Young first-time hunter bags turkey

Hailey Roush hasn’t learned to talk turkey yet, but she can shoot turkey.

The 10-year-old’s first shot brought down her first turkey two weeks ago. Her father, Jeff Roush, does the turkey calling.

“We had gone out a few mornings and one afternoon before,” Hailey Roush said. “We saw some toms, hens and jakes, but they were too far away for me to shoot.”

Jeff Roush said his daughter uses a 20-gauge shot gun.

“She has to use a shooting stick to help her hold the gun because she’s so young. The turkeys we saw on our earlier outings were out of the range of her gun,” he said.

On a Thursday morning, the father-daughter duo headed out to rural Newton to call up a few more turkeys. Dad did the talking to the turkeys and they came into Hailey’s range.

One shot and she had a jake, which is a young male wild turkey. The Roushes brought Hailey’s prize home, cleaned and dressed it and the family ate turkey dinner.

“I enjoyed hunting. My dad is a hunter,” Hailey said. “We went to the farm for me to practice shooting then we went out for the real thing.”

She said she thought hunting would be fun and wanted to try it.

“I didn’t like the getting up early part of it,” Hailey said.

Hailey said one morning they called in a tom and a group of jakes. She said the tom kept looking at the jakes.

“He would look at them, turn around, look at them and turn around. It was funny,” she said.

Hailey said she didn’t think she would be shaky hunting. She admitted she was pretty shaky on the day.

“She did everything perfect,” her dad said.

Jeff Roush said the morning she shot the turkey, there were seven hens, two toms and three jakes in the field. He said the toms were close enough for a larger gun but not Hailey’s 20-gauge.

“A man who went out with us the day I got my turkey went out with Dad on a later morning and he got a turkey,” Hailey said. “My older brother went out this week with Dad and he got a turkey. I told Dad he just had to go out by himself so he can shoot one.”

Jeff Roush said he has called in four turkeys this season but hasn’t shot one himself.

Hailey plans to continue with hunting. Jeff Roush said his daughter wants to get a deer with a bow.

“I told her she has too get stronger to use a bigger bow than she shoots right now,” he said.

Hailey is the daughter of Jeff and Celene Roush of Newton.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com