A Mississippi girl was hunting with a shotgun passed down from her grandfather. As exciting as it was that she harvested her first gobbler on the opening day of youth season, it was even more so with her second gobbler, a rare silver-colored gobbler.
"Everybody was trying to kill that bird," said Vance Windom of Bogue Chitto and father of Addi Windom, 12. "He was going from property to property to property.
"We knew the bird was roosting on us. That bird actually hatched on us. This bird was on about 10 different properties. The bird was stunning."
Because the bird was known to so many people near Windom's property, he hoped Addi could harvest it during youth turkey season before the regular spring season opened on March 15. Addi harvested her first gobbler that Saturday but wasn't the silver turkey.
Windom needed to visit his mother the following day, so he asked his son, Blayten, 16, to take Addi hunting that afternoon.
"I'd say we got out there about 4 o'clock," Blayten said. "We got back there and heard hens yelping. I thought, 'Well if the hens are yelping, a gobbler will be there with them."
Blayten said he made a few calls with a boss hen call while the two sat overlooking a field. The hens kept yelping but eventually went silent.
However, the activity picked up about an hour and a half into the hunt.
"I looked up, and lo and behold, 14 hens came out, and he came out strutting right there with them," Clayton said. "He kind of stayed about 40 yards into the woods. Eventually, he came out of the woods about 20 yards away."
While the two waited for the gobbler to offer a clear shot, Addi's nerves were getting the best of her.
"I was waiting for him to walk out, and when he walked out, I was like, 'Oh, my gosh.'" Addie said. "I was shaking real bad. My brother was like, 'Addi, look at me — breathe.'"
Addi tried to calm down. When the silver gobbler came into range and gave her a clear shot, she did her part, and her grandfather's old single-shot 20 gauge did its part, too. The bird went down, and Addi had her first close-up look at him.
She was in disbelief.
"I'm like, 'There's no way I'm touching this turkey,'" Addi said. "Oh, my gosh, he's so much prettier in person.
"You can see the details. He had little black markings on his tail. Those are real pretty."
For Addi's father, it was both an exciting harvest and a relief.
"I'm just glad he wasn't killed by a poacher," Windom said. "It's a memory we'll never forget, and it's going to make her a turkey hunter for the rest of her life."
And taking it with the old shotgun was icing on the cake.
"The thing that makes it is we lost my dad a year ago," Windom said. "My dad was a really avid turkey hunter. He let her have the gun to turkey hunt."
Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger.
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