A grand slam is when a hunter tags a wild turkey, white-tailed deer, black bear and a moose in the same year.
It’s a relatively rare accomplishment, and requires a little help from Lady Luck. Crucial to the feat is being drawn for a moose permit in the state’s annual lottery.
Recordkeeping for Maine grand slams is sparse. The Maine Sportsman magazine, which offers dozens of hunting and fishing award patches annually, began keeping grand slam records just 10 years ago.
There were 41 grand slams recorded in 2023, and 52 for the entire state in 2024. There was no indication of anyone having accomplished them in consecutive years.
Let me introduce you to Greg Palm of Presque Isle, who got his first grand slam in 2023 in just eight days, and his second one in 2024.
Palm 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 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, was awarded a permit too.
Their dilemma was that the hunts were both the same week but in different zones. No way would their hospital schedules, home life and a baby on the way be juggled to accommodate dual hunts in one week. Greg called the state wildlife office in Augusta, which reassigned one of the permits to the following fall.
After the June moose lottery, the Palms often worked opposite schedules at the hospital and prepared for their first baby, due to arrive in December.
In early August, the idea of a possible grand slam came up while Greg and I were setting up my four bear baiting sites. Having fit in only a handful of spring turkey hunts with no success, a slam for Greg would have to be an all-fall objective — a daunting task.
Work, weather and black bears eating natural food instead of bait all worked against Greg’s attempt to fill his bear tag. Prospects of a grand slam were bleak, but it was time to put bears on the back burner and prepare for the October moose hunt.
By 8 a.m. on Oct. 23, the first day of their week-long hunt in zone 3, Greg and two friends were cleaning and loading a cow moose with a dressed weight of 568 pounds.
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 very next day, while hunting for partridge and scouting for geese along Route 11 in Ashland, Greg spotted some turkeys feeding in a roadside field. Using a farm road, and then a hedgerow and woodline, he slowly made his way toward them, crawling within shotgun range and completing step two of the slam with a single shotgun blast.
With the entire week off from work, Greg decided to pursue his third animal — a bear.
He contacted Dickie Cullins of Blackwater Outfitters in Masardis and set up a hunt using dogs the next day. The hounds struck a scent trail at 10 a.m. and Greg was tagging his bear at 12:40 p.m. on Oct. 26.
Greg then purchased a doe permit in zone 26 in Plymouth, where a friend owned land. He did not see a deer on opening day, so drove back to Presque Isle, worked the next two days, then returned to Plymouth. Just after 11 a.m., a spikehorn stepped into the game trail and Greg shot it. The deer dressed out at 149 pounds.
Greg Palm had accomplished his grand slam from start to finish 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 accomplishment, and wondered aloud if anyone had gotten grand slams two years in a row.
With the second moose permit from 2023 already in his arsenal, Greg was planning his second grand slam before 2024 even began. He set up vacation days throughout the seasons for each animal.
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 her father’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 hunting career, a 387-pound brute.
On Oct. 29, the second day of the moose hunt in zone 5 near Oxbow, Greg shot a 589-pound moose.
On Nov. 14, he shot a buck that dressed out at 149 pounds while walking to his tree stand, completing his grand slam for the second year in a row. The cherry on this big game sundae occurred Nov. 23 when Greg also filled his doe tag with a whitetail that dressed out at 120 pounds.
The delicious meat on the table, and the indelible memories of each quarry and the individual outings, will remain with Greg Palm for the rest of his life. The possibility and challenge of another grand slam will keep him returning to the woods year after year.
