As the wife of a hunting guide, Katie Montalvo has heard many stories about exciting and successful turkey hunts, but she had never been able to make one of those stories her own. That changed when she took her first tom on an afternoon hunt with her husband, Zach.
Moments after she pulled the trigger, Zach took another gobbler that had come within shotgun range, and the couple doubled up on boss birds. “We started our hunt early in the afternoon on a property in Bandera County that just seemed to be dead and void of action,” Montalvo said. “We covered a lot of ground and never saw or heard a bird. Our plan was to wait the birds out, in hopes that they would start talking later in the afternoon. Then, my husband got a text from his partner with 4-C Outdoors, who had put some eyes on some gobblers on a different place where they hunt in Medina County. So we packed up and headed that way.”
They arrived to the next property with high hopes.
“We walked into an area where we thought the birds would be within earshot, and Zach blew a crow call,” Montalvo said.
“Immediately, several gobblers sounded off in response. My heart started pounding, as we eased in closer and got set up along the edge of a sendero. We put out a strutter decoy and tucked into the brush.”
Zach started calling, and soon a hen started yelping back in response.
“I finally got to see him in his element,” she said. “I hear stories about this type of thing all the time, and I hear him practice his turkey calls around the house, but I’ve never had the opportunity to see him in action. It was like he was having a full-on conversation with this hen.”
The hen finally went silent, and about 10 minutes or so passed by. Then a group of about 10 hens showed up and walked by.
“Zach leaned over and told me to get ready, as he was almost certain some toms would be following the hens,” Montalvo said. “Just a few moments later, a tom came running in toward the strutter decoy.”
Montalvo finally got a clear shot on the longbeard and took it. The bird folded immediately. Several other birds gobbled as her shotgun blast went off. She started to get up to go get her gobbler, but her husband stopped her.
“He started calling aggressively again, and another tom came into view at about 35 yards,” she said. “Zach picked up his shotgun and dropped the bird. It was an exhilarating experience, and it all happened so fast.”
