2025 Old Dominion One Shot Turkey Hunt Engages Youth, Veterans, and New Hunters

By Molly Kirk/DWR

The ninth edition of the Old Dominion One Shot Turkey Hunt not only brought people together from across the country to promote hunting heritage through increased access and youth programming, but also raised funds and awareness for both the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia (WFV) and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR).

This event started in 2014 and has been a way to engage youth as well as veterans and first responders in a first-class turkey hunting experience. In addition to the actual hunt, each year there is a youth essay contest where youth can submit essays to gain a chance to hunt. This year saw the highest number of youth participants.

This year, 38 guides provided their services for 16 veterans and first responders who were hunting, 15 youth hunters, and seven sponsored hunters. They hunted on 23 different private properties provided by generous landowners, and 16 gobblers were harvested. Many of the hunters harvesting a bird were doing so for the first time, and three adult female hunters harvested turkeys.

The winning bird belonged to Kristin Mullins, who works for DWR as the volunteer coordinator and was hunting for her first time. Her turkey weighed 20 pounds and had a 12 1/4″ beard and spurs of 1 9/16″.

Nearly 300 hunters, guides, landowners, sponsors, and their families attended the celebration dinner at Bass Pro Shop, which included a raffle with items donated from in-kind sponsors and retail partners such as a Join or Die chef’s knife as well as an original Bob Smet painting.

A total of around $27,000 was raised for the WFV thanks to sponsors including the grand slam title sponsor of Davey Mitigation as well as Bass Pro Shops, Green Top Sporting Goods, Dance’s Sporting Goods, DWR, WFV, and the National Wild Turkey Federation.

One Shot Turkey Hunt 2025