Jerry McCrory booked his Gobblers and Gardenias hunt for later in April 2011 for he and his wife. Like the author, the 60-year-old Metairie, La., resident had never killed a turkey. Set up in a popup blind, the turkey gobbled one time and was very close to Atkins and McCrory.
“I got one glimpse out of the far window where Leon was sitting, and he disappeared,” McCrory said. “And it was like he had to come over a little rise before I could get a good look at him. But, when he got over the rise he took off at a run. The first thing Leon said, was, ‘IT’S THE BIG ONE,’ and not, ‘IT’S A BIG ONE,’ but, ‘IT’S THE BIG ONE.’
“And he is going, ‘Do you have the shot — do you have the shot?’”
McCrory said Atkins had been looking at this particular bird on trail cameras for quite a while.
McCrory recounted how the bird reacted aggressively toward the decoys.
“I’m telling you, it sounded like someone beating a 5-gallon bucket,” he said. “I mean, that turkey was slapping the heck out of that jake decoy. I couldn’t see him very well, and when I finally got around to an angle where I could see the decoys, the turkey was digging his spurs, I guess, into that decoy.”
McCrory had to wait for the big bird to move before he could finally shoot and said he made a decent shot, hitting the bird right in the waddle.
“It was terrific, but it was a short hunt,” he said. “I was back at the Briars by 7:30 (a.m.) and ate breakfast with my wife. She had her massage scheduled for later that morning while I hunted. But my turkey had something like a 12 ½-inch beard. It was just a really nice turkey.”
According to Atkins, a National Wild Turkey Federation member, McCrory’s turkey might have been in the top one or two turkeys ever taken in Mississippi. The turkey actually had three beards. Two were smaller in size.
McCrory’s shot, though lethal, damaged the beard badly, making it difficult to rough score accurately.
