93 years old and still hunting: Katie Watson bags gobbler on opening day


Katie Watson bagged this 19-pound turkey on the opening day of the season

Katie Watson is still hunting the land she grew up on and hopes to be doing more of the same when she turns 94 in September.

Her most recent addition was a 19-pound turkey she got about a half mile from her home near Richfield in Stanly County while hunting with her grand-nephew, Kevin Barringer, on opening day of the spring turkey season.

Barringer helped Watson to her blind and put decoys out. He was 200 yards away in his own pop-up blind.

Watson used her call, and about five minutes later the gobbler showed up. One shot with her 12 gauge Browning automatic, and it was hers.

She got a four-point deer with a 30.06 in the fall and has hunted quail and trained pointers over the years. She also hunts with a muzzle loader. "I've hunted all my life," she said. "But I don't pretend to be good."

Her hunting skills have been noted by Charlotte Observer outdoors columnist Tom Higgins, who wrote in a feature on her that she didn't get her first turkey until she was 86. Watson said she's got four turkey tails, including the latest big one, up on plaques at her house. "They're not the easiest thing to come by," she said.

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Now I hope I can do that when I am 93 even right out to 100 as I plan on living that long

JW