Mississippi
MS turkey hunter who thought hunt was ruined bags bird of a lifetime
‘I would call him a hybrid between a smoke phase and a red phase. He’s not a true smoke phase because of all the red in him.’
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Wild turkeys chased a UPS driver in Branford, Connecticut, as he tried to deliver packages.
- A Mississippi hunter bagged a rare, reddish-colored turkey after a frustrating start to his hunting season.
- The turkey’s unique coloration is described as a hybrid between a smoke phase and a red phase.
- According to a wildlife official, this genetic mutation is exceedingly rare, especially in male turkeys.
A Mississippi turkey hunter’s season wasn’t off to a good start, but with a change in plans, a little scouting, some luck thrown in, he bagged a rare reddish-colored turkey and it’s considered a bird of a lifetime.
“I’d been hunting the same bird since opening day,” said Barrett Clark of Strong, which is located near West Point. “He finally frustrated me enough to where I just needed to go look for another bird.”
Clark wasn’t able to connect with the gobbler he was after. So, on Friday, March 20, he decided to check another property. He located a few gobblers that afternoon, but one looked different. It appeared to have a lighter color than normal, but Clark figured it was just the way the sunlight was hitting the bird.
The following morning, Clark and his father, Larry Clark, returned to the area in hopes of getting a shot at one of the birds.
A turkey hunt that was almost ruined
“We met and went in early Saturday morning,” Clark said. “We were probably 300 yards away from him when he started gobbling. It was right at sunrise. He was gobbling off the roost.”
The gobbler flew off the roost and continued to gobble. Clark said he lightly called the bird. Then, a gunshot rang out from a nearby property and the gobbling stopped. To make matters worse, minutes later a coyote appeared and it looked like he was after the turkey that had been gobbling.
“That coyote came within 15 feet of my dad and ran straight to where the turkey had been gobbling,” Clark said. “We thought our hunt was boogered up.”
MS hunter shoots turkey with strange colors
The hunt wasn’t over, though. About 10 or 15 minutes later the gobbling resumed and Clark lightly called back. A little later, Clark saw a turkey through the trees in the neighborhood of 100 yards away.
“I was really just seeing his head move,” Clark said. “I would see his fan occasionally, but it was mostly just his head. I could tell he was lighter, but I really wasn’t focused on that. I was trying to stay still and make a good shot.”
Clark said he was hunting in pines that were maybe 10 years old, and the understory was thick. The bird came within 50 yards of him, but there was no shot. The bird began to walk away but stepped into an opening, and Clark pulled the trigger of his 20-gauge shotgun.
Clark still didn’t understand what he’d shot. He said it was only when he and his father got closer that they realized how unusual it was.
“We could tell it was something that neither of us had ever seen,” Clark said.
What is it, and how rare is this turkey?
The bird is a light rust or cinnamon color and lacks any normal coloration, but putting a label on it isn’t easy.
“I would call him a hybrid between a smoke phase and a red phase,” said Caleb Hinton, Wild Turkey Program coordinator for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. “He’s not a true smoke phase because of all the red in him.”
Hinton couldn’t put a number on it, but he said a genetic trait like this is very rare.
“Like all the genetic mutations, it’s exceedingly rare in the wild,” Hinton said.
And for a gobbler to express such a genetic trait is even more rare. Hinton said that upwards of 95% of the turkeys that express such traits will be hens, not gobblers.
“It’s just a once-in-a-lifetime trophy for the hunter,” Hinton said.
A lifelong outdoorsman and wildlife enthusiast, Brian Broom has been writing about hunting, fishing and Mississippi’s outdoors for the Clarion Ledger for more than 14 years. He can be reached at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.