Hunter:
Tyler Anderson
Location:
Mississippi
Shotgun:
Shells:
Story written and told by Tyler Anderson
So, I was hunting at my deer camp just outside of Carthage, MS. I’d heard the turkey the Saturday before but never put eyes on him. Where the particular turkey I’d been hunting was almost exactly 2 miles to the back side of the place so you had to be all the way back there to hear them.
I heard the turkey gobble and just like he’d been doing as soon as he hit the ground--he never gobbled again. So I left him alone and walked back out to the top of the ridge and just sat there listening just to see if he’d start back gobbling.
I probably sat their about an hour or so and never heard him again. So I figured before I left I’d get to the top of the next little ridge and call just to see if he would gobble again. First time I yelped on my mouth call he gobbled. So I slipped around the back side of the little ridge and got down in the hardwood bottom and got to where I thought I could kill him and called again.
He gobbled again probably 100 yrds out so I shut up and never said another sound. It wasn’t but just a minute or so when I heard the turkey drum and then I finally saw him coming through the bottom and thought: Dang that turkey almost looked white! But I figured it must have been the way the sun hit and made a glare off his feathers.
Tyler's white/cinnamon colored wild turkey.
He finally made it where I could see him good, and he goes into full strut. At that moment I knew the turkey was white and I honestly almost threw up. So I’m sitting there watching him strut up through the woods and 2 more longbeards are behind him and all I can see is beards swinging.
I’m trying to decide if I can’t get a shot at the white/red turkey do I shoot one of these others or just let them all walk off and try to figure something else out or what. I watched the turkey strut all the way through the bottom for probably 100 yards, just like something you would see on tv. He then stopped out in front of me about 35-40 yards and just hammered right in my face and goes back into strut and behind a tree. I swing my gun around and as soon as he came out from behind the tree I yelped to stop him and pulled the trigger.
I think I almost beat the wad out of the end of my barrel I jumped up so fast to go get him. Crazy thing is it’s a deer camp, so I’m not the only one that hunts it. But still nobody knew that turkey was there. To top it all off, he was a triple beard!
Read More: Tailgate Talks Series
Tyler's bird was already a once-in-a-lifetime, but then he found that it had three beards as well.
