Persistence Pays Off!

by MD Johnson
Zink Calls Pro Staff
24 April 2009

Vital statistics
Weight - #21
Beard - 12 ¼ inches
Spurs - 1 3/8 inches

Back in September of 2008, we here at Zink Calls were approached by Mr. Jesse Little, who told us of a new television show titled "The Campbell Outdoor Challenge." The Challenge is a competition, perse, consisting of 15 two-man teams - one cameraman, one hunter - completing a four-step event. In 2009, the archery-only events would be a hog hunt in South Carolina, a turkey in Indiana, a western antelope hunt, and a whitetail deer hunt in Illinois. Each hunt and team would be scored on the quality and length of footage they obtain, as well as shot placement and size of their particular animal. This, we thought, was right up our alley, and it didn't take Walt and I long to jump aboard.

On 19 May, Walt and I arrived in Tell City, Indiana. That evening at an introductory dinner, we met with John Campbell, founder of the Challenge, as well as the other teams who would be competing. We also met Joe and Bev Kress, the landowners on whose property we'd be hunting. Joe and Bev had been kind enough to donate their property for the Challenge; in fact, they'd given up their first three days of their turkey season so that we might enjoy their land.

The next morning found us scouting the Kress Property, and the sign on the 280 acres was absolutely incredible! The night before the hunt, Walt and I located three strutters on the adjoining property; however, it wasn't long before the gobblers headed to roost - on Joe and Bev's farm! Sitting quietly, we watched several birds - hens - fly up not 80 yards away. Soon, they were joined by not one or two, but three big longbeards. Even in the pre-darkness, we could see the ropes hanging from their chests. It was looking good.

The next morning, gobbles broke the morning silence in every direction; however, so, too, did the yelps, cutts, and cackles of multiple hens, and as is often the case, the longbeards left the scene following their lady friends. That evening, we set a ground blind along the route we'd watched the gobblers take to the roost the night before - nothing. Eventually, we decided on a run 'n gun technique, and struck a lone gobbler not long after our first move. He worked to within 40 yards, where he strutted on a fallen tree for more than 10 minutes. With the Beretta, it would have been SHOW OVER, but the archery equipment I carried made a difficult situation almost impossible. The old bird saw me come to full draw, and was gone.

On our second evening, Walt and I sat a blind again near the bottom from where we had watched the birds go to roost. With night approaching, I spotted movement some 80 yards away - a longbeard feeding in our direction! Soon, another gobbler and two hens joined the lone tom; this one, however, strutted almost constantly, and seemed, we agreed, to be a much more dominant bird. The foursome headed into the timber and pitched into the trees nearby. After making good our escaped - unnoticed - from the blind, we spoke with Jesse about our plan for the next morning. Little seemed somewhat uneasy about our strategy for using the full strut decoy, but Walt and I were confident. Still, we'd have our work cut out for us getting into the blind undetected.

The alarm blared at 3:30 the next morning, and we were both instantly awake. In the blind, we could make out the birds' silhouettes in the trees around us. With not a peep, all four birds left the limb and hit the ground not 50 yards from our hide. One of the hens wandered up to the blind, so close I could hear the grass crunching in her beak as she fed. We held our breath, afraid that she would blow the entire show. SUCCESS! Both longbeards appeared on the slope, beards rubbing the ground, and both marching in our direction. As the pair approached, dominant bird in strut, I came to full draw and told Walt I was going to take the strutter. A hit! Almost immediately, the big gobbler collapsed at the decoy, but regained his feet and headed off in the direction he'd come. Seconds later, he lay down for good. Pandemonium reigned in the blind as Walt and I came unglued! There had been a tremendous amount of pressure on Walt to capture this hunt on film, and he had done an outstanding job through it all. Back at Challenge Headquarters, we discovered our bird and footage had captured us second place. The first place team had both taken jakes, and combined with their successfully filmed hunts, their score had edged ours by some 80 points. Nonetheless, we were more than pleased - we had harvested the largest gobbler of the competition, and Walt's footage took first place. Not too shabby -

On this hunt, persistence led the way to success. We watched the birds, took in the information they gave us, and then acted upon that information. The strutter decoy played a major role as well.