A Family Tradition

Wyatt Turner, 14, heads back to his grandfather's truck after hunting on family land in northern Warren County.  

Recently there was an article in our paper about a young hunter who has a passion for hunting that was inherited. Wyatt Turner, who is 14 years old, has been hunting since he was 7 years old.  He loves hunting with his grandfather, James Wyatt, in northern Warren County on family land.

They had been in the woods since 2:30 on this particular afternoon, and they only saw about a dozen deer - what they call a bad day.  "We see about 30 deer on a normal day, but never when we're trying to impress somebody," James Wyatt said.  "We've seen 80 out here before."

Wyatt hunts daily with his grandfather when he is out of school and said that's all I want to do.  When he killed his first deer, which he wasn't proud of because it wasn't very big, he said.  "But my second one was, it was an eight point," he said.

"I always used to shoot them as soon as I saw them, then I started passing them up because we really didn't need the meat," he said.  "That hunting, not killing."

Now that he's a seasoned hunter.  Turner looks for the "right" deer instead of just any deer.  The "right" one has got to have good size, he said, but there's something else that's inexplicable, he said.  It's more about what you feel when you see it.  "You start shaking," Turner said.  "You just know when you know."

Turner has become as much an observer as a hunter.  He can watch them for hours without ever taking a shot.  "I'll just sit back and enjoy it," he said.  "They're so pretty and it's just nature and your're right in the middle watching them"

His grandfather, James Wyatt, educated him as a woodsman and taught him many tips and tricks along the way.  His grandfather taught him how to spot turkeys by making a hooting call like an owl, and Turner swears he called up a fox once by making a high-pitched sound like a dying mouse.  "I don't know why it works, I'm not an expert," Turner said.  "I just know it works."

Hunting has been the bond between Turner and his grandfather for years, and although friends come and go, family is always there, he said.  "He's like a friend to me.  A lot of kids don't have the kind of relationship with their pawpaw like I do," he said.

Turner is a student in Scholastic Academy and makes good grades; he was exempt from all of his testing lasts week, which allowed for more hunting trips with his grandfather.  Nevertheless, he finds his true talent to be in the woods.  "School's hard, hunting isn't." he said.

He doesn't watch much television, but when he does, he's watching hunting shows, he said.  Turner's talent for hunting and passion for sharing it with people seem to point to a natural career path for his future in that industry.  "That would be my dream job, but it probably won't happen," he said.  But you never know.  The Vicksburg Post by Justin Sellers