OSP Writers Conference with Gil and Vicki Ash - Steve Helinski

On June 24, 2010 Gil and Vicki Ash hosted outdoor writers at the sporting clays course at the Hill 'n Dale Club in Medina Ohio. I was lucky enough to be invited.

Being a novice at sporting clays, I was apprehensive about attending the conference. I am left eye dominant and right handed. This had caused me lots of problems in the past while shooting sporting clays. I had resorted to using a piece of scotch tape on the left lens of my shooting glasses. I knew the Ash’s opinion on this…..

Leading up to the class I had practiced the OSP (Optimum Shotgun Performance) Shooting School flashlight drill. This drill has you stick a small mag light down the barrel of your unloaded shotgun while you practice instinctively mounting and swinging the gun, while keeping the beam of light on a wall/ceiling seam. Practice this as I may, I couldn’t seem to put it all together at the range. I resorted to pre-mounting the gun and then swinging at the target at the range. The amount birds I missed was staggering. I wasn’t getting a clear view of birds with the tape over my eye. I only was succeeding in making my shoulder sore.

In the days approaching the conference, I went back and re-read the Ash’s book “If It Ain’t Broke, Fix It”. I re-watched their videos. I wondered if I could put it all together. I left the tape on my left shooting lens......

Grand Slammin' with a Crossbow - Lane Kinney

My quest to become the first person to take the Grand Slam of North American Wild Turkeys with a crossbow actually started six years ago. It was at that time that I purchased my first crossbow, a TenPoint Pro Fusion.

During that first year I took 8 species of animals with my crossbow including several SCI world records. Two of the animals I was fortunate enough to harvest were a Rio Grande Turkey in Texas and an Osceola Turkey in my home state of Florida. 

After taking those two turkeys I realized that I was already half way to my Grand Slam. It was at this point that I started checking the SCI record book and realized that no SCI member had ever taken the Grand Slam with a crossbow let alone doing it in the same season.

Being goal oriented I decided that the 2008 spring turkey season would be the year I dedicated myself to taking the Grand Slam with my crossbow.

The first thing I needed to do was research where it was legal to hunt spring turkeys with a crossbow. I quickly learned that many states have not yet legalized crossbows. The other requirement I had was that I be allowed to hunt on my own and do all my own calling. This was a very personal quest I was about to embark on and if I succeeded, I wanted to be able to say I did it without someone else calling my birds. Luckily my home state of Florida allowed crossbows. I immediately booked an Osceola hunt with William Welbourn Outfitting for the opening week in south Florida. I live in the panhandle of Florida where our turkeys are the Eastern sub species. It would be on my home hunting grounds where I would attempt to take my Eastern bird.