US Super Slam for Turkeys?

Mojave

WKR
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,555
There’s slams for everything now. Waterfowl slams, deer slams, whitetail deer slams, upland bird slams, squirrel slams. Alright I made the squirrel slam up but give it enough time. Come to think of it maybe that’s the slam I need to chase, a squirrel in all 50 states.
Look up Kaibab squirrels or something like that. They are like the Ocellated turkeys of the. squirrel world.

Maybe enough to start a slam?
 

Kellum

FNG
Joined
Jul 31, 2016
Messages
11
Location
Mississippi
Man, I've been thinking it'll slow down for 5 years now. But each year it gets worse and worse. The future generation is who is going to suffer the most.

As far as stories that will blow your mind.....

Nevada: Very limited roosting areas, everyone highly invested with flight and tag costs, needing that Nevada bird for their slam. I know TWO different folks the past 3 springs that have a bird shot off the roost right in front of them on opening morning. Proud way to take your Nevada bird, huh? The landowner we hunted on told us about the opening morning limb lift that happened a few days before we got there. He was still PISSED over it and kicked the hunters off the property. Last year in Nevada a dude was literally driving back and forth, keeping a gobbler from crossing a road, so other hunters set up by the trees he was going to roost in couldn't kill it. The guy doing this didn't have permission to hunt either side of the road was hoping the bird would be pushed to where he could hunt.

Tennessee: Highly pimped out by YouTubers, especially Catman and The Hunting Public. A few central TN WMAs on opening weekend are an absolute ZOO now days because of it. I'm talking about outright dangerous. Doesn't how many trucks are at a gate, folks are coming on in you if there is a gobbling bird. And its such a shame because they used to be such incredible areas to hunt.

Massachusetts: Last spring I'd saw a gobbler cross a road onto public land. I turned around and pulled into a parking spot to after him. About that time an older dude comes sliding in, hops out and grabs his gun that was loaded and just sitting in his seat. He gives me a poop eating grin and starts to RUN towards where the gobbler went into the woods! We exchanged words and it got heated so I started filming in case anything happened.

21Phhwo.mp4
Here is a link to the encounter if you want to watch it. *language*


Pennsylvania: Last spring I'd roosted a bird evening before the opener. Got in TIGHT opening morning. Unfortunately the bird was just ~200 yards from a gate. I get to watch a young dude park right on top of me, and proceed to sneak on in and set up on the bird. Of course neither one of us killed it because he spooked it. I gave him an earful.

California: Set up on roosted gobblers on opening morning. We literally have to direct hunter traffic with our flashlights. Getting close to fly down time and I see a dude sneaking in. I wave him off. He just does a half circle around me and sneaks up right beside my buddy who is 50 yards from a roosted gobbler. The hunter is walkign towards the gobbler with his gun off and spooks it before he can get a shot. They exchange words. The hunter then has the gall to set up just 70 yards away from us. As luck would have it, one of the gobblers pitches right down in front of him and he kills it. My buddy ends up killing one too thankfully. We go encounter the other guy and its a Hmong hunter and his wife. I go "Were you the one walking all up on his trying to shoot a roosted gobbler?" and he does "Yes, yes, that's me!" LOL What in the fk?!?! Bag limit is 1/day in California. He was back in there hunting that afternoon.

I could go on and on but thats just a small sample. Ethics and etiquette seem to have left the building now days.

Easier than expected/lucked out: Arkansas and Louisiana. Two states a lot of people really struggle with. But I scouted two entire days in Arkansas before opening day in 2024. The first bird I worked opening morning got by me and another hunter got him. I was standing at his truck waiting to talk/congratulate him when I heard another bird firing off in the distance. Got him, so was done in Arkansas after 2 days of scouting and a couple hours hunting. Louisiana, got beat to where I was going on opening morning and that RARELY happens unless they sleep at a gate. So I went in across the bottom opposite of them. Heard them shoot and it made me sick. I heard no turkey. Walking out I made a loop through some thinned pines and one hammered on the ground. He was dead shortly after. Done in LA on morning 1.

Last year I just got to hunt opening morning in PA and hunted sorta north central along NY border on a state game lands. I killed in PA in 2017 and hunted some game lands in southwest PA. Beautiful state, that is for sure!!!

My favorite is still the famous Pinhoti crawl that you witnessed lol.


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OP
Derekc6713
Joined
Nov 16, 2023
Messages
31
Man, I've been thinking it'll slow down for 5 years now. But each year it gets worse and worse. The future generation is who is going to suffer the most.

As far as stories that will blow your mind.....

Nevada: Very limited roosting areas, everyone highly invested with flight and tag costs, needing that Nevada bird for their slam. I know TWO different folks the past 3 springs that have a bird shot off the roost right in front of them on opening morning. Proud way to take your Nevada bird, huh? The landowner we hunted on told us about the opening morning limb lift that happened a few days before we got there. He was still PISSED over it and kicked the hunters off the property. Last year in Nevada a dude was literally driving back and forth, keeping a gobbler from crossing a road, so other hunters set up by the trees he was going to roost in couldn't kill it. The guy doing this didn't have permission to hunt either side of the road was hoping the bird would be pushed to where he could hunt.

Tennessee: Highly pimped out by YouTubers, especially Catman and The Hunting Public. A few central TN WMAs on opening weekend are an absolute ZOO now days because of it. I'm talking about outright dangerous. Doesn't how many trucks are at a gate, folks are coming on in you if there is a gobbling bird. And its such a shame because they used to be such incredible areas to hunt.

Massachusetts: Last spring I'd saw a gobbler cross a road onto public land. I turned around and pulled into a parking spot to after him. About that time an older dude comes sliding in, hops out and grabs his gun that was loaded and just sitting in his seat. He gives me a poop eating grin and starts to RUN towards where the gobbler went into the woods! We exchanged words and it got heated so I started filming in case anything happened.

21Phhwo.mp4
Here is a link to the encounter if you want to watch it. *language*


Pennsylvania: Last spring I'd roosted a bird evening before the opener. Got in TIGHT opening morning. Unfortunately the bird was just ~200 yards from a gate. I get to watch a young dude park right on top of me, and proceed to sneak on in and set up on the bird. Of course neither one of us killed it because he spooked it. I gave him an earful.

California: Set up on roosted gobblers on opening morning. We literally have to direct hunter traffic with our flashlights. Getting close to fly down time and I see a dude sneaking in. I wave him off. He just does a half circle around me and sneaks up right beside my buddy who is 50 yards from a roosted gobbler. The hunter is walkign towards the gobbler with his gun off and spooks it before he can get a shot. They exchange words. The hunter then has the gall to set up just 70 yards away from us. As luck would have it, one of the gobblers pitches right down in front of him and he kills it. My buddy ends up killing one too thankfully. We go encounter the other guy and its a Hmong hunter and his wife. I go "Were you the one walking all up on his trying to shoot a roosted gobbler?" and he does "Yes, yes, that's me!" LOL What in the fk?!?! Bag limit is 1/day in California. He was back in there hunting that afternoon.

I could go on and on but thats just a small sample. Ethics and etiquette seem to have left the building now days.

Easier than expected/lucked out: Arkansas and Louisiana. Two states a lot of people really struggle with. But I scouted two entire days in Arkansas before opening day in 2024. The first bird I worked opening morning got by me and another hunter got him. I was standing at his truck waiting to talk/congratulate him when I heard another bird firing off in the distance. Got him, so was done in Arkansas after 2 days of scouting and a couple hours hunting. Louisiana, got beat to where I was going on opening morning and that RARELY happens unless they sleep at a gate. So I went in across the bottom opposite of them. Heard them shoot and it made me sick. I heard no turkey. Walking out I made a loop through some thinned pines and one hammered on the ground. He was dead shortly after. Done in LA on morning 1.

Last year I just got to hunt opening morning in PA and hunted sorta north central along NY border on a state game lands. I killed in PA in 2017 and hunted some game lands in southwest PA. Beautiful state, that is for sure!!!
Those are some great stories. Luckily I have not dealt with people like that yet while turkey hunting. The past two years I’ve roosted a bird the night before opening day and managed to harvest that bird within an hour of first light. My biggest fear is always some lazy or inconsiderate turd coming in right at day break while I’ve been sitting in the dark waiting for an hour or more for first light and spooking the bird.

As far as the guy in Massachusetts they don’t call them Massholes for nothing.

unfortunately with social media the cats out of the bag on a lot of these states and I don’t think it will ever be totally eliminated or things will go back to how they were. but I still think that eventually it will subside a bit. Like I said earlier I do enjoy hunting content, I love turkey hunting and so to fill the gap between now and May when i actually get to chase birds watching turkey hunting videos gets me by. My biggest problem with the hunting public and other high profile hunting content creators isn’t necessarily that it exposes people to the joys of hunting out of state it’s all the clones they have created. All the young hunters nowadays see how they “hunt for a living” and think they could be the next hunting public so they strap a go pro on their gun and upload videos to YouTube and then create more content and more clones to where it has now gotten so out of hand. I could see a ban on filming hunts on public land being in our future which I would support wholeheartedly. I think that might already be a thing in some states I’m not sure.
 
OP
Derekc6713
Joined
Nov 16, 2023
Messages
31
Coupling the current diminishing rate of wild turkey recruitment with states’ insatiable appetite for more hunters, I seriously doubt someone starting out today will have the opportunity to hunt all of the states that turkeys currently reside in. I hope I’m wrong, but the writing is all over the wall.


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Unless there’s some changes made I don’t disagree.
 
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Messages
843
Location
MS
Luckily I have not dealt with people like that yet while turkey hunting.

As far as the guy in Massachusetts they don’t call them Massholes for nothing.

unfortunately with social media the cats out of the bag on a lot of these states and I don’t think it will ever be totally eliminated or things will go back to how they were. but I still think that eventually it will subside a bit. Like I said earlier I do enjoy hunting content, I love turkey hunting and so to fill the gap between now and May when i actually get to chase birds watching turkey hunting videos gets me by. My biggest problem with the hunting public and other high profile hunting content creators isn’t necessarily that it exposes people to the joys of hunting out of state it’s all the clones they have created. All the young hunters nowadays see how they “hunt for a living” and think they could be the next hunting public so they strap a go pro on their gun and upload videos to YouTube and then create more content and more clones to where it has now gotten so out of hand. I could see a ban on filming hunts on public land being in our future which I would support wholeheartedly. I think that might already be a thing in some states I’m not sure.
You will when you start traveling to hunt some of the more "cut throat" states.

lol @ Massholes, i like that

And yup, it's created a ton of clones whom just further accelerate spot burning. I cringe every time I see someone with a video camera or barrel camera in the woods. Used to NEVER see it, now I run into it most seasons.
 

Chase0109

FNG
Joined
Feb 4, 2020
Messages
55
My biggest fear is always some lazy or inconsiderate turd coming in right at day break while I’ve been sitting in the dark waiting for an hour or more for first light and spooking the bird.
This is been a really good thread. I agree with 99.9% of what has been said so far.

I just thought I would give a different perspective on the above comment. I hunt turkeys in a lot of states and have since the early 2000s. Personally, I never roost birds. I may have a pretty good idea where they’re going to roost based on past knowledge of the hunting area. But I prefer to go in really early and wait for a Bird to sound off. Then I’ll move on it and set up my game plan for the morning. I don’t think I’ve ever shot a bird directly after fly down. I usually set up as close as I feel I can get and plan to work a bird after it’s been on the ground for a bit. I’ve shot a majority of my birds mid morning to early afternoon.

I’m very big on common courtesy and etiquette. If I’m working into a bird in the dark and somebody else is there before me I’ll give them a wide birth and set up a considerable distance away or go after another Bird. I’ve had that happen multiple times on public land. I would expect another Hunter to do the same for me. I’ve also had plenty of guys set up within 50 yards of me, knowing that I was there as well, which is super frustrating.

Point being just because a guy is moving in to set up on a Bird after you got there doesn’t mean they aren’t courteous or are hunting in a style that they prefer. I’m personally not trying to get a bird to fly into my lap and kill it off the roost. But if I ever meet you in the dark and your set up just give me a flash from a red lens flashlight, and I’ll move on and respect your space in the woods. Just like I would anybody else.

I just about threw in the towel on hunting Kansas the year before they went to a draw. I shot a bird that year on a piece of public. It was only 320 acres and I got there super early. By the time legal shooting came around there were seven trucks parked on that piece all hunting it. I did manage to shoot a bird on it that morning. But combat hunting is not for me! Thankfully Kansas Went to a draw for non-resident.

Nebraska is still a bit of a zoo. I’m glad that they capped nonresident tags. But I’d love to see them cut the cap from 10,000 or even split the tags and make 3500 of them public land tags and the remaining 6500 private land only.
I could see a ban on filming hunts on public land being in our future which I would support wholeheartedly. I think that might already be a thing in some states I’m not sure.
I would be 100% in support of banning all filming on public lands!
If content creators want to make hunting films, they should be required to do it on private land only. The problem is enforcement. I don’t think there’s any way to actually enforce a rule like that, even if it came to pass. Unless they had a team of tech guys looking at Geo tagging of every Hunt film produced and put out on YouTube and every other plaque. Not gonna happen.

Chase
 
OP
Derekc6713
Joined
Nov 16, 2023
Messages
31
This is been a really good thread. I agree with 99.9% of what has been said so far.

I just thought I would give a different perspective on the above comment. I hunt turkeys in a lot of states and have since the early 2000s. Personally, I never roost birds. I may have a pretty good idea where they’re going to roost based on past knowledge of the hunting area. But I prefer to go in really early and wait for a Bird to sound off. Then I’ll move on it and set up my game plan for the morning. I don’t think I’ve ever shot a bird directly after fly down. I usually set up as close as I feel I can get and plan to work a bird after it’s been on the ground for a bit. I’ve shot a majority of my birds mid morning to early afternoon.

I’m very big on common courtesy and etiquette. If I’m working into a bird in the dark and somebody else is there before me I’ll give them a wide birth and set up a considerable distance away or go after another Bird. I’ve had that happen multiple times on public land. I would expect another Hunter to do the same for me. I’ve also had plenty of guys set up within 50 yards of me, knowing that I was there as well, which is super frustrating.

Point being just because a guy is moving in to set up on a Bird after you got there doesn’t mean they aren’t courteous or are hunting in a style that they prefer. I’m personally not trying to get a bird to fly into my lap and kill it off the roost. But if I ever meet you in the dark and your set up just give me a flash from a red lens flashlight, and I’ll move on and respect your space in the woods. Just like I would anybody else.

I just about threw in the towel on hunting Kansas the year before they went to a draw. I shot a bird that year on a piece of public. It was only 320 acres and I got there super early. By the time legal shooting came around there were seven trucks parked on that piece all hunting it. I did manage to shoot a bird on it that morning. But combat hunting is not for me! Thankfully Kansas Went to a draw for non-resident.

Nebraska is still a bit of a zoo. I’m glad that they capped nonresident tags. But I’d love to see them cut the cap from 10,000 or even split the tags and make 3500 of them public land tags and the remaining 6500 private land only.

I would be 100% in support of banning all filming on public lands!
If content creators want to make hunting films, they should be required to do it on private land only. The problem is enforcement. I don’t think there’s any way to actually enforce a rule like that, even if it came to pass. Unless they had a team of tech guys looking at Geo tagging of every Hunt film produced and put out on YouTube and every other plaque. Not gonna happen.

Chase
I understand where you’re coming from as that is my preferred tactic as well if I don’t have a bird roosted the night before. I meant that to be more directed at the person who willfully encroaches on a bird he knows another hunter is working or sitting on.

As far as the filming ban yeah I agree enforcement would be tricky. I also understand and have no issue with people who film hunts for their own personal use. I can see the appeal in that. Most turkey hunts at the moment of truth is like a blur unless I mess something up and lose my chance at the bird then I never forget. Haha. I guess the easiest solution would be for YouTube to just ban hunting content all together.
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2025
Messages
18
There’s slams for everything now. Waterfowl slams, deer slams, whitetail deer slams, upland bird slams, squirrel slams. Alright I made the squirrel slam up but give it enough time. Come to think of it maybe that’s the slam I need to chase, a squirrel in all 50 states.
I got my squirrel slam last year. Red, grey, Fox, ground. The ground squirrel was the toughest they like to hang out around houses and barns
 

Chaser96

FNG
Joined
Jun 20, 2022
Messages
59
I was pursuing the slam… I’ve killed in 19 states and love to travel and turkey hunt. Honestly stopped chasing new states due to a lot of what has been discussed here. I was never burning through and trying to check off as many states as possible, but when I had the chance I was hunting new states. Now I just hunt where I want, whether that be new states or not doesn’t matter. I love to travel and hunt turkeys. If I eventually end up with only a few states left then maybe I will finish “the slam” but it’s not a goal of mine anymore.


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