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Shane Hendershot, who placed third in the NWTF’s Grand National Turkey Calling Competition this year, served as the calling expert on The Gobbler Exam I wrote for this month’s issue. (Any problems you have with the calling questions are with me, not with Shane, who truly knows his stuff). Here’s Shane on the Late Show with David Letterman last Wednesday. Every year, Letterman has the top three finishers on for some turkey calling and some mockery.

Granted, Dave treats turkey callers like they were doing Stupid Human Tricks, but to Letterman’s credit, as caller Preston Pittman told me once: “I’ve been on the David Letterman show three times. I’ve done Regis and Kelly, Jay Leno, the Comedy Channel and others. On a lot of the shows they won’t let you wear camouflage or say that you hunt, but on Letterman the rules are different. You can actually say you kill turkeys.”

Most years I’ve seen this segment, Dave asks the callers if they eat the turkeys they kill, and if the meat tastes good.

So what’s the verdict: are these appearances good or bad for our image as turkey hunters?