Turkey Grand Slam

[SNFarms]

Wanting to start on Turkey Grand Slam with my son. We have both killed Easterns. What do you all think we should go for next and where would you recommend to start?

 

[Turkeyslayer7]

Knock on doors in Kansas to gain access for Rios and any public land out west from South Dakota to the Colorado area has Merriams. Both birds are fairly easy to kill just have to find them. I usually go late season and have had plenty of luck calling them in.


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[Bearlodge10]

I think it depends on location and experience. In my mind, I would look at a map and the location of the subspecies. Then I would formulate a plan for tags and strategies. My thinking would be to put more time but less money into the birds that may be closer to hone skills and to put the odds in your favor for the subspecies that maybe farther away. I say this with the idea that you are asking from a DIY perspective. Going guided isn't all bad and perhaps that is the way to go for some of the more landlocked states.
Good Luck

 

[Thunder head]

Osceola,
Unless you can take plenty of vacation and hunt during the week. Florida public land can be fairly crowded. Guided trips are pretty expensive. The better outfitters can be booked up a couple of years in advance.

For the other two. See above. I talked too a guy who was been hunting public land out west. During the week he generally has it all to himself. Has no problem killing a bird either. Your mileage may vary on that.

Also when you pick an area. Find out when the hens go on the nest. Go after that!

 

[HuntInWild88]

Ive done marriums in nebraska and rios and oklahoma, florida does have some good public land but can be crowded and can be difficult but its do able.

 

[Mjw195]

Lots of options for Rios, especially in TX

Could also combo with Hogs or exotics

 

[HuntInWild88]

Lots of options for Rios, especially in TX

Could also combo with Hogs or exotics

If you go the outfitter route and want to pay way more then needed to shoot a rio.

 

[Mjw195]

If you go the outfitter route and want to pay way more then needed to shoot a rio.

It would be more expensive but less crowded and easier to plan. DIY options would put TX out of the running for sure if that was the OP’s intended route

 

[Jimss]

A lot depends upon whether you want pure birds in your slam or hybrids. How picky you are will eliminate a lot of potential areas. It may be super tough to find pure rios in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. I've hunted areas in Nebraska where toms with darker rio colors and other toms with pure white merriam colors hung out in the same flocks. The same can be said with rio-eastern hybrids on the eastern side of Nebraska and Kansas. I've hunted areas here in the foothills of the Front Range in Colo where there used to be snow white merriams. The past few years there seem to be more and more buff colored toms showing up. I'm sure some of the rios on the river bottoms are starting to breed with the pure merriam strains in the mountains....and visa=versa.

With that said, if you want a pure grand slam you may want to concentrate on areas that are well within the boundaries for each. The national turkey foundation and other websites have maps of the ranges. This may not matter to you but I thought I would toss this out there so you are aware

 

[howl]

First decide if you want what NWTF says are the different subspecies or if you want to kill birds in their native range. NWTF recognizes mongrel birds. You can do the slam with greater ease if you agree with NWTF.

Native, unquestionably pure strain birds limits you to the Southern half of peninsular FL for Osceola, TX and OK for Rio, and NM or CO for Merriam's. You want to be in the mountains of NM and CO to avoid Rio mutts. There are Easterns in TX and OK, too, but avoiding them is easy.

FL birds are the hardest on public and most expensive on private. Start there and it's all downhill difficulty-wise. The FL bird's reputation for difficulty comes from the terrain and pressure. You can kill one on public, but most people are money ahead by just paying to play on unpressured private birds to get it done in one go instead of having to go back. Back when I lived down there I'd see plenty of out of state tags in the fall trying to finish a single season slam after they blanked in the Spring. Those extra trips cost.

 

[pullit]

I got my slam a few years back and for me the hardest was the Merriam's. The reason was the weather was so unpredictable that it was hard to hunt. When you start out and the weather was nice and the next day you have several inches of snow, then everything turns to mud two days later when the snow melts.
That was my experience anyway.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

This brings back memories, I used to date a chick who loved turkey hunting, we dated for ~ 3 years and shot Merriams, Easterns and rio grande turkeys and had plans to do a Florida trip to cap it off....well the relationship ended and we never made that Florida trip, I never did get to Florida to shoot an Osceola but she went there with some new dude w few months after we broke up. Oh well lol.

 

[bradb]

I have done a couple slams. Both FL birds were on private, the first guided, the second I have friends down there now so can go when I want. About the only reason I thought FL birds should be considered harder is the thick areas I hunted, otherwise they behaved like all other turkeys. Again I was on private. My first Merriams started out hard on public and knocked on doors and got on some private close to the public and they were stacked in there. I know have friends and places to hunt all the different birds on private and have shot a number of all but the Osceola.
Side note the Goulds hunt I did with El Halcon was awesome

 

[mule man]

Goulds in Mexico are huge and are fun to hunt