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Big Deal Hunt: Area hunter fondly recalls previous trip
By Tim Renken Of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
05/18/2002
"That's the best place I've ever hunted outside of Alaska," said Buz Reese of Kirkwood, who in 1992 hunted elk in the northwestern Montana area we will hunt this fall.
We were lucky, as we have been so far in this adventure, that someone who lived here had hunted with our outfitter, Spotted Bear Ranch of Kalispell, Mont. In 50 years of hunting, Reese has been many places and hunted with many outfitters. The 70-year-old retired Defense Mapping Agency division chief is an articulate, pleasant guy who was eager to tell us about his experience.
"You aren't going to the best place in the country to shoot an elk, but you are surely going to one of the prettiest and most interesting," he said over lunch the other day. "You probably won't see another hunter or hear another shot. We enjoyed the hunt with Spotted Bear so much that the next year we went there for a pack-in, sightseeing trip."
Reese, who takes at least two hunting trips a year and has bagged five elk in six trips, hunted in the Bob Marshall Wilderness during the early (rut) season in September 1992. He bagged the biggest elk of his career there, 347 points in the Boone and Crockett scoring system, on the fifth day of that seven-day hunt. The encounter transpired in classic fashion.
"My young guide and I had gotten off our horses to call," he said. "He gave a couple of grunts and then bugled and we both were astonished when there was a bugle in response. It came from up the creek, probably about a half-mile away.
"The next 20-30 minutes were some of the most exciting of my life with call/response, call/response, the elk coming slowly closer. Then we could hear it, walking and rattling the bushes.
"I looked for a place to sit - I like to shoot sitting down - but I couldn't find an opening, it was too thick. When I had decided I had to shoot offhand (standing), I spotted the antlers, about 100 yards away."
Reese said his first and second shots, both in the heart/lung area, failed to bring the big bull down. It went another 100-150 yards before finally collapsing. "I think that's the first elk this kid ever guided for, and he was even more excited than I was," Reese said. "I was just about to grab him, he was jumping around so."
The head mount of Reese's elk now resides at Dennis Sporting Goods in Fenton.
"I hope to return to the 'Bob' and Spotted Bear soon," he said, "Maybe next year."
Next: What's so special about elk?
By Tim Renken Of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
05/18/2002
"That's the best place I've ever hunted outside of Alaska," said Buz Reese of Kirkwood, who in 1992 hunted elk in the northwestern Montana area we will hunt this fall.
We were lucky, as we have been so far in this adventure, that someone who lived here had hunted with our outfitter, Spotted Bear Ranch of Kalispell, Mont. In 50 years of hunting, Reese has been many places and hunted with many outfitters. The 70-year-old retired Defense Mapping Agency division chief is an articulate, pleasant guy who was eager to tell us about his experience.
"You aren't going to the best place in the country to shoot an elk, but you are surely going to one of the prettiest and most interesting," he said over lunch the other day. "You probably won't see another hunter or hear another shot. We enjoyed the hunt with Spotted Bear so much that the next year we went there for a pack-in, sightseeing trip."
Reese, who takes at least two hunting trips a year and has bagged five elk in six trips, hunted in the Bob Marshall Wilderness during the early (rut) season in September 1992. He bagged the biggest elk of his career there, 347 points in the Boone and Crockett scoring system, on the fifth day of that seven-day hunt. The encounter transpired in classic fashion.
"My young guide and I had gotten off our horses to call," he said. "He gave a couple of grunts and then bugled and we both were astonished when there was a bugle in response. It came from up the creek, probably about a half-mile away.
"The next 20-30 minutes were some of the most exciting of my life with call/response, call/response, the elk coming slowly closer. Then we could hear it, walking and rattling the bushes.
"I looked for a place to sit - I like to shoot sitting down - but I couldn't find an opening, it was too thick. When I had decided I had to shoot offhand (standing), I spotted the antlers, about 100 yards away."
Reese said his first and second shots, both in the heart/lung area, failed to bring the big bull down. It went another 100-150 yards before finally collapsing. "I think that's the first elk this kid ever guided for, and he was even more excited than I was," Reese said. "I was just about to grab him, he was jumping around so."
The head mount of Reese's elk now resides at Dennis Sporting Goods in Fenton.
"I hope to return to the 'Bob' and Spotted Bear soon," he said, "Maybe next year."
Next: What's so special about elk?
