“Everybody has a dream, and you can do anything. The sky is the limit. It’s just a matter of how bad that you want to do it.” Mississippi turkey hunter Chip Davis shared those encouraging words with me last week during his drive back home to the Magnolia State from West Virginia.

The day before, Davis had done something only 13 others have ever done by completing the U.S. Super Slam of wild turkey hunting. In order to make this claim, a hunter must take a turkey from 49 of the 50 states (Alaska has no turkeys).

Davis, who is from Grenada, is in the process of registering his turkeys for this season with the National Wild Turkey Federation, which will make his Super Slam official, and he told me he is still soaking in the reality of what he has accomplished.

As we talked about his adventures over the 30-year period it took to make his dream of the Slam a reality, a familiar theme emerged: It seems that in as much as it was about the turkeys, it was also about the people and places along the way.

The first state Davis hunted outside of Mississippi was Missouri, and after finding success in the “Show Me State,” his initial quest became completing the Grand Slam of turkey hunting by taking one of each of the four subspecies in America: Eastern, Osceola, Merriam’s and Rio Grande.

After achieving the Grand Slam, the avid turkey hunter began pursuing the goal of completing a Super Slam. “I printed off a small postcard-sized map of the United States, and every year after the season I would color the states where I got my turkeys in red.”

The persistence Davis exhibited in his pursuit of the Slam is, to say the least, impressive. “It was almost exactly 30 years from the date that I shot my first out-of-state turkey until the date that I shot my last out-of-state turkey,” he explained.

Coming into this season, Davis lacked four states to complete his objective: Hawaii, Arizona, Virginia and West Virginia. Hawaii was up first, as Davis and his wife, Marla Kay, traveled there to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. While there, he successfully harvested his island bird, which left only three states remaining.

After returning home, he had only four days to hunt in Mississippi due to the timing of his remaining hunts, and he made the most of those, harvesting longbeards on three consecutive days.

Davis, who was very humble about his success, has 20 Grand Slams and also has another impressive accomplishment under his belt: He has successfully harvested a limit of turkeys in Mississippi for 35 seasons in a row.

Knowing personally the challenge of hunting Easterns here at home, I may be as impressed with that streak as I am with Davis’ Super Slam. He humbly acknowledged his success saying, “There’s bad-luck turkeys and good-luck turkeys — those three were good-luck turkeys.”

Following his hunts in Mississippi, he successfully harvested a turkey in Arizona, which left Virginia and West Virginia. When Davis first began chasing his dream 30 years ago, he said he first focused on border states and the corners of states that would allow him to hunt in multiple states during one trip.

As successful as he has been along the way, achieving the Slam was not always easy. Outside of the logistical challenges of planning and sometimes re-planning (he had to repeat hunts in five different states), Davis also had to deal with challenges beyond his control, such as weather. In fact, he almost froze to death (literally) while chasing gobblers during a snowstorm in Nebraska.

Through it all, the places have remained a highlight, and according to Chip, so have the people. Early on, in one of his many trips to Missouri, Davis met another turkey hunter while checking into a hotel. The two hunters shared supper and struck up a lasting friendship. “About four years later, I named my youngest son after John,” he explained.

The two hunted together for years after their chance meeting, right up until John’s untimely death in an automobile accident. Turkey hunting has a way of forging special bonds between those that share it. “I said John’s name aloud when I had that last turkey in West Virginia coming in,” Davis said. “It’s the places you see, and it’s the people that you meet along the way.”

The final turkey in West Virginia came on Tuesday, April 19. Davis said he spent the prior day hunting in a pop-up blind in the rain. During his time in the blind that day, he pulled up an alphabetical list of the states and spent the day going state by state thinking about each of his hunts and remembering the places, the people and the turkeys.

What’s next for this accomplished turkey hunter? Davis told me he just wants to savor the Super Slam for now. Seems like great advice for all of us. Savor each moment this week, and until next time, I look forward to seeing you out there in our great outdoors.

Email outdoors columnist Brad Dye at braddye@comcast.net.