Drawing A Bead On Great White Good Hunting Got Better When An Albino Turkey Strutted Into View

It was obvious right away that the opening weekend of the Montana turkey season was going to be one to remember for Ron Reitz.

All it took was closing his truck door.

At the metallic slam of steel on steel, the valley near Reitz came alive with the gobbles of turkeys just before dawn that Sunday morning.

Not just one gobbler, but many of them. Not reluctant participants, either, but red hot toms.

Only on the best of days are the turkeys like this. Only in the better years are so many gobblers so cooperative.

“The birds were down below us about 300 to 400 yards away, so my 11-year-old daughter Nadia and I tried to make a flanking maneuver to get above where most of the noise was coming from,” Reitz said, in remembering the hunt.

“We laid down to look over the edge and positioned ourselves to call. But when there are so many gobblers and so many hens, you often have a hard time pulling the gobblers away.”

After 10 minutes, the many turkey sounds turned into the first living bird to be spotted, a hen which stepped into a clearing about 175 yards away.

“Behind that hen, I saw this white thing. I asked Nadia, ‘What’s that? A skunk?’ I just didn’t put it together that white could be turkey,” Reitz said.

“Then this white turkey steps into the clearing and goes into a strut. That set the tone for the next half hour. We decided that this was the one I was going to shoot. We were not going to shoot any other turkeys.”

That decision became a tough one to stick to as the rest of the hunt unfolded.

Using a diaphragm call, Reitz repeatedly talked to the white gobbler. And while the gobbler showed signs of hearing the call, he wouldn’t budge from the group of hens that increasingly gathered around him.

“It was frustrating,” Reitz said. “Then, after about 10 minutes of calling, we hear this purring nearby. There were obviously other birds real close. We peek and here, 10 yards away, stood two big black gobblers, both over 20 pounds, both with long beards.

“I had the gun in position. All I would have had to do was shoot. But I didn’t want to.”

The two black gobblers eventually started walking back toward the white one before stopping to strut about 45 yards away from the hunters.

“About that time, this golden eagle shows up and puts a move on the black gobblers. He stooped (dove on) them a couple of times, then disappeared.

“Then, all of a sudden, the golden eagle shows up again and my daughter - who had a better look at it - tells me that he went right over the head of the white gobbler and nailed one of his hens,” Reitz said.

The turkeys panicked, scattering in several directions.

Reitz tried to move positions, but had to freeze when the two black gobblers reappeared about 35 yards from the hunters. Then the white gobbler stepped into the open, within range. Two more steps and it would be back in cover.

So Reitz should shoot, right?

But Reitz was lying on his back, horribly out of position. If he got up, he’d spook the birds and might lose them forever. What to do?

“I was flat on my back afraid to get up. But my gun butt is up against my cheek. Finally, I just lined up on him and pulled the trigger,” he said.

“I can tell you that the three-inch Remington Nitro (shotgun shell) darn near knocked me out. I was sure that I broke my jaw or something,” Reitz said.

“The turkey was flattened. We jumped up and were celebrating, but I knew I was staggering as I went down the hill toward the bird. I was almost unconscious,” he said.

The white gobbler, shot far from anyplace where white domestic birds might be found, was an albino of the Merriam’s strain wild turkey. Its feathers were white. Its feet were pink. The only normal color on the bird was a black, 10-inch beard. The big bird weighed 22 pounds.