This morning was the first Bama morning hunt this year for me. I got to my listening spot early. 2 birds fired off and the first time was at 6:03. It was still really dark so I was able to move and get set up in a good spot on a field about 150 yards from them. They continued to gobble pretty good for the next 20 minutes or so.

Next thing I know, I see a bird sailing out into the field, followed by another. It was still really dark but I'm not sure exactly what time it was. They started gobbling on the ground and strutting about 100 yards out. They're answering me pretty good, but not moving. After about 10 minutes I hear a couple of hens yelping and 4 of them pitched out with the gobblers.

I'm sitting up on the spine of a ridge that runs through the field where the birds typically strut. I keep calling some and one of the hens is going back and forth with me now. The group slowly starts making it my way.

The hens got up pretty close to me on the edge, and the gobblers finally made it into range. It took the two a little while to finally separate enough where I wouldn't kill both of them, but they split and I rolled one of them at 26 steps. It was 6:55.

He was a pretty nice bird, I'm guessing a 3 year old. 10 1/4" beard, 1" and 7/8" spurs and a little over 16 lbs.