Elycse Bartimus
Elycse Bartimus
Elycse Bartimus, a senior at Centerville High School, set a new world turkey hunting record this spring. She became the first female youth to complete a World Slam of North American Wild Turkey with a blackpowder shotgun during just 18 days of hunting.
A Wild Turkey World Slam is no small feat in itself, let alone completing this quest in a single season. A World Slam means harvesting one bird of each of six different wild turkey subspecies across North America. These subspecies include Osceola, Rio Grande, Eastern, Merriam, Ocellated and Goulds turkeys. These birds are each distinctly different in not only location, but coloring, calling and sheer numbers of birds available. To complete a World Slam, the hunter must harvest one mature male bird of each subspecies. Many hunters take several years and seasons to harvest only part these birds. You can count on one hand those who have completed a World Slam in a single hunting season.
Elycse began her quest on her 17th birthday in Sarasota, Florida, hunting Osceola turkeys. Amidst a whole parade of animals and birds out for their evening feeding time, Elycse waited more than three hours until a mature longbeard came to her calls. She shot that bird on the first day of her hunt.
She came home to attend her prom, wash and re-pack her hunting clothes, then made her way to her next stop, where she would hunt Merriams in neighboring Nebraska. Elycse traveled with good friend, guide and Four-Time World Champion Turkey Caller, Larry Norton. The first morning proved fruitless, but by that afternoon, she was on her way back home with bird number two.
Elycse slowed down a little to compete in the National Teenager Scholarship Pageant the very next weekend. She finished as first runner-up with a platform featuring, “Youth in Hunting and Conservation.” She brought her suitcase home loaded with evening gowns and rhinestone jewelry, trading it for her Mossy Oak duffel bag filled with camouflage and her favorite Knight TK 2000 shotgun. Then she boarded a plane to Texas seeking a Rio Grande tom. There, she ran into a few more difficulties because of weather and farm animals interrupting the hunt. This one took three days to complete! Elycse now had three birds down in five days.
Returning from Texas, she took a break to hunt in her own backyard. She spent five days hampered by thunderstorms and some plain bad luck. Things just weren’t going the way she had expected them to. She quit hunting for a few days to avoid burnout. then took a flight into the jungles of the Yucatan for the Ocellated variety.
This is the most unusual of all varieties, looking more like a peacock than the wild turkey most hunters are familiar with. The body and tail feathers are blues and purples, and “eyes” appear on the tips of tail feathers. This bird has no beard and doesn’t gobble like other varieties do. Hens are mute; so there’s no real way to call these birds. It may seem unsportsmanlike, but this bird is typically harvested by shooting it off the roost. The hunter goes into the jungle on foot, following a guide cutting paths through the jungle foliage with his machete. Then he listens for the Ocellated bird to begin “singing” just as the day breaks. Making his way through heavy cover, the hunter must then locate and shoot the bird before he flies down. Otherwise, the hunter loses his opportunity until the turkey comes back to roost in the late evening hours. The jungle floor is too thick to allow trailing a bird in midday.
It took Elycse three mornings to harvest her spectacular Ocellated turkey. The days weren’t wasted, Elycse used her free time to see the Mayan Ruins, a howling monkey, a great tapir, a jungle cougar, parrots, toucans, a great carasaw and other species too numerous to mention. Physically, it was by far the toughest hunt because of the heat and primitive conditions. It was also by far the most spectacular. Where else do you sleep under stars so brilliant, bathe in rivers with parrots and toucans hanging overhead and learn so much about a different culture and environment?
After the long trip back home, Elycse finally killed the her biggest bird of her adventure—the Eastern wild turkey. She had watched a group of these birds in a long green field for several days. Finally with a thunderstorm looming and only three hunting days left, she rushed home from school to try one more afternoon. As she pulled on her rain suit; the thunder was rolling, lightening was hitting the ground and huge drops of rain began to fall! Elycse had her eye on a bird that she and a friend had affectionately named “Number 13.” They decided upon close observation that Number 13 had at least a 13-inch beard and 2-inch spurs. This was the bird she wanted for her slam! As the rain began to come down in sheets, Elycse took her faithful Knight muzzleloader tucked under her arm and began to belly-crawl her way across the big green field while Number 13 gobbled and strutting his stuff for his hens, oblivious to her advancements on his territory! Each time the thunder clapped, 13 would gobble! Soaked to the skin and out of breath, Elycse lay in the tall grass waiting for 13 to turn and prayed for him to turn come her direction….. Finally! He was on his way; the rain was driving him to woods behind her for cover! As a hen ran by, she checked her Bushnell holo- sight and moved her finger to wipe the lens, 13 saw that minimal movement and the gig was up! He left the ground and Elycse had no choice but to stand and shoot! Thirteen fell to the ground with a thump and Elycse cried and laughed with excitement! The one that should have been the easiest proved to be the most difficult to complete. It had taken her 10 days to kill the backyard bird, but it was a dandy and the fifth bird was in the bag!!
Finally, the sixth and final bird was on the horizon, and the Ultimate World Record and World Slam was within her reach. She left for the Sierra Madras mountains near Chihuahua, Mexico to try for the Goulds turkey. She arrived late on a Tuesday night and woke up long before dawn. The season had been exhausting, but well worth the time and effort. One more to go and she would hold a new World Record.
She was up bright and early Wednesday morning, checked and loaded her gun, and was on her way to a mountaintop in old Mexico. She was traveling with her mother to the exact same location where her mom had finished her World Slam only four years before. With any luck, she would complete her mission that morning.
She dozed as she sat waiting for first light. Accumulated lack of sleep was catching up with her. As the sun rose over the mountain ridge, she heard gobbling in the distance. It wasn’t long before string of immature jakes and hens surrounding her.
Finally she spotted a beard swinging from the chest of a mature tom. His red head glowed in the morning sunlight, and he was blown up in full strut. The bird was truly a beautiful sight. He paraded to within five feet of her boots and circled behind, dancing amongst his hens and running the jakes away from his brood.
As the birds circled, Elycse decided to take the next shot offered. She picked her clearing and waited for the tom to step into it. The tom came through, mom clucked to stop him and the next thing we knew the gobbler was on the ground, completing Elycse’s slam!
In a daze, Elycse finally realized she was done with her quest. She had just completed a World Record, harvesting all six subspecies of North American Wild Turkey in just 18 days of hunting. No other young hunter—female or male—had ever come close to accomplishing this with a blackpowder shotgun.
Elycse thanks everyone in the hunting industry who helped support her along the way. She offers special thanks to Knight Rifles and Tony Knight for believing in her and her ability to accomplish her dream. Thanks also go to Bushnell Optics, Gamehide hunting apparel and Hodgdon Powder, along with her great friends, Larry Norton, Billy Dean, Manuel Enriquez, Alfredo Lamadrid and Gary and Deb Roberson, Rob Keck and the whole group at the National Wild Turkey Federation and the National Rifle Association. It was their support that made her quest possible.
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