The Best of The Best Callmakers of 2024
The Grand National Callmaking Competition started years ago by Charley Burke (an NWTF regional director at the time) as a way to showcase the call makers who are the spirit of the NWTF. It started with just a few categories and as a carving contest. Over the years, it has evolved into the largest callmaking contest of its kind in the world. 2024 was a record year with 1,476 registered calls.
The beauty of the huge contest is the wide range and diversity of both decorative and hunting calls. However, it can be overwhelming too because there are so many calls. Today, there are 92 different categories of calls that are rolled up into dozens of organizational classes within five main divisions.
Every category has a winner. Then groups of categories are grouped into classes, and the winners of some select categories are judged against each other for the Best in Class winner.
Then, the best of those calls is again judged for Best of Show. A huge congratulations goes out to the major winners of each of the five main divisions:
Decorative Turkey
This division recognizes each call’s stand-alone merit of artist talents: the planning, preparation, execution and presentation of art, combined with a working turkey call. The Callmaker of the Year - Earl Mickel Award went to Timothy Oldham Jr.
Hunting Turkey
This division recognizes each call’s stand-alone merit of how well it performs in the hands of a turkey hunter. The Best of Show - Call Maker of the Year - Charley Burke Award went to Caden Roberts.
Decorative Duck
This division recognizes each call’s stand-alone merit of artist talents delivered in a waterfowl call. The Grand National Champion Call Maker of the Year - Best of Show was awarded to Brent Hoover.
Hunting Duck
This division recognizes each call’s stand-alone merit of how well it performs in the hands of a waterfowl hunter. The Grand National Champion Call Maker of the Year - Best of Show went to Ronald Laun.
Wildlife Art
This division is designed for artists to compete by submitting wildlife art to be judged by all decorative judges for both divisions 1 and 3. The artwork can be any themed piece and must contain wildlife of the artists choice. This division is just designed for an artist and not a callmaker. Although, callmakers are encouraged to participate. The Best of Show Wildlife Art - People's Choice award went to Rebecca Inman.
With judging being subjective, and with nearly 1,500 calls entered this year, it is quite a task to win this competition. Every call maker who entered a call into this competition deserves applause for their accomplishments.
The NWTF congratulates all of the contestants for their contributions, efforts and talents. It was another amazing year and is an extremely important tradition of the annual convention and sport show.
For a complete list of all the gold, silver, bronze and best of class winners, go to: https://customcalls.nwtf.org/?action=winners.
Auctions take place after the competition to help raise money for the NWTF. Some of the auctions happen during the sports show. But many other auctions are run online throughout the following week to give plenty of opportunity to all those NWTF members who did not attend the show a chance to own a very special, award-winning call.
See all the available auctions now live at: https://customcalls.nwtf.org/?action=auctions.