‘renot16’ takes weird-looking gobbler

Stone County turkey had white head, bronze back, blond fan

Wiggins hunter Matt Renot knew there was a gobbler living behind his grandfather’s Stone County home, but when he headed to the woods yesterday (March 23) he didn’t even think about chasing the bird.

“We’ve heard it gobbling back there for the past three years, but nobody could get it to do anything,” said Renot, pointing out that no one had even laid eyes on the wary turkey. “My grandfather said he was going to listen (for gobbling) there, and I said I was going to my hunting club and listen.”

“I knew you coulnd’t work that bird.”

At 7 a.m., Renot’s grandfather called to say the apparent ghost bird had gobbled right behind his house.

“I hadn’t heard anything, so I told him I was heading over there,” said Renot, who goes by the screen name “renot16” on the MS-Sportsman.com reports forum.

He had almost made it back to his grandfather’s when his cell rang again.

“My grandfather told me, ‘Matt, that bird is in the field strutting,’” Renot said. “That’s the first time he went in that field.”

As he pulled into the driveway, Renot saw the bird disappearing into the woods at about 300 yards. He thought something looked off.

“My grandfather told me he thought it was a white turkey,” he explained.

The hunter didn’t waste any time discussing it, though. Renot hurried down a fire lane, toward which the gobbler was heading and set up. But the gobbler had disappeared.

“At 8 a.m., he finally gobbled again,” Renot said. “He must have been 500 yards away.”

So he grabbed his equipment and ran in a loop toward a nearby pipeline, and eased his head out far enough to get a look down the opening. The bird was far down the lane.

“It was him, a jake and a hen on the pipeline,” Renot said.

Again, he looped around in an attempt to close the gap.

“I set up, and he gobbled again,” Renot said. “He was still 200 yards away.”

Grabbing his equipment yet again, he hurried around the bird again in an attempt to cut it off.

His next set up was very close to the birds; in fact, the hen and jake came right out on the pipeline about 60 yards away.

“I didn’t even call because I knew I couldn’t call the bird in with that hen there,” Renot said.

The crafty gobbler made a brief appearance, and that’s when Renot saw why it looked so weird: The turkey had white feathers covering its head, neck and breast, before the feathers turned bronze along its back and then almost blond on its wings and tail.

“It was weird looking,” Renot said.

But the bird didn’t stay in the open long.

“The hen and jake came closer, but that gobbler stopped,” Renot said. “He then turned and walked the other way.”

Soon the bird had melted away again. Renot had no choice but to pick up and make a move again.

“I looped around and set up, and I cut at him and he gobbled,” Renot explained. “He was just across the pipeline.”

The unique turkey might as well have been in the next county.

“I could see him strutting (just inside the woods), but he wouldn’t come into the pipeline,” Renot said.

When the turkey again moved away, the now worn-out hunter picked up and looped around again – hoping to cut it off at a small food plot nearby.

The strategy worked, and the bird soon made an appearance.

“He walked into the field strutting,” Renot said. “You ought have seen him strutting; that was the most beautiful thing. It was awesome.”

It was now about 10:15 a.m., and the hunter tried to blend into the background as the bird strutted to within 35 yards.

And stopped dead.

“I don’t know what he was doing, but he just stopped,” Renot said. “And then he went to running.”

The hunter had had enough of the chase, and shot the gobbler running.

His reward was a trophy unlike anything he’d ever seen. The strange-looking turkey weighed in at just less than 20 pounds, but the weirdness of the bird didn’t stop at its coloration.

More pictures of the gobbler can be seen on the reports forum.

“It didn’t have the first sign of spurs,” Renot said. “He didn’t even have knots.”

And the beard was only 7 inches long, but it looked like there should have been more.

“He had beard rot,” Renot explained. “There were little strings of beard like it was longer, but it was real brittle and breaking off.”

Regardless, Renot said he plans to have full-mount the bird.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.

Don’t forget to post pictures and vids from your turkey hunts in our Turkey Photo & Video Contest to be eligible for great prizes.