Best Of the West....

[under H2O hunter]

I participated yesterday in the best of the west elk calling contest at the Denver ISE show. I have mixed reviews for my first calling contest. My son also decided to enter the contest last minute in the Youth division.

The contest was very well organized with 4 judges and Corey Jacobsen as the front man running everything and M.C ing the event. The prize table was loaded down with lots of great prizes for the top three in each of the 3 divisions. PeeWee (Ages 0 to 10) had 3 contestants, Youth (Ages 11 to 17) had 6 young men, and Adult division with 26 contestants both men and women.

One of the neatest things for me was watching a Pee Wee do an amazing bull call with just his voice. He ended up taking 1st in his division. I was also very impressed with my sons calling. He is usually not the type to join contests like this and he was unprepared. He practiced for 10 min or so before the contest with an older reed that was on it's last leg. Not knowing what is expected in a contest he was able to get up on stage and do some pretty decent cow calling and his bugles were alright. He uses an old vacuum hose as his bugle tube which is awesome when you're hunting however it is not the ideal bugle tube if you're in a calling contest in my opinion. This is due to the fact that you want to project volume and clarity. He doesn't work on mastering every sound a cow or bull makes as it's not needed to harvest an elk in the wild. This hurt him as a contest caller due to the fact that these judges were looking to hear all kinds of sounds that cows and bulls make. Barks, estrus buzz, glunking, and so on. These are areas of calling that are great for stage calling however in my opinion are not worth working on to be a successful field caller. Which is why my son ended up taking 4th and missing out of money by only 6 points. I might be bias but I thought that my Son's calling was good enough to put him in the top three but the judges didn't see it that way.

Now for some of the bad:
This was my first calling contest. And I am a newbie however as a college baseball athlete, a professional spearfisherman, and High School football athlete I am no stranger to contests with some of the best participants around. I have always enjoyed testing my skills against others. This plat form is just another way for people to compete against one another at the same time competing against themselves. The sad part was listening to guy complain about other contestants. This guy was not going to participate if some other guy was going to be calling as well. When I asked him why he wouldn't compete? He wouldn't say but I think the safe assumption is that who ever this other guy is, he must be a pretty good caller. This to me is a pretty lame excuse for not competing. The mind set that you won't even enter a contest that is free because you feel that you won't win tells me that you're both a coward and someone who's mind set is completely distorted as to why even compete in the first place. I also listen to guys complain about others using plastic baseball bats as their bugle tubes. I find this to be funny because it shouldn't matter weather a guy wants to use a plastic baseball bat or not. It obviously doesn't seem to give any more advantage then using a normal bugle tube. To prove this all you need to do is look at who has won the Worlds Elk Calling contest 8 times. Corey Jacobsen the best contestant caller of all time doesn't use one so a big plastic baseball bat is no advantage over good consistent calling. Another thing I was disappointed in was how many places paid out. Paying out only the top 3 contestants breeds very negative attitudes. With over 20K in prizes it's my opinion that their should be either more divisions to spread the wealth out or that there should be more places that get rewarded. Maybe this is what breeds all the negative bad mouthing of other callers? I was truly disappointed in the negative bad mouthing of other contestants. It takes real courage to stand up in front of a bunch of people and imitate an animal and be judge on it by another human. Every contestant is a winner just for having a guts to try.

Reflecting today about my own performance I think I did really well. I was able to take a look at my overall score and compare it to others. I was able to hold my own. I feel pretty blessed to have been in contention for the prizes and amongst the top competitors. It certainly gives me a place to start and judge my own performance in future competitions. I learned a ton and was impressed with many of the guys competing. After the competition I tried speaking to a couple of the winners about their experience and ask a few questions as well as congratulate them on their victory. I was amazed at the level of ego some of these guys have. When I asked the questions " What do you think the judges were looking for?" and " How long have you guys been competing?" One of the top three refused to answer my questions completely and another took the time to talk about his reed building business. And even gave me a card as if I was looking to buy more reeds or get lessons in calling . I got the sense that these two guys have been competing for some time and were no strangers to competition calling. As a newbie to the competition scene I was looking for some pointers to better my competition calling but got the usually brush off that most elk hunters like to give when asked questions that might help someone else out as if what they would say would cause them to lose or place lower in the future. I don't know? But it was really disappointing to see the lack of willingness to help a fellow hunter and caller out.

If you have never attended a calling contest or competed I suggest you give it a whirl they are very exciting and can be educational. I look forward to more of this in my future.

James

[flystrait]

James,

It sounds like overall you had a great time. Yes, I have competed as well and you do see some of what you described. I actually call it insecurity! The best callers are the most approachable and will share a lot as well, some names are Jason P, Corey J,Rocky, Brain, Troy etc. There can be a great respect amongst the best callers and people. I believe there is a difference in competition calling and the field, there is some cross over but its more about what we think the judges want to hear. Good for you getting on that stage and putting it all out there. I have a lot of respect.

Craig

[Wapiti]

Hey James,

Thanks for the write up about the contest. I was hoping to go down to one of these but timing was not good. sounds like you had an alright time anyways. Most of use callers from the World elk calling contest talk with each other all the time so the two guys you talked to must be very insecure about there calling. Which is to bad but you know how some guys are just better than everyone else or so they think !! I actually get that a lot as I'm from Canada and there are a few guy that either see me as a threat or just don't like me because I'm Canadian !! Either way I could care less as these guys know who they are and will never get far in life !! It makes me laugh when I see all these guys name dropping and I rarely see my name but yet I'm the most giving person on a lot of these elk sites !! Plain old jealousy !!

Feel free to give me a shout any time and I'll fill you in on as much as I can tell you about competing. Definitely bush calling and stage caller are two different things for sure. But we still use all those sounds out in the field or at least we do up here.

You'll want the judges to hear as many different sounds as possible in your cow and bull routine. But you want all these sounds to be clean. With bugles some judges want big heard bull sounds and some judges want a mixture of young bull sounds to herd bull sounds. We as contestants really never know what they want and honestly most the judges can't call very good either. I swear a few of the judges this year at worlds have never even heard a real elk bugle !!

Bottom line is don't let these two clowns intimidate you as they are no better than anyone else !! They are obviously not that good or we would see them at worlds !! I personally wish they would come out and play.

Travis

[Indian Summer]

Since I attended the Harrisburg Pa show for 11 years I had my chance to watch the RMEF calling contest many times. My conclusion is that there is a big difference between calling elk and pushing the buttons of judges. Very seldom was I impressed by the winners. I also believe that since it was always the same judges they got pretty familiar with who was who behind the curtain and to a certain degree didn't want to look stupid by not voting for the people that were considered to be the best. For that reason the same people would win year after year. It got to the point where I didn't even go watch anymore.

[Gselkhunter]

James, if you want to play this game call me.

[under H2O hunter]

You'll want the judges to hear as many different sounds as possible in your cow and bull routine. But you want all these sounds to be clean. With bugles some judges want big heard bull sounds and some judges want a mixture of young bull sounds to herd bull sounds. We as contestants really never know what they want and honestly most the judges can't call very good either. I swear a few of the judges this year at worlds have never even heard a real elk bugle !!

Bottom line is don't let these two clowns intimidate you as they are no better than anyone else !! They are obviously not that good or we would see them at worlds !! I personally wish they would come out and play.

Travis

Travis I appreciate the insight. I wasn't intimidated by these clowns because I felt that my elk sounds were very solid. And as I said earlier I was very close to placing and held my own. For never competing nor knowing what sounds are acceptable for competition I was really happy with my performance. I had got some excellent insight from Dirk Durham and Corey Jacobsen prior which was very helpful and why I think I did extremely well for my first comp. Being that I see things like this as just something to do for fun and don't take em serious is why I have never entered them prior. I will continue to work on my sequence to improve for my own self but a small part of me wants to do it just to thumb my nose at guys like this. Regardless being a true sportsman I will always congratulate winners. And if I am ever fortunate enough to be a winner I will most certainly share my thoughts on why I felt I was successful honestly and humbly.

I just happen to think of the questions as I was walking up to them. I figured sense the contest was over that they would be willing to share their insight. I guessed wrong, oh well I am not gonna throw em up under the bus by dropping their names but from what I have gathered they have competed prior at Worlds and have been competing sense 1990 or so. They certainly were no strangers to the competition calling scene. So I am pretty sure you have competed against them at some point. Maybe they see me as a threat? I don't know? Regardless I thought it was funny and I can tell you that it will be fuel to a fire if competition calling is something I want to get involved in.

One of the reasons I have not competed prior is due to seeing competitions like this as very political as well as there is no way to stay consistent with the judging. Every comp could have different judges and therefore no way to really know if you're improving. Creating a frustration factor. There is also the variable of having some really good callers around you or poor callers around you to make you sound better or worse then you really are. If you have really good callers around you then you could become discouraged from doing comps. The same can be said about having poor callers. It could inflate your ego and make you feel like your better then you really are. Maybe this was not the best comp to judge my skill level because there was only one category to enter. Corey did make mention that he was hoping that in the future to create more divisions. Which I think is an excellent idea as I feel this would encourage less confident callers to come out and give it a go. In turn helping the sport grow. As they improve then they could jump up in divisions and see their progress as a competition caller improve. It would also give the guys who have lots of experience a place to truly brag about how good they really are.

I have been calling elk in sense I was 10 or 11 years old. Up till yesterday I have always judged my calling by the animals that come. This was a much different feel, but it was still a lot of fun getting up there and blowing some notes and giving it a go. I look forward to next year for sure.

[under H2O hunter]

James, if you want to play this game call me.

Gregg, I might take you up on this if I decide to get involved in the competitive scene. I know I could get some good coaching from you and utilize your experience. Right now I am focusing on the Video taping and photography aspect of elk hunting. But it's in my nature to compete so who knows.

[flystrait]

It makes me laugh when I see all these guys name dropping and I rarely see my name but yet I'm the most giving person on a lot of these elk sites.

Travis

I would guess you are speaking to me. I have had the pleasure calling with the names I have "Dropped" in one form or another and have learned a thing or two for sure. Sorry I did not "drop" your name. Since we have never spoken I have nothing to comment on.

Craig

[Wapiti]

Craig I was talking in general and no I was not speaking to you. Sorry if you took it that way. Honestly I always speak from my personal experiences and put all my contest calling in the brain bank as well as real elk that get called in every season. The elk will let you know if your sounding good or bad. It's simple if your calling elk in your doing good and if you are not calling elk in maybe a person should change up a few things. The most obvious place to start is with calling.

Now talking about competition calling your allowed to talk to the judges but that always seems to leave more questions than answer at least for me. When guys miss and botch a bugle in there routine and still make the finals it really makes a person wonder what's going on. If a guy calls great and misses nothing in his routine then he deserves to be in the finals.

If you want to learn more calls that are used in the woods and competition watch more of Paul's instruction on here as all the top guys are using every single call that Paul goes over. They are valuable video's.

[msd1228]

I guess I'm in the minority in thinking that there is a ton of carry over between competition calling and field calling. Carry over doesn't mean that you will use every competition sound every time in the field - it means that there may be instances where that off the wall sound from competition MAY be used in the field, and it MAY be the only sound that a bull will respond to on a given day. I have used every single sound I use in competition in the field, and I have called in elk using every one of them. Just this past season I called in an entire herd that was completely unresponsive to every traditional sound using a sound that most people would simply relegate into the "competition only" sound pile. I look at it this way - I'm not going to build a house with nothing but a hammer and a sack of nails. Sure I may do 95% of the work with those tools, but I'm going to run into situations where those tools just aren't going to cut it. I think a lot of guys get into a rut and if "ole faithful" doesn't work then "the elk just aren't calling". The herd I just mentioned sure wasn't calling. Trav dropped me off at the head of a block that we knew the elk were moving through and I snuck across until I found them. They were within 80 yards of me and just wouldn't even acknowledge the sounds I was making. Rather than getting frustrated I just opened up my tool box and I sat there and went through sound after sound after sound and eventually I found what they were looking to hear. They went from completely indifferent to nearly running me right the hell over as soon as I found the right tool for the job.

This may come off wrong, and its not my intention, but I honestly feel that most of the guys who are dismissive of stage calling techniques in the bush are like that for no other reason than they can't make those sounds themselves, at least not with a degree of proficiency where they know they can hit the correct sound on command every time. Many of these calls are incredibly technically difficult and most guys are never going to be able to use them effectively without significantly upping their practice regiments. There's nothing wrong with that either - not everyone wants to be one of the best callers in the world and not everyone wants to call every day 365, but to constantly beat the "stage and field are 2 very different things" drum is doing nothing but limiting your own arsenal.

[msd1228]

Common competition calling mistakes:

Making the same sound over and over and over - this applies to both cow and bull calling. It blows me away how many guys will do the exact same cow mew for 45 seconds in a row. There is no reason to make the same mew more than 1 or 2 times in a row. Change the pitch, change the volume, change the length of the call. Same goes for calf sounds. Not every calf call is exactly the same. Same goes for bugles - so many guys do the exact same bugle over and over and over. Sure it may be a nice sounding bugle, but being good at 1 sound does not cut it in a competition that is meant to show your ability to display all of the various elk vocalizations.

The other big issue I hear time and time again is a complete lack of reed control. I'm sure lots of guys think they sound great, and I have no doubt that a lot of the sounds you hear will call in an elk, but the purpose of a competition is to display skill. It does not take any skill to blow a reed so hard that the latex is ready to bust. If I'm judging a contest the guy who can hold his tones without any fluctuations, the guy who can move from one tone to the next in a smooth manner, and the guy who move from a high pitched calf chirp to a deep cow mew to an estrus scream all in the same breath is showing 1000x more skill than the guy who can't maintain his notes, or thinks that bigger is better and just blows the reed to its limits. This year at world's was a prime example of this very point - it happened in both the mens and pro division. Mens division - Both Dirk and I went through our cow routines clean, but on the bull routine I gave 1 bugle a touch too much tongue and had a tone break where there shouldn't have been one. That mistake was the difference between me winning and getting second place. Same thing happened in pro - both Brian and Corey called spectacularly, but Brian had 1 bugle that just wasn't quite what it needed to be tone wise, while Corey's routine was perfectly clean. Result - Corey wins by 1 point.

I simply cannot stress reed control enough to guys who want to be successful competition callers. You don't need to make the biggest, baddest sounds on the planet every time. Subtlety and the ability to play in the tone ranges where other people are afraid to go (because its damn hard) are the keys to separating yourself from the pack.

[msd1228]

Also, I'm glad to hear that you took a lot of positives out of your first competition! You will get better and better every time you play the game. Its unfortunate that you ran into a few d-bags, but I suppose you will find them anywhere. None of the big boys act in that manner - Rocky, Corey, Brian, Jason, Trav, Joel, etc, are all absolutely top shelf guys. None of them have any secrets - they will help out anybody that asks. Heck, that's what its all about at the end of the day. Keep at it - you will most certainly increase the power of your calling arsenal and you'll find that some of those newly acquired tools will be invaluable on days where the usual sounds just aren't cutting it.

[flystrait]

Craig I was talking in general and no I was not speaking to you. Sorry if you took it that way. Honestly I always speak from my personal experiences and put all my contest calling in the brain bank as well as real elk that get called in every season. The elk will let you know if your sounding good or bad. It's simple if your calling elk in your doing good and if you are not calling elk in maybe a person should change up a few things. The most obvious place to start is with calling.

Now talking about competition calling your allowed to talk to the judges but that always seems to leave more questions than answer at least for me. When guys miss and botch a bugle in there routine and still make the finals it really makes a person wonder what's going on. If a guy calls great and misses nothing in his routine then he deserves to be in the finals.

If you want to learn more calls that are used in the woods and competition watch more of Paul's instruction on here as all the top guys are using every single call that Paul goes over. They are valuable video's.

Thanks for clearing that up Travis.

Craig

[Wapiti]

James,

I can feel your passion brewing for the competition calling so really read over what msd1228 said. The keys for success are there ! Both Shane and I call at Worlds but we do not ignore each other. Believe it or not we actually talk on the phone and run different sounds past each other and this will surprise you but we also help each other make our routines that we will use at Worlds ! Heck we will even tell each other what calls we will be using. I can tell you right now I will be using one reed for both my cow and bull routines next year at worlds !! It's called The Reaper !!

We do not see each other as rivals or anything like that. I wish you were at worlds as you would have seen Corey giving me Knuckles and Jason Phelps giving high fives and Shane Donner talking and mingling with all the guys that most shy away from as they are the pro's !!

What you'll find is we are a brotherhood and we want each other to come with the best they have and holding nothing back !! The worlds would be awfully boring if we were not pushing each other and as it stands anyone of the guys up there calling on the stage can win on any given day ! They are all that close now and mere points separate all of them. Corey will be the first to tell you that.

A few must have calls you'll want are:
Calf and Cow
Location Bugle
Challenge bugle or lip bawl type bugle.

I hope this helps. I'm only a call away if you ever want to chat and run anything past me !

Travis

[msd1228]

What you'll find is we are a brotherhood and we want each other to come with the best they have and holding nothing back !!

Couldn't have said it any better!

[Glacier Country]

I guess I'm in the minority in thinking that there is a ton of carry over between competition calling and field calling. Carry over doesn't mean that you will use every competition sound every time in the field - it means that there may be instances where that off the wall sound from competition MAY be used in the field, and it MAY be the only sound that a bull will respond to on a given day. I have used every single sound I use in competition in the field, and I have called in elk using every one of them. Just this past season I called in an entire herd that was completely unresponsive to every traditional sound using a sound that most people would simply relegate into the "competition only" sound pile. I look at it this way - I'm not going to build a house with nothing but a hammer and a sack of nails. Sure I may do 95% of the work with those tools, but I'm going to run into situations where those tools just aren't going to cut it. I think a lot of guys get into a rut and if "ole faithful" doesn't work then "the elk just aren't calling". The herd I just mentioned sure wasn't calling. Trav dropped me off at the head of a block that we knew the elk were moving through and I snuck across until I found them. They were within 80 yards of me and just wouldn't even acknowledge the sounds I was making. Rather than getting frustrated I just opened up my tool box and I sat there and went through sound after sound after sound and eventually I found what they were looking to hear. They went from completely indifferent to nearly running me right the hell over as soon as I found the right tool for the job.

This may come off wrong, and its not my intention, but I honestly feel that most of the guys who are dismissive of stage calling techniques in the bush are like that for no other reason than they can't make those sounds themselves, at least not with a degree of proficiency where they know they can hit the correct sound on command every time. Many of these calls are incredibly technically difficult and most guys are never going to be able to use them effectively without significantly upping their practice regiments. There's nothing wrong with that either - not everyone wants to be one of the best callers in the world and not everyone wants to call every day 365, but to constantly beat the "stage and field are 2 very different things" drum is doing nothing but limiting your own arsenal.

Yep.There are some good nuggets in the quote above... I also have called in elk using every sound I have ever used in a competition. I think sometimes that is the ticket. If you can make sounds or do sounds that most other guys can't or don't you have an advantage, because it just adds more realism to the calling situation.

Now for competition calling... Evaluate honestly what sounds you did well and learn how to do them "clean" By that I mean sounds so good , that make it very hard for any judges to deduct a point. Then work on the sounds you feel you might need to "refine" a little bit. How do yours compare to some of the top callers in each division. Study their sounds. Tear each sound down into smaller parts and figure out how to make each building block come together as a whole. Then Practice practice practice. Make it fun. I would also bet that the number of elk called in, in the field will increase as well... When you rub elbows with that many elk slayers it sure can't hurt.

[Gselkhunter]

I agree with Shane, there is serious carry over between competition and field calling. Number 1 is control of the reed/call. Just the huge effort put into "getting it perfect" for the stage develops the diversity and quality of sound you can produce for the field. Knowing how to change over from rough and gruff to crystal clear takes you to a level most callers will never get to or understand. Add in dealing with pressure and nerves, if you have not been on stage and serious about it you have no idea what nerves are. Calling elk is simple by comparison.
I have called against the best in the world on stage and the raw talent[not so raw anymore] that walks up there is impressive to say the least. As I told Travis and Shane I don't practice for the stage anymore but some of the things I can do in the field would not have happened if it wasn't for the stage. I have watched competition calling progress from the biggest baddest bull to an art form. Cory did a huge part of that. First time I saw Cory he was 17 at a CBA comp at Camp Hale. I was standing next to Rocky talking about the control a 17yr old kid had. Make no doubt in your mind guys like Cory can do anything they want with a call. You may not like it but try to match it. When you can see what it does for your field calling.
I know it sure changed how elk respond to me.

[Huntrgathr]

I think it's safe to say that calling contests aren't for everyone. I don't know much about the scene but it seems like the judging is the thing I can't get past. It would seem the best judge of an elk call would be an elk. I guess it's not really feasible to hold " field trials" for elk calling but having a human ear judge a human making elk sounds is kinda like judging a fisherman on his lure selection rather than on how many fish he catches....

I'll tell you one thing. It's a hell of a lot easier to call in a bunch of hunters than it is to call in a bunch of elk !

[under H2O hunter]

I am glad that a lot of seasoned vets are chiming in on this subject. I would agree that control is the key to success regardless if your in the field or on a stage. When I watch guys like Corey or Dirk bugle it's like watching Picasso, Van Gogh, or Da Vinci paint. These guys were masters of their craft and did it effortlessly. Blowing a reed is an art. It's a musical instrument. Yes, anyone can pound on the keys of a piano but that doesn't make them a Mozart.

My son and I both had the discussion during the contest about how so many of the contestants were doing the same sound over and over and over and just trying to get it louder and louder. Thats not what I believed the judges were looking to hear. By what you all are saying I was correct in my conversation with my son.

The key to being successful with anything in life is repatition and practice. The more you practice anything the better you should be at it.