My Grand Slam

BY Erin Argraves

This year’s grand slam started with my bear. I harvested a nice sow on a bait on September 6th. I shot it with a .300 win mag. I was sitting in a ground blind with my husband as we watched the bear come in. The bear was harvested in Mapleton and tagged at Washburn Trailside in Washburn.

Moose

Next up was my moose. Being a high school teacher in Aroostook County means that our students are out for three weeks for harvest break. Kids help the farmers by working the potato harvest and I was lucky enough for my moose week to fall in that three week span. I harvested my beautiful bull on Monday, September 25th, by 7 a.m.. It was so exciting. We set up the call and immediately had two cows come and check us out. They wandered off and we walked up over the hill to where they had been and heard the bull grunt to our left in an old clear cut. So we walked up further and spotted the two cows on either side of the old cutting and searched for the bull. I spotted his paddles in the middle of the cut when he turned his head. They were bright red in the sunshine. I found him in the scope and my husband was looking through the binoculars and I said that yes, that was the moose I wanted. I had no shot (he was laying down) and I lost him in the scope after looking at him with just my eyes. Once I found him in the scope again he had stood up and was broadside so I took the shot right then. He never stepped and went down right there. Having both my husband and daughters with me for the hunt made it even more amazing. I can’t express the excitement and range of emotions I feel about that morning. It was absolutely incredible. I tagged my moose at Gateway Variety in Ashland. I once again used the .300 win mag. My moose weighed in at 786lbs with a 47″ spread straight across.

Deer

My third leg was the deer. I got my buck with a crossbow on October 5th.  My husband and I were actually out looking for turkeys that night. The game camera went off in the field behind our house with a nice little 4 point so we decided to go back home and check it out. By the time we got there he was gone of course. We walked around our woods and field out back and then headed back to the truck. As we rounded the corner, almost back to the truck I spotted a deer standing next to the woods. We ranged him at 18 yards and I fired the crossbow with a through and through shot hitting heart and lungs. It turned out to be an 8 pointer that we had on camera earlier in the year. My first buck ever!

Turkey

The final part was the turkey. I harvested my turkey on October 16th. I was done school for the day and in between running one daughter to the barn for riding lessons and picking the other up from basketball practice. I decided to take a look in some fields on the same road that my husband’s business is on when a customer showed up and told us there were turkeys in the field I was headed to. So off we went. I harvested my hen about five minutes later in my work/school clothes. I got my hen with a 12 gauge shotgun in Mapleton. My very first turkey ever!

For more articles about hunting, fishing and the great outdoors, be sure to subscribe to the Northwoods Sporting Journal.