Slams vs Your own Goals

[CMF]

I'm generally not a slam guy, but I would love to have an NA squirrel slam. I'm sitting at Fox, Red, and Yellow Bellied Marmot. Still need a gray and a black color phase gray, and woodchuck for sure. Not sure what all other species you would need. Two crown jewels would be the Delmarva Fox squirrel and Malabar Giant Squirrel (not NA, but an insane purple and gold squirrel from India). Neither of those two are legally huntable as far as I can tell.

Tassle ear squirrel down in the Gila

 

[Maverick1]

For the record... if I sold a billion sandwiches at a freaky fast speed, I would slam all your mothers and have every North American slam possible.

“Hey, how about we get off of mothers, all right? I just got off of yours!”.

 

[Maverick1]

A couple years ago the cost to complete a NA 28 slam was over $500k.

Imagine it has only gone up since then.

Thus, not a realistic goal for most.

*Edited to clarify the $500k was for NA 28*

 

[MuleyFever]

A couple years ago the cost to complete a slam was over $500k.

Imagine it has only gone up since then.

Thus, not a realistic goal for most.

There is a member here that booked all 4 a couple years ago for $296K. All you need is some equity in your house.

 

[Mammoth Steppe]

A couple years ago the cost to complete a slam was over $500k.

Imagine it has only gone up since then.

Thus, not a realistic goal for most.

USD? That sounds high, even for sheep. Assuming you go guided and are successful on each of the 4 hunts I'm assuming it can be done for around 300k. Still no pocket change.

40-50K for Dall
60-70K for Desert
80-90k for Rocky
90-115k for Stone

 

[Mammoth Steppe]

Probably slamming a 12 pack of Coor's while you skin your Whitetail.

Those Capra slams look a little more affordable, problem is aside from the Mountain Goat they are all international. Lots of Chamois in Europe that seem to be in the $5000-$10,000 range. Tahr in NZ as well.

 

[Maverick1]

USD? That sounds high, even for sheep. Assuming you go guided and are successful on each of the 4 hunts I'm assuming it can be done for around 300k. Still no pocket change.

40-50K for Dall
60-70K for Desert
80-90k for Rocky
90-115k for Stone

That $500k was for the NA 28.

 

[LostArra]

My Deer archery "slam":
Self bow (Osage bow I made)
Longbow
Recurve
Compound
Total cost about $2500 includes bows and arrows

 

[KurtR]

A guy i train dogs with wanted his dog to pick up every waterfowl species in NA and he did it. Got to hunt some cool areas and made memories with the dog that will last for ever.

Now my question always starts with can my dog come i would rather watch him pick up 2 teal at this point than shoot another 180" mule deer

 

[WCB]

I get it...Some do slams because they want to hunt say...Sheep everywhere they live and enjoy the new places and uniqueness of each species and habitat. Others do it strictly as a check box. I'd like to kill all the different deer and elk in NA. Obviously a sheep slam would be awesome...all for my personal reasons not because it is a "slam". There is a line there somewhere that would be hard for some smooth brains to understand. If I want to shoot all 4 sheep but don't register it am I chasing a "slam" or just hunting all 4 unique species?

The really odd ones are the "whitetail deer slam" or whatever dumb sh!t people make up. Apparently I've killed 4 and didn't even know it? 3 right here in MN....?

 

[Weldor]

Never really thought much about it. I hunt to enjoy my time outdoors and eat what I take. I get other that hunters want to get all the species thing. Like the man said "to each his own". If I had the time and where with all, I would try for the Turkeys just because they are ugly.

 

[hunt1up]

USD? That sounds high, even for sheep. Assuming you go guided and are successful on each of the 4 hunts I'm assuming it can be done for around 300k. Still no pocket change.

40-50K for Dall
60-70K for Desert
80-90k for Rocky
90-115k for Stone

Add travel, tips to guides, hotels, shipping, likely taxidermy. It'll get up there faster than you think, be it just the 4 sheep or all the species.

If using guides, which an American will be doing in Canada, and also assuming a guy doesn't luck out and draw some of the hard ones like the lower 48 sheep, it's probably more like a million dollar endeavor these days.

 

[william schmaltz]

I’d imagine people with a slam list are indeed hunting what they want to hunt.

I’ve always been a collector. Long before I knew about lists, I had the goal of getting the skull/hide/bacculum of every fur bearer in my home state. I just think it’s cool and I got to intimately learn about each animal trying to trap it. A handful of years ago someone asked me if I had my Super10. So I looked it up. I’m an elk and antelope away by just hunting stuff I like to hunt. It’s cool to hear other have also got fully DIY S10! I’ll eventually take time to hunt elk/antelope but I’m not sacrificing a moose season for it and if it came down to either moose every year or fill my S10, I’ll be happy eating moose meat til I die.

I can understand people having goals and a list that gets a person out of their comfort zone; I can’t yet understand the part that comes after where it seems they’ve only done it to get circle jerked at some conference/award ceremony in a room full of strangers.

 

[madtinker]

My Deer archery "slam":
Self bow (Osage bow I made)
Longbow
Recurve
Compound
Total cost about $2500 includes bows and arrows

This is the kind of slam I could get behind. Hugely challenging to yourself, with lots of growth and learning. If you have done it, that’s impressive.

 

[Blockcaver]

Bowhunting North America for new species in a new habitat.....each being a new challenge was great fun and whole lot of work. Took me 50 seasons to accomplish the NA29 (Archery Super Slam)

I also like DIY bowhunting and was successful on 20 NA species without guides thanks primarily to being a resident of CO for 35 years and a resident of BC for the past 16 years. That and drawing NR NV Desert Bighorn Sheep, NR UT Bison, NR WY Shiras Moose and hunting deer species, elk, moose, caribou etc where I could without a draw or guide as a NR.

Wouldn't trade the adventures, failures followed by success sometimes a decade later, great meat, great people I've met for anything. But to each his own! And being a thrifty DIY'er on 20 of the species lowered the cost significantly. Sometimes I joke that I may have the least expensive Archery NA29 completed recently (2021).

Good luck to all....no matter what your goals are.

 

[buffybr]

I like the idea of the hunting "slams", they encourage you to expand your horizons, hunt new game, in new regions etc.

Now I just need to figure out what is the Working Man's Slam.

I just like to hunt. Living in NW Colorado in the late '60s and early '70s I easily filled my deer and elk tags every year, along with my first black bear and pronghorn antelope.

After moving to Montana in '75 I started looking at the other species of animals that we can hunt here. Back then there wasn't the competition that we have now for special tags. I drew 2 mountain goat tags in the first 3 years that I applied for them, and 2 bull Shiras moose tags in the '80s. I've since unsuccessfully applied for another mountain goat tag every year since 1978, and no more moose or sheep tags.

I've always known about the Grand Slam of North American Sheep but never thought about achieving it until the costs of some those hunts skyrocketed to more than I paid for my house.

I've always been a DIY guy and never went on a guided hunt until 1999 when I went on a cancellation Dall sheep and mountain caribou hunt in Canada's Northwest Territory. The total cost of that hunt back then was under $10K.

By the time that I learned about Grand Slam Club Ovis's Super Ten and North American 29 awards I had killed 8 of the animals required for their Super Ten Award on DIY hunts. I shot 7 of those animals here in Montana on solo DIY hunts that each only cost me a tank of gas for my pickup and a $25 or less resident tag. That included 3 Bighorn rams that I shot on solo hunts in Montana's Unlimited tag units which are less than 100 miles from my home.

In the past 25 years I've also been able to go on a dozen international or Alaskan hunts where I shot a lot of different animals. Many of those animals would qualify for various SCI slams or awards, but I haven't entered any of them. I just like seeing their taxidermy mounts in my house every day and remembering those hunts.

 

[LostArra]

This is the kind of slam I could get behind. Hugely challenging to yourself, with lots of growth and learning. If you have done it, that’s impressive.

I did it.
Ironically the compound was the last on the list. I hunted traditional for 50 years then hurt my shoulder and bought an entry level compound at 64yo. The first deer I killed with it was the shortest distance shot of all. It was also my biggest deer and the only deer I saw that day on an all-day sit during the rut.

 

[Dogone]

Twice I have done a slam. Didn’t know it at the time. Mule , whitetail, moose , elk antelope and woodland caribou. All in one season. All otc in Saskatchewan at the time. We do have barren ground caribou but only for indigenous.

 

[sambo3006]

The NA slam is out of reach for me financially. My personal goal is to harvest as many species in as many different states as (financially responsibly) possible. I currently have taken 5 different species in 10 different states and one Canadian province. The only way I'll ever get to hunt sheep is if my 23 DBH points in Utah ever pay off, though extremely unlikely.

 

[Steve O]

Always dreamed of a Grand Slam of NA sheep. I’m happy to have hunted all 4 but was only successful on two. Was sure I’d get one more chance at the bighorn but Wyoming made that highly unlikely a couple years ago.

I’m 14 animals into the “Super 10” and spent all the time I want on my nemesis the mountain lion. I’ve got no drive to have a piece of paper but if it so happened I would definitely support the club and get it.

I’m not really a collector…I’ve got a big moose from the Yukon, I don’t need any of the little ones. Same thing with caribou.

I love hunting different places and animals. I’ve hunted 19 of the 29 and am most satisfied that I’ve seen 26 of the 29 in the wild. I’ll never have them all but am very impressed with those tha have done it. It’s no easy task no matter how much money you have.