, to collect money (from me). My hunt was $1200. Zach and Chad had a $925 deposit and $925 kill fee. When he showed up at the Wataburger, he didn't really know who owed him money, so we had to jar his memory as to what we actually bought and who owed him what. Not very professional or organized, IMO.

I will tell you that our guide busted his butt to make sure we had a good hunt. We were fortunate, and all 3 of us got bulls. Mine, after walking all night and shooting him at about 5:00 in the morning; Zach and Chad ended up with a double, sitting on a crop, early the next night.

He does sell some incredibly cheap hunts. I talked with Tony, about the $1300, 2 bull + lodging + fishing that someone mentioned above, and even he didn't understand how he could ever make money on that deal, but that doesn't really matter.

If anyone has any questions that I didn't cover, I'll be happy to answer.

Very accurate write up by Kevin here. 100% of everything he said here is true. Was it what I signed up for originally? No.... but it was one helluva adventure and I’m really glad we went. Not one trip I would take the wife but one I would take a couple of buddies with. I’d do it again in a heartbeat!

[Black Ice]

This^^^ and why did the King Ranch decide on Nilgai back in the 1930's to release?

He had tons of money, thought they tasted good, were pretty, and would thrive in this climate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Randy]

I just returned from this hunt over the weekend. I dont usually recap my hunts but I know there are a number of people here that are going hunting with him. This might help them a little.

We arrived in Harlingen about 6p on Friday evening. Kayote was txting us trying to decide when to hunt that weekend. He said he felt that the morning was the best time to hunt due to the high heat in the evenings. He thought starting at 4am and hunting til about 10a would be ideal.

We told him we had thermal scopes. This changed his game plan so we began hunting on Friday night at 9:00p. We hunted on foot until about 3am. I kept up with it on gps we walked about 7 miles the first night. It was freakishly hot and there was no breeze at all. Miserable i tell you. Not a dry stitch of clothes on me. Not sure I have ever sweated that much in my life. My bro in law commented that it was more difficult than boot camp when he was in the military.

We saw a herd (4-6) nilgai on the first mile of walking with thermals. However, they were on the a refuge where we could not hunt at. We left that place to go stalk some milo fields and water holes. Saw a few white tails but no nilgai. We gave up hunting about 2:30-3:00a

We made it back to the hotel and slept til 10am or so on Saturday. Had breakfast and couldn't get ahold of Kayote for the evening plans. When we eventually got a hold of him there weren't any plans to hunt on Saturday.

I'm not sure of the semantics of what hunt we bought.

Did we buy two nights and no days?
Did we buy a hunt for two people for the entire weekend?
Did we buy two trips into the field or 3?
I dont know, but what I do know is sitting in a hotel for over 24 hours on a weekend trip while opportunity seemed to be slipping away was not setting well with me. I didn't expect to do nothing on Saturday.

So after sitting in the hotel all of Saturday we go out at 4am on Sunday morning. We walk and stalk the same fields as Friday night with the same results. Saw nothing. We were feeling quite defeated with the whole hunt at this point.

Then our guide placed us on stands before daylight. I saw some quail and a good white tail buck. A bull bull walked out about 7:30a and I put him in his tracks. A great bull just shy of 8.5"

My brother in law never saw anything on the stand. We picked him up about 10am, then we drove around the ranch with the guide. We eventually came to a herd of cows and he took one. He was wanting a bull awfully bad but never saw one.

My guides name was Nick. He worked his *** off for me. I made sure to reward him for his time and hard work. He worked so hard he was puking due to the heat and kept going. Cant say enough about the young man. He had no quit in him.

It was a good time but it was a tough tough hunt. Transparency and communication could have been better, but in hind sight things worked out just fine.

Since the hunting was slow Kayote & Nick had offered us a return trip because because a shot opportunity never presented its self. I was already looking forward to my return trip since I had essentially seen no shootable nilgai. Shortly after telling us this the stars aligned for us and two nilgai fell.

It was a classic case of listening and trusting your guide and outfitter. That can be very tough when hunting with someone you do not know.

Kayotes original plan was spot on and that plan is exactly how i got my bull.

[Randy]

PS

I never once saw or met with Kayote.

[stickman]

PS

I never once saw or met with Kayote.

Both Nick and Tyler are stand up dudes.

[AntlerCollector]

Good write up Randy. Thanks for sharing

[txhoghunter73]

Going for my third hunt in July. I have always pulled the trigger when I have hunted with him.

[KX500]

'but what I do know is sitting in a hotel for over 24 hours on a weekend trip while opportunity seemed to be slipping away was not setting well with me. I didn't expect to do nothing on Saturday. '

This would have driven me CRAZY!

But glad it worked out for you.

And thanks for the description of hunting these critters in June. You make me realize that a winter hunt is probably much better!