I mean, its right in front of my eyes and I almost can’t believe it…
There’s rare white deer, white moose and lots of other species that you can find, on rare occasions, in all-white pigmentation, but I’ve never really considered a turkey in all white (not to be confused with an albino).
In a testament to the hard work and dedication that goes into hunting, Field & Stream reports that Troy Cornett, shot an all-white turkey after first spotting it in 2019.
When he first spotted it he couldn’t believe what he saw.
“I was like, ‘That looks like something white.’”
“I kept looking through my binoculars. The gobbler was inside the flock, so I wasn’t able to get good eyes on him, and it was kind of late in the evening.
Finally, the bird got positioned where I could see him, and I was like, Oh my god, that’s a white turkey!”
Cornett then got the bird on trail camera in early 2020 only to not see it at all during the spring season. Sneaky, sneaky.
He spotted it again in the fall after thinking it had died. Time to try again. Cornett was excited for the 2021 spring hunt. He got close but a bird like that doesn’t survive without knowing things are after it. The white turkey escaped.
Cornett lost hope and figured the bird wouldn’t survive another winter as it was well mature. But then his dad and brother spotted it while deer hunting.
The excitement and the start of the obsession cycle all over again. Cornett was determined to shoot a bird and only the white bird.
On opening day of the 2022 season Cornett set up near some birds and started calling. He heard something coming but it ended up being a coyote. He dropped it.
Just as he thought he’d ruined the turkey hunt he heard a gobble and sat back down.
After a while he called some more without much luck. Cornett got up to leave but saw the tail fan of the white turkey on his neighbor’s property.
“There was a wood line between us, so all I could see was the top of his fan when I first saw him. It was just God-sent the way it all came together.
I dropped to my belly, took my pack off, and for the next 30 minutes, I crawled probably 35 yards painfully slowly”
It worked.
Cornett ended up within 45-yards and took a shot. The bird flopped and flew and got attacked by some other toms. It came right for him and ended up just 8 steps away.
It was a nice Turkey with 1-1/4-inch spurs and an 11-1/2-inch beard. Cornett is going to mount the whole bird. He summed it all up perfectly.
“I was shook to the core when I actually got to harvest that thing. It was a really special moment, something I’ll never forget”
