Well, 2 months of hype, a month of scouting, and 6:30 am opening morning the seasons over!!!
Got to the blind as early as i could, 5:30 they start gobblin on the roost. Gets light enough to see em good in the binos and looks like it's just the 2 toms. Decide as soon as they hit the ground to start callin, and immediately i hear a hen (still in the tree) start yelpin back at me. I play with her for a min or two, toms 150 yrds out lookin at both of us gobblin away. Then i hear a hen cackle and fly down but shes no where to be seen. Then i see another hen leave the trees and fly directly back into the woods. Not sure what that was all about but with the hens gone and 2 horny toms on the ground it didn't take much to get em to b-line it right for me. I picked the one that looked like it had the longest beard and smoked him at 26 yrds.
Was a pretty cool hunt, but also a bummer in a couple ways. My uncle has hunted opening day for years with me but this yr decided to try downstate by his home, My dad, whos never shot a turkey or had a chance to hunt the opener was supposed to be with me this morn. Yesterday he call and said he was sick, felt like crap and wasn't gonna make it so i went at it alone this morn. Was a shame too cause it was a gimme and we could have easily doubled up.
The other thing that was a bit dissapointing was the size of the bird. Thought the longer bearded one would be bigger but now wonder if i should have took the other one. The other was the dominant bird and did all the strutting but had eaven a shorter beard than this one, wondering if maybe ha didn't have beard rot. But oh well, was a fun morning and he'll sure taste good. It's a few more points for the team!

eastern
7 3/8 beard
17 lbs 4 oz
r spur 3/4
l spur 7/8

Your score is 17.25 + 7.5 + 8.75 + 14.75 = 48.25