By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Actor, gun shop owner go buffalo hunting
Buffalo-Hunters-ASK 0150a
Veteran Hollywood actor R. Lee Ermey and his son Clinton chat with Ripon gun shop owner Joe Mangelos Wednesday night after dinner at the Barnwood Restaurant. - photo by GLENN KAHL
Barnwood Arms gun shop owner Joe Mangelos is hosting veteran Hollywood actor R. Lee Ermey and his son Clinton to a buffalo hunt today in the Railroad Flat area of the Mother Lode.

Mangelos met the Antelope Valley man at the One Shot gun show a year and a half ago in Florida.  Shortly after, Mangelos took Ermey on his first buffalo hunt last February near Lincoln in Placer County where he bagged a 700-pound bull. It all happened after he had mentioned to Mangelos that  he would like to hunt buffalo.

Ermey said he shot the wrong animal – not the larger bull he was hoping to bring down.  

“I specifically came up here to get the one I didn’t get last year,” he said.  “They told me I should search out the one with the broken left horn – well, there were two with a broken left horn.”

Ermey has been in some 75 feature films and 100 episodes on the history channel as well as being the voice of “Gunny” in the children’s feature “Toy Story.”
    
He remembered that last year’s bull was so old it was only good for making hamburger.  But, he said, that hamburger had zero fat and was very tender.  The buffalo hunt is more for the sake of bringing home a trophy, he added.

Ermey met with community members at the gun shop Wednesday afternoon prior to a dinner at John Mangelos’ Barnwood Restaurant – Joe’s brother. Also at the dinner was retired Ripon Police Chief Richard Bull and Henry Ireland and their wives.