Jim Zumbo

“The dean of hunting writers, with a mustache that has seen every elk camp in the West.”

85STACH SCORE

✂ Chevron Celebrity Era: 1990s Born 1940 🏆 HOF Inductee

Is this a Legendary Stach?

Stach Stats

Stash Power85

Ruggedness90

Curl Factor18

Legend Status84

Stats are for entertainment purposes. The mustache committee's decisions are final and occasionally arbitrary.

Style: Chevron
Peak Era: 1990s
Born: 1940
Hall of Fame: Inducted 2026
Fan Votes: 0 legendary · 0 meh

The Story

About Jim Zumbo

Jim Zumbo is an American outdoor writer and television host who spent decades as one of the most widely read hunting journalists in the country, best known for his long tenure as hunting editor of Outdoor Life. A trained forester and wildlife biologist by education, he worked for government land agencies before turning to full-time writing, and went on to publish thousands of articles and more than twenty books, with a particular specialty in elk and Western big-game hunting.

He carried that expertise to television as host of Jim Zumbo Outdoors on the Outdoor Channel, and has been a fixture on the seminar and sportsmen's-show circuit for years. He lives in Wyoming, near Cody, and has been honored by outdoor-writer and conservation organizations for his body of work.

His mustache, full and silver in later years, is as much a part of the Zumbo persona as the cowboy hat and the elk bugle.

The Verdict

Why the Stach Became Iconic

Zumbo's mustache is a full chevron that has weathered into a distinguished white, the mustache of a man who has spent more nights in a wall tent than most people have spent in hotels. Under a cowboy hat and above a camp-coffee grin, it is the picture of Western hunting journalism.

It represents the writers as much as the hunters. For decades, the words that taught Americans how to hunt elk came out from under that mustache, and the Hall thinks that deserves a plaque.

On the Record

Appearances

Longtime hunting editor, Outdoor Life magazine
Jim Zumbo Outdoors (Outdoor Channel) — host
Author of more than twenty books and thousands of articles on hunting, with a specialty in elk

Fun Facts

He studied forestry and wildlife and worked for federal land agencies before becoming a full-time writer.
Elk hunting is his best-known subject, and his elk books are standard reading for Western hunters.
He makes his home in Wyoming, not far from Yellowstone, in the heart of the elk country he writes about.
The mustache went silver on the job and has never been retired.