Gunwriters: Old School, your favorite?
- Thread starter FM12
- Start date
To be brutally honest, Cassius Clay was the greatest, and he knew it. I see nothing wrong with that, short of a bit of lacked humility. At the time Cooper came onto the scene, he was THE expert on modern combat pistolcraft. Not since Applegate, Fairbarn, and Sykes has any one man done more to advance the fighting pistol than Cooper.
The fact is that Cooper was the best, and he was right, and he knew both of these to be true. I have no problems with that. If you can find one man that has done even half of what Cooper did, I will eat my hat. Basically anything produced today on the topic of the fighting pistol owes itself to Cooper and his work, not considering such ridiculous things as Center Axis Relock and its ilk.
I also miss Shimek, mainly because of the subjects he usually wrote about, which was usually collector-type automatics.
I found Skelton to easily be the most entertaining of the writers no longer with us and he turned out a large volume of material, as did Elmer Keith. Now to me, the funny thing about Elmer Keith is that when I read him, I hear my father's voice. They had the same sort of rural background and apparently a lot of the same attitudes, though my father was rather more modest about what he thought.
Of really old writers, there is George Washington Sears, but he actually wrote very little about guns. In fact, I think he never switch to cartridge firearms. L.L.Bean actually wrote more about guns than Sears (Nessmuk) did. Horace Kephart did not write more than a couple of chapters about firearms but it was all directly on the point and all about hunting. People back then were not so much concerned with self-defence shooting but there is a photograph of him with a Luger in a shoulder holster. His chief interest was really the North Carolina mountains. There was a lot of humor in his writing.
I would have to say that the best writers are those you would enjoy reading, no matter what they were writing about.
I found Skelton to easily be the most entertaining of the writers no longer with us and he turned out a large volume of material, as did Elmer Keith. Now to me, the funny thing about Elmer Keith is that when I read him, I hear my father's voice. They had the same sort of rural background and apparently a lot of the same attitudes, though my father was rather more modest about what he thought.
Of really old writers, there is George Washington Sears, but he actually wrote very little about guns. In fact, I think he never switch to cartridge firearms. L.L.Bean actually wrote more about guns than Sears (Nessmuk) did. Horace Kephart did not write more than a couple of chapters about firearms but it was all directly on the point and all about hunting. People back then were not so much concerned with self-defence shooting but there is a photograph of him with a Luger in a shoulder holster. His chief interest was really the North Carolina mountains. There was a lot of humor in his writing.
I would have to say that the best writers are those you would enjoy reading, no matter what they were writing about.
Always thought Charlie Askins was pretty opinionated and inconsistent, recently reread Bill Jordan's answer to Charlie Askins article "The Six Gun is
a clunker!" where points out Charlie carried a revolver during his Border Patrol
Days and then in WWII when he depended on it regularly.
What the older writers had that most of the younger writers are missing is
life experience, they got their knowledge from personal experimentation and
experience, I confess I have gotten 90% of my firearms knowledge from
books and magazines. Also they had more varied experiences, Askins, Jordan, Skelton were in the Border Patrol, Skelton was in other law enforcement agencies, Askins, Jordan, Cooper were all in WWII and saw action. Nonte was
an Ordnance officer in the Army, Askins, Jordan and Cooper all reached field
grade rank in their services while the only current gun writer I know of with
extensive military service is Craig Boddington.
a clunker!" where points out Charlie carried a revolver during his Border Patrol
Days and then in WWII when he depended on it regularly.
What the older writers had that most of the younger writers are missing is
life experience, they got their knowledge from personal experimentation and
experience, I confess I have gotten 90% of my firearms knowledge from
books and magazines. Also they had more varied experiences, Askins, Jordan, Skelton were in the Border Patrol, Skelton was in other law enforcement agencies, Askins, Jordan, Cooper were all in WWII and saw action. Nonte was
an Ordnance officer in the Army, Askins, Jordan and Cooper all reached field
grade rank in their services while the only current gun writer I know of with
extensive military service is Craig Boddington.
Geoff Timm
New member
Does anyone remember Mason Williams?
Geoff
Who heard a rumor he was really George W. Nonte III in disguise.
Geoff
Who heard a rumor he was really George W. Nonte III in disguise.
I agree with Kreyzhorse. Capstick was great.
Sometimes an author is different in person, but at least in writing Capstick came across as someone who had a slightly dry, self depreciating sense of humor. That's what made him so much fun to read for me.
A great example was his description of his first elephant hunt in Death in the Long Grass.
Sometimes an author is different in person, but at least in writing Capstick came across as someone who had a slightly dry, self depreciating sense of humor. That's what made him so much fun to read for me.
A great example was his description of his first elephant hunt in Death in the Long Grass.