Dick Blossom took a cow elk last fall in his home state of Montana at the age of 101. Calvin Coolidge was in the White House when he was born, and the Great Depression and Dust Bowl were years in the future.
Family history indicates he will be afield this year, likely more. His older brother, Gordon Blossom, took an elk when he was nearly 104 years old during the 2019 season. He died the next year just as the season was opening. Gordon’s age is considered an unofficial record for oldest successful elk hunter.
Dick confirmed his plans to fill a 2026 tag in a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) interview. “I’m planning to go next year,” he said. “Elk are my favorite to hunt and to eat, though. I don’t hunt bulls. They’re not as tender as cows. And you can’t eat the horns.”
He was accompanied on the successful hunt by his two sons, Loren and Neal. The brothers put together a special hunting bench for their dad, which has a platform to perch his gun. Dick typically uses a walker to get around, but when he hunts, his sons walk with him arm-in-arm. He also shot a buck antelope this past season.
The three Blossoms got up before dark to search for their quarry. Neal said he could hear the cows “talking,” so they immediately set up and waited. Soon enough, a group of about half a dozen elk came close. Some ran off before Dick could get a shot, but one cow stayed standing broadside. He drew a bead on it and pulled the trigger.
“When I’m hunting elk and see one, I get pretty excited,” Dick admitted. After the shot rang out there was no sign of the animal.
The group thought he missed. When Neal walked over to the area where his father aimed he saw the cow lying on the ground.
“I yelled ‘Bring your knives,” Neal told MFWP. “We all whooped and hollered and had a grand old time.” They ate the tenderloins that night.
The Legacy
Dick said he has been hunting elk for more than 80 years and estimates that he’s killed about 30. He started hunting when he was 10 years old, chasing cottontails for the family’s dinner table. He continued to hone his shooting skills at sniper school when he was a young man in the army.
“You never forget how to do it,” he said.
Loren, 66, and Neal, 64, started pheasant hunting with their dad when they were young boys. “He’d send us out to flush the birds,” Loren laughed.
They began hunting elk and deer when they were young teens. “I used to take them out, now they take me out,” Dick said.
Dick’s success was in part due to House Bill 328, which the Montana Legislature passed during last year’s session. It allows resident hunters who are 75 years and older to use a general elk license to harvest an antlerless elk on private lands during any season in a hunting district where youth under 15 may harvest an antlerless elk. As of early January 2026, 7,941 hunters who purchased a general elk license are 75 or older.
