Bowhunting "SLAMS" - 1st in a Series
In trophy hunting circles, the word "slam" is being thrown around more than ever before, but what is a "slam"?
As far as I can find out, the term first became popular around 1950. Gancel Fitz, an avid trophy hunter and member of the Boone and Crockett Club committee that established the current methods, systems, and forms for measuring all North American big game animals, is often credited with coining the term "Grand Slam" as it related to North American wild sheep. The "Grand Slam" quite simply was the taking of one of each of the four sub-species of North American wild sheep (bighorn, dall, stone, and desert bighorn). At the time, (circa 1950) it was considered a tremendous achievement to accomplish this for even the best hunter using the finest rifle.
While it is still a worthy goal, there are now so many people that have achieved it that there is a separate organization dedicated to hunters that have (or are working on it). The organization has over 450 members that have completed their "slams", and hundreds more that are ¾ of the way there. There are even a number of bowhunters that have successfully completed the grand slam of North American wild sheep.
From the Grand Slam of North American sheep things evolved. From a sheep hunter's perspective, the ultimate goal now is the "Super Slam of Sheep" which includes the twelve species of wild sheep found around the world. A lofty goal, but one that has been completed by many, and is actively sought by many more.
Staying with North America, and honing in on bowhunting, there are a number of "slams" to consider. I am not sure which came first, or who started any of them, but the first I heard anything about was the "slam" of North American deer. There are five species recognized by the Pope & Young Club for record keeping purposes, and taking one of each would represent completing the "slam". The five species are whitetail, mule deer, couse, blacktail, and sitka. While you do not hear about this particular slam much anymore, it was mentioned often with respect to Chuck Adams before he completed his "super slam" of North American game animals a few years back. A more popular "slam" is the "slam of North American caribou" (five sub-species). Actually this started out with four species just like the sheep, but then both Pope & Young and Boone & Crockett recognized the Central Canadian Caribou as a fifth species for record keeping purposes and the "slam" also grew to five species.
There are two less often mentioned "slams" that are valid, and pursued by many sportsman. The "slam" of moose (Alaska/Yukon, Canadian, and Shiras), and Newfoundland's "slam" (caribou, moose, and black bear), both come up from time to time. Of course, all of these have become less mentioned in the last few years in favor of the "super slam" of North American game. While there have been hundreds of serious trophy bowhunters adding species to their respective collections for many years, I'm not sure many of them ever really gave much thought to competing the entire "super slam", that is until Chuck Adams did it and every magazine in the world started writing about it! Now, all of a sudden, it was a reachable goal. Actually, there were a number of serious bowhunters close to completing their own "super slams" when Chuck won the race. In just the last few years at least five other bow benders have joined the racks of "super slammers" having taken all 28 species recognized by Pope & Young.
The completion of "slams" has become a popular news/promotional item. I don't know where it started, but the first thing I remember was various sponsors of Chuck Adams listing on his credits that he had taken several "slams" of North American deer. The next thing I remember was the fall when there were at least four bowhunters all chasing desert sheep at the same time trying to see who would complete the "Grand Slam" of North American wild sheep (with a bow) first. Jack Frost from Alaska is commonly credited with being first, followed closely by Mr. Adams.
Not to be out done (at least for long), Chuck was first to complete the "super slam" of all 28 species, a feat that was especially well publicized both then and now. Shortly after this announcement, Tom Hoffman from New York became the first to complete the "super slam" with all 28 species qualifying for the Pope & Young records! I suppose the next logical step (if you can consider this logical) will be to start keeping track of who has the largest "super slam" by adding up the total scores of the largest animal of each species taken by a hunter and comparing the total against the total of other hunters. Sound silly? Gun hunters have been doing it for years with their sheep slams!
While all this may be interesting, what does it have to do with anything, you might ask. If/when a person decides to become a trophy hunter, they set goals. The goal might be as simple as the harvest of a whitetail deer of a certain score or above, but more often it has to do with putting together a collection of big game animals. As North American hunters, our goals usually involve species we can chase here on this continent. Knowing what all 28 species are, and where they are found/hunted, is a good basic starting point toward putting a goal/plan together. Before I go any further, I should tell you that it may not be realistic to try to complete the "super slam". To take all 28 species requires a lot more than desire! It also takes more than hard work, good shooting, and being a good hunter. It takes a lot of time, and more importantly, a lot of money!
Lets deal with the time element first: Because we are talking about bowhunting, we have to assume that not all hunts will be successful. Lets say you are a heck of a hunter (and real lucky besides!) and manage to get the animal you hunt for two out of every three times. That means it will take forty-two hunts to complete the task! If you take two hunts per year, with an average duration of ten days, it will take twenty-one years and four hundred and twenty hunting days. That is a lot of time in my book, and I do not know many people that are successful two out of three times when trophy bowhunting! Of course, you can cut the time down if you go on more than two hunts per year and/or do multi-species hunts, but how many of us can take that much time away from work and family each year?
Once you have the time problem under control, there is still the issue of money. While you can hunt deer for almost nothing (you at least need a license!) in your back yard, most of these species require a guide, expensive tags, and travel expenses. Some of these species are more "pricey" than others, making the total cost of a super slam well beyond the reasonable limits of all but a few. For example, desert sheep hunts (unless you win one of the one-hundred to one shot limited drawings) are running over $50,000.00. A decent Polar bear hunt goes for over $15,000.00, and a bargain stone sheep hunt will run $12,000.00 or more.
Alaskan Brown bears, and/or grizzly bears, are running in the $10,000.00-$15,000.00 range. No matter how you slice it, fulfilling the goal of completing the "super slam" with a bow will run considerably more than $350,000.00 at today's prices. Factor in inflation over the next 10-20 years and your looking at well over half a millions dollars! How many bowhunters do you know that can figure on spending that kind of money on hunting trips?
Take heart, there is a more realistic goal for the average (to above average) trophy bowhunter. I refer to it as the "Representative Slam" of North American big game, and I believe it is with-in the reasonable expectations of serious trophy bowhunters that have time and good health on their sides. The "representative slam" includes one animal of each of the major species. In place of five caribou, it includes just one (any one works just fine!). It includes one moose (not three), one of the two elk, one of the five deer, one of the four sheep, and one of the four bears. Adding in bison, goat, cougar, pronghorn, and musk ox, you come up with eleven species. This is much more "manageable" than twenty-eight, and by eliminating the more expensive animals, it can be done over a reasonable amount of time with a much more reasonable budget.
For those of us who want a bit more challenge, but are not up to the "super slam" category, there is also an "Expanded Representative Slam", that includes three more species. It breaks the deer category down into two separate groups: whitetail (and couse) and branch antlered (mule, sitka, or blacktail), adds a brown/grizzly bear, and divides the sheep into thin (dall & stone) and thick (bighorn & desert) horns.
There you have it, more "slams" than you will ever know what to do with! The biggest mistake most people make is thinking that attempting to put a serious trophy collection together is just imposable. The quality of hunting is getting better all the time, and while some hunts can be expensive, they do not all have to be. For the expensive ones, plan ahead and save for them. While you are saving, and planning, work on the ones you can do self-guided or at lower cost. We all live near decent deer hunting, so for the cost of tags, and with some hard work, you should be able to start the process. Many of the species can be hunted for "short money" if you do your homework, and others can be done much less expensively if you draw limited tags and/or special permits.
For example, if you draw a bighorn sheep tag in any western state you can find an outfitter that knows what he is doing in the $3,000.00-$5,000.00 range, while an outfitted hunt in Canada would cost $12,000.00-$20,000.00 (tag included). A quality moose hunt in Maine will run $4,000.00 less than a decent moose hunt in western Canada, and has the same trophy potential, if only you draw one of the 1500 tags in the State lottery. There are more examples, but we will save them for future columns.
Good hunting,