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[TomKat]

I had the good fortune of going to the World Predator and Hunting Expo in Kansas City. I have to admit the event was well organized and planned, complete with website http://www.worldpredatorandhuntingexpo.com/index.html and this cool custom painted truck-



The sponsorship and seminar were very good. I thought the booths were all relivant to the sport. Both vendors and spectators alike were a pleasant and friendly group of folks. It was not uncommon to hear rabbit distress calls or howling going on at any point in time, any where in the building. At one point about everyone there had a howler out, kind of a pack mentality I guess!

Walking in I met another local hunter, Back Hoe Joe. I am pretty sure we are going to hunt a few dogs together-




I was happy to meet Matt Staser of MS Custom Calls.http://www.mscustomcalls.com/  Matt is a member of MHS and a dedicated predator hunter. Here we are together at his booth-



Here is some of his raw materials-



He had a workshop set up and it was neat to watch the calls being made-



Some of his finished calls on display-



Matt also makes custom decals-



I visited for a while with Carroll Pilant of Sierra bullets from Sedalia, MO. http://www.sierrabullets.com/



Carroll is an intresting guy in that he is both a competitive shooter and also a Promotions Manager at Sierra. I met him at a clinic at Cabela's a while back.  He invited me over for a factory tour at Sierra one time, it was very intresting. If you are ever in Sedalia I highly reccomend it. I have to admit a fondness for their 70 Grain 6mm MatchKing bullet, I have found them to be very accurate.
 
The folks at allpredatorcalls.com had a nice booth-



It was intresting for a non trapper like myself to meet up with the Kansas Fur Harvesters Association-



Although there have been some recent code changes that I don't agree with, the folks from Kansas Deparnent of Natural Resources were courteous and listened to my concerns for nearly 10 minutes. After I felt better for sharing my views, we settled into a nice conversation about prairie ecosystems and varmints in general. I do appreciate the difficult job they do.



I was glad to get to meet Les Johnson of Predator Quest. http://www.predatorquest.com/index.php

Les was about as nice a guy as you would ever want to meet. Down to earth, upbeat, and helpfull. You can tell from the pictures that we hit it off pretty good. I think we might be a bad fit together in a coyote stand because we would be cutting up and laughing too much to be quiet-





Les is a great caller, his resume speaks for it's self. I gave him a TK1 Rabbit caller to try out and he instantly make a range of sounds I have never heard one make!



I took a pair of shooting sticks to the show that I had made and asked many of these folks to sign for me. I thought it would be neat to take a part of them with me into the field, and so did they. Here is Rod Haydel www.haydels.com  signing my sticks-



After the show, some of the signatures of the best in ths sport-





The fellas from Predator University www.bredatoruniversity.com had a cool booth-



How about this ugly critter?



I met the folks at La Rue Tactical www.laruetactical.com They make quality AR-15 parts and rails. I also did not realize they made their own lower units. I had fun looking at the rifle you see here-



No one did more howling or calling than Lee Smith of Yellerdogcalls.com Lee was a good old boy from Michigan and easy to visit with. Not a bad caller, either-



Here I am at the Predator Masters booth with Rocknbbar-




I finally got to meet MHS member Steve Criner and his partner at the Hunters Specalities booth www.hunterspec.com-



We need to go hunt some dogs Steve!

I also met Chad Remington of Coyote Doctors fame. I have enjoyed several of Chads videos, so it was nice to ask questions and share secrets-



Todd Borland of Minaska Outdoors shot this red fox, I thought it was a nice speciman-



After I hit the show, I wanted to go to a seminar....so I went to see Randy Anderson. Randy was a great guy, and he called for us and shared some tips. He also gave us a glimpse of his new video that will be released soon. In one scene, his partner makes a 610 yard shot on a coyote!

Here is a not so great picture of Randy teaching class-



And one of me with the master-



All and all, it was a great day! I am pretty fired up to go do some calling and shooting this fall-

[wyote]

OH MAN!!!!!!!!!

I'll be bummed the rest of the day cause I didn't get to make it to the WPHE

Did you go fri and sat?

[TomKat]

No, just yesterday. Friday was more like a half day...and yes, you SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE!

Randy and Les were asking about you 

[bluescout]

Very nicely done slide show....great pics and the narrative seems to show some of the excitement you had meeting and talking with these fellas....good job and thanks.....

[TomKat]

Thanks Tom! I guess its no secret that I love to call coyotes!  :D Yeah, I really enjoyed myself.

[Brittman]

Awesome Tom, Like a kid in a candy store!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad you had fun.

[wyote]

Randy and Les were asking about you 

Good to see those 2 remember me!!! lol

[OneEyedJack]

Great pic's Tom. Looks like you had a fun time.  8)

[TomKat]

Awesome Tom, Like a kid in a candy store!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad you had fun.

Pretty much!

[MOHunter]

Excellent pics, and post, TK!  Looks like it was a pretty big affair!  Glad you got to meet up with Matt.

[TomKat]

Matt is one enterprising young man! He was of the same high quality of all our members- the kind of guy you would like to go hunting with.

[professor]

Looks like a fun day.

[stevecriner]

Man what a last 10 days I had. Expo's, Committee meetings,camera school and now Im home with my gurls. It was very nice to meet you Tom and Ill take you up on that offer to hunt if I can get up there. Thanks for stopping by.

[MattS]

It was a blast but I am glad its over.  I am beat.  I just got home about a half hour ago and I am debating on when I need to unload the truck.  I think its going to wait till tomorrow. 

Tom, it was my pleasure to finally meet you.  I wish we could have visited longer but Saturday morning was kinda hairy.  This event was a great time for all.  I had a blast getting to meet a ton of folks that I have been talking to for years but have never met.  It was just like everyone already knew each other.  All these people were great, humble, down to earth folks that you can hang out around the truck all night just shooting the bull.  Ya, that was pretty much every night, till morning. 

I will dig out the cameras and post some photos when I find everything.

[RealTree]

TomKat...I gotta say, You do a great job at these outdoors shows. Great narrative and the pictures are cool. Les Johnson's show Predator Quest is the only Predator show I really enjoyed watching. He gets after it. Thanks for sharing it this way.
I really like what you did at the Cabela Waterfowl deal. I missed it this year for the first time, since they opened. They moved up from last weekend in Aug to middle. I didn't get that memo apparently.
Keep it up. good show