4 days, 27 hours of hard huntin' finally paid off on Earth Day 2002, ending a 3 year chase after this awesome bird. A super gobblin' tom who was too smart to come to the call messed up by letting me know where he was spending the night. Luckily, the coon hunters hunting out of season next door didn't run their dogs on our club and my bird stayed put for the night.

A very lucky tom almost got lucky again as my first shot took out a small oak, the second plucked his neck feathers and the third killed him instantly as he tried an airborne escape at 28 yards. Cleaning the bird proved he'd survived a shameful attempt on his life by a bullet and had done nothing more than corrode 1/4 of his breast meat. Such awesome birds deserve a better fate than to die by an blind bullet and Coyote Tom was one awesome bird.

Coyote Tom got his name from my first year of hunting him and seeing a coyote near him when he gobbled from the limb or strutted in a logging road.