Sam Wolcott wins World Championship in elk calling

REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) - The next time you hear an elk bugling in the woods, you might need to look closer. It could be 10 year old Sam Wolcott, the new Pee Wee Champion in the world for mimicking the sounds of both bull and cow elk.

Wolcott says he got his start in mimicking the animal due to his father.

"I got it from my dad. I hear it from him, and I started to get addicted to it and started to like the sound. So I started practicing." It seems that practicing has paid off. He went up against 7 other kids in his division. "I think like two or three of them were from Utah. I don't remember where all them were. They were pretty good."

Wolcott says that while competing was fun the wait for his turn might have been longer than he would've liked.

"It was really boring because I had to wait all day for it. And when I finally did, it was really fun."

Wolcott says he has been competing in these competitions for about three years, but this is the first year winning the competition out right. Wolcott says he was able to win $1,000 and plans to save most of it to prepare for his future.

Wolcott's dad James also competed in the professional division but after his elimination from continuing in competing his focus turned to his son.

"You cannot express the feelings of joy that you have for your kids to succeed. And, I mean, when I was eliminated from the competition, it directly won of the focus went on to him so we could help him do what he needed to do to win. And it was excellent."

James says watching his son compete was a big moment for the both of them.

"It was the greatest experience a dad can have in the world to see your little man get up there and win the world championship, of all things. I mean, that's not a national level or anything. It's the world. And all of his training that he's done in practice, it just paid off in the end and there's no other feeling about it. One of my fellow workers asked me at the championship, she says, How long did it take you to cry? And I said, it was instantly, I said to see him win that and the joy that he had."

He says he hopes to take the new elk calling champ on Sam's first hunting trip later this fall where Sam can really test his skills in the wild.

Sam added he hopes to continue to compete in the competition and hopefully win every division as he gets older.