Memories of the great gun writers being lost to today's shooters

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.455_Hunter said:
I have been reading shooting related material since the late 1980's and even I don't know a few of those names:

Jon Sundra?

John Wooters?

Where did they contribute?
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Jon Sundra was an all around hunter that wrote great pieces on rifles and calibers. Not to mention his hunting skill.
John Wooters was the foremost expert on Whitetails. He has an excellent book he wrote on them. Ole John was a hell of a rifleman.
 
Here's a few more.
Byron Dalrymple
Bruce Brady
Bill McRae
Jim Zumbo
Bob Hagel
But if you want some unusual stories you need to read Russell Annabel for Alaska hunts and Archibald Rutledge for hound hunting in the south. Pretty good stuff.

I almost left out some of my favorite fiction: Peter Capstick:rofl:
 
Keith’s and Coopers pages Bookmarked...thanks for that Sarge7402.......much appreciated!!
 
Bob Milek was probably my favorite. Don't forget Layne Simpson, Hal Swiggett, G. Sitton, Jerry Usher, Leroy Thompson, Ross Seyfried.
 
kidneyboy said:
Perhaps the internet will crash and not come back. Then books will have to come back in vogue.

Go to your local library and try to find some of these authors. You'll find part of the problem there.
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You'd be surprised. I grew up in urban STL and had a library card, still do. I came from a non-hunting family. The 12 gauge I got when I was 8 was the first gun in our home. Born in 91'. Sold thousands of guns for a distributor, have shot at Camp Perry, haven't bought meat in a grocery store since 2016, etc.

I grew up reading the ABC's of Archery. Hal Swiggetts's Small Game Hunting. Hemmingway's Green Hills of Africa. My dad bought me a subscription for Field and Stream.

There is no doubt my early readings shaped my life in a major way. However, without Youtube, THR, and Google... I wouldn't be where I am today.

Outdoor Media is going in the right directions in many regards. Especially the MeatEaters, Nock Ons, etc.
 
Reading this thread has been just like "Old Times". Wish I had 5% of the knowledge and experience of all named. JM
 
I remember when Guns & Ammo was a technical publication. Hutton, Forster, and Forker put out some good stuff. Keith and Cooper were helpful. At one time Cooper did a Q&A column. Kind of like THR except with about three month turnaround. He did a humor piece, too; analyzed the Duck Yard. The Duck Yard being the unit of measure for duck hunters calling their shots over decoys. He concluded that the Duck Yard was 24". He figured out a variety of other yards. The Target Yard came out 35 7/8" due to the habit of people showing up at shooting ranges with surveyors tools. The Plinker's Yard was found to be 11". He said this was too close to a foot for coincidence, that plinkers were setting out their tin cans at distances estimated in feet but called yards because that was what shooters do.
 
I never did understand the need to speak ill of the departed and those who cannot defend themselves. It goes without saying that gun writers great and small inherited the usual complement of human frailties, but that's not news or unique. What we enjoyed is their gift of sharing the great outdoors with us, even if artistic license was exercised.
 
What is the saddest to me is not necessarily the writers being lost to time but the innovators and inventors. Everybody knows Sam Colt, John Browning, they recognize the names of Winchester, Smith, Wesson, Remington, Henry, and Mossberg (associated with brands I assume) but they don’t actually know what the guys did. The cult worship of JMB annoys me, yes he did a lot but he was not a god. The worship of Sam Colt is also annoying because his greatest contribution to firearms design was taking a cannon design and shrinking it into a handgun. Innovative yes, but he didn’t invent anything about the revolving action to which so many people credit him. Modern day designers like George Kelgren are also unknown, and I find that to be very sad. The guys contributing to our sport should be known.

Specifically to the topic, Bill Jordan wrote some incredible stuff. It bothers me now when people hear that name and think of the hunting TV show personality.
 
Let's not go down the road of critiquing the authors personal or political foibles. Some of these folks were products of their culture or could be less than stellar individuals. We get that.

So as rust collector said, just mention whom you liked. If someone feels a candidate is so personally horrific, PM or report it and we will take a look.
 
WestKentucky said:
What is the saddest to me is not necessarily the writers being lost to time but the innovators and inventors. Everybody knows Sam Colt, John Browning, they recognize the names of Winchester, Smith, Wesson, Remington, Henry, and Mossberg (associated with brands I assume) but they don’t actually know what the guys did. The cult worship of JMB annoys me, yes he did a lot but he was not a god. The worship of Sam Colt is also annoying because his greatest contribution to firearms design was taking a cannon design and shrinking it into a handgun. Innovative yes, but he didn’t invent anything about the revolving action to which so many people credit him. Modern day designers like George Kelgren are also unknown, and I find that to be very sad. The guys contributing to our sport should be known.

Specifically to the topic, Bill Jordan wrote some incredible stuff. It bothers me now when people hear that name and think of the hunting TV show personality.
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Browning was an iconic designer. His inventions are used in almost all modern pistols. Two of his designs are still popular today, the 1911 and the M2 machine gun. Very few, if any firearms designers will EVER have the impact that JMB did.
 
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