Getting a turkey grand slam — killing all four sub-species, Osceola, Eastern, Merriam’s and Rio Grande — in a single season is a daunting task. Imagine a father and son accomplishing it; Scott and Jake Ellis did it in 2017.
“We started out hunting in Florida, and both of us got an Osceola,” Scott Ellis said. “Then, we went to eastern Kentucky and hunted, and Jake and I both harvested Eastern birds.
“After we got our Eastern toms, I started thinking about the single season grand slam. We were about the halfway point of the turkey seasons around the country, mid-April, and it occurred to me that we might be able to do it.”
When Scott Ellis got his Rio Gramde in Kansas, he knew that the single-season grand slam was possible if everything went right. The next stop for the talented father and son duo was Oregon where they have both Rios and Merriam’s.
“We had 3½ days to hunt with our good friends, Bo and Casey Brooks so we decided to see if we could get Jake’s birds first and then see what happened,” Ellis said. “As it turned out, Jake got both his Rio and Merriam’s to complete his first grand slam, and we had one day to go. On the last day I got my Merriam’s.”
