One never knows when they are in the presence of a future legend, but something clicked with Gene Nunnery back in the late 1970s when Preston Pittman came to town to compete in the annual EMSA turkey calling championships. Though Pittman was very young at the time and still not very well known, it was obvious to Mr. Nunnery that Pittman was a phenomenal turkey caller.

Pittman called with his natural voice in the beginning, just like his hero, 1969 World Champion Jack Dudley, from Dekalb. Pittman was inspired by his mentor and eventually learned to gobble even better than the old master it’s been told.

When the turkey hunting legends met at the East Mississippi Sportsman’s Association’s turkey calling contest Mr. Nunnery, The Old Pro Turkey Hunter, invited Preston Pittman to come out to his shop and collaborate on some calls.

Nunnery was one of the first call makers, if not the first, to make a mouth call in our area and he was known far and wide as a Master call maker, avid turkey hunter and successful businessman. He was the first turkey hunter that many had ever heard of in the East Mississippi, West Alabama area.

Pittman was a young calling competitor and call maker at the time and he took Nunnery up on his offer and joined him in a turkey talking and call making session. What happened that day would eventually become part of the legend between the two men, though nobody was privileged to know what happened at the time.

While making mouth calls with Nunnery, Pittman was trimming one of his calls and accidentally cut the rubber diaphragm on one side of the call and pitched it to the side, with an exclamatory remark. Nunnery asked him what was wrong, and Pittman replied that he’d cut the call in the wrong place.

“Put it in your mouth and let me hear it,” Nunnery said.

Pittman picked it up and belted out a few notes.

“That sounds different,” Nunnery said.

Pittman studied the call and the slit he’d accidentally cut in the rubber a few minutes and had an idea.

“I looked at it and then snipped the rubber in the same place on the opposite of the call and it sounded pretty good,” Pittman said.

“Three months later I used that call along with my natural voice gobbling, during the national calling contest and won my first National Championship,” Pittman said. “Since that was one of the calls that put me over the top and helped me win the championship I named it the ‘Champions Choice’ call.”

Ironically, a chance meeting between two turkey hunting fanatics who shared a passion for the sport, became a significant event in the life of a young call maker and future champion, Preston Pittman.

Pittman’s national championship was the first of five national championships won by the Mississippi turkey calling legend.

Nunnery was already a legend among turkey hunters and call makers during a time when there were few turkey hunters and fewer hunters. However, he was known and respected far and wide for his calls, his Bar-Nun bream Poppers and many other interesting products and pursuits. He was also an amateur archeologist and authority on the Indians who inhabited the East Mississippi area before the country was founded.

Perhaps his most lasting legacy among hunters was the classic turkey book he penned, “The Old Pro Turkey Hunter” and released in 1980. Now that dream is available to new generations of hunters in the form of the revised and modernized version which features a new cover with a photo taken by Michael O. Giles and a new foreword by Giles. The book was endorsed by Pittman, Mark McPhail and Jim Casada and is available locally through his daughters Jean Nunnery Tucker and Dale Phillips, as well as Michael O. Giles.

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comast.net.