Hunter, 82, Still Bagging Wyoming Big Game With Rifle He Bought In 1968

Buddy Gee started hunting as a teenager in Michigan, and in 1968, he paid $121 for a new hunting rifle that he still hunts with in Wyoming.

This fall, he used that rifle, a Remington BDL chambered in .25-06, to shoot a huge white-tailed deer buck in Fremont County.

He donated the meat to the Wyoming First Lady Jennie Gordon’s Food From the Field program for the needy.

Gee, who is just shy of turning 82, said giving is part of his tradition as a hunter.

In Michigan, hunters in the family “would make sure my grandmother got some venison and my folks got some. It’s just ingrained in me as a hunter. When you get something, you spread the wealth,” Gee told Cowboy State Daily.

Gee first went hunting in Wyoming in 1968, the same year he bought the Remington.

His son, Brian Gee, a doctor, moved to Lander in 1994, and Buddy has come here to hunt with Brian just about every fall since.

Grandpa’s Rifle

Buddy’s father didn’t hunt, but both of his grandfathers did.

“One grandfather was a small game hunter and the other was a deer hunter,” he said.

“They would drag me around with them whenever they went hunting,” he added.

When Buddy was finally old enough to hunt, he found himself in a quandary.

“I was 15, going on 16 and I didn’t have a gun. Then my grandpa told me, ‘You can take my rifle.’”

It was a Winchester Model 1886 lever-action, chambered in .45-90.

“I shot a spike buck with it that year,” Buddy said.

The rifle is still in the family. Buddy learned some gunsmithing, and refurbished its wooden stock.

Brian shot his first elk with it.

‘A Little Country Store’

When Buddy decided to go hunting in Wyoming, he started looking for a “Western hunting rifle” capable of making longer shots across vast landscapes.

He said he found the Remington “at a little country store about two miles from where I live.”

He selected the .25-06 chambering because “it’s a really flat-shooting cartridge.”

That makes it perfect for Wyoming deer and antelope. It’s a little light for elk, so Buddy uses another rifle for that.

The .25-06 is somewhat overshadowed by newer cartridges these days, but has a solid reputation among hunters, particularly out West.

It’s based off of the legendary .30-06 cartridge, necked down to accept the smaller .25-caliber bullet.

To keep stocked up on rounds for his rifle, Buddy started reloading his own ammunition.

“If you’re around guys who shoot .30-06, particularly Garands at shooting matches, there’s no shortage of brass to work with,” he said.

He was referring to semi-automatic M1 Garand rifles, which were standard issue for U.S. troops in World War II and the Korean War, and later gained popularity among civilian shooters.

Buddy necks the .30-06 cartridges down during the reloading process and said he gets the best performance from 115-grain bullets.

The rifle has a 24-inch barrel and is still as accurate as it ever was, he said.

“It can put a group of 115-grain Sierra bullets into a group under the size of a nickel at 100 yards,” Buddy said.

Besides refurbishing the wooden stock the only change he’s made to the Remington is replacing the original scope with a Leupold 3-9 variable power scope about 30 years ago.

“About 30 years ago, I had the option of working lots of overtime, so I bought new Leupold scopes for all of my rifles,” he said.

$30 Trespass Fee

When Buddy first started hunting in Wyoming, it was possible to get permission to go on a ranch for about a “$30 trespass fee,” he said.

“My wife went out with me one trip. It was kind of a honeymoon trip. We stayed out on a ranch in our camper,” he said.

To this day, his wife, Joanne, likes to come out to Wyoming, where she can enjoy the scenery and quiet while her husband and son are out hunting.

‘Does Anybody Hunt White-Tails Out Here?’

Like many out-of-state hunters, Buddy was initially drawn to Wyoming by the mule deer, antelope and elk hunting.

Michigan has plenty of white-tailed deer, so at first, he didn’t consider hunting them here.

Then one year, he noticed quite a few white-tails hanging around a river bottom, where they had set up elk camp.

“I asked, ‘Does anybody hunt white-tails out here?,’” he said.

It turns out deer hunt tags were available in that area, and he’s drawn a few over the years.

This year, he and Brian “rattled in” the buck that Buddy shot.

Meaning, Brian imitated the sound of bucks sparring by rattling some old antlers together.

“We’ve had occasional luck in Michigan rattling bucks in, so we decided to try it here,” Brian said.

“We spotted that big buck chasing a doe and got into position as close as we could get,” Buddy said.

“That buck was already primed, because there were two little bucks that had been pestering him,” he added.

When Brian rattled the antlers, the huge buck came in to about 55 yards, and Buddy dropped him with the reliable old Remington.

‘The Ethos We Grew Up With’

Though he’s on the cusp of his 82^nd birthday, Buddy said he doesn’t plan on giving up hunting any time soon.

He has had to make some adjustments.

“I climbed up into a treestand to bowhunt when I was 80, and again at 81. But I don’t think I’ll try it again at 82,” he said.

Brian knows people connected to the First Lady’s Food From the Field program. When he and Buddy were asked if they could donate some game meat, they didn’t hesitate.

Volunteering, donating and otherwise helping the community is “the ethos we grew up with,” Brian said.

In a statement sent to Cowboy State Daily, Jennie Gordon said she was impressed by Buddy’s hunting skills, and grateful for the venison.

"At 82 years old, his dedication to harvesting and donating game to Food from the Field is a powerful reminder that one person’s generosity can nourish an entire community. His contribution reflects the very best of Wyoming’s spirit—giving, resilient, and deeply connected to one another,” Gordon stated.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.