Karen Mabe makes the most of her turkey hunting
Karen Mabe of Reidsville has become North Carolina’s first female hunter to record a grand slam with the National Wild Turkey Federation. Hunting with husband Randy, Mabe finished off her slam this spring with a Rio Grande gobbler, giving her all four wild turkey subspecies that call the United States home: Merriam’s, eastern and Osceola.
“Two years ago, I took an eastern hunting in Caswell County with Randy,” Karen Mabe said. “I began turkey hunting, sitting with him in a blind sometimes, until I decided, ‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.’”
In 2010, she took another eastern gobbler at almost the same instant her husband killed one. Then, they headed to Florida, where Karen took an Osceola.
“Since it was March, Florida’s warmer weather was appealing. So, I went with Randy and Todd Smith to Port St. Lucie to hunt private land,” she said. “I got my Osceola, and Randy got one, but Todd didn’t. On the way home, they said since I had two of the four turkeys, I should go for the slam.”
Driving to Kansas later that spring, the couple attempted unsuccessfully to get Karen a Rio Grande gobbler.
“We had one behind us that drummed until we were almost sick of hearing it,” she said. “But we had to leave, and headed for Lynch, Neb., in a rented vehicle to try for a Merriam’s.”
Arriving at a hunting lease for which they had paid a trespass fee, they changed clothes and headed straight into the woods.
“We went that first afternoon and had turkeys all over us,” Karen Mabe said. “I was in adrenaline shock, and just couldn’t pull the trigger when the gobbler came along behind 15 or 20 hens.”
They hunted the same gobbler the next morning, but someone towing a boat to a nearby pond scared the entire flock as the birds were coming up a hill. Undaunted, Karen Mabe stuck it out and shot her Merriam’s gobbler later in the afternoon.
By the end of the 2010 season, only a Rio Grande gobbler remained to complete her grand slam.
“You don’t have to take your slam during the same year,” Randy Mabe said. “I finished my shotgun grand slam in 2004 and became North Carolina’s first bowhunter to take a grand slam in 2008.
“I was working on my second bow grand slam, finishing it in 2010 on the same hunts that Karen was working on her shotgun grand slam.”
Randy Mabe said completing a Grand Slam with wife Karen was more about companionship and bonding that about hunting turkeys.
“We jumped fences, fell into creeks and huddled against each other to keep warm when it was 45 degrees and raining,” he said. “It was fun. More husbands and wives should hunt turkeys together.”
With three of four subspecies already bagged, Karen drove with her husband to Luray, Kan., on April 12.
“The first day in Kansas, it was raining and the wind was blowing, so we didn’t hunt,” she said. “We were hunting a different piece of property from the first year.”
The next morning, it was still cold and rainy, but the Mabes finally saw some jakes in the afternoon. The third morning, they tried hunting a different place, but when the turkeys left a roost, they flew off in another direction. No turkeys answered their calls.
“We went back to the blind and were trying to think of what to do,” Karen Mabe said. “Randy started messing around with his calls, and three jakes came in. He was calling and they were going crazy, gobbling all at once. They went on, but then we thought heard them again and realized they were they were coming back.
“It turned out to be two jakes and a gobbler, and I shot the gobbler at 35 yards.”
A call to NWTF headquarters in Edgefield, S.C., confirmed Karen Mabe’s feat.
“After Karen got her Rio Grande, we sent in the paperwork and called the NWTF a few days later,” Randy Mabe said. “Karen Cavender confirmed that Karen (Mabe) was the first female hunter from North Carolina to take the Grand Slam.”
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