Call of the wild: Pennsylvania hunter recognized for his talent with turkeys
A Pennsylvania hunter’s enthusiasm for wild turkey has earned him national recognition.
Matt Morrett, 52, has become the youngest member of the National Wild Turkey Federation’s Grand National Calling Championships Hall of Fame.
He received the honor at the NWTF’S annual banquet in Nashville, Tenn. in February.
“For me my heroes were always guys who were good at turkey calling, like Ben Rodgers Lee and Dick Kirby, Rob Keck, I could go on and on,” said Morrett, of Marysville, Perry County. “As a kid, that was my goal, to be the best turkey caller I could be.” The honorees are voted on by former Grand National Calling Champions and their peers.
Morrett was born in Dauphin County, but he enjoys living in Perry County because it has a long history for legendary turkey callers and call manufacturers.
He works for the Pennsylvania Game Commission as the director of the Bureau of Marketing and Strategic Communications, but his passion for wild turkeys started 45 years ago through the inspiration of his father, Tom. In 1976 at age 6, Morrett competed in his first calling contest.
Here's his calling resume:
In 1987, he won the NWTF’s Grand Nationals Junior title.
That year, he also won his first World Friction (style of call) championship and U.S. Open Friction title.
In 1990, he won the Grand Nationals Senior title.
He went on to win four more World Friction titles and seven U.S. Open championships.
He ended his calling career by winning the 2006 Master’s Invitational title in Pennsylvania.
Turkey calling has been his life and career. In 1987, he began working with Hunters Specialties and stayed with the company traveling the country and developing products until 2012.
That year, he went to work for Zink Calls/Avian-X Decoys as vice president of sales and marketing. In the spring of 2019, he was hired by the state game commission.
“To be in the hall of fame, there’s no bigger honor,” Morrett said. “It’s hard to imagine I’m the youngest guy in there, and a lot of them aren’t here with us. So I got to be put in the hall when I was still pretty able-bodied. It’s incredible.”
He received the award from Bryan Burhans, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission and an avid turkey hunter. Morrett said he’s glad Burhans could present the honor and talk about the importance of wildlife conservation.
Pennsylvania is known for turkey hunting and its experts callers. Morrett said Pennsylvania has the most NWTF members of any other state. For example, in February Matt Van Cise of Brookville earned his eighth National Wild Turkey Federation Grand Champion National open division title and Rodney Eckstine of Greencastle won his second straight Grand Champion National Friction Division calling competition in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Pennsylvania has always carried that flag in the Grand National calling contest. We’re either winning it or knocking on the door,” Morrett said.
Morrett has hunted and guided turkey hunters in 46 states. He has completed several NWTF grand slams, where a hunter bags all four of the U.S. subspecies of turkeys including the Eastern, Osceola or Florida, Rio Grande and Merriam’s.
“I got to see the whole country and spend a lot of time in the turkey woods all over the country,” he said.
While he enjoys going to the woods by himself, he prefers taking others and helping them experience the interaction between the turkey caller and bird.
“I really like taking people, especially people who are really into it and not having luck or new turkey hunters, that’s really my favorite thing to do anymore,” he said. “It’s pretty awesome, especially if it’s an incredible hunt and the turkeys do right and makes you look like a hero, which doesn’t happen very often. It’s pretty awesome when you can watch somebody’s else’s adrenalin flow as much as yours does.”
It’s a challenge to call in a mature long-bearded turkey during the spring mating season. They’ve learn to avoid predators all their lives and in Pennsylvania the gobblers already have substantial numbers of hens to tend.
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Turkey calls
When it comes to types of calls, Morrett prefers a mouth call, but he’s open to trying every design that’s out there.
“I’m like a bass fisherman, I got every lure in my pocket you can imagine," he said.
He likes the simplicity and realism that comes with using a diaphragm mouth call. He also carries a slate call. He likes the quiet, subtle sounds that slate calls produce, but he also carries box calls and other designs when he’s in the woods.
He’s made and designed his own calls and has used and collects many other brands, too.
“I probably have a couple thousand turkey calls,” he said. The special ones are kept in display cases.
“One of my most prized calls is from Dick Kirby, the owner of Quaker Boy calls. The box call was the last call Kirby had in his hunting vest that he wore to hunt across the country before he died and the call was given to Morrett by a family member. “That was pretty damn special to me."
Why hunt turkeys?
“Turkey hunting for me is just that vocal challenge, and you’re talking to a wild animal and actually communicating with it, not just making noise. It’s that cat-and-mouse game. It gets up there and spits and drums at 25 yards and it shakes the ground (gobbling), to me there’s nothing, no bigger adrenaline rush,” he said. “When you make that call and you know he’s coming, you can’t replicate that adrenaline anywhere.”
He said the challenge of calling and sounding like a hen is what makes it fun. “If you just made a noise or a yelp and a (turkey) ran over us, it wouldn’t be fun. It’s the ones that just keep making you guess and make you try to strategize and realize we are on top of the food chain. We can reason and figure out a situation, but when one gobbles, the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up.”
It’s a sport and craft where seasoned hunters are always learning from their experiences. “Good turkey hunters learn from their mistakes everyday and try not to make them again, but we do every year.”
Morrett feels like he’s doing something every day of the year with his calls and turkey hunting.
“There’s nothing better in the world than standing on a high point and listening to the world wake up from the darkness and the sun comes whether you hear a turkey gobble or not, it’s pretty unbelievable to listen to a spring morning. There’s something very spiritual," he said.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors ,Twitter @whipkeyoutdoors and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: National Wild Turkey Federation Turkey calling experts honored
