Join us as Fred Lutger, David Mills and Robert Hoague go for the Grand Slam this Spring. Our plan is to begin in Florida in mid March and move on to Nebraska, Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee. Look for the daily updates, lots of on the spot pictures, and plenty of video for BowTube.com as the hunt progresses.
Hunt #2 With Rick By Robert Hoague
May 8, 2008 - 12:53:34 AM
I met Rick Philippi at his home north of Fort Worth, Texas and unloaded my gear in his pickup. Two hours later Rick, his wife Cathy and myself arrived at his North Texas ranch.
When the alarm announced 5:00 the next morning we got up, drank some coffee, ate a bowl of oatmeal, put on the hunting clothes and drove to an area where we had seen some turkeys on the last trip.
Hens came through the area, mostly singles. There were a total of eight, and that kept us thinking that in any minute a gobbler would show up. But it didn't.
We stopped and called several times on the way back to camp. Cathy cooked a nice home cooked meal and then I practiced with my new BowTech 82nd Airborne. The bow is very fast and shoots very flat and I could hit out to 30 yards with the top pin of my bowsite.
We drove around and called for awhile, with no results. Then Rick wanted to return to an area we hunted last trip, he calls it the Serengetty and it is one of his best turkey spots. We drove Rick's Bad Boy Buggy to the blind (Rick has the blind set up for the season) and dropped off our gear. While Rick hid the Bad Boy in the brush.
In short order we were in the pop up blind and in turkey hunting mode. After a while I noticed some loose serving on my bow's bowstring.
And worse yet, several strands of the bowstring were severed.
No way I could shoot this bow on this turkey hunt. Somehow, something I did or somewhere I placed the bow caused the string to be 3/4 severed.
Rick told me to shoot his bow, a BowTech Guardian. On a few occasions I've shot someone else's bow with no problems.
Minutes later I spied a turkey with a red hed 100 yards away. It was walking briskly toward Rick's taxidermy hen and jake. I whispered that a gobbler was coming and Rick turned on the video camera.
The incoming gobbler went straight to the jake decoy and I started easing Rick's bow back to full draw.
Yikes! The gobbler jumped into the air and came down hard on the jake decoy.
Rick was getting it all on video. Meanwhile I hit the wall, but not on the bow, on how far I could pull Rick's bow back. It definitely had more poundage on it than mine. Rats, I had to let down.
The gobbler quickly went back into the air and attached the jake decoy again.
Somewhere in the fray I gave the bow another try. This time I did not try to go slow, I put the muscle to it and yanked it back to full draw.
Once again the gobbler got in the middle of Rick's jake decoy and this time it retreated a few steps. And then started back for more.
The sight pins settled on the gobblers vitals and I took my shot.
And missed. The gobbler zipped on out of the area.
Rick and I talked things over and decided to return to camp early so I could shoot a few arrows with Rick's bow. Initially my arrows were several inches to the right. Rick uses a wrap around his bow's handle and it makes the handle quite a bit thicker than the grip on my bow. After I adjusted my hand for the thicker grip I started hiting on target.
Afterward we all ate another nice meal, got a good nights sleep, and Rick and I were out in a different set of the woods in the morning. The hush mouth continued and we didn't get any action.
Later we loaded up everything and returned to Rick's home.
On the way home I drove to Waco, Texas and had the lady that owns the Out House archery shop look at the bow. She took the pressure off the limbs in a bow press and looked the cams, etc. over. Her conclusion was that the cams and bow were ok. Somehow I bumped the bowstring into something that cut it.
