As she did with the first five turkeys she shot in her hunting career, Jennifer Cheely grabbed the freshly-harvested Edgar County tom and threw it over her shoulder.
That’s what first made her go “hmmm” on that otherwise typical Illinois April morning.
Following up on that feeling – and on advice from a taxidermist – Cheely soon went hunting through National Wild Turkey Federation records and learned the 28.88-pound bird was the heaviest turkey ever taken by a female hunter in Illinois. That weight also ranks her turkey No. 7 overall in Illinois and 66th in the entire U.S.
