Favorite gun/shooting writer

[TrapperBR549]

A good friend gave me a copy of Mr. Rifleman by Col. Whelen a couple years ago. I couldn't put it down.
I would encourage anyone interested in the evolution and history of our modern rifles to give it a read.

 

[outasite`08]

Jeff Cooper ,Elmer Keith and Capstick. Jeff

 

[Old Navy]

Capstick

I read a couple of his books. He mentioned in one that he took his rifle and 20 rounds of ammo everywhere, even to church.

 

[dusterdave173]

Way way back I was in the photographic business--My pal Charlie Petty wrote for many mags back then--he needed help making photos for an article on a new handgun--turned out we were shooting one of the very first Glocks--Little did we know............
That Plastic gun--many thought that would never fly and look at the handgun industry today
I remember it functioned perfectly and that funny thing in the trigger was different for sure.
So..... Charles Petty

 

[distinguished]

Don't even read articles anymore, especially since most were/ are just writing to sell products.

 

[Bottom Fodder]

Don't even read articles anymore, especially since most were/ are just writing to sell products.

My reading was long before shooting forums and the internet, basically the only place to get information other that talk at matches and gun shops
im talking pre Google days lol

 

[wboggs]

Jack could make you feel like you were on the side of a mountain in Alaska or Yukon Territory squeezing off the shot with a model 70. Doug

I went to some of Jack's favorite places in the Yukon in the 70s. Even camped in one of his favorite valleys and took one of the best sheep I ever saw. Tight curl with flared tips, 39". I always remembered reading about Jack's trips.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

There are a few posters on here that have written for magazines and overall, I think they are far more qualified than most current or past rag writers.

 

[YEW PLUCKER]

Bob Milek

I was going to mention Bob also. He was one of my faves.

I always liked the Patrician style of Jeff Cooper. He told it like it was, without being boisterous or grandiloquent.

 

[CaptainMal]

Today - Craig Boddington by far.

Past -O'conner, Peter Capstick Hathway ( more for the adventure),

 

[D Coots]

I became acquainted with Jim Carmichael when he shot SR BR. He competed and actually has some Hall of Fame points. At the end of the day we'd set around and have a cold one or 2. He invited me to stop by his place in Tennessee sometime when I was going to Florida in January. We did and he was a gracious host. He had been on 40 safaris to Africa and his house was decorated with a lot of deceased critters. His gun room in the basement was similar to Cabelas. 2 rows high, both sides, probably 35' long with rifles. He took me out to Terry Leonard's shop for a look see. Terry showed us around and it was well worth the time. Lots of stocks in various stages of completion. He was a craftsman. Great guy.

Years ago on a PD trip we stayed in Newcastle, Wy. We ran onto this guy in a restaurant. His name was Wayne Ash known as Longshot in Precision Shooting. I had just read a story in my new PS a week before we went out there. In the article he spoke of shooting antelope at 1,000 yards from his porch. He invited us to stop by his place later in the day when we were done shooting. We met at his range where he shot at 1K. He explained that it was just short of 1K because that's all the elevation he had on his Unertl scope and that he shot from the hood of his jeep!!!! Next we went to his house....IT WAS IN TOWN.......the place was a dump but I will say his loading room in the basement was as clean as an operating room. We took a pizza over later on and had a couple of drinks. He drank some kind of whiskey straight and eluded to the fact that he like to read when retiring for the night. He would take a pint and his magazine to bed and when the pint went empty it was time to go to sleep. Made me wonder about the other writers for the magazine. You can't make this stuff up................

Later
Dave

 

[TaperPin]

Being a Wyoming kid, everything Bob Milek wrote seemed sensible. Jack O talked me into a 270 and Elmer Keith convinced me a 338 was needed for elk. All the others of the 1980’s talked me into whatever product was being pushed at the time.

It wasn’t until about 2000 when it finally clicked and made sense that many of the guns, scopes and products were being used by the writers because that’s what the manufacturers‘ marketing dollars were paying for - even though writers have to make money and keep the lights on, it seems like a reality tv show and I haven’t read a gun mag since.

I read all of Capstick right before Out of Africa came out and it made it a much more enjoyable movie.

Over the years we all bump into well known writers, or hunters or guides that knew them - half the time it reduces their likability and half the time improves it.

 

[Ackman]

I like all of them so far and must mention Ross Seyfried who inspired me to build my first 22-250 AI I also enjoyed his story of Miss America and the mile shot back over 30 years ago

Like you, that article in late 80's by Ross Seyfried got me into the first 22-250AI. Still a favorite cartridge. Steve Timm is /was a favorite in Varmint Hunter magazine. In Precision Shooting Boyd Mace wrote the best, entertaining varmint hunting stories ever, very humorous and well written.

 

[YEW PLUCKER]

Also, Connor's Guncrank Diaries.

 

[17VLD]

Like you, that article in late 80's by Ross Seyfried got me into the first 22-250AI. Still a favorite cartridge. Steve Timm is /was a favorite in Varmint Hunter magazine. In Precision Shooting Boyd Mace wrote the best, entertaining varmint hunting stories ever, very humorous and well written.

It’s funny I actually found that issue of Guns and Ammo last night it’s July 1988 if others want to get inspired.Now I need to find those PS annuals with Boyd Mace’s great articles.

 

[Yote Hunter]

ROSS SEYFRIED. I read the article on the 22-250 Improved and had to have one. Lilja light varmint barrel (14 twist) 4050 fps 55gr Nosler SBT. I immediately began making phenomenal one shot groundhog kills out to as far as 745 yards. Even before rangefinder’s were available made one shot kills 500-625 yards (Honed my range estimating working for a land surveyor). First trip to Virginia groundhog hunting I shot 2 groundhogs at 550 yards with the first 3 shots out of the gun. Even my gunsmith said this caliber was only good for 300-350 yards ..,,,,,But I knew better! I had read Ross’’s article and I believed every word in that article and I just “didn’t know any better”. It was like he convinced me that it was a magical caliber and by Believing in that article so much I “willed” it to phenomenal results. As time went on years later and people constantly telling me it wasn’t very effective beyond 300-400 yards it seemed those 600 yard shots got harder. Must have been some psychological effect on me but what a magical time in my early journey to “long range shooting “. Wish I still didn’t “know any better“

 

[Jager]

So many good stories. So many great writers. We're lucky to have such a rich literature to draw upon.

My favorite, were I forced to choose only one, would be Lucian Cary. You read him and you're instantly transported back to the last century. Way back in that century. Cary was friends with Harry Pope. And many of my favorite stories of his were published in a magazine unknown by pretty much everyone today - The Saturday Evening Post. Back during the depression. Back before the young men whose sacrifices would later have us calling them the Greatest Generation... had the faintest clue of what lay in store for them. Back when being a man had expectation laced around it, and what we today think of as old school was just... normal.

 

[venatic]

I have read and own most all of Jack O’Connors books even found one of the rare ones in the Houston library when I was in college and read it.
He was the best gun/ ammo writer and story teller although I felt Robert Roark (own all his too)was excellent as well but had no real technical gun knowledge but could turn a phrase with the best.

 

[LAH]

Finn Agaard, Elmer Keith & Bob Hagel.

 

[Murray Brook]

Carmichael, Waters, Simpson.