By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
A grand slam in baseball is when one hits a home run with the bases loaded. The grand slam in professional tennis is winning the Australian, French, British, and U.S. opens. In golf, the grand slam is winning the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and the PGA Championship.
Caledonia resident Al Huesmann recently completed a grand slam that very few persons in Minnesota have completed. Huesmann, who has been an avid hunter and fisherman for most of his 72 years, traveled to Florida in March and bagged an Osceola wild turkey, which is one of the four sub-species of wild turkey found in the United States.
Huesmann has been hunting wild turkeys for more than 25 years. He figures he’s probably bagged close to 100 Eastern, Merriam, and Rio Grande turkeys during hunts in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and in the Rocky Mountains. But the bird he bagged in Florida in March was his first Osceola, which completed the wild turkey hunter’s grand slam.
“I’d read about hunters bagging all four sub-species for the grand slam,” Huesmann recalled. “It wasn’t until I read the third or fourth article about this that I decided it was something I wanted to do.”
So Huesmann started researching hunting guides in Florida, found what sounded like a reputable guiding service and answered the ad. The season in Florida Huesmann planned to hunt began March 15.
“We scouted the area the afternoon before our hunt,” Huesmann recalled. “I bagged my bird the next morning after hunting for about two and one half hours. It took me about 45 minutes to call the bird in, and had a clean shot. I really wasn’t expecting to bag a bird my first time in Florida. I figured it would take a few seasons, scouting around, and getting the lay of the land.”
How he got started
Huesmann, like most hunters from Southeast Minnesota, didn’t know much about wild turkeys, since there weren’t any in the area until about 25 years ago.
He saw his first turkey tracks in the snow while hunting big game in Wyoming in the 1960s.
“I asked one of the guys I was hunting with what the heck made those large tracks in the snow. He told me it was a wild turkey.”
About 30 years ago, the DNR decided to introduce Eastern wild turkeys to Southeast Minnesota. Huesmann didn’t know anything about wild turkeys, except for his encounter with the tracks in Wyoming. But he not only supported the DNR’s plans, but became very active in the promotion of wild turkeys in the area. He was elected as the first president of the Houston County Wild Turkey Federation, which recently celebrated its 25 anniversary. At the 25-year anniversary celebration, Huesmann was presented with a special award for his many years of service to the organization.
Huesmann started hunting wild turkeys in the Caledonia area several years after the DNR introduced turkeys to Southeast Minnesota in the late 1970s. But he bagged his first bird, which was not an Eastern turkey, but a Merriam, while hunting in South Dakota in the early 1980s.
Once he shot his first turkey, Huesmann was hooked. He figures he’s bagged a dozen Eastern turkeys in Minnesota and Iowa, at least 30 Rio Grande turkeys while hunting in Oklahoma, and during the past 18 years he’s hunted in South Dakota, he’s harvested more than 50 Merriam turkeys.
“The turkeys are so thick out in South Dakota. It’s amazing. And they’re the dumb ones. They’re easier to call in. The birds we have here are a lot smarter, and tougher to bag,” he said with a smile.
Huesmann noted the Eastern turkey is the largest of the four sub-species, and regarded as the top trophy.
The Osceola turkey he recently bagged in Florida had a 10.5 inch beard, 1.3 inch spurts and weighed 15 pounds. The heaviest Eastern turkey Huesmann has bagged was a 30-pounder he shot in Iowa.
Getting the grand slam for hunters in other parts of the county isn’t that big of a deal, Huesmann explained. In many places, folks have been hunting turkeys for many generations. Because they were just introduced here 25 years ago, there haven’t been a lot of Minnesota hunters who can state they have achieved the grand slam of turkey hunting. But the retired banker from Caledonia can.
So where will the veteran hunter be this week? Out in the woods of Southeast Minnesota trying to bag another Eastern turkey.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 |
