He wins Grand National title, owling, gobbling and team titles
After winning four more titles at the 2013 National Wild Turkey Federation Convention in Nashville on Feb. 16, Mark Prudhomme of Georgetown has won 17 Grand National Calling Championships, the most of any turkey caller in history.
Prudhomme won the Grand National Calling Championship Champion of Champions title for his fourth victory in five events at the NWTF convention. The GNCC title was his fifth since he began calling in the contest.
Earlier in the weekend, he won the owl hooting, gobbling and team challenge events. A call malfunction cost him a chance for the Senior Division title.
A lifelong hunter, Prudhomme was inspired by the turkey hunting stories of South Carolina authors Archibald Rutledge and Henry Davis. As soon as he was old enough to drive himself to the Francis Marion National Forest, he began turkey hunting.
“I remember as plain as day when I killed my first turkey,” Prudhomme said. “I had read that Henry Davis hunted in the Francis Marion, and I killed one my first year of hunting not far from Hampton Plantation where Rutledge hunted.”
In 1989 Prudhomme drove to Edgefield to watch the South Carolina State Turkey Calling Contest.
“A trophy there listed the names of some of the legends of turkey hunting and turkey calling, people like Preston Pittman, Dick Kirby and Walter Parrott. I set that as a goal. Someday I wanted my name on that trophy,” he said.
After entering his first calling contest, Prudhomme said he realized he was not ready to compete, so he began working on perfecting his calling technique. Within in a year or two he won a small local calling contest, then he won the S.C. Open and finally he won the S.C. State Calling Contest.
Since then Prudhomme has amassed an impressive list of calling championships in numerous game categories while competing against the top callers in the nation: four-time World Owl Hooting Champion, two-time U.S. Open Owl Hooting Champion, six-time Grand National Team Challenge Champion, two-time World Gobbling Champion, two-time Grand American Turkey Calling Champion, and two-time NRA World Game Calling Champion – plus the 17 NWTF Grand National Championships.
In addition, he has won numerous regional and South Carolina State and Open Championships in turkey calling and owl hooting, and he has also won the South Carolina State Duck and Goose Calling Championships.
“As far as I know,” he said, “I am the only person who ever won the South Carolina State title in every game calling category.”
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