Wheelchair Can’t Stop Kendra Carr From Bagging Bird On Final Day

Kendra Carr remembers being nervous as she held her crossbow Friday night but the 19-year-old took a deep breath, aimed right down the middle and let the arrow go.

“It was 30 yards away, and I smoked this one,” Carr said with a grin.

A 2018 Neligh-Oakdale graduate, Carr met the challenge of hunting while in a wheelchair head on and managed to bag her first bird on the final evening of the 2019 spring season. Carr, who is the daughter of Christie Counts and Jeff Carr, shot an eastern wild turkey at around 6:40 p.m. north of Neligh on Friday.

“I’m so proud of her,” her mother said. “The chair definitely adds to the difficulty. You can’t just move when you want to, so it takes a lot of time.”

With her stepfather, Walt Counts, by her side, Carr spent five days — and about 18 total hours — trying to bag her turkey. Although they saw turkeys often, the birds were never positioned quite right for Carr to get a good shot.

But on Friday, everything lined up perfectly. After sitting about 20 minutes, four hits crossed in front of Carr’s blind. Just like clockwork, the tom strutted after them two minutes later.

“He was strutting up and looking all pretty as he followed the ladies,” Counts said. “He was showing off, and she had a great shot.”

Carr captured the 20-pound bird with a 10 ½ inch beard. Afterward, Carr posed for photos of her first bird, smiling from ear to ear.

“I wanted to get one, so I knew I had to get one tonight,” she said. “I was really nervous, but I fired and got him. I got my first bird.”