Double Trouble

You never know how much you’re going to impact someone else’s life by a simple act. In March of 2020, while attending the Dixie Deer Classic, twin 9-year-old sisters Chrislyn and Shayla Mooring sat down at the National Wild Turkey Federation table. Two NWTF members worked with the girls to help them assemble and chalk their own box calls, then taught them the basics of a proper yelp. Their father, Chris Mooring, is a passionate eastern North Carolina turkey hunter so he knew it would not take much convincing when one of the men looked at the girls, then looked at him, and said, “Remember girls, in the spring, make your daddy carry you turkey hunting.”

Still, Chris was surprised to return from an early morning scouting trip a few weeks later to discover two very angry 9-year-old girls demanding to know where he’d been. Hearing he’d been scouting for gobblers, the girls wanted to know whether he had failed to “remember that the turkey men told him he was supposed to take them turkey hunting!?” Caught flatfooted, Chris chuckled guiltily. But rather than make excuses, he recognized the chance for some quality father-daughter time. Telling them they had about three weeks before youth season, Chris and the twins practiced till he felt they were ready to try their hand at calling a bird. Chris reports, “For the next three weeks we drove my wife absolutely insane. I’m sure my neighbors thought we had an infestation of turkeys in our house.”

On the opening morning of youth season, the trio got up early to a big breakfast. Chris told his wife he had some birds in mind, but that the day was simply about teaching the girls how to find a good spot and make a quick ground blind. Since they were in no hurry, the three hunters arrived in the turkey woods at 9 a.m. and walked for 15 minutes to a spot in a small bend near a field where Chris had seen some birds working a few days prior. Finding a bush reaching up to some low-hanging branches, they cut more brush and built their ground blind. With the girls in place, Chris put out hen and jake decoys. Then, after a quiet five minutes, it was time for Chrislyn and Shayla to pull out their box calls one at a time and go through the sequence of yelps they’d practiced for weeks. Their proud father says, “Man those girls sounded just like two hens out there, let me tell you!”

After the second sequence of yelps, Chrislyn whispered, “Daddy, I see a turkey!” Chris saw nothing, but to play along said, “Well baby, go ahead and hit your call again.” Chrislyn hit that box call like a seasoned hunter and, from a small depression 80 yards out, a white and blue head arose and let rip with a thunderous gobble. Chris risked a look at his girls and could see them both shaking. Chris had each girl call again, securing the bird’s attention. Once he spotted the decoys, the tom came in as if on a rail. It was then time for Chrislyn to slide under Chris' shoulder and get behind the gun. Dad wrapped his arms around Chrislyn, cradled the gun to catch most of the recoil, and told her to shoot when he told her. With the turkey at 40 yards, Chris had barely whispered to Chrislyn to put the red bead just below the turkey’s head and squeeze the trigger when the gun went off and her first bird was on the ground. Chrislyn and Shayla ran to the tom, now flopping in the field between the hen and jake decoys. Forty-five minutes after sitting down, the girls and Dad alike were beside themselves with excitement at Chrislyn having killed a first bird with an 11-inch beard and 1¼-inch spurs.

With both girls hooked on membership in the Tenth Legion, Chris established a blind at his father-in-law’s home in hopes of putting a small flock there in front of the girls. Wanting to give Chrislyn and Shayla the full experience this time, he walked them in before day light. Shayla was up first. Dad had talked them through what happens when the birds first fly down, explaining it takes them some time to get to a field.

The three hunters had been sitting for an hour when the bottom fell out. Thunder and lightning ripped through a lead-colored sky, with the trio now stuck in the blind in a deluge. Suddenly, like sunshine piercing clouds, five jakes emerged from the woods to attack their jake decoy and court the hen. The girls delighted in the show taking place 30 yards in front of the blind. Chris leaned close to Shayla and asked if she wanted to take a jake. She thought for a moment before saying, “No Daddy, I want to let them go and get bigger.” Chris was grinning ear to ear behind his face mask as they watched the jake show through another 20 minutes of rain.

Abruptly, three of the jakes took flight. Chris had only just told the girls to get ready for toms when two emerged 100 yards away and began slowly working their way across the field toward the decoys. Dad once again had the girls take turns calling with their NWTF box calls. The yelps from the young but capable hunters got the attention of the toms. Shayla prepared for her turn on the gun.

Chris now says laughingly, “You don’t realize how small a blind can get till three of you are sharing one, and you’re trying to hold the gun as best you can while your child aims it.”

As the toms closed the gap, the two remaining jakes hightailed it. Chris murmured to Shayla, now sitting in his lap, to take the first tom to arrive at the decoys. She looked down the barrel and told him she was ready then, BOOM! Bird down! With a 10¾-inch beard and 1 1/8-inch spurs it was another impressive first bird.

Of course, Chris feels a father’s deep pride in his two girls. But he also reflects on the two NWTF volunteer’s labor. “If they had not taken the time to make those box calls with my girls and really gone out of their way to make sure they knew how to use them, I’m sure I would have never been able to witness my girls kill their first birds,” Chris said. “NWTF in North Carolina has a great program for our kids with the box call building program they sponsor every year at the Dixie Deer Classic. As a dad and sportsman, I will forever be grateful for the difference made by NWTF volunteers with our youth. I now have two hooked little girls counting the days down to [next] year’s youth season.”