Youngster gets the early bird

Farrior, 9, may have killed first gobbler in 2014 spring season

Breck Farrior, age 9, of Learned has a pretty good reason to brag about the gobbler he killed on March 8, the opening morning of Mississippi’s youth turkey season.

When he fired the shot five minutes into his season, his dad Bill Farrior Jr. looked at his watch and announced: “6:19, that didn’t take long.”

Now the Farriors are wondering if the bird, that had a 9½-inch beard, 1¼-inch spurs and weighed 19 pounds, was the first turkey legally killed in the season.

“The entire hunt happened in about five minutes,” the youngster said. “I barely had time to get my mask on.”

Breck Farrior killed his first gobbler on the same private lease in Southern Hinds County at age 7, and has since killed gobblers in two other states. This bird was long beard No. 3.

“I just love turkey hunting,” he said. “I’ve killed turkeys in Texas and Kansas, but I sure like hunting at home. I took my first turkey just a few miles from here when I was 7 and I’ve loved it ever since.”

The background to this latest turkey includes several sightings of gobblers during the 2013-14 deer season in this same area, which is why father and son started their turkey season where they did.

“We knew these turkeys were here and Breck had been talking about opening morning of youth season since January,” his proud dad said. “He couldn’t wait for the turkey season to get here and it turned out to be a truly great day.”

The youngster describes the hunt vividly in writing:

“My brothers had seen three long beards several times flying up to roost during deer season, so Dad and I knew where they should be on opening morning. When we got there we couldn’t cross the creek because it had rained a lot a couple of days before, so we stopped at the creek and called.

“The third time we called, one of the gobblers answered about 75 yards across the creek and we had to find a place to set up real quick. As my dad found a tree, we saw their white heads coming through the woods. It turned out to be four long beards and they were coming fast.

“My dad kneeled down and I stood behind him at the tree and rested my gun on his shoulder. I barely had enough time to get my mask on. As the gobblers came closer, my dad was telling me to shoot the first one, but I wanted to shoot the back one because he was strutting.

“When he finally stopped to strut again at about 20 yards, I aimed my 20 gauge and squeezed the trigger. My dad looked at his phone and said ‘it’s 6:19, that hunt didn’t last long.’ We stayed still and let the other three walk away without scaring them any more and then we sure didn’t have any trouble crossing that creek.”

Added Dad: “This is why Mississippi has a youth turkey season. It doesn’t always work out this well, but on this morning they followed the script and it was easy.”

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Share your photos and stories from turkey season — or fishing trips — by sending them to Bobby Cleveland at bobbyc7754@yahoo.com or post them at ms-sportsman.com.