Corbin and I hit up the PA Elk Expo Calling contest this weekend. My parents bailed on me at the last minute but I was lucky to have my Sister and nephew come a long to help with the twins. Would have been totally insane if I had to do it alone.
I snagged a picture of Corbin before we hit the road for the contest. He was excited. It was a little over a 2 hour drive for us. We hit truck traffic along the way before Philipsburg and it set us back. When you have a 4 year old calling you don't want to get there too early and be waiting around as they start to lose interest.
We arrived at the contest and everything was good. Corbin got to see his friend Sway Cornelius, Mark (owner of MAC calls), daughter. I had purchased a pot from Mark and he gave it to me at the contest. It is a really killer call and I may end up using it this up coming weekend at the Claysburg PA calling contest.
As we were sitting and waiting for the contest to begin I notice a young man request a pot call from on of the NWTF members running the event, as he forgot his. I heard him playing the call and knew his ability was better than the call that they had available to him.
I asked him if he ever ran a glass call, and he said that he did. I told him give this one a rip.
He was cutting great on it and was coming in with the yelping. I just told him run that one in the contest. I then am asked "Are you turkeymike from HPA?"
LOL small world, to be recognized from another online forum,
The kids were called up to pick numbers and Corbin drew 9 of 10. It really amazed me that there were 10 kids in the 10 and under division.
Corbin watched all of the other kids, and his friend Sway was the caller before him. She put on a show man. She called amazing. Corbin even said how good she did. They asked for Caller number 9 and Corbin and I hit the stage.
He nailed his first set the plain yelp of a hen.
"Caller number 9 lets hear your cluck or putt"
Corbin thought he said cut, and started to put his thumb up to cut. I had to stop him real quick and remind him it was CLUCK not CUT. Sometimes it can hurt when they practice a bunch of different calls.
He ran his box very well for the callers choice as well which was a plain yelp as well. He was just a little off on his push pin for purring, so we will be trying to lock that down this week for Saturdays contest.
Here is the video for his run.
We sat down and got to listen to the next age group call with anticipation to hear the results. Corbin and his sisters went outside with my sister and nephew. He has trouble sitting still.
I stayed and listened to the others and thought the young man I lent the pot call to did really well.
When it was all said and done, and scores were totaled Corbin took second place. I am really proud of him. There were a lot of people at the event and for him to stay rock solid was awesome.
Here are a few pics from after the contest.
Corbin accepting his award and MAC call that Mark donated. It is a birdseye maple aluminum call. My lord it sounds great. I promised Corbin I wouldn't touch it but had to put in an order for one. Birdseye is my favorite wood on pot calls.
The award winning callers
the kids were standing in backwards order but this is Corbins age group. Sway is 7. Not sure who the other little guy is but he appears a bit older than Corbin as well.
I am so proud of these two. Both cheer each other on and really want each other to do great. Mark and I are pretty good friends as well since we all started contest calling at about the same time. I hope to see these two calling on stage at Nashville some time.
I asked the young man man who I let borrow the call to stick around and give him a few tips on calling, and setting up your contest run and such. I hope they helped. He ended up taking 3rd.
I got some pictures of us near the woods around the elk center.
I turned around to walk back to the car, and I hear Corbin elk bugling behind me and this is what is see.
All in all it was a really long day. Living that far away and having the contest start at 5 took its toll on the kids. LOL we stopped and ate somewhere, and I think it may have been 5 minutes down the road they were all out.
I love sharing this sport with Corbin. The friendships you make are awesome and to see how fired up he is about it is second to none. He may be able to call in his own gobbler when he gets his mentored youth license.
I want to give a special thanks to all of the members of the Wapiti Roost Chapter of NWTF for having this event, and making it fun for the kids. It was amazing to see such a great turn out.
Sorry for the long read but I am one proud dad today.
