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

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I am 37, I have heard of all the authors mentioned in this thread but I will tell you, I have read a few of them but if I read anything else of their work, I don’t remember.

Contemporary people read contemporary work. The writings of the past remain relevant but that doesn’t mean the newer authors are any less.

I have read Jim Carmichael and Craig Boddington. Does that mean I still need to read Jack OConnor?

Who says the writings of the past aren’t obsolete by today’s standards? Trust me, I am into history and “the old ways” I just think this is a little bit too much of a “kids these days” thread.
 
Cannibul said:
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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Still not the end all be all gun designer he is made out to be. He improved a lot of things, some significantly, he used things in ways they had not been used before. A great thinker, tinkerer, and a highly intelligent man with a penchant for getting patents and copyrights. A businessman through and through. I don’t question him as an icon of firearm technology, but as an inventor I question it. He was absolutely an innovator, but he didn’t really invent much as in a unique idea being turned into a unique and new product entirely. He did however improve a lot of other peoples ideas and make them functional and practical.
 
Browning and Edison existed at the same time and in the same times.

Business-wise they share a lot of qualities. Invention-wise.....well they each had their moments in certain areas and were overhyped in others. Sometimes, the person who gets credit for the invention is the one who patents it first. The winners write the history books.

I am an antique woodworking tool enthusiast and can say that Stanley did the same things in the same era.

ALSO, historical people really shouldn’t be analyzed by today’s standards. They need to be analyzed by the standards of their own day. Ethics and actions are contextual.
 
I had forgotten about Carmichel.

O'Connor, the English teacher, was great. but the first piece I read by him was in the 1944 Gun Digest. It wouldn't have earned a C grade in an English class. He must have been in a real hurry.

Was this from Venturino? "Not having fired a shot in anger since the nineteenth century, I raised the old musket to my shoulder and fired."

I use that as an example when I teach writing.

One of best pieces of writing I recall was a bit by a new managing editor of Outdoor Life. He explained that he was not a gun guy, and that he thought he should gain some familiarity with guns.

He write about how he went to A&F, selected a big English double rifle, went down to the the range, put it on a rest, and fired it.

The next paragraph opened with an account of a motorcycle accident in which had been involved.
 
I have read some of the writings of most of those mentioned. Some I really liked and some I disliked as I'm sure most have done. None the less it's a different world today and the print magazines are dying out. If it isn't found on the internet today it doesn't exist for a lot of people. I very seldom purchase a print magazine now. Somehow most of the modern writers of today just don't measure up to those of old (for me) and I have trouble paying the price of a printed magazine that is mostly advertisements with a few articles of little substance. Almost everything today has to be short and sweet with little depth or so it appears to me.
 
357smallbore said:
I have talked to many shooters and hunters that have no clue to the gun writers of the past. They are clueless. Many people of different ages have zero clue. What saddens me the most is the older hunters and shooters don't know the giants that led the way.

Lots know the name Elmer Keith, Craig Bodington, and some of the new writers. But they are clueless to:

Skeeter Skelton
Bob Milek
Bill Jordon
Jon Sundra
John Wooters
Dave Arnold
Phil Spangenberger
Jack O'connor
Dick Metcalf
Rick Jamison
Fin Agard
Jan Libourel
Charles Askins
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Literally never heard of any of those folks. Still like guns though.

This is a prevailing trend in many areas though, people forgetting or not learning who came before.
 
I read basically every book in the hunting/shooting/reloading section of my local library as a teen. It was fascinating however it also struck me as unrealistic as most of the adventure hunts were things that simply do not exist anymore, especially the ivory and big cat hunters. The equipment reviews and technical information has changed quite a bit and many of the old school writers had very strong biases for or against methods or equipment which don't hold water anymore. There are substantially better and more rrelevant current content being produced in recent years. So not truly drawn to the bound word so much these days.
 
Vern Humphrey said:
You mean there are people who don't use fixed 4X scopes?

If there is anyone who wants to get rid of a fixed, 4X Leupold M8, send it on to me!!
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Well if I had an M8 4x I’d put it to use too.

I’ll give you 2 4x Simmons. Beggars can’t be choosers.
 
I second that. Much better to have a high quality fixed power scope than a variable with bells and whistles costing 2x to 3x more. Elderly cartridges such as 6.5x55, 45-70 and 270 still do a fine job if you don't need to reach into the next county. The basics have not changed all that much.
 
Wasn't it Bill Jordan who had a negligent discharge from playing with a loaded gun that wounded a fellow Border Patrol Officer?
 
> Dick Metcalf

After his editorial in favor of gun control, I have no interest in anything he might write. He chose up his side of his own free will, and then tried to push it from the masthead of Guns & Ammo.

"Never forget."
 
PO Ackley was one of my favorites have both of his books, he would have problems today because he was no friend of the AR15.
 
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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What's a library?
That's the problem. I used to go to one every Saturday. Today you don't need too. But you have a harder time finding books.
 
I like Roy Dunlap. A working gunsmith and Army ordnance man, not a prolific writer.
Ordnance Went Up Front is from the viewpoint of the people who fixed the guns the soldiers broke. He had some controversial opinions.
 
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