To a sheep hunter, the Grand Slam is the holy grail of sporting. Many hunters dream of taking a single sheep from the four categories (Dall, stone, bighorn, and desert bighorn), but only the most dedicated will spend a lifetime in the quest for all four species.
As much fun as one species can be, the adventure takes on new meaning when you seek similar subspecies, usually in different terrain, habitat, and location. Turkey hunters love the grand slam of gobblers: Rio Grande, Merriam’s, Osceola, and Eastern. Make the slam royal by adding the Gould’s; achieve the world slam with the Oscillated.
What about other animals? Want to try to go for all of these?
Whitetail deer: There may be as many as 40 subspecies in North America, but what a challenge it would be!
Mule deer: 12 subspecies here, including Rocky Mountain, desert, blacktail, southern, and Sitka blacktail deer
Caribou: Mountain Caribou, Woodland, Alaska-Yukon Barren Ground, Central Canada Bearing Ground, Quebec-Labrador, and Arctic Islands caribou
Major deer species: whitetail deer, mule deer, moose, caribou, elk
Bear: grizzly or brown bear, black, and polar
Finally, having a taxidermy example of the male and female of a species makes for a most interesting presentation, so don’t discount the doe tag.
