When Chattanooga businessman Don Oscai recently completed the coveted world slam of turkey hunting, it carried even deeper meaning than normal.
The slate call he used last month in Mexico to get a Gould turkey memorialized a young hunting friend, Joel Parker of Clarksville, Tenn. Parker’s dad, Jim, made the call specifically for Oscai.
Joel won the Grand National Junior calling title at the National Wild Turkey Federation competition in 2007 but died in a traffic accident while going deer hunting two years ago, a few days before his 21st birthday.
Oscai, a turkey hunter for decades, already had claimed five of the bird’s six subspecies that are part of the world slam: the Eastern, Rio Grande, Merriam, Osceola and Ocellated. Only the Gould remained, and Oscai made plans to go to Mexico to get one.
When he saw Jim Parker at this year’s NWTF convention in Nashville, they decided to make the quest together. Parker told Oscai he was making a slate call for him in memory of Joel.