When Courtney Kelleher left Huntsville, Ala., on March 25 to obtain her marriage license at the Natchez, Miss., courthouse, the last thing on her mind was turkey hunting. So she had no idea that her first turkey hunt was in the offing.
After taking care of wedding business, Kelleher met her mom Krystal and dad Ron at their camp just a few miles away.
Knowing her fiancé Matt Ryals was looking forward to an afternoon turkey hunt, Courtney settled in on the couch for a relaxing, peaceful afternoon rest. It wasn’t long before Matt and her dad were begging her to go on the hunt with them.
Not only did she decide to go, she was successful on her first turkey hunt. But it didn’t come easy.
After agreeing to give it a try, Ron Kelleher had to figure out the best spot to put the couple to ensure they would see birds.
“I wanted to make sure she had a chance because this turkey hunt experience might be a one time shot” father Kelleher said.
Ron told Ryals where he had heard a couple of birds gobbling every morning for a week straight. Ryals has hunted with his soon to be father-in-law many times, so knowing his way around the property was no problem.
The two talked it over and came up with a plan, and Ryals knew exactly where to go. The two men knew if they could set up close to the roost site for the evening hunt, there would be a great opportunity to catch a turkey heading back late in the evening.
The future newlyweds left the camp at 4 p.m. and proceeded down a trail about 10 minutes from the camp. After finding a big pine tree to sit against, they built a brush blind and settled in for the evening.
Ryals and his future wife expected the birds to come from a big field about 200 yards in front of them and fly up to roost on a creek about 100 yards behind them.
Well, it didn’t exactly happen like that.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Courtney Kelleher said. “I was pretty bored for most of the afternoon. At 5:30(p.m.) my dad texted me to ask if we’d seen any turkeys yet.
“I texted back that we hadn’t seen a thing, and that I was bored.”
Her father urged her to be patient, explaining they were very close to a roosting area and they might not see any action until 6:30 or 7:00.
The action began at 6:35 p.m.
“Matt whispered to me, ‘I think I hear a turkey drumming,’” Courtney Kelleher said. “I didn’t know what that sounded like, but the closer the turkey got I could definitely hear it.
“It was behind us to my right and not very far away.”
Ryals had been calling about every 15 minutes with soft purrs and clucks, and the turkey had the couple pinpointed.
“At this point I started getting nervous,” Courtney Kelleher said. “Matt asked if I could see him, and I couldn’t at first.
“All of a sudden, he was standing to my right about 8 yards away.”
But she hesitated taking the shot.
“I whispered to Matt that I could see his blue head, but I couldn’t see his beard,” she explained. “After a few more steps, we could plainly see that he was a long beard.
“I slowly started moving my gun to the right for a shot, when the gobbler spotted something he didn’t like. He started to putt and walked straight away from us out of sight.
“At that point I thought my hunt was over and I had blown my opportunity to bag a gobbler.”
However, Ryals wasn’t ready to call it a day.
“Matt started to call again with some short yelps on his slate call,” Courtney Kelleher said. “Within seconds we heard a turkey gobble out in front of us about 75 yards away.
“Within minutes we had four long beards coming straight to us.”
The novice hunter was back in the game.
“My heart started to beat fast as I realized I was going to get a shot,” Courtney Kelleher said. “When the first gobbler hit the opening in front of me at 14 yards, I pulled the trigger.
“After he went down, Matt jumped up and hugged me so tight I could hardly breathe.”
The turkey was a bruiser, sporting a 9 1/2-inch beard and 3/4-inch spurs – and it was the smallest of the four.
“It was definitely exciting, and maybe next year I’ll get a bigger one,” Courtney said.
Courtney and Matt were married one week later at the Dunleith Plantation in Natchez, Miss.
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