Townsend Repeats the Feat

Clay Townsend from Fairmount, Georgia, selfdescribes himself as “just an average guy that loves wild turkeys. I build calls to incorporate turkeys in my life 365 days a year. It’s not about the awards or having your name mentioned in a magazine; it’s about the turkey and the hunt, the absolute best sport in the world.”

Call making is not Townsend’s full-time job. He and his dad have a grading business; however, since 2017, he has quickly built an excellent reputation in the callmaking community. He is now known for creating several types of calls at an award-winning level.

Townsend’s humble personality is quite apparent on his simple website (claytownsendturkeycalls.com), where he has just a few of his calls on display. This is typically a telltale sign of a callmaker not pumping out a ton of commercial calls. He focuses on building a smaller number of award-winning calls instead.

Most of Townsend’s turkey call sales come from his reputation via word of mouth and social media. He recently won Category 12 — Turned Trumpet Call in the Hunting Division at the 2025 NWTF Grand National Championship. He also took home second place in Category 14 — Jordan Style Yelper and was honored with the pinnacle Tom Turpin Award for Best Sounding Trumpet.

Other highlights in his callmaking career include the D.D. Adams Award for the best pot call overall in 2020, Call Maker of the Year — The Charley Burke Award — for best of show in the Hunting Division in 2020, The Champion of Champions Friction Award for best pot call entered by a past Grand Nationals Champion in 2022, and the Tom Turpin Award for best sounding trumpet in 2023.

“My most popular selling calls are pot-call strikers and trumpets,” he said. “But my favorite calls to make are Jordan yelpers and trumpets. Working with so many different materials and options keeps it fun and interesting. Winning the Tom Turpin in 2025 was special because trumpet calls are the hot item these days. Many great call makers and new competitors entered this year, making for some stiff competition. But the call that won was one of my latest and completely redesigned calls made with desert ironwood, which was gifted to me by a fellow call maker. All those reasons made the win even sweeter!”

Although Townsend loves to share the turkey woods with family and friends, he also likes to share his shop. His son, Dawson Townsend, spends time there building some of his own turkey call creations. This year, Dawson won Category 11 — Friction Call Open (Amateur) in the Hunting Division at the 2025 NWTF Grand National Custom Callmaking Competition, and he was also honored with the 2025 Youth Call Maker of the Year.

The future is bright for both. Clay plans to keep doing what he’s doing: hunting hard, building calls for hunters, and entering calls in competitions. He strives to keep learning and keep getting better.

“I like every aspect of the Grand National callmaking competitions, and I’m very competitive,” Clay said. “I have hours and hours of work involved to get to where I am today, and I’m very proud of that.”