Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What Happened to Bob Milek?

Hello, all. This is my first post on what looks to be a well organized, informative, and friendly site. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what happened to Bob Milek. I'd heard he passed away a few years back. He was one of my favorites, and the one who got me started in handgun varminting. I miss his articles greatly. Thanks, Andy

Unfortunately he did pass away a few years back. I too enjoyed reading him for years. He is missed..................DJ

More than a few years, he died in 1993.

He was one of my favorites as well.

Welcome to the campfire Farmall

Mike

Met him my first time guiding at a camp on the Upper Stoney River. He came in and started helping me flesh a bear hide and talking just as pleasant as could be. Did not realize he was not a guide until a couple days later, as he passed on sleeping in the dude lodge to bunk with the guides.

As down to Earth as they come.
art

My good friend Bob died of cancer several years ago (before I knew that he was sick!). I miss him terribly as a friend and hunting partner. He was what all the old clich�s say � the real McCoy, all wool and a yard wide, the genuine article, down-to-earth, plain as an old shoe, and so on. He flat knew his stuff. The "Herrett" cartridges were his, but he shunned credit for 'em. He was a good hunter, in part because he was a guide and outfitter for years. More than once, I've seen him out-shoot riflemen, with a handgun.

Though he was short of stature, he had none of the hypersensivity about height ("the Napoleon complex") that makes so many short guys obnoxious. And a good thing that was, because it enabled him to be a very close friend of my other lamented old friend, six-foot-six Bill Jordan. Those two had an on-going private, joshing "feud" that was worlds more fun to watch than the goings-on between Bill and Skeeter. Bob absorbed dozens or hundreds of barbs about his "stunted growth" with an unfailing sense of humor and even genuine enjoyment.

I'd better stop right here � else I'd go on and on with favorite memories of Bob Milek.

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Mr. Howell,

Having someone that knew, personally, someone that many of the rest of us knew through his writing "go on and on" about favorite memories puts the rest of us closer to someone that we wished we could have met. You, and the rest of the gunwriters here and elsewhere, are our links to folks like Mr. Milek, Mr. Jordan, Mr. O'Connor, Mr. Bear, Mr. Keith, and many, many more. Some of us grew up reading the stories and articles written by these fine folks, and to have someone talk to us about what they were actually like kinda puts us 'round a campfire with them, at least in spirit.

Thanks for sharing whatever you can,

The last time I saw Bob, he was in an exhibitor's display area at a SHOT Show, looking at a long, wide padded case for carrying several long guns. The case was about four feet long and about eighteen inches wide (zipped shut). What it looked like was too obvious to ignore.

"What's that?" I asked Bob, "a Bob Milek sleeping bag?"

Bob doubled over laughing. Then the Editor of one of the big magazines walked by.

"Did you hear what Ken just asked me?" Bob called-out to him, and repeated my question.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

One morning (at a SHOT Show again), Bob had just lowered his glass-lined paper sack from his mouth just as a good ol' redneck boy across the aisle remarked about the scope that he was looking through �

"That's a good clear scope, all right, but I don't like that rectal at all."

Bob had to take another swallow � the first one had just suddenly become an alcoholic mist in the aisle.

.

I did like reading B. Milek. There were some articals that I didn't agree with him on but that is normal for me. My favorite writer ever_Ross Seyfried, wrote a good number of articals that I didn't agree with so you can see I can be contrary at times.

I miss the old style and the old school and I miss it alot. I think Gun Mags are just different and it makes me sad. I think it is like a monthly Infomercial that hits the stands and mail boxes.

Still some good writers out there and thank God.

CM

I was told he only had one eye and that is why he always wore glasses.
-Doc-

On a mixed-bag hunt in Nebraska, Bob (who'd never hunted squirrels before) shot a squirrel that was inside the hollow stub of a cottonwood limb, looking out at us. Bob expected the squirrel to kick forward in a death spasm and thus kick itself out of the limb stub. But the squirrel just scrunched-up into a ball and died � still inside the limb stub, which was too high to reach with anything that we could find to reach with.

The crotch of that old cottonwood � the first thing to offer any help to a climber � was too high for anything that we could find to stand on. I laced my fingers together to give Bob a step up.

Not high enough.

"Stand on my shoulders," I said. Bob stood on my shoulders.

Not high enough.

"Stand on my head."

"Wearing these waffle-stompers? No way!"

"Go ahead. Just don't dance around up there." So he stood on my ol' bald head.

Just barely high enough for Bob to jump up and get a-hold of a grip that let him haul himself up to the crotch. From there, he was able to climb up to the limb stub and get his squirrel.

He said afterward that the experience proved to him that some editors could be useful, after all, and for years (for the rest of his life, I suspect), he jumped gleefully at every opportunity to tell of how he'd been able to get his dead squirrel out of that tree.

Our hunting partner Hal Swiggett photographed the editor being useful, but he never sent me the print that he promised me. I don't remember where our other partner (Bill Jordan) was off to, at the time. He would've been a taller pedestal than I was.

.

Ken, Thank you for sharing your insight and memories of another fine writer. I also enjoyed reading his articles.

Dr.Ken Howell,
You are a treasure to this forum!
Thank you for your wonderful stories.

The first time when I met Bob, it was at a meeting in the early 1980s here in the Old World, according to his name badge I addressed him as "Mr. Milek" - pronounced "Mylek" which is wrong.
In his high cowboy heels an with high selfconfidence he interupted my speech and told me, his family is of Polish origin and his name is to be pronounced "Me:lek".
Bob was a nice and very capable guy, sharing his knowledge with the interested.
RD

To All,

As others have written, particularly Ken, Bobby was the real deal. He was a great guy to hunt with and a great guy to party with. He also had a heart as big as his home state of Wyoming.

When he became ill with cancer, Bob Petersen made arrangements for him to be seen at a specialty clinic in LA. During that time, the publisher of G&A, Ken Elliott, was also very ill with heart problems requiring surgery. Bob was considerably more concerned with Ken's condition than he was his own. That's the kind of guy he was.

During his time with Petersen Publishing, he was probably the busiest writer on the staff - even busier than Craig at the time. He is sorely missed.

Tom

The thing I always remember about Mr. Milek is a special edition book or magazine he did for Guns and Ammo. Something like "Hunting Handguns" or something.

Every article started with him telling about using the revolver in question on game, in the field, and ended with how to disassemble and repair the gun.

Interesting and useful information, instead of a rehashed advertisement.

I need to dig through my boars nest of old mags and books and find that book now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Joe.

Reading Mr. Howell's anecdotes makes me wish that gun writers would all write about their adventures together, and particularly about those who are already gone. A publisher who would make all this available in volumes might do quite well. I Remember Skeeter could serve as a template, more or less.

I've lost count of the articles about handloading for the .300 Wondermag, and quite frankly it bores the daylight out of me. Stories about the men and by the men who write the stories might hold my interest!


-RR-

He wrote the best article for reloading for hunting I've ever read. I wish I could have met him. What's his son up to these days? He used to include pictures of him and also mentioned him in his writings.

Bob Junior is writing now. I've met him a few times but haven't read any of his work or hunted with him. He seems all right to me. As Bob Sr's son, he has a lot going for him and a lot to live up to. I expect him to do well and of course wish him well.

.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Here's one that I haven't written about, one that hasn't been written anywhere, as far as I know.

On his work bench, Missoula rifle-maker Iver Henriksen had a nice ash tray made from a hoof from one of our friend Elmer Keith's bull buffalo. I don't recall ever seeing any ashes or stubs in it, but more than once, Iver told me about the day when that hoof began its trip to the taxidermist.

Time was when any citizen with the fee and the way to haul the meat away (alive or butchered) could buy a buffalo from the thinning operation at the National Bison Range up at Moiese. Iver, among other things, was a skilled butcher. He and Elmer had a deal � Elmer bought buffalo and killed 'em; Iver dressed and butchered 'em; and they split the meat.

They hauled the bull in this yarn out to the range at the old cavalry post, Fort Missoula, and turned it loose. Elmer shot it � once, of course � and down it went. Iver went to it, knives ready, but Elmer hung back.

"He ain't dead yet," Elmer warned. "His eyes ain't dull."

"Oh, yeah, he's dead!" Iver said. He sat astraddle the bull's hindquarters, grabbed its tail, and wrenched or kinked it.

Elmer was right.

The bull came up, sending Iver somersaulting, spun around, and charged Iver.

Elmer dropped the bull � bang, flop, skid � with another shot. I've forgotten which rifle he used, but I'm sure that he's mentioned it in one or more of his books.

It's easy to imagine Iver's continuous satisfaction in seeing that hoof on his bench, inches beyond the vise where he worked for so many years. It's easy to remember the satisfaction so clear in his voice each time he told me about the incident.

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