Being a year round student of wild turkeys, seasonal pursuer (AKA- turkey hunter), and passionate writer of nearly anything related to my favored bird, I find any opportunity to participate in a wild turkey related event a welcomed one. One of my favorite things is to participate as a judge at a turkey calling contest. Being a certified and self described turkey obsessed individual, judging a calling contest is right up my alley. I have been honored to judge contests going back to 1996. Contests include: Great Outdoor Sportsmen’s Show at the NY fairgrounds, State Chapter championships, and whole bunch of local NWTF chapter contests.
Before going further -to those not intimate with these vocalization affairs it is a ton of work and dedicated practice among the call competitors. The difference among the top callers is subtle many times with merely a point or two separating 1st and 2nd place. After months of practice, preparation and many times a very long drive to the event it comes down to very fine details, and subjective reckoning as to whom is the best on a given day. Add to that that each caller is keyed up at the event and performs his best in front of friends, fellow competitors, and a roomful of hard core turkey hunters, call makers and other industry professionals. Believe me, each and ever note of each call is scrutinized under very critical ears.
As judges we have to contend with room acoustics, differences of one side of the curtains/table verses the other, hard reflections from a wall we are typically close to, back ground noise, etc., Most of us who serve as contest judges have many years of chasing turkeys under our belts with plenty of experience with vocal combat engaging wild turkey hens in the spring, and mass hysteria of flocks in the fall. Some of us have competed at some level in contests, so we have an appreciation of the task at hand. As conscientious individuals we strive to be fair, and not end up wishing we could go back and change our scores after hearing the last caller of the event. It is not easy to fairly score callers whom are very close in talent and in their delivery of the required call. It is very common to hear turkey calls on a stage that are superior and more consistent than anything we ever hear in the turkey woods. In my own personal view of things, if you nail a call and impress me, I will give you an 18. 19 or even a 20 (max score on a single call), on the other hand if you choke, over blow a call, unable to give the call requested, or just lock up on stage, I am hard pressed to give a 1, or a single digit score (calls are scored from 1-20). It takes significant intestinal fortitude to get up there and strut your stuff in front of a very critical audience. To those unfamiliar, in open, friction and resident divisions calls are scored 1-20 with 20 being perfect, the best score possible. Each caller is required to deliver five calls in a particular order (youth divisions is usual 3 or 4), each call is scored by five judges and the results of the five calls are then totaled according to NWTF Sanctioned calling contest rules. High and low scores are tossed and the remaining middle three scores are used as to help null personal preferences (we each have our personal preferences) and result in a median score from the judges.
The reason for the lengthy background pretext before diving into today’s event, was that today we as judges had our work cut out for us. the 2014 NYS Championship would be remembered as a well ran event with very close competition. The low scores were not at all low, and the spread between 1st and 3 rd places were ridiculously close, in some cases only a point or two apart. Amazingly no ties or call offs for spots on the podium. As judges we were tasked to score a very talented field of callers. I can assure you the entire field of callers we had before us would get the job done in any turkey woods I ever stepped foot in. A big thank you and congrats to all the callers that made for a challenging day in determining the winners.
Youth Division
1st Aidan Pollack- Rock Stream, NY 2nd Riley Scott- Mohawk, NY 3rd Jacksun Scott- Mohawk, NY
Friction Division
1st Lawrence Scartozzi- Sparta, NJ 2nd Jason Pollack- Rock Stream, NY 3rd Ken Jones- Proctor, VT
Open Division
1st Jason Pollack- Rock Stream, 2nd Lawrence Scartozzi- Sparta, NJ 3rd Mike Mettler- Niagara Falls, NY
NY Resident Division
1st Michael Pollack- Dundee, NY 2nd Steve Scott Jr.- Mohawk, NY 3rd Jason Pollack- Rock Stream, NY
© 2014 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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