Pennsylvania Outdoors Columnist
April 29, 2026, 3:44 p.m. ET
Pennsylvania teen gets rare hunting grand slam bear, buck, 2 turkeys
- The Pennsylvania Game Commission considers this a remarkable lifetime achievement for any hunter.
- Mitchell started hunting at age 8 and has been an avid outdoorsman ever since.
A Pennsylvania teenager completed a rare grand slam in hunting on April 25 with his spring gobbler.
Trevor Mitchell, 15, of Beaver County, was able to harvest a buck, a black bear, a fall turkey and a spring gobbler all in the same hunting license year.
His father Josh Mitchell takes him hunting near their home in Potter Township as well as other parts of the state.
Trevor, a ninth-grade student at Central Valley School District, started hunting deer at age 8 and was able to get two does that year. Ever since then, he’s been hooked on the sport.New hunting seasons: Pennsylvania’s 2026-27 hunting seasons bring changes for deer, elkNeed a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!
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In the fall of 2025, he was fortunate to shoot a buck with his crossbow on Oct. 7 on a farm near his home. The buck had nine points and a 15-inch inside spread.
Even though it was pouring down rain that evening, he was determined to go and use the new climbing tree stand his grandparents purchased him for Christmas. “It was really cool being up there,” Trevor said about sitting in the tree.
The buck stepped out about 100 yards away on a gas line right-of-way and moved closer toward Trevor. His father was nearby watching the action as the deer grazed to about 35 yards. “He waited. It was kind of facing towards him and he waited until it turned and gave him a perfect quartering away shot,” he said. “I got it all on video, it was pretty cool. It was pouring down rain, it was miserable,” the father said. “It’s hard to tell a kid no when he wants to go out in the woods, though.”
Trevor was hunting in an area that has a plentiful deer population. Later in the season while hunting for antlerless deer, he would see other bucks, but in Pennsylvania you are only permitted one buck a year. “The amount of massive bucks I’ve seen, like at 25 yards right in front of me, was just insane,” the teenager said.
Black bear hunting in Pennsylvania
He then hunted black bears with his .243 rifle during the special firearms black bear season on Oct. 24 in Bradford with their friend Carl Stoltz.
He remembered walking into the woods while it was still dark and waiting for daylight. Soon a big buck came into view, and he watched it run off. “The next thing I know, I just saw a bear come up like 200 yards back. My gun wasn’t loaded yet, so I threw my bullets into my gun. I got the bear in my scope, and it was running and then it would stop. Right when I would get the scope on it, it would run again,” he said. Soon he lost sight of the bear as it ran into a thicket before he could fire a shot.
“I thought it was gone,” he remembered telling his dad who was hunting nearby that he saw a bear and a buck. However, the bear soon came out of the thick cover, and he could see it about 150 yards away. He took the shot, and the 72-pound bear immediately fell over.
It was only the second bear he ever viewed in the wild. “It looked huge running through the woods because I was excited. I was shaking so bad. I was breathing and my scope was fogging up and stuff. I was shaking so bad,” the young hunter said.
Fall turkey hunt
Having a buck and a bear, he decided to try for a triple trophy with getting a fall turkey. They hunted turkeys in the past but haven’t had much success. However, Trevor was determined. “I have some friends who helped me out,” he said.
“Me and my buddy Conner Bragg every day after school we were going out,” he said. On Nov. 15, they found a flock of turkeys in a field, and they were able to separate the birds back into the woods. “I started assembly calling and a jake came back and gave me a good shot,” he said. “I was pretty excited.”
Now that he had a triple trophy, he set his sights on getting the fourth animal, a spring gobbler for a grand slam. On April 25, the youth season, he hunted all morning in the rain with his friend Jake Reynolds in Beaver County.
Spring gobbler success
They had a couple close encounters, including a hen that walked around them at daylight for about 30 minutes including going right over them. In the spring season, hunters can only harvest bearded beards and the hens are protected. The hunters were lying on the ground at a log and the hen got closer than they expected. “The turkey walked on the same tree that was in front of us and then it walked over the top of Jake,” Trevor said. They moved to another farm and listened for turkeys in the torrential rain. A little after 11, he saw some hens and a gobbler that wouldn’t respond to Trevor’s call.
Then another gobbler answered his call and started moving toward them. With legal shooting hours ending at noon, he wasn’t sure if the tom would get close enough before they had to quit. They set up a little closer to the bird and started calling. Fortunately, the bird responded and he was able to make the shot. The father remembers getting the call about 11:45 a.m. and assumed Trevor was calling that he was heading home. When he answered the phone, the young hunter yelled, “It’s done. The grand slam is done.” The father got excited and drove to meet them. “The gas pedal got heavy after that,” he said about rushing to congratulate him.
The gobbler had a beard that measured more than 9 inches with one-inch spurs.
In completing his grand slam, Trevor felt like he was in shock that morning. “I didn’t realize how big of a deal a grand slam was,” he said.
Travis Lau, communications director with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, highlights how remarkable it is for a hunter to get all four animals in one license year.
“While Pennsylvania hunters sometimes harvest upwards of 4,000 bears in a season, typically less than 2% of hunters will get a bear in a given year. That makes harvesting a bear somewhat rare on its own. Some hunters go a lifetime without ever filling their bear tag. That goes a long way in putting a triple trophy in perspective as the lifetime achievement it is. To accomplish it as a teenager is all the more remarkable, and serves as a timely reminder of the rewards our efforts afield might bring.”
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Taxidermist Jeffey Schlack is working on a mount that will incorporate all four animals including a European mount of the buck and the bear in a standing position holding up a tree with the turkey tail fans. “We’re not sure yet,” his dad said about the final design.
In addition to his grand slam, Trevor was able to help manage the deer population by harvesting five antlerless deer across three different Wildlife Management Units in western Pennsylvania.
He’s already looking forward to the new hunting year.
This fall he plans to use a compound bow instead of his crossbow for deer hunting. “He’s strong enough now,” his father said about being able to pull the string back.
Trevor is looking forward to hunting this fall and trying to get more big game animals. “I’m hoping I can do it again,” he said about the grand slam. And hopefully my dad can do it. He’s been trying his whole life to do it.”
His father is just proud of his son’s hard work and success. “It brings tears to my eyes even thinking about it. It’s just amazing, it really is,” he said.