Utah Waterfowl Slam
Embark on a new challenge while helping waterfowl
New: Buy a Waterfowl Slam entry voucher online or at any license agent and submit your photos online to complete each slam.
The Utah Waterfowl Slam gives hunters an extra challenge while you're hunting and the opportunity to earn a commemorative, collectable band that shows off their accomplishments. The money earned from the slam is used to complete projects on the Division's Waterfowl Management Areas. (Learn more about how the money is spent.)
Hunters earn a slam by completing an objective like harvesting a group of species in a certain time period or location. There are currently ten different slams with different levels of difficulty, so you can find one that gives you the best challenge.
How to sign up
To begin, you need to purchase a Waterfowl Slam entry voucher online or at any license agent. (Entry vouchers look similar to hunting licenses and are printed on license paper.)
The entry fee is $20 for hunters 18 years of age or older or $10 for hunters 17 years of age or younger.
Once you've purchased your entry, you'll be ready to earn your slams. Starting this year, you no longer need to pick up a slam card from a retail partner to participate. Instead, you can submit a photo of yourself with each animal online. (You do not need to have a slam card or your entry voucher in the photos.)
How to complete a slam
To earn one of the ten slams, you must harvest drakes of the species listed below. To receive the band for your hard work, just fill out the online completion form and upload pictures of you with your harvest.
Bands will be mailed out after all waterfowl seasons have ended. Remember: you no longer need to pick up a slam card from a partner retailer, or to have a slam card or entry voucher in the photos. Each year you participate, you can redeem your slam until April 30.
In addition to the ten slams listed below, everyone who signs up will earn a band for harvesting their first duck, goose or swan of the waterfowl season and sharing the photo with us.
Coot slam
- One day limit
Diver slam (one drake of each species throughout the season)
- Redhead
- Canvasback
- Ring-neck
- Scaup (lesser or greater)
- Ruddy
- Bufflehead
- Goldeneye (common or Barrow's)
- Merganser (common, red-breasted or hooded)
Goose Slam
- One day limit
Mallard Slam
- One day limit
Puddler slam (one drake of each species throughout the season)
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- American wigeon
- Gadwall
- Cinnamon teal
- Green-winged teal
- Northern shoveler
- American coot
Shoveler slam
- One day limit
- Note: Shovelers are currently under a mercury advisory in Northern Utah. For more information, visit the Utah Waterfowl Advisories page.
Teal slam
- One day limit
Wigeon slam
- One day limit
WMA slam
- Visit Waterfowl Management Areas and take a picture by six entrance signs:
Utah Waterfowl Ultimate Slam
One drake of each species in a single season or during your lifetime
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- American wigeon
- Gadwall
- Cinnamon teal
- Green-winged teal
- Northern shoveler
- Redhead
- Canvasback
- Ring-neck
- Scaup (lesser or greater)
- Ruddy
- Bufflehead
- Goldeneye (common or Barrow's)
- Merganser (common, red-breasted or hooded)
- Amerian coot
- Canada Goose
- Snow/Ross's Goose
- Tundra Swan
Completing an Ultimate Slam
Each person who achieves the ultimate slam will receive the following:
- Certificate of Achievement from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
- Consecutively Numbered Ultimate Slam band
- Authentic Canada goose neck collar
To complete your Ultimate Slam, use the Utah Waterfowl Slam completion form to provide us with your phone number and email address and then we will contact you with a way to share your photos.
How the money will be spent
Money raised from the Waterfowl Slam will be used for projects on the Division's Waterfowl Management Areas. Slam funds have helped pay for new units at Farmington Bay and Ogden Bay, and smaller water and habitat improvement projects on WMAs. These projects would not have been possible without the Waterfowl Slam.
We are currently working on several property acquisitions to expand the size of several WMAs in the state. Any money raised from the Waterfowl Slam for the next several years will go towards these acquisitions.
Participants from outside of Utah
While most of these slams are specific to Utah, but you can participate if you live outside of the state. You can earn the slams by harvesting your flyway's maximum bag limit for each species slam. The puddler, diver and ultimate slam are complete when a participant harvests the all of the species listed for that slam.
Where to hunt
Divers: Unit 1 at Farmington Bay can be an excellent place to harvest divers, particularly redheads, scaup, ring-necks and ruddy ducks. Bear River Bird Refuge and Harold Crane are excellent places to harvest canvasbacks. Diver numbers usually peak in mid November.
Mallards: Mallards are the most widely distributed ducks in Utah. Clear Lake, Salt Creek, Public Shooting Grounds and Browns Park can all be great places to harvest mallards.
Teal: Cinnamon teal are very early migrants. Your best chance to harvest one is during the first few weeks of the season. Cinnamon and green-winged teal frequent the shores of the Great Salt Lake. Try hunting outside the dikes of Farmington Bay or Ogden Bay. Green-winged teal hunting is excellent at Pintail Flats at Ogden Bay in January.
Coots: Every Waterfowl Management Area in the state has high numbers of coots. Glassing and stalking coots can be a very fun way to hunt them.
Wigeon: Many wigeon pass through Utah each year. Public Shooting Grounds and Salt Creek WMAs can be excellent places to hunt wigeon in October. Clear Lake also has excellent wigeon hunting.
Swans: Swan hunting can be very good at Unit 1A on Bear River Bird Refuge, Ogden Bay or Harold Crane. Most hunters pass shoot swans, but swan will readily drop into decoys as well. Swan decoys, goose decoys painted white or white garbage bags can attract swans into shooting range.
Canada geese: Geese are found throughout Utah. You can harvest geese on any of the Waterfowl Management Areas. Geese also frequent the Green River in eastern Utah and Cutler Marsh in northern Utah. Goose hunting success is highest at the beginning and end of the season.
About the Waterfowl Slam
The Waterfowl Slam is a partnership between the Division of Wildlife Resources and multiple conservation organizations and sponsors. The program is designed to:
- Encourage hunters to improve their waterfowl identification
- Help hunters learn more about waterfowl habitats and waterfowl behavior
- Increase excitement for waterfowl hunting
- Raise money for waterfowl-specific projects
- Increase harvest of underutilized species
- Create friendly competition among hunters
Partners and sponsors
- Delta Waterfowl
- Ducks Unlimited
- Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife
- Fowl Minded
- Sportsman's Warehouse
- Kent's Market
- Camp Chef
- Tangle Free
- Basin Sports
- Cabela's