I love wild turkeys. I love hunting wild turkeys. I love the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF). I love turkey calling. What I really love is a big ol' boss gobbler strutting his stuff and hammering me with relentless gobbles. There's nothing better.

The 2012 NWTF Convention & Sport Show just wrapped up in Nashville, Tennessee. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the show. Yeah, I missed a spectacle of new turkey hunting products and amazing parties with great people, but I'm most bummed to have missed the Grand National Calling Championships.

I recently started casually competing in local turkey calling contests. I've got nothing compared to most of the folks in the ring. If anything, I enjoy the camaraderie, the rush of performing in front of an audience and listening to guys work calls who devote endless hours to practice. One of those guys is Shane Simpson from TurkeyHuntPublicLand.com. (Stay tuned for more from Shane at HuntingClub.com this spring.) Another awesome dude I've competed against is Scott Wilhelm. 

I've had the pleasure of competing against Scott a few times. He's a humble gentleman who can rock the socks off anyone who appreciates turkey calling, and he just happens to be a real gobblin' fool. I saw him gobble for the first time in Iowa last year, and it was a rare treat.

Scott was just crowned the 2012 NWTF Grand National Gobbling Champion last Thursday. You can see Scott's winning performance in the video below thanks to Shane's camera work. I recommend you watch the entire thing—it's super entertaining—but Scott is Caller No. 13 (11:41 mark) if you want to skip to the champion performance. Congrats, Scott!