Team Zink/Roscoby Win 2009 Campbell Outdoor Challenge

by Walt Gabbard
Zink Calls Pro-Staff
November 25, 2009

Early in 2009, Illinois native, Jesse Little, contacted myself and Josh Grossenbacher about joining himself, Justin Mason and Wes Alexander as teammates in the Campbell Outdoor Challenge. The Challenge, Little told me, consisted of 15 teams that travel the country on four very different hunts for four species - wild turkey, whitetails, wild hogs, and antelopes. Teams are scored not only the animal harvested, but on the quality of the video and audio captured. As a dedicated videographer, I was extremely excited and intrigued by this opportunity, and thanks to our sponsors - Roscoby Riser Cams, and Zink Calls - this chance become a reality.

With turkeys, antelope, and hogs already completed, Team Roscoby was in second place. Now came the true challenge, whitetails. Following our eight-hour trip from Ohio to Carmi, Illinois, I was greeted with cool temperatures and rutting bucks. On Saturday - Halloween - the teams gathered together and drew straws for what would be their hunting location for the next five days. Our spot, it turned out, was a small 30-acre woodlot surrounded by standing beans. Word from our guides had several nice bucks holed up in the timber; needless to say, we were plenty excited.

Day One came and went with nothing to show. Days Two through Five were more of the same. All in all, we'd seen 15 deer, one of which was a definite shooter. Still, the other teams were having their share of problems. To date, only three does had been tagged; however, this situation nonetheless dropped Team Roscoby back into fifth position.

Day Six, and we were limited to hunting only until noon. Confidence was in short supply as we climbed into our stand. A doe would certainly help our ranking; still, we'd only seen three does, none of which had been in range. Morning dawned on an alarmingly quiet woods. Then Jesse nudged me - DEER! But hope turned to dismay, as the small 8-pointer certainly wouldn't meet the contest's 130-inch minimum restriction. The little buck fed to within five yards of our stand, and then sauntered out of sight. Then, another deer; this one, a small button buck in the company of a mature doe. At 22 steps, Jesse made a perfect double-lung shot on the doe - you'd have thought he'd just down a Booner!

Wrapping up the post-harvest interview, I turned to retake my seat when the flash of antlers caught my eye. A big buck, and coming down the same trail as the 8-pointer. When the bruiser reached 20 yards, my partner made yet another perfect shot. He was down! Excited? That's an understatement. My first successful archery harvest on film, and a dandy whitetail to boot.

Back at camp, we learned that Team Lancaster, the Whitetail Challenge leader at this point, had tagged an incredible buck that morning as well. This was going to a close one. Sitting in the award ceremony, I had my heart set on second place. And as the score sheets were passed around, I learned I was right - and wrong. Team Lancaster had indeed won the whitetail challenge, outscoring us by 11 point. What I'd overlooked, however, was the fact that coming into this, the final challenge, we had been 13 points ahead of them, overall. We'd won, and by just two points! Our prize package was certainly a nice, and included an '08 Dodge Ram pickup, $5,000, archery equipment, and two huge trophies. Our second-place finish in the Whitetail Challenge had netted us an additional $1,750; not a bad pay-off for a week's work!

The whole of Team Roscoby's wild ride along the Campbell Outdoor Challenge circuit can be seen on the Versus Channel beginning in mid-December. Be sure to tune in, and watch the Zink Crew take home the gold!