All of mine have been mentioned, except four: Jim Carmichael, Lucian Cary, Townsend Whelen, and Sheriff Jim Wilson.
Cary was the gun writer for
True Magazine back in the '50s, but I think he is better known for his stories of the fictional gunsmith J. M. Pyne, who bore more than a small resemblance to the famed barrel maker Harry Pope.
I remember the stories in old issues of
The Gun Digest, but they originally appeared in
The Saturday Evening Post.
You can get a bound compendium
here, if you order before they are gone.
Anyone who ever knew a real gunsmith who could not only make a custom rifle, but who could make a machined part from scratch for an obsolete Remington slide action rifle and have it work as smoothly as glass, as I once did, and anyone with an appreciation for the old falling block target rifles, as I have, and anyone who loves good gun writing will enjoy the stories.
I had the privilege of seeing Col. Whelen throwing clay birds by hand for his grandson, who was swinging a Winchester Model 21. He was also shooting a scoped Winchester High Wall chambered in .22 K-hornet, and he let me fire a shot with it. I became a fan of .22 center fire rifles on that day, fifty two years ago this month.