That accountant was a good man whose company I enjoyed the few times we got together. I think he passed of cancer awhile back. His eagerness plus lack of experience made for some great stories. He started his hunting career with money in his pocket, asked good questions to credible hunters and bought good stuff. Besides the .17 Rem he bought himself a .280 Rem and a .375 H&H magnum, a battery to handle anything he might hunt in North America.
He’s the man I have mentioned who shot a black bear in the rump with the .375 and when I helped skin it, we found the hefty Nosler Partition bullet under the skin on its forehead. Between the eyes… from the rear.
I forget the details but the wolfer had spotted a bear and with the accountant stalked it up close in a tight dry ravine. The hunter missed it and I know for sure that the bear ran toward them. The wolfer told me that it was running from the echo of the shot and the splash of the bullet. The hunter thought it was charging him and missed it again, very close. The bear swapped ends and the hunter shot it in the rear as it ran away.
The accountant would not shoot small or average bucks, always holding out for a wall hanger. He came home one day with big eyes and a confused story of seeing a HUGE mule deer, maybe record book size, on the east slope of the Monashee range. He saw it inside of 100 yards two or three times, and he either missed or as I recall, never got a shot off. His story was an odd one, with gaps and jumps, the tale of a man who either got excited and could not remember what happened or more likely, didn’t want to tell some of it on himself.
After the man left the wolfer growled, “He ain’t shot enough little ones to be ready for a big one.”
