Zink Calls Field Staff

John Francis Sunkler
John Francis is 18 years old and lives in Earleville, MD. He was four years old when his father first took him waterfowl hunting. From that first experience John Francis was hooked on waterfowling. Growing up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland opened up many opportunities for different types of hunting were available to John Francis. At the age of ten he passed the hunter safety course and the following hunting season he hunted everything Maryland had to offer: dove, deer, ducks, and his favorite geese. He was very fortunate to have harvested several large whitetail deer, and his largest being 150" B&C 10 pointer. Yet the older he got, the less deer hunting he did because that took time out of waterfowling.

Since his father is from Austria, his family regularly returns to Austria in the summer. His father and John Francis lease a hunting area in the high alpine region of Austria. This is high altitude and rigorous hunting. John Francis has been fortunate enough to harvested some of the best trophy's that have come from this hunting area in thirty years. This area offers Chamios, Reehbok, and Red Stag. Since the hunting season is in the summer because of the heavy snow fall during the fall and winter, John Francis gets to hunt almost year round. The other reason John Francis loves this type of hunting is that is heavily embedded in old traditions that bring back the honor and love of the animals and nature. Short of waterfowling, this is John Francis' favorite type of hunting.

The first time John Francis ever blew a short reed goose call, he thought it sounded absolutely terrible. John Francis practice on a poly carb call that his buddy lent him and one of the most useful tools John Francis has used for waterfowling, Zink Calls DVD "The Ancient Art of Paraylzing". He watched his dvd countless times and learn the art of "parazyling". Yet he knew the poly carb call was not the call for him. So he went to countless stores and annoyed many customers blowing every call under the sun, but none of them sounded like the SR-1. So on John Francis' birthday his girlfriend surprised him with a bird eye maple Sr-1. From then on he has been a huge supporter of Zink Calls.

On the Eastern Shore of Maryland the duck and goose hunting is absolutely incredible. John Francis and hunting partners have hunted these duck and geese in every possible situation on the Eastern Shore from hunting farm ponds to the Chesapeake Bay from blinds and pits. John Francis loves to hunt from his Avery Finisher and his Powerhunter, and loves to decoy geese in close. He has been lucky enough to mix the two types of hunting together. He has found spots on the local rivers that holds huge numbers of geese that roost on sand bars only a fifty yards off shore. It is a lot of work but this type of goose hunting from sand bars is unbelievable. The geese are completely fooled and shots are always less than ten yards, with the help of his favorite goose calls his SR-1 and LM-1. The duck hunting is sometimes just as good as the goose hunting on the Eastern Shore. With the help of his PH-2 ducks are coaxed in to point blank range and offer some speedy shooting.

John Francis favorite part about waterfowl hunting is right before the shot because you have the ducks or geese completely fool and this is a high that keeps him going out in the early hours of the morning and keeps him out late scouting for the new flock or secret spot. He loves to set the decoys and call just like the birds he saw the night or two nights before in that spot.

The sport of waterfowling brings his family and friends together which makes it special for John Francis. He loves sitting in the goose pit or duck blind with old or new friends and family memebers. Just as long as he has friends and family to hunt with, the birds are only secondary to make the hunt worth while.

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