DULUTH, Minn. — This is how it's supposed to work.

A dad. A young boy. A bunch of research and scouting.

And, finally, on a morning in April, a big gobbler front and center.

The dad is Superior's Doug Zychowski, who teaches at Duluth Central High School. The boy is his 13-year-old son, Dalton, a seventh-grader at Superior Middle School.

Doug is a deer hunter but had never hunted turkeys. So, last spring, when Dalton wanted to become a turkey hunter, they signed him up for the Youth "Learn to Hunt Turkeys" event in Douglas County, sponsored by the Gitchee Gumme chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation. Working with mentor Paul Ashley of Superior, Dalton was fortunate enough to shoot his first turkey last spring.

This year, he received a permit for Wisconsin's Youth Turkey Hunt, April 12-13. He and his dad did a lot of driving and scouting before the season. They saw a gobbler on some private property near Minong. They were able to track down the absentee landowner and get permission to hunt.

"It was a nice experience, kind of a bonding thing," said Doug Zychowski, 40. "Dalton was pulling together all the stuff — the camouflage, the owl call, the mouth calls, the box call."

Dalton's uncle, Derrick Zychowski, works for Cabela's, the hunting and fishing catalog and retail outlet. That helped Dalton in acquiring some of his gear.

A big snowstorm on the eve of the season prevented an early start on the morning of April 12, but the team went afield: Dalton, Doug and Doug's girlfriend, Shannon Hartson of Superior. After no action that morning, they split up to scout on foot. Dalton saw a turkey and took a shot, but he didn't connect.

Sunday morning, they were out there again, in a blind, with all of Dalton's calls and his trusty 12-gauge in hand. Dalton put out a hen decoy 25 yards from the blind. Early on, Dalton got a gobbler to answer his calls.

"After about an hour, it stopped," Doug said. "Dalton said, 'I read in one of the hunting magazines that when they stop calling, it means they could be getting closer.' "

Yeah, his dad thought. Or he could be in the next county.

Then the gobbler appeared over an embankment, 50 to 70 yards away, Dalton said.

"It looked huge," Doug said.

"We didn't see it for too long," Dalton said.

The gobbler had disappeared behind a rise, but suddenly reappeared.

"He was looking for the hen (decoy)," Dalton said. "He started charging after it. When he got to it, he puffed up real big."
This was the moment Dalton had been waiting for.

"I couldn't believe it was actually happening," he said.

The gobbler was just beyond the decoy. Doug whispered to Dalton to wait a bit before taking the shot. Dalton had other ideas.
"I wasn't listening to him," Dalton said.

When the tom let out a resonant gobble, Dalton pulled the trigger. The bird flopped on the ground.

It was a beautiful gobbler, 21� pounds with a 10�-inch beard. That's a gobbler any hunter would be proud of. The Zychowskis are having it mounted.

"It was fun," Dalton said. "We'll probably do it again."

Dad agreed.

"I'm not a huge hunter," Doug said, "but I'm a huge person in regard to the family. I just think people who aren't big hunters can still enjoy it and spend time with their kids. It was a great, great experience."