Answering the Call – 2,000 Miles Away

Joe Slaton travels more than 2,250 miles each February from his home in Linden, California, to Nashville just to attend the NWTF Convention and Sport Show and call in the Grand National Calling Championships. You’d be hard pressed to find more than a handful of others who come from farther away.

“It’s the biggest gathering of turkey hunters in the country by far,” he said. “The competitions, the camaraderie, all that (is worth the travel).”

It’s in his blood by now. Slaton, 61, works as a full-time physical therapist in north-central California but also builds and sells turkey calls through his company, Mother Lode Turkey Calls (https://motherlodeturkeycalls.com). He started calling in 1986 and is a two-time GNCC Gobbling Division champion (2015, 2022). Slaton qualified as the California state champion in the Senior Open Division in the early 1990s before calling competitions there dissipated. He, like many others, would like to see every state hold at least one turkey calling competition annually, but he’s content calling in the Owl and Gobbling divisions today, which do not require qualification to compete at the Grand Nationals in Nashville.

Slaton, a lifelong outdoorsmen and hunter, has raised turkeys at his home for nearly three decades now. It’s been a secret weapon of sorts, as he noted, “It definitely helps with calling. Not many people in the world are hearing turkeys calling every day.”

He has raised all kinds of different subspecies of turkeys, but when imitating the gobble of the wild turkey in competitions, he’s usually trying to sound like an Eastern because, “Most people think of the deeper rattle, throaty gobble of the Eastern,” he said, as opposed to the shorter, less-pronounced gobble from Merriam’s and Rio Grande subspecies.

Today, Slaton’s biggest joy comes from passing on the hunt to his seven grandchildren as they show interest. He called in two gobblers for his granddaughter, Avery, two years ago on public land during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was 7 at the time, but was able to obtain a hunter safety certificate online during the pandemic, which allowed her to get a hunting license, usually restricted until age 10 in California (with some exceptions).

“She shot two whoppers her first year hunting,” Slaton said. “During the youth hunt before the general season, we roosted birds on public land; it was a perfect hunt off the roost. They came in strutting and gobbling. There was a giant blowdown perfect to use as a blind for a kid, and she used a .410 with TSS. It worked out perfectly.”