Competition Events: Wild Turkey Call Making | Taxidermy: Game Birds | Taxidermy: Deer Mounts |  Wildlife Art | Youth Art | Calling Championships: Intermediate | Team | Champion of Champions | Other Events: | Exhibitors | People at the show | Types Of Wild Turkeys | For info on NWTF visit the National Wild Turkey Federation Web Site.

Calling Competition

Every year the Calling Competition is one of the biggest events at the NWTF convention. Here is a photo gallery taken as they went onstage. Team Competion.  

Turkey Call Making & Auction
The calls are donated to the NWTF and are sold at auction at the show. Most of the calls are sold by silent auction but something new was added this year, the First Annual Premier Grand National Custom Call Live Auction. Dick Rosenlieb was auctioneer. MORE...

Dave Constantine Creative Turkey Calls

Dave Constantine's decorative wild turkey calls are a legend amoung wild turkey enthusiasts. Here are pics of 10 of Dave's imaginative creations. To Dave's Calls...

An Interview with America's #1 call maker, Dave Constantine
by Fred Lutger
"The NWTF attracts the best call makers ever assembled in one location. And the best of the best is one carver and call maker whose calls have placed in the top three places more than any other maker. That man is Dave Constantine. I met Dave last year at the 2003 NWTF convention. He had entered deveral calls. Most had winning ribbons. His calls are very distinctive. I can look at Dave’s work and pick it out as one of his pieces. This year Dave entered six calls in 6 of the 16 categories and all 6 won ribbons. How neat is that! I asked Dave why he chose those six categories." To The Interview...

Gobbler Guillotine - New Bowhunting Product, New Bowhunting Concept
by Fred Lutger
"The crowd around the Arrowdynamic Solutions booth was five people deep. They stopped to see Matt Futtere’s new Turkey hunting broadhead the Gobbler Guillotine. One glance at their video and so did I. Here's a very unique item for those who bowhunt turkey." MORE...
   
NWTF Sport Show - Knight & Hale Seminar
Harold Knight & David Hale gave their seminar on the Spring Transitions Of The Wild Turkey. There are 5 separate Transitions. In phase 1 the hens and gobblers travel and roost together in flocks. Next the flocks break into smaller groups and the gobblers group up with similar sized Toms and follow hen groups around and strut and show off for them. Then the dominate Gobblers hook up with a small group of hens and roost with them. Calling can get tough now because when a gobbler flies down he will go where the hens go. Soon the gobblers are breading multiple hens and having hens that are laying eggs look for them to bread again. Finally the gobblers are alone and wandering near and far searching for a hen that has not been bread. A gobbler is easiest to call in this phase and hunting strut zones and travel corridors is productive. Knight & Hale, as you would expect, know their stuff and their interactions with one other made their seminar fun too. 

NWTF Sport Show - Day #2 - Continued

Feb 21 Day #2 Continued - One of the truly unique events at the show is the Decorative Turkey Call Competition. The craftsmanship and creativity of these calls is truly impressive. The Duck took the pics and here, courtesy of the National Wild Turkey Federation, is the photo gallery of the Decorative Turkey Calls..

Wild Turkey Species: There are 6 different species of the Wild Turkey: the Osceola in South Florida, Eastern in the Eastern U.S,, Rio Grande in the South West, Merriam's in the Rockies and North West, Gould in Arizona, and Mexico, and the Oscellated in Central America. The show has a section with a mount of each one. 6 Species.

NWTF Sport Show - Day #2 - More Good Stuff

(Feb 21) Day #2 - For starters, here are photos of the contestants while calling  in yesterday's Intermediate Division turkey calling competition. 
Deer mounts are always cool and the show has some nice ones in that division of the taxidermy competition. Deer Mounts.
A personal favorite is the Youth Art competition, kids from 6 to 16 enter their artwork and it is indeed a pleasure to see their creative compositions.
We saw several interesting new products and will have pics and details (pronto) on the Gobbler Guillotine turkey broadhead, Bow 0nly Outdoors "Vertical Advantage "bow holder, Woodhaven Turkey Calls, the Real Tail turkey fan, Bob Kirschner's combination Deer & Turkey Call, the Hunter Cam treestand camera holder, the BOSS SUV do-it-all Turkey Tool, and the Moto Magnet motion system for turkey decoys.
It was a long and busy day which we finished up at Barley's Irish restaurant across the street. 

The NWTF Sport Show - Day #1 
Kindell Keeton Calls Up A NWTF Trophy

(Feb 20) Day #1

Tim Hooey, Art & Kindell Keeton with his Intermediate Division trophy.
 Our first stop was Tim Hooey's seminar on "Bowhunting Wild Turkey." Tim did a good job, he was very informative. Next we went to the Wildlife Art Competition area and the Taxidermy Competition for Wild Turkey. Go To Day #1 for more about this as well as linki to the art and taxidermy photo galleries.
Kindell Keeton - If you've seen our coverage of this show in past years you've seen pics of my bud Kindell Keeton. Today Kindell (age 17) competed in the Intermediate calling championships and placed 5th.  To Day #1 & links to the Pics

Rich Walton, Robert Hoague & Fred Lutger

(Feb 19) We picked up Rich Walton and Fred Lutger at the Columbus airport late this afternoon. Then we drove to the Convention Center. To Set Up Day...