Christian Brown and Scott Wier almost didn’t get to do one of their favorite things this year, but then circumstances brought them together and both had a grand time on April 14.
Brown, a 33-year-old disabled Marine from Munford, Tenn., just north of Memphis, won the prize for biggest bird taken by any of the hunters in the 2018 Tennessee Governor’s One Shot Turkey Hunt in Middle Tennessee. Wier was his guide and won a new Beretta shotgun along with Brown because he killed a turkey also and they had the day’s largest combination.
Wier, 27, grew up in Chattanooga and graduated from Baylor School in 2009. He now lives in Hermitage, Tenn., and is in a master’s program in nearby Madison to be a nurse anesthetist. He has a nursing degree from the University of Tennessee.
Like Brown, Wier has been a hunter since childhood, and the Governor’s One Shot has been part of his enjoyment. It annually begins the state’s spring wild turkey season and is the main fundraising event for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation.
The foundation bills it as “Tennessee’s most famous hunt,” and it costs $1,000 for someone to enter or to sponsor a wounded veteran’s entry. A guide doesn’t pay – his obligation is to arrange for the land for a hunter’s use and to provide a good experience – and if his hunter scores a turkey he’s allowed to try for one of his own.