FREDERICKSBURG, Texas – Eleven-year-old Aiden Landry walked onto the Texas ranch of a family friend two weekends ago as a multi-sports athlete who never harvested a game animal, shot a beauty of a tom turkey and left with a passion for hunting.

No one was more excited or happier than the family friend, Robert Jordan of New Iberia, a former duck hunting guide and longtime hunter who makes every effort to promote hunting among youngsters like Landry. Jordan talked about it a few days after the exciting afternoon on March 24, the second and last day of the visit with his son’s friends from Catholic High School.

“Every young person I introduce to hunting, there’s a better chance for the kids to pass it on. I do that for the kids,” Jordan said.

Secure in his belief introducing young people to hunting will perpetuate the sport, the 41-year-old asset manager for the Vermilion Business Group LLC was at Landry’s side in the moments leading up to a long shot with a shotgun that knocked the tom off its feet, a future meal for the Landrys. Jordan could feel the heart trying to beat out of the boy’s chest and the hard breathing while he helped the youngster aim the .410-gauge Savage crack barrel shotgun that rested on a tripod.

“If you would have been there you would have saw hands shaking,” Landry said.

“He was definitely nervous, anxious. When he shot it, it fell. For a shotgun, he made one of the farthest shots I’ve ever seen. Fifty yards, I would say. But with the new turkey load — they don’t make lead any more, they make it out of tungsten — it really packs a load,” Jordan said, noting the tungsten pellets are heavier.

Landry, the son of Stephen and Shaina Landry, took the weekend trip with two of his friends, Trey Jordan, Jordan’s 10-year-old son, and Luke Cooper. Trey Jordan has “slot” redfish IR&GC Saltwater Fishing Rodeo Junior Division records in 2019 and 2023, the one last summer weighing 8.65 pounds while fishing with his maternal grandfather, Keith Delahoussaye, a retired enforcement agent with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Jordan has another son, Beau, 5, who shot and killed his first deer in 2023.

Landry’s shot heard ‘round that region of the Lone Star State that moment was a tribute to the three boys’ stick-to-it-iveness after going all day Saturday, save for a lunch break, then Sunday morning without so much as hearing a gobbler. Nevertheless, they returned to as many turkey blinds as possible on Sunday afternoon.

Landry said he almost got discouraged during the early morning hunt Saturday. He realized it wasn’t going to be easy and told himself to keep his head up.

There were other ways to enjoy the land near Harper, Jordan said, noting they also rode around the ranch, home to deer, elk, zebra, black buck, fallow deer and other animals, to determine who could find and pick up the biggest old antlers that had been shed.

Landry and Cooper also got a valuable crash course on gun safety from Jordan.

“I took that pretty seriously,” Landry said.

While they saw many hens, the only gobbler they saw that weekend wandered toward the decoys the last afternoon. Jordan stopped it with a few notes from his turkey call.

“It was that turkey or no turkey,” he said, confiding with a chuckle one of the most difficult tasks in each turkey blind was “keeping the kids quiet.”

Landry said, “Whenever I saw that turkey, I said, ‘Oh my goodness. I’m about to kill a turkey!’ If you would have been there, you would have saw my hands shaking. When I had my finger on the trigger, it was kind of like half was saying do not pull it. The other was begging me to pull the trigger. I pulled the trigger and it’s like everything blacked out.”

The .410 Savage crack barrel shotgun nestled on a tripod, the red dot fixed on the target, roared.

When the big bird dropped, Landry said, “I almost got tackled by Mr. Jordan. He was very happy for me. He was very proud. I high-fived Trey and Cooper.”

Jordan’s emotions poured out on his umpteenth-ever turkey hunt. The all-around outdoorsman’s biggest-ever tom — a 21-pounder with 1 ½-inch spurs and an 11 ½-inch beard that probably was longer before the wear and tear of dragging on the ground. He has a full body mount of the bird people call the big game of the small game.

Now Aiden has his own great memory.

“I wasn’t expecting to do that. I really wasn’t,” said the pleasantly surprised, awed and appreciative fifth-grade student who plays soccer, football, basketball and baseball as well as participates in track and field.

“I am pretty grateful. He (Jordan) said he let me go over there because I was a very respectful kid,” he said.

“I’m proud to have my first turkey ever. I’m very surprised, very happy. It was kind of unbelievable, you know what I mean?”

His mother said, “I think that lit a fire in him.”

It did. Landry is hopeful for a return to the Texas ranch during next deer hunting season and perhaps kill a deer. Jordan’s talk about the time-honored ritual of rubbing the deer’s blood on cheeks admittedly piqued his interest.

For sure, he emerged from that two-day turkey hunt a hunter. As Jordan said, that’s what it’s all about.

“He’s definitely earned a trip back the way he reacted. He really appreciated it and what happened. He really understood how special it was,” he said.