Texas State Turkey Call Contest Registration - 06.28.25
Complete Registration Form Below to Enter
Date: june 28, 2025
REGISTRATION Time: 8:00 AM.
COMPETITION TIME: 10:00 AM.
Place: Hart-Morris Conservation Center, 5601 County Road 4812, Athens, TX 75752
WIN AWESOME RAFFLES PRIZES ON THE DAY OF CONTEST
ENJOY SNACKS AND DRINKS ON US
EXPERIENCE GREAT EATING AT ONSITE FOOD TRUCKS
Fees:
Divisions:
Natural Voice: $25 entry fee - 1st Place AWARD - $200 (NWTF sanctioned category)
Texas Open: $50 entry fee - 1st Place AWARD - $500 (NWTF sanctioned category)
Open: $50 entry fee - 1st Place AWARD - $500 (NWTF sanctioned category)
Open Friction: $50 entry fee - 1st Place AWARD - $500 (NWTF sanctioned category)
Amateur/Hunter: $25 entry fee - 1st Place AWARD - $200 (NWTF sanctioned category)
Juniors/Jakes: (17-under) $0 entry fee - 1st Place AWARD - $100 (NWTF sanctioned category)
Owl: 1st place AWARD - $100
Gobbling: 1st place AWARD - $100
First place winner in the State Division will qualify for the Grand National Calling Championships. If 1st place winner is already qualified, the 2nd place winner will advance to the GNCC.
All entrants must be a current NWTF member to compete OR purchase a membership at registration table.
Payment due at the door on the day of the contest.
Register by Monday, June 23, 2025 to be entered into a drawing for a Stevens 301 .410 shotgun!
Registration in multiple divisions: Payment required for the highest entry fee, then 50% due for each additional division entry fee.
For more information contact:
Dillon Taylor: 918-637-8860 | djtaylor0191@yahoo.com
Matt Darling: 281-682-3264 | mattillini@gmail.com
Stevens 301 .410 shotgun prize representation
Courtesy of turkeyhunting.com.
When you make turkey calling sounds, you speak a second language.
To do so effectively, you need to know the calling sounds to imitate birds and fool them into range. While roughly thirty call distinctions can be heard in the wild, fewer than half of these turkey vocalizations are usually used. Some hunters make just several. Others employ as many calling strategies as possible.
Many spring gobbler hunters make two basic calls: the plain cluck and hen yelp. Others include roost clucks and tree yelps (a.k.a. “tree calling”), fly-down cackles, cutting (loud and fast clucks), lost yelps, purrs, gobbles — even the kee-kee sounds of young birds to enhance their turkey calling game.
Clucks differ by sex. Gobbler clucks are often low-pitched when compared to a hen’s. Clucks for both turkey hens and toms can be spaced out, often two to three seconds or more between calls. Sometimes the bird might make just one. This sound may be soft or loud, situation depending.
The plain hen yelp is roughly three to eight notes long, and it’s the calling option most often employed by spring turkey hunters to lure gobblers to setups. As with other vocalizations, turkeys make it to indicate their position.
Hen yelping is higher-pitched than the deeper, coarser yelping of gobblers. Tom turkeys yelp with a slower cadence as well and yelps are generally fewer in number — often three notes: yawp, yawp, yawp. In the spring, a jake (juvenile male turkey) will sometimes yelp rather than gobble on the approach.
When looking for flock mates, or other lone hens and gobblers, turkeys call. It’s an effort to get another bird to call back, step into view and reveal its exact location. It’s basically a wild turkey asking, “Where are you?” or saying, “Come over here where I am.”
By making turkey calling sounds while hunting, you can communicate directly with the spring gobbler you’re after. Other times you can try to lure a territorial hen into range, hoping this boss bird will drag a strutting tom along to your gun or bow. Fall birds respond well to calling too.
Vary the turkey calling sounds you make the same way real birds do. Listen to turkeys as they call too. They’ll teach you plenty.
by Steve Hickoff, Realtree's turkey hunting editor and blogger.
Competition Day Callers Information
THIS IS AN NWTF SANCTIONED CALLING EVENT.
If there is a cumulative total of at least 10 senior (21 & over) contestants between both the Open & Friction Divisions, first place winners will qualify for the Grand National Calling Championships. If the 1st place winner is already qualified, the 2nd place winner will advance to the GNCC. The Texas State Champion is exempt from this requirement.
1. Callers will draw for positions at 9:30 am. sharp.
2. No practicing is allowed within earshot of the judges.
3. The contest starts promptly at 10:00 am. Please remain in the designated staging area until your number is called.
4. If the M.C. believes that outside noises may have interfered with the judges’ ability to hear, at his sole discretion, he may ask the caller to repeat a call prior to scoring.
5. The M.C. will ask for 3 to 5 calls in each division.
6. Callers are instructed to give two short series for each call (calls may be combined) with a maximum time limit of one minute for each call. In other words, maximum total of 5 minutes for all calls in the open, friction & state divisions. Calls may be combined (example: yelps & clucks; cutting & yelps, etc.)
7. Callers will have 5 minutes at the end of the contest to review their scores. If there are no call-offs, prizes will be awarded.
8. Ties will be decided by separate call-offs for all divisions immediately following the last caller in each division. Please remain near to the staging area until scores are tabulated and the need for a call-offs is determined. Callers in all divisions will perform the same calls, in the same position as in the preceding round.