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Inspirational Pantheons: Vol. 1
- pantheonhunters
- Sep 21, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 4
In this first of a series, Pantheon Hunters acknowledges some of the greats who influenced our founding and principles of operation.
During our earliest years as impressionable young hunters, they were bigger than life because they cut paths where there were none before. Numerous countries were opened to foreign hunters through their hunter-diplomacy.
They bought supplies from open markets and gathered up ambitious locals to guide exploratory hunts. What we know today as professional outfitting and trophy hunting evolved organically from the standards they instilled.
They set the tone for governments and hunters to recognize hunting as an instrument of conservation.
Each Pantheon in the series hunted, learned, and returned with stories to enchant the rest of us. Some earned the highest awards in the hunting world as a function of how they stood apart in their era. But remember that a Pantheon can be anyone with the spirit and you will meet some of them in this series.
Each symbolized the hunting world’s most exceptional achievements. They lead. The rest of us followed.
As we reflect on the nature of their pioneering achievements, we are honored to present the first few of the Pantheons in Volume 1.
Bert and Chris Klineberger
All of the Pantheons mentioned in this series sit side by side as equals of each other. But if we were pressed to designate a #1, the team of Bert and Chris would be our choice.
We knew them. They arranged our first international hunts. In 1986, when hunting in Mongolia was taking off, Bert graciously accepted a rather weak partial booking deposit from a college kid for a hunt to the Gobi Desert and the northern Forest areas. That came about through a personal relationship with another Pantheon, Sam Pancotto, whom you will read about next. It was Sam who called Bert and asked if he could make an accommodation. We never forgot the courtesy and have since helped many hunters do the same thing.
Bert passed away in 2017 and Chris in 2020. Both were pioneer hunters and remain icons of the hunting world. They hunted extensively during the period between 1945 and 1999, which Bert referred to as Hunting’s Greatest Era. Tigers were huntable and 100-pound tuskers roamed.
They once owned one of the world’s largest taxidermy companies and hunt booking agencies. The success of many worldly hunters whose names appear in the record books and Weatherby Award winners alike were advised by Bert and Chris.
They traveled and hunted with other Pantheons like Jack O’Connor, Elgin Gates, Herb Kline, Yoshi Yoshimoto, and Prince Abdorreza. They recruited some of history's finest professional hunters to lead the hunts they ran in C.A.R., Uganda and Tanzania. Among many notables were Brian Herne, John Northcote, and Nicky Blunt.
They organized hunts for kings, astronauts, celebrities, heads of state, captains of industry, and everyday hunters. They bargained with tribal chiefs and helped them understand the benefits hunting would generate for their people. Through their direct efforts, organized and licensed hunting was established in many countries like the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, and Zaire. Many governments commissioned them to write their earliest formal rules for their game departments.
They have authored some books you should read to fully appreciate how they shaped worldwide hunting.
Sam Pancotto
Sam was a successful real estate developer based in Oak Brook, Illinois. A picture of him in his trophy room appeared in the rear section of an annual Weatherby Guide, which at the time gave impressionable eyes a glimpse into the accomplishments of early modern hunters.
Fresh out of college and working in the Chicago area, our founder happened to link that picture of Sam in the Weatherby Guide with a real-life image of him driving through the apartment complex he was renting. The trophies mounted in the community center were a dead giveaway that it was Sam in that Lincoln. He secured Sam’s contact information from the rental office and reached out to say hello, the beginning of many phone conversations about hunting – almost daily for years. We would later share a camp to hunt desert mule deer in Sonora.
Sam was one of the greatest post-WWII elephant hunters with many 100-pounders to his credit. His wife Rose always came along. They hunted Kenya in the golden years, an era when there were 5 elephants allowed on license for every hunter at $100 per trophy! He was probably the single-most influencer of all the Inspirational Pantheons.
Herb Kline
Oilman and intrepid hunter (1907-1965), Herb was the inaugural winner of the Weatherby Award in 1956. He used several of the Weatherby rifles in his globe-trotting exploits, most notably in .257 and .300 calibers. But winning the award had much more to do with what he accomplished in the world’s game field and mountains.
Before shutting down, the walls of the Abercrombie & Fitch store located in Dallas were graced by many of his sheep trophies. He hung out with Jack O’Connor and other greats. He hunted when the black rhino was on quota. His Grand Slam was #2.
Most of Herb’s hunts were exploratory or with outfitting that was raw and unsophisticated by today’s standards. He blazed a trail into the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to hunt the Marco Polo with hope was his strategy, and that was perfectly OK for him. His trophies now reside with the Dallas Museum of Natural History, but his achievements set a course for many to follow.
Elgin Gates
Elgin T. Gates (1922-1988) was born in Salt Creek, Wyoming, and is often described as "the greatest hunter of the 20th century". He hunted where the world ended and wrote about it in Trophy Hunter in Asia and Trophy Hunter in Africa. His hunting companions often were Jack O’Connor, Herb Kline and the Klineberger brothers, Bert and Chris. He won the Weatherby in 1960.
Gates played a significant role in the development of the Dan Wesson handgun and handgun metallic silhouette shooting and served as president of the International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association (IHMSA).
In addition to his hunting achievements, he was an accomplished motorboat racer, winning several national championships and setting 26 world records. He also excelled in clay target shooting, winning numerous national and international championships.
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