Rick was too busy in the morning to text me and bring me up to speed on yesterday’s moose hunt. It turns out there was good reason, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
I finally heard from Rick late in the afternoon.
Rick and his guide Terry Brew set up in half a dozen different places as the day progressed. The last setup of the day was in the afternoon with two hours of daylight left.
Rick hid in the trees and brush 20 yards on the right side of the cow decoy. Terry wedged into the trees on the other side from Rick, 40 yards from the moose decoy. An opening in the trees was in front of the decoy and the hunters. Â Terry did short calling sequences twice with no response. On the third calling sequence Rick heard three loud guttural calls sound off in the trees. Half an hour later Rick noticed a large black object in the trees on the opposite side the clearing. Carefully, Rick stood up, careful to move slowly and keep behind some trees to break up his outline.
The black object walked out of the timber, it was definitely a bull Moose, and he was walking toward Rick. The bull stopped 35 yards from Rick, head on … and starred intently in Rick’s direction. Rick remained motionless and waited for the moose to move or change positions.
When the moose finally moved he walked slowly and stopped 20 yards in front of Rick. Immediately, Terry did a cow call. The bull came even closer as he turned his torso to a front-end broadside angle and paused — only 8 yards away. Rick had already drawn his bow and he settled his top pin on the bull moose’s vitals, paused for a second, and touched the trigger on his release.
The bull moose spun and ran … and dropped in 25 yards! Minutes later Terry signaled Rick for them to go to the Moose.
Over the years I’ve been with Rick on lots of bow hunts for a variety of big game. And one of the real pleasures of bowhunting with Rick Philippi is how genuinely excited and pumped up he can get. Although I was not there on this hunt, I can see the look on my buddy’s face when he made the shot, and when the moose went down in only 25 yards, and when Rick was standing by that moose. And I can hear Rick’s sincere voice as he thanked Terry for all he has done on this bowhunt.
CONTINUED: Â The Pictures
My long time bowhunting buddy Rick Philippi is currently in Alberta Canada, near Edmonton and he is bowhunting Moose with Ryk Vischer.
