Turkey Callers To Compete In State Championship

BOSTON (CBS) - Forget the Celtics and the Bruins, this weekend's competition is all about the winning turkey call. It's the Bay State Open Championship Turkey Calling Contest. And as we found out, a lot goes into trying to fool a turkey.

There's the mouth call, made using a small reed. The slate call, scratching a striker stick across a stone surface. And the box call, rubbing two pieces of specially designed wood together. "(Saturday) we're having the 2nd annual Bay State Turkey calling championship," said Keith Fritze, the president of the Mass chapter of the Wild Turkey Federation, the organization hosting the contest.

"What the judges are looking for is that they sound like a live turkey. That they don't sound like a hunter making a sound with a mechanical device. We call it, let's talk turkey," he said.

Last year's contest featured about a dozen callers, demonstrating their skill, range and subtlety, all tools to use on the upcoming turkey hunt. "We are trying to trick the turkey. We're trying to pretend to be a hen turkey and we're trying to call in the Tom, the male turkey," Fiske says.

How well they pull that off will determine the champion. Saturday's competition will be at Mass Wildlife in Westboro. The winner is eligible to go to the national championship next year, something they call the Super Bowl of turkey calling.

Turkey hunting season begins at the end of April and runs four weeks.