World's Greatest Living Spear Hunter
Colonel Gene Morris Primitive Hunter in a Modern Age
Oct 22, 2009
Gene Morris today is known as the World’s Greatest Living Spear Hunter.Gene Morris is an anachronistic warrior. Born Eugene C Morris in Memphis Tennessee September 19, 1933, he became an officer in the United States Air force in 1957. He served in Vietnam, graduated the Air War College, earned a Masters Degree at Trinity University, and retired as a full colonel from active duty in 1979. However this article is about what he became after he took off his uniform.
Early Hunting and Turn to Primative Weapons
Always in love with the woods and hunting, Gene got his first BB gun at age 6. This early exposure and love lead to him becoming an avid hunter. He spent years hunting with rifles and shotguns then transitioned to bow hunting. Finding firearms too easy and unsporting for taking game he hung up is guns in 1968. Using varieties of bow with up to 150-pounds of draw strength, Gene harvested 493 ½ big game animals (with the 'half" being a shared kill with anothe hunter). These animals included elk, bear, Cape buffalo, leopard, crocodile and entire herds of deer and wild pigs. In 1973 on his 40th birthday he began a walk down a different and even more primitive path and took his first animal, a deer, with a homemade spear. The spear was a very primitive 3-pound device that had a 16-inch long point on a 9-foot oak shaft.
Evolution of Gene's Spear Hunting Career
Since then he has taken (as of June 2009) 538 big game animals with his spears. This tally includes American, Asian and Cape buffalo, blesbok, wolf, cougars, a lion, 2 bears, 146 wild boars, innumerable deer and his specialty- alligator. He has gotten waterborne spear hunts for American alligator in the wild down to a science and harvested 253 of the reptiles between 7 and 13-feet in length. His spears have evolved from simple devices to giant 22-pound behemoths meant to be used from trees. His tree spears (that are often used on in each hand to take pairs of animals at once) have huge two foot long steel blades that are more battleaxe and spear point. He is even experimenting with using three spears at once; one in each hand and one looped over his foot.
Legacy of the World's Greatest Spear Hunter
The legacy of the World’s Greatest Living Spear Hunter is carried forth in two books that he has published (Hunting with Spears and The Greatest Living Spear Hunter in the World) a DVD series and the Spear Hunting Museum that is his home away from home in Summerdale Alabama. The Colonel can often be found haunting his museum, that is, when he is not on safari.
Sources
Morris, Gene Hunting with Spears and The Greatest Living Spear Hunter in the World 2003 and 2006 respectively, MK Publishing
Tour of The Spear Hunting Museum and personal conversations with Colonel Eugene C. Morris, USAF retired. June 2009
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
