CaMPUS - University of Arkansas at Monticello

World Champion turkey caller Emily Oliver gets lots of
invitations to hunt with the boys. Just be sure you let
her shoot!
16
For UAM student Emily Oliver of Hamburg, hunting is a “family thing.” Her
grandfather, Larry Linder, placed a turkey call in her hands when she was old
enough to hold it and later gave her a mouth call over the protests of her grandmother,
who was afraid young Emily might swallow it.
UAM MAGAZINE
It’s A
Family Thing
Emily’s mother, Jamie Linder Oliver,
a 1989 UAM graduate, is still the
only woman to finish in the top five
at the National Wild Turkey Federation’s
Grand National Turkey Calling
Competition.
Emily has killed turkeys in Arkansas,
Texas, Florida and New Mexico
and has mastered as many as 10 different
calls, so it shouldn’t have come as a
big surprise when she became the first
girl to win the 18-and-under division
of the World Turkey Calling Championship
held March 10-11 in Mobile,
Ala.
A freshman wildlife management
major, Oliver was the best of 12 callers
in the 18-and-under division. Nine of
the contestants were boys and not all
of them were thrilled by the notion of
losing to a girl. “The ones that don’t
like it are the ones that don’t know
me,” says Oliver with the hint of a
smile.
Oliver and the other contestants
were required to demonstrate their
proficiency in five different calls – the
cutting call of an excited hen, the
plain yelp of a hen, the cluck and purr,
the keeke run call of a baby turkey
that has lost its mother, and the fly
down cackle. Judges sat behind curtains
and were unaware of the identity
– or gender – of the callers.
Oliver’s skill as a caller has attracted
the attention of many of her fellow
students in UAM’s School of Forest
Resources and has elicited numerous
invitations to go hunting with the
boys. “Oh yeah, I get invited a lot,”
she says. “But some of them say ‘Let’s
put her 20 feet behind us and let her
call.’ I tell them I’ll call for you as long
as you let me shoot, too.”
Oliver has been shooting since she
was old enough to hold a gun. She was
five when her grandfather took her on
her first deer hunt and killed her first
deer at the age of eight. She is an avid
duck hunter and killed a bearded hen
on her first weekend of turkey hunting.
She’s been hooked on the sport ever
since and admits she’ll “shoot anything
that won’t shoot me back.”
Oliver killed a 132-class 10-point
buck deer in Texas at the age of 14 and
has traveled far and wide in pursuit of
turkeys. She recently completed the
turkey hunting grand slam – killing
each of the four wild turkey species
native to the 48 contiguous states – by
killing a Merriam’s Turkey in New
Mexico. She has killed numerous
Eastern Wild Turkeys native to Arkansas
and the eastern United States, a
Rio Grande Turkey in Texas, and an
Osceola Turkey during a trip to the
Florida panhandle. On the same trip
she also shot a seven-and-a-half-foot
alligator.
She wants to complete the Royal
Slam, which requires bagging a Gould
Turkey in Mexico, and a Super Slam
– shooting a turkey in each of the 48
contiguous states. Oliver also has her
sights set on a trip to Africa, where she
hopes to bag a Kudu antelope.
Oliver’s skill as a turkey caller has
been noticed as far away as Hollywood.
A producer from the television
show Animal Planet called recently.
The network is interested in doing a
show on turkey callers and wanted the
top female caller. “They said they’d be
in touch,” says Oliver.
Stay tuned and pass the ammunition.