Do you ever have anything that you just don't feel like doing, so you put it off? It's always there in the back of your mind, but you keep making excuses to keep putting it off. Then pretty soon, the fact that you've put it off for so long becomes yet another reason to put it off. I'm out of practice... I don't know where to start... It's been too long... Ok, I know I'm rambling. I said all that to say this - I just haven't felt much like blogging since returning from the Slam. That trip was so physically & emotionally draining I just had a hard time finding the energy to do much of anything hunting related. But now, some 6 months later, I am really missing it. I have always said that the best part about hunting is the memories made & there is no better way to remember than to tell the story. And much to my surprise, I had 3 or 4 people mention last week alone that they miss reading my blog - go figure!! So here I am, crawling back to my faithful few readers, promising to do better. My goal is to do a post a day this week to try to get caught back up - we'll see how that goes, but for now we'll start here...
The Grand Slam Re-cap
I had dreamed about killing a Grand Slam (1 of each of the 4 wild turkey species found in the Continental US) pretty much since I started turkey hunting. It was always one of mythical "man I'd love to do that some day" type of boyhood dreams spawned from reading "Peterson's Hunting" magazine many years ago. Fast forward to Spring 2009 when a cancelled bear hunt somehow led to Craig & I launching a plan to not only try to kill a Grand Slam, but to try to do it in one year!
We started in a gator-infested, Florida swamp in mid-March. I had never been so nervous about a hunt before. Knowing that the whole season's plans rested on 2 1/2 days in Ocala, Florida was quite nerve-racking. Luckily after we got there & settled in to doing what we do best, everything fell into place. 2 Osceolas down in a day & a half of HARD hunting. It was turkey hunting so we enjoyed it, but I'll sum up my opinion of the Osceola experience by repeating what I told one of my buddies after we got back - "the only reason to turkey hunt in that God forsaken swamp is because you can't kill an Osceola anywhere else - I'm just glad I got mine so I don't have to go back!"
Back home to Tennessee where Craig & I both quickly filled tags to check off the second species of our Quest. Our Kansas & South Dakota hunts weren't scheduled until the very end of April / first part of May, so we had almost an entire month to hunt at home. While we had decided not to take any pay hunters this year, we both tagged out fairly easily plus called for & filmed a number of kills for friends & family members. It was an unbelievably good season at home - one that will be hard to duplicate, but it sure will be fun trying!
Kansas... my beloved Kansas - no place on Earth I'd rather turkey hunt! Our Annual trip to hunt with my buddy Todd was a couple of weeks late this year. We had to schedule it that way in order to make it work out with our South Dakota hunt. I was a little concerned about going that late, but it all worked out. Craig & I both killed on our first full day of hunting to mark # 3 off the list. After that, we just settled in & had a blast chasing those Rios. We flubbed a few more opportunities & then I actually killed my best bird ever (any species) on the last morning. Another great Kansas hunt spent with great friends!
On to South Dakota. I'll spend a little more time here since it pretty much culminated the whole experience. We had been watching the weather forecast pretty close since leaving for Kansas. It started out looking bad & then progressively got worse. We were facing rain, snow, 40 - 50mph sustained winds with a warning for 80mph gusts one night. G...r...e...a...t... - the absolute worse kind of weather possible for turkey hunting. I was concerned worried scared that our whole season was going to be for naught. All of our planning, time, & effort put into this Quest would be negated if this awful weather kept us from killing a Merriam's. I just had a really bad feeling - & when it comes to hunting my "feelings" are usually right. We took out time & spent a day & a half getting to South Dakota from Kansas. We arrived in camp just after lunch so we'd be able to get out & hunt that afternoon. The wind was just as bad as fore-casted. When our host sat us down for a pre-game pep talk that afternoon, he kept saying over & over how bad the weather was & how tough the hunting was going to be. Obviously he was concerned so that just added to my worry. I can remember almost feeling physically ill that afternoon as we were getting ready to hunt - I just kept thinking about how far we'd come & how hard we'd worked for this Slam to not be able to finish it. The Outfitter dropped us off about 3 that afternoon. The country we were hunting was wide open prairie with wooded creek bottoms. He let us out at an old farm house & made arrangements to pick us up about 2 miles down the creek. We would slowly work our way down the creek , glassing & calling as we went. We had literally been there less than 30 minutes when we looked up & saw 2 big Merriam's toms followed by 7 or 8 jakes coming across a pasture 300 - 400 yards away. After pinching ourselves to make sure it was true, we scrambled to get a decoy out & get set up. We had 0 cover - we were basically sitting against a big cottonwood in the middle of a clearing. We weren't able to get the decoy out as far into the open as we'd have liked because we were afraid of being seen. So we sat down, hoping for the best & started screaming on our calls - seriously, the wind was so bad I was blowing so hard on my mouth call I don't even think it sounded like a turkey. But apparently the birds were able to hear enough that they turned & started working their way to us. Just about the time I thought "this can't be happening", the 2 toms spotted our decoy & started running toward us! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING! Sure enough, they ran directly to us! I whispered for Craig to take the bird in front - 1... 2... BOOM! Both birds dropped without even so much as a flop! I can still see those snow white tail fans blowing in the winds as Craig & I sat there in stunned silence. I also remember sitting there against that cottonwood with tears rolling down my cheeks as I called Brandi & screamed "WE DID IT!" That feeling... the relief & elation when a life-long goal, months of planning, weeks of hard work & worry, a 2000 mile journey with a friend, all culminating in an instant... that ladies & gentlemen is why we hunt...
