Tesar wins Super Shot Contest with ‘dream hunt’ photo

It was a dream hunt with a happy ending for Zack Tesar.
The avid Aurora hunter ventured north last January to an island in the Bering Sea 300 miles off the coast of Alaska, in search of the elusive king eider sea duck. He and a friend bagged one of his most memorable hunts, captured in photos to help preserve the memories.
One of those photos was entered in the ANR annual Super Shot Photo Contest, with online voters selecting an image of Tesar with his prize prey as the grand champion. Tesar won a Ruger 10/22 gun from Schneider’s Gun Lounge and gift certificate from the Loading Chute as the top prize, as well as an opportunity to share details about the Alaskan adventure and his love for hunting.
“What’s so rare about the king eider is that the only place you can really shoot them in North America is on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea, or you might get lucky shooting one up in Maine,” he explained. “They are an arctic duck, so they stay up there.”
Admitting that he and fellow outdoorsmen are always planning the next hunt, Tesar said this particular trip was unique, probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience that he’ll never forget.
“We were on inflatable boats in the ocean off the island,” he described of what typically requires a hunting guide. “There is no calling them in. What you do is string decoys behind you and just as they’re getting up to go from their roosting area to go feed, if you’re lucky they’ll see your decoys and curve in and give you a shot.”
The large sea birds typically fly about two feet off the water, though getting a clear shot is tough, he said, because of the ocean waves.
“First off, they are hard to hit because you’re on this boat in 10-foot rolling waves, so you see them, you don’t see them, you see them,” he explained. “And if you shoot one and it’s still alive, you’ve got to get on it immediately because it dives and it’ll go under for minutes. Then if it pops back up you have a split second to put another shot into it.”
Tesar had hunted for king eiders before off the coast of Maine, where he learned how difficult they are to bag.
“I burned a box of shells trying to kill one cripple and it was incredible,” he said. “Plus, on this trip I was using a .28 gauge, which the outfitter said I was the only person to ever do that because that’s such a small gauge. I just love shooting a .28 gauge. It’s a small gun and it makes it fun.”
Though it takes a lot of time and effort to get to St. Paul Island, out-of-state hunters are only allowed to harvest four birds. Tesar got his limit that day, and then continued his trip by hunting for harlequin (a small, colorful sea duck) and white-winged scoters.
As a means of preserving his memory of the rare hunt, Tesar has sent all four of the king eiders to a taxidermist, with one set to be captured in a water scene in a glass case. One of the harlequins will also be mounted, to be put on display in an office  building he hopes to have built near his home within the next year to showcase all his hunting mounts.
As for the gun he won in the Super Shot Contest, Tesar said that will be a treat for his kids, which include Josie and Rush, ages 9 and 7.
“I think that’s going to be used for my kids and it will just be a fun gun to shoot with,” he said. “And I think this is awesome that you guys are doing this,” he said to contest sponsors Jeff Schneider, co-owner of Schneider’s Hardware, and ANR co-publisher Kurt Johnson. “I think it’s shedding a good light on hunting, so I think it’s really neat that you guys do this.”
A total of 25 entries were submitted for this year’s contest, the third annual competition featuring hunting related photos. The top 11 vote getters will receive prizes this year, thanks to Schneider’s Hardware and The Loading Chute in Hampton.

2nd and 3rd place winners
Jonas Bergmark of York finished second in the online voting and was excited about this year’s deer hunt.
“We’re not big into waterfowl or upland hunting, but me and my dad always go out at least during rifle season,” he said. “We always go out both weekends and this year I got my first buck.”
Bergmark described how the day began on a hunt between Utica and Cordova, when he first spotted the buck just 20 feet from his blind. He waited for the deer to get in position for a clear shot, and after it dipped down into a creek bed it came back up and stopped, giving him an easy shot just 30 yards away.
“The first time I ever took a shot was last year and I thought I hit him, but we could never find a body because the sun had already set and it was getting dark,” he recalled. “We couldn’t find anything the day after, either, so we assumed I just missed. This is the first time I had success with a buck — a 4x2.”
Bergmark is a sophomore at Peru State College, where he is a double major in criminal justice administration and psychology. He is the nephew of Laura Peetz of Aurora.
Jayden Smith was the third place winner in this year’s contest, having entered a photo of him grinning from ear to ear with a nice 8x10 buck.
“I’ve been hunting with my dad since I was really little,” Smith reported. “I have tagged a deer since I was in the sixth grade, so like the last five or six years. I really like it and this one is a lot bigger than any deer I’ve ever shot.”
Smith described how the day went on a hunt south and east of Giltner. On the second day of rifle season, he was lined up to take a shot at a smaller buck, but when he pulled the trigger nothing happened due to a bad primer.
“So I ended up getting lucky there and decided I’d just sit there the whole day,” he said. “At about 2:30 this really big doe rolled out and she was about 150 yards out. I was thinking about shooting her, but I’d seen a big buck chasing her earlier in the day about 400 yards out. Right as I was about to shoot the doe, he walked out and I was like, ‘Oh man.’ I barely had time to think, then lined up and took the shot.”
Smith found the buck not far from where he shot it, and now plans to have it mounted. Asked if he considered this a “trophy deer,” he said “It certainly is for me.”
Other top winners in order, all of whom will receive a gift certificate from the Loading Chute in Hampton, include: Zack Tesar, Jonas Bergmark, Jayden Smith, Lauren Evans, RayRay Strain, Mark Senff, Joseph Sabata, Ryker Watson, Rilee Jemison, Kaden Comer, Kyler Comer.
Editor’s note: All entries submitted in this year’s Super Shot Contest are featured in this week’s edition, along with feature stories on Matt Griess’s bear hunt and Glenn Obermeier’s Upland Slam.