Outdoors

On a muggy summer Saturday, turkey callers of all ages gathered at T & L Outdoors in Oxford for the Alabama State Turkey Calling Championship.

Turkey calling competitors and call makers yelped, clucked and cackled for a panel of judges to see who would be the state's best turkey caller.

Four divisions, including a junior category, used various calls to imitate the sounds of a wild turkey. Turkey calling is as much an art as it is a competition as callers loosen up their nerves, hands and mouth to do their job to impress the judges.

Calls and callers

In the junior category, callers had to give three calls of the wild turkey: the plain yelp, cutting of excited hen and the caller's best call.

Benjamin Pentecost, 9, of Heflin, took first place. He's no stranger to turkey calling or contests.

His dad, Mike Pentecost is the owner of Woodhaven Calls. Young Benjamin has watched his dad make and use various turkey calls.

When asked if he was nervous about calling in front of people, Benjamin replied, "It wasn't too scary. I knew some of the other competitors."

Benjamin said it was a great honor to win, and his dad was excited for him.

There were three divisions in the senior category: state senior, senior friction and the senior open.

In the state senior and senior friction divisions, callers could use any call, and the competitors had to be residents of Alabama. Most callers used the mouth diaphragm while a few would change between a slate/glass or box call.

The senior open allowed callers from other states to compete, with some coming from Georgia. In the open division, callers could use any type or different types of calls during competition.

Some used a combination of mouth, friction and tube or trumpet yelpers.

Where's the turkey

Judges hid from the contestants, and the audience listened to each call by the competitors and scored calls on a tally sheet. At the end of each session, the scores are added, and the caller with the highest point total is the winner.

"The real judge is not here," said Alan Sentell, of Summerville, Ga. "The turkeys are the real judges of how calls should sound."

Sentell is also a turkey call maker specializing in the Tom Turpin style calls, also known as trumpet calls. In 2007, he won the Tom Turpin and Charles Jordan awards for his calls.

"The trumpet calls are really a musical instrument," Sentell said. "If some hunter can't get a turkey to come in, they call me to bring in the trumpet."

Sentell says he doesn't call much when hunting turkeys. He makes one or two calls on the roost, and once the old bird flies down, then maybe one or two clucks to get him coming.

Sentell doesn't carry a bunch of calls into the turkey woods.

Long or short

Turkey caller, hunter and call maker Mike Somers of Straight Creek Calls in Ohatchee had a different approach in the senior friction division.

Most contestants would string out a series of a particular call required for competition for 30-40 seconds or longer. Somers, on the other hand, kept his call sequence a little shorter usually around 20 seconds.

"You don't want to over call," Somers said. "Calling is like a conversation; to much can make it boring."

He says the extra calling in competition is not an advantage.

Somers uses the same callers that are available to hunters from Straight Creek Calls. There is no special call just for the calling contest.

Donald Saylor, of Hope Hull, makes most of the calls for Straight Creek working with Somers. Saylor is formerly of Saks and plans to move back in the area in the near future.

Saylor got started in turkey call making because he loved woodworking, and Somers asked him to start making turkey calls. The pair has been in the call business about a year.

"All of the calls are hand made on manual equipment," Saylor said. "And the calls are hand tuned and ready to use by the hunter."

Two state champions

We mentioned earlier that Benjamin was the junior state champion. Well, in the senior friction division, Mike Pentecost, Benjamin's dad, took top honors and was third in the Senior Open.

That makes two state champions under one roof. There could be some smack talk going on at the Pentecost home. There's definitely turkey talk.

"I am excited. This is what I came for," Pentecost said about his first-place plaque. "I am excited for Benjamin, too. We both have worked hard for this."

Not in the same house but on the same Woodhaven Sting team is Camden's Saddler McGraw. He is the State Senior and Senior Open champion, and he finished second in the friction division. He also took first place in the owl-hooting contest.

McGraw has competed for about 15 years. He has competed in the Grand National, U.S. Open Friction and the Mid-American turkey calling championships. One might think that he does a lot of practicing before each event, but he says that's not for him.

"I will usually start practicing about a week and half before the competition," McGraw said.

This was a National Wild Turkey Federation-sanctioned event, and winners here are qualified for next year's Grand National next year. Wherever these callers go, they talk turkey.