When the bases are loaded during a baseball game and the player at bat hits a home run, four runs score and it’s called a grand slam. Here in Maine, when a hunter tags a wild turkey, white-tailed deer, black bear and a moose in the same year, that’s also called a grand slam. While the two arenas and sports are very different, either accomplishment is a rare occurrence and a very memorable feat.
Along with the extreme wariness and far superior olfactory, aural and optical senses of the quarries, most hunters will agree that big game animals have several other factors in their favor. Sportsmen must deal with weather conditions and varying population numbers, hunting pressure and location of the pursuit, not to mention fickle luck.
Without a doubt, the most crucial piece of good fortune is having your name selected during the annual Maine moose lottery. Without that, there is no chance of a grand slam, and I can personally vouch for the fact that many folks apply for decades in vain. A lot of factors must fall into place to accomplish a pine tree grand slam, so imagine the odds of accomplishing that miraculous feat two years in a row.
Greg Palm of Presque Isle is a registered nurse and certified EMT with a small alphabet of degrees and credentials after his name. We’ve been waterfowl gunning buddies for years and also run several bear baits together each fall. I was elated to get his phone call on moose lottery day a couple of years ago telling me his name had been drawn. I was more amazed to learn that his wife Michaela, also a nurse, had also been selected.
Their dilemma was that the hunts were both the same week but in different zones; no way could their hospital schedules, home life and a baby on the way be juggled to accommodate dual hunts in one week. Greg was surprised when I explained that a call to the state wildlife office in Augusta would allow him to reschedule one of the hunts to the following year. Sure enough, the next day he phoned to say that the accommodating agent helped reassign one of the permits to the following fall.
At that time, with all the excitement of two upcoming moose hunts, the idea of a possible grand slam had yet to even germinate.
In early August Greg and I began setting up my four bear baiting sites and that’s the first time the subject of a possible grand slam became a real topic. Having fit in only a handful of spring turkey hunts with no success, a slam for Greg would have to be a fall objective — a daunting task.
Work, weather and whimsical black bear all combined to be a bane during several outings in September. It didn’t help that an abundance of natural food sources pulled bear from the bait sites for well over a week late in the month, and his bear tag went unfilled. Prospects of a slam seemed bleak, but it was time to put bear on the back burner and prepare for the fast approaching October moose hunt.
By 8 a.m. on Oct. 23, the first day of their weeklong hunt in zone 3, Greg and two friends were cleaning and loading a cow moose with a dressed weight of 568 pounds when weighed at the tagging station.
What took place over the next six hunting days borders on the unbelievable, but perseverance and luck can be a sportsman’s best assets.
The next day, Oct. 24, while partridge hunting and scouting for geese along Route 11 in Ashland, Greg spotted some turkey feeding in a roadside field. Using a farm road, and then a hedgerow and woodline, he slowly snuck and crawled within shotgun range and completed step two of the slam with a single shotgun blast. Having taken the entire week off from work for the moose hunt, it was time to orchestrate part three of the endeavor.
With bear baiting season having passed, spotting and stalking or a hound hunt were the only options available. Greg got in contact with Dickie Cullins of Blackwater Outfitters in Masardis, and they set up a hunt using tracking dogs for the next day. The hounds struck a scent trail at 10 a.m., and at 12:40 p.m. on Oct. 26, Greg was tagging his bear.
Only a deer remained to complete the grand slam.
Considering time and work constraints and the greater population of deer downstate compared to Aroostook, Greg purchased a doe permit in zone 26, where a friend owned land. Saturday was opening day, but not a whitetail was spotted, so he drove back to Presque Isle, worked the next two days, then drove south again to Plymouth to hit the woods at dawn on Tuesday. Just after 11 a.m., a spikehorn stepped into the game trail. Its dressed weight was 149 pounds.
Greg had accomplished a “pine tree grand slam” in just eight days.
While sharing a goose hunting blind with Greg and another waterfowling buddy in November, I congratulated him again on his amazing accomplishments in such a short time span. I wondered aloud if anyone had ever slammed two years in a row. Being a permittee or subpermittee for a moose hunt on consecutive years would be the largest stumbling block.
Despite tremendous odds, Greg had already jumped that hurdle the previous year. He was planning ahead for his second grand slam before the new year even began, setting up vacation days so as not to get all the hunts jammed together as had happened in 2023. Every outing of every season of every year is going to be different. That’s why it’s called hunting, not shooting, but it’s a challenge worth pursuing for your own satisfaction.
True to his vision, Greg took advantage of the spring turkey season and bagged a hefty tom on May 15 in Mapleton. In early August I set up my usual four bear baiting sites in Mars Hill, and Greg helped me tend them whenever work and the new baby allowed. Eight-month-old Amelia even joined us a few times in dad’s chest harness as we lugged bait to refill barrels. The payoff came on Sept. 6, with only minutes of legal light remaining, when Greg dropped the largest bruin of his career, a 387-pound brute.
The October moose hunt was soon at hand, and on day two, the 29th, in zone 5 near Oxbow, Greg downed a 589-pound moose. On Nov. 14, the final piece of his 2024 grand slam fell into place when he shot a buck that dressed out at 149 pounds. He spotted the whitetail while walking into his tree stand, which was located not 15 minutes from his home in Presque Isle. The cherry on this big game sundae happened Nov. 23, when Greg also filled his doe tag with a 120-pound whitetail.
Recordkeeping for Maine grand slams is sparse. The Maine Sportsman magazine only began keeping grand slam records 10 years ago. In 2023, there were 41 slams recorded, 52 over the entire state in 2024, and no indication of anyone ever accomplishing consecutive years.
Regardless, the delicious meat on the table and the indelible memories of each quarry and individual outing will remain with Greg Palm for the rest of his life, and the possibility and challenge of another grand slam will keep him returning to the woods year after year.
