This story could get pretty long, so I better not dwell on the fine details. Six of us were in camp this year. Jay Cutsor, Bob, Niedbalski, Luke Niedbalski, and I arrived at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Roy Richters and Jim Woolsey showed up at noon on Friday. Camp was set up by 4:30 and we were off to obtain the needed permissions. By 6:30, we were climbing the steep hill to the Promised Land. As I slowly approached the open field to the Promised Land, I spied a couple hens feeding in the field and heading towards our position in the shelter belt. The couple hens turned into 7-8 hens, a jake and a tom. The hens quickly closed ground and caught Jay, Luke, and Bob standing. I whispered to them to lay prone and I sat against an ash tree. In behind the hens, I spied a tom. I let out a few yelps and he immediately went into display. He paraded right past the hens and into gun range. I shot him at 23 yards, 2 minutes into our hunt. Bob stayed at the Promised Land and the rest of us headed back to camp to try different areas while I cleaned my bird. At sundown, my bird was cleaned and I was able to put another bird to bed along Bazille Creek.

In the morning, I showed Bob a nice tree to sit against, which put him inside of 40 yards of the bird. I sat 10 yards behind him. We were set up at 5:50 a.m. with sunrise at 6:35. There ended up being 2 toms in the trees and they did not fly down until an unbelievable 8:20 a.m. I had never seen this before. Both toms flew down away from us, but the first one immediately headed towards us to check out the hen that had been yelping for a few hours. Bob harvested the nice 20+ pound bird. Meanwhile, Luke walked East from camp to hunt some new land and walked right into a roost tree full of turkeys. They all flushed and he followed them around the hills for awhile. Finally, he watched a nice tom with 5 hens feed over a hill. He slowly approached the hilltop and watched the 5 hens run out from under his feet. He took another step and noticed the tom crouched down and hiding. The tom took off flying and Luke tumbled him out of the air. His first ever turkey. Jay had no luck in the morning and Bob, Jay, and I left camp around 3:30 for an afternoon hunt. We immediately spied 4 birds about a mile south of camp in Koziol's Canyon. We took notice of some landmarks and dropped into the canyon to close the distance. When we approached the area where we last heard them, we heard a couple gobbles. We set up across a deep cut and 6 minutes later Jay had his pick of 2 jakes at 17 yards. The time was 4:25 p.m. We had filled our 4 permits in less than 24 hours.

Friday morning, we went in to get Roy's and Jim's permits and Bob also bought a second one. Roy purchased 3 permits (feeling lucky), as he has a big family to feed. On Friday afternoon, Roy and Jay headed to Jay's area, while Jim, Bob, and I headed East to Walker's Draw. Jay and Roy had no luck. While peering down into Walker's Draw, we spotted 2 toms, 2 jakes, and a hen. The birds would not respond to a call, so we put on a sneak that took us 2 hours. We finally got into range of the jakes and Bob and Jim both shot. Bob collected his second bird, but Jim's bird got away.

Saturday brought a miserable day of cold rain, wind, getting drenched, and sitting in the camper.

Sunday dawned cold, cloudy, and windy. Only Roy, Jim, and I went out. We headed back to Walker's Draw and once again spotted 2 jakes down in the bottom. We got set up and they immediately answered our calls. The birds proceeded to come into the call and it ended up being 6 jakes. They came around a cedar only 12 yards from Roy. The birds were grouped tightly together and Jim was unable to see them on the other side of a cedar. Roy had the opportunity to line up 2 heads and he pulled the trigger. A third bird standing behind the other two also caught a pellet in the head. Jim and I did not see the birds when Roy shot. At the shot, birds flew everywhere and one flew 15 yards and landed in front of Jim. Jim quickly put the bead of his shotgun on the head and pulled the trigger. Jim collected his first ever turkey and Roy filled his tags all in one shot!

The weather was the 2nd worst that we have ever had, but the hunting was by far the best. 6 hunters ended up with 9 birds.