[461]

Just saw on Sixgunner that Dean Grennell is no longer among us. A great loss to firearms enthusiasts.

[Joe Demko]

I'm greatly saddened to hear it. Dean Grennell was, bar none, my favorite among the gunwriters. Unlike so many of them, he was an excellent writer in addition to being extremely knowledgeable about firearms and reloading. His sense of humor infused everything he wrote and I will miss the cleverness of his wordplay. We lost one of the great ones.

[Ala Dan]

Sad news indeed; and he will be missed. May he rest
in peace, with my thoughts-prayers- and sympathy
extended to his family.

Respectfully,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

[41mag]

Ditto,Golgo.
He was an original.

[Bullet Bob]

Sorry to hear that. He was knowledgeable, and one of the few that didn't think his opinion was the final word.

I also remember a bolo tie a friend made him that featured as the clasp his favorite target (and mine); a tin can.

[Erich]

God bless him and his family; I really enjoyed his stuff.

[entropy]

Oh, oh, God must have started reloading!:uhoh: Why else would he have called Dean Grennell home? I, too will miss his very knowledgeable yet very unassuming writings. My deepest sympathies to his family.:(

[mec]

Decades ago, he wrote an article on shooting related hearing loss - sensory-neural deafness. Audiologists should do half as well explaining it.

Grennell: " Shooters can hear words just fine! They just can't tell what words they are. Somebody will say "doberman pincher" and the shooter hears " government pension." A bunch of old gunnies will be sitting around: " I got me a new hearing aid and I can hear just as well as I ever could!
Really! What kind is it?"

(looking at watch)" ten thirty."

I ran into him at an NRA meeting and noticed he had a miricle ear in each ear. I asked him how they worked for him:
" Great! I used to go to the grocery store and all I could hear was F&&*(&^ gibberish. Now, I go to the grocery store and I hear LOUD F^%**$ Gibberish!"

[P95Carry]

Great guy ...... ''ABC's of Reloading'' was amongst my earliest shooting book purchases ... taught me a heck of a lot ..... and easy reading at that.

God Bless Dean ... you made your mark and will be fondly remembered by a great many. RIP.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To add to the tribute, here he is .. from inside front cover of the book. He was born near Humboldt, KS ...... in 1923. Moved to WI three years later.

In 1957 he started writing books on shooting and reloading. My copy of ''ABC's'' is 2nd edition, 1980.


http://www.bedford.net/design/shoot3/dean-g.jpg

[Dean Speir]

…before hooking up with Jack Lewis to serve as "Editor" on the masthead of Gun World… he wasn't, of course, Jack was, as Jack was virtually all things in that periodical… and became the "Dean" of handloading writers.

One of the funniest, in juxtaposition, gunzine covers I ever saw was the issue following the September 1984(?) issue with "Introducing the Bren Ten by Dean Grennell" on the front. And there on the cover of the very next issue was "Reloading for the Bren Ten by Dean Grennell." Man wasted no time!

While he was still in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin (and guess what else was up there?!), he was prominent in the SciFi "fanzines." Google "Dean A Grennell" sometime, and you'll run across a lot of his material from 45-50 years ago.

I never wrote for him, but we wrote back and forth… couldn't talk on the 'phone with him because he was, indesputably, deaf as a post, a disability which came as much from too many years using .38 Special brass as an HPD, as from his WWII service as an Army Air Corps top gunner on, if I recollect correctly, a B17.

A good man… I'm looking in my files for a remarkable exchange we had back in the late '80s over some imprudent remarks Robert Stack (who was Gun World's nominal "Shotgun Columnist," another function in reality attributable to Lewis), made in the voice-over narrations of his NBC "Unsolved Mysteries" series. It's a sort of a "now it can be told" kinda thing.

[Dienekes]

Sorry to hear it. I visited him up in WI in the mid-60s and spent an evening talking to him. Very knowledgeable, down to earth fellow and a gentleman.

Another old timer gone.

[lee]

Sir,

You have a great literary style that will not be matched..If we see each other in the great sky I will be beholding to you with the skill and knowledge you bestowed on me. R.I.P .... and to your family. ....My condolences......Greg

[mec]

" I didn't know Glock had a booth here. Whereisit?"
Dean Grennell was squinting at the little, Glock lapel pin a booth babe had fastened to my shirt.

"Anyway, I've never shot one. Never wanted to but I betcha that If you dropped one into a creek, the uglie'd was two miles down stream."

[thatguy]

Another of the old guard in gun writing gone. When I was young I read Cooper, Keith, Skelton, Nonte and the like. I guess only Cooper is left now and he must be in his 80's. Reminds me of how little time I have left.

[griz]

I'm a bit jealous of you guys who knew him. I learned a lot about reloading from his excellent writings and would have liked to meet him. RIP

[BigG]

The ABCs of Reloading is a brilliant epitaph, as were the humorous and practical magazine articles of Dean Grennell, the Dean of Reloading and a great writer. I will miss him. :(

[SAG0282]

Though I didn't know Mr. Grennell and only did somewhat by reputation, it is clear we lost a good one. RIP Mr. Grennell.........my thoughts are with your (many) friends and family.

[Zedicus]

Damn, labgrade, Kintucky Rifle and now Dean Grennell?:(

Am I the only one finding this Odd?:scrutiny:

[keano44]

When I decided to get into reloading, about ten years ago, the first book I bought was "ABC's of Reloading". I learned a lot from it, and enjoyed his humorous style so much that I bought "ABC's of Handgun Reloading".

RIP Mr. Dean Grennell.

[gyp_c2]

...nope, scary is what it is...Sure sign of makin' the last rounds...Good reason to put 'em all in the black from here on...

...vaya con Dios...

[BluesBear]

Dean Grennell and Maj. George C. Nonte were the two who taught me the most about reloading. Now they are together again.

The world is a better place for them having walked among us.

[Big Z]

I personally knew Dean, I worked with him when he was at Gun World as his apprentice without pay, and ended up in many of his articles and even on the cover of the 1977 Hunting Guide. He wrote an article about me one year on my birthday.
He flew in WWII as a tail gunner on a B17 and gave me the leather flying jacket that he wore during his service. His loves were Guns, cameras, photography, motorcycles, and working in metal or wood making something.
Due to a divorce I lost track of him for several years, when I went to visit him at his home in Mission V. His mini pickup was still in the driveway with DEAN still hanging from the rear view mirror. I got no answer at the door so I looked through the window of his front room where his office had been and where he sat and wrote many of his stories. It was exactly as it was from years before, nothing has been moved. At that point his daughter came out and let me know he had passed away.
He was like my second Father. I will never forget him, he was a good man, with sage advice, and his words of wisdom ring in my ears always.

[SharpsDressedMan]

I once called him with regard to the book he wrote on the .45. Absolutely fantastic book. Well, he was the nicest guy, didn't know me from Adam, and we talked for about 30-40 minutes. I'll never forget it. He shared and joked with me about his making "Accurate #8", by mixing Accurate #7 and #9 in equal parts. Not something a "sane" reloader would ever try, but in an attempt to find an interesting alternative, he gave it a shot. I fully understood his mindset, as I have reached for the stars sometimes in reloading. Down to earth, intelligent, and a guy I would like to have had living down the street from me. Rest in peace......

[Titan6]

Jim Bowman passed as well. A bad week for the gun world.

[garyhan]

Jack Lewis made it the traditional three.

gary

[average_shooter]

Jim Bowman passed as well. A bad week for the gun world.

Jack Lewis made it the traditional three.

Sorry, but not quite. The original post is from May of 2004. A loss nonetheless.