Writer's influence

[Twisted Chemist]

Well, besides Col. Cooper I can't really name any writers, specifically. However, Guns and Ammo, Shooting Times, Soldier of Fortune and many more magazines were major influencers on my infant years in the shooting community. They influenced me to pick-up an XP-100, 1911, FAL, crave for a Rem Model 7, hot-rod 7mm magnums, not to mention dreaming about so many more.

 

[luv2safari]

Holy crap! Can't believe I forgot about Ed Zern. I'd have read Field and Stream even if his column was the only content in the magazine... What a wicked sense of humor, "Exit Laughing" was the best ever!

So I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention Patrick F. McManus, the other writer who kept me in stitches.

I have an autographed copy of Hunting and Fishing From A to Zern here in my library. He had drawn several cartoons on the package it was mailed in, but that vanished many years ago.

Another author who influenced me was Jim Corbett. His book Man-Eaters of Kumaon had me wanting a double rifle as a pre-teen.

 

[Heir Kommt Die Sonne]

That's what I was wondering.

Well in the spirit of the thread I guess, if this is allowed (and it is about all I can contribute)

The PTR-91 is probably one gun that was influenced largely by this forum. I knew I wanted another .308 but couldn't justify most of the popular ones. I noticed in the reloading section, all the guys who do milsurps have a PTR-91. Even AlexanderA on here has a pair of them. The HK-91 is of course the G3 to get, but they are expensive. No one complains about the PTR-91s and that is what I noticed here. Century arms are a hit or miss. Everyone has a PTR-91 and no one complains about it. So thats the one I chose.

 

[Riomouse911]

I’ve read many of the classic books; Horn of the Hunter, The Old Man and the Boy, The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter, African Rifles and Cartridges, The Short, Happy Life of Francis MacComber, etc. I still have zero safari rifles, and doubt I ever will.

No Second Place Winner, In the Gravest Extreme, Sixguns, Protect Yourself with your Snubnose Revolver and Cirilo’s book Guns, Bullets and Gunfights made for interesting, but dated, reading.

I still read a lot of gun magazines. Fun bedtime stuff to check out. Same for Taffin’s Book of the .44 & .45, good stories and guns!

I started my WWII fascination as a kid with the Time Life series, then I graduated to The Longest Day, Band of Brothers, Islands of the Damned, Panzer Ace, The Forgotten 500, Pegasus Bridge, At Dawn We Slept, Code Talker, The Flying Tigers, And No Birds Sang, etc.

I don’t think much influence was done to steer me towards one particular caliber, gun or gun type, but these books (and many others) certainly kept my fire for guns and related stuff burning.

Stay safe.

 

[starnbar]

Keith, O'Conner, Skelton, Frank Hamer, W. Page, that's about all I can remember right off hand.

 

[nettlle]

Bolt actions-Jack O'Conner
Reloading and chasing accuracy-Warren Page

 

[doubleh]

My high school library had books by Jim Corbett and African hunters and I read every one of them. I wish I could find copies today. That may become a winter project. I also read every Argosy and True magazine I could get my hands on for the hunting stories they contained. I spent every spare minute I could get away from the cotton patch with my 22 in hand. Then I discovered girls and they took some time away. Sometimes I just took one with me in persuit of the wiley jackrabbit, prairiedog, ground squirrel, or other varmints that made it's home in my area.

I dropped out to see what Amazon had of Corbett's writings. I already have 2 on my Kindle. Others will have to come from used book stores but can be ordered on Amazon.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Broomhandle Mauser-Winston Churchill
Remington M1875-Frederick Russell Burnham
S&W M-19 -Bill Jordan

 

[rust collector]

I enjoyed O'Connor, Nonte, Carmichel and most others who were not into bragging about their exploits. I don't know who to blame for my first deer rifle, a Remington 700 ADL in 6mm Remington, but I would like to thank them for helping me make a choice I never regretted.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Another author who influenced me was Jim Corbett. His book Man-Eaters of Kumaon had me wanting a double rifle as a pre-teen.

Reading Corbett made me want to get a 7x57 Mauser. Ah, excuse me -- I meant to say a .275 Rigby!

I've read Maneaters of Kumaon at least three times. If you don't already have other copies, you can get his entire set in the form of two omnibus editions published by Oxford in India:




BTW, Peter Capstick's Death in the Silent Places has a chapter devoted to Corbett that's also worth reading.

 

[grampster]

I'd have to say my dad. He had a Ranger 20 ga double barrel and a Remington Model 34, .22 LR tube feed bolt action target rifle. They were just in the house...he didn't hunt or shoot anymore. When he came home from WW2, a decorated combat infantryman, he explained that he had hunted the most dangerous game and had no interest in it anymore. When my brother and I were old enough in his eyes he trained us. He created a small range in the basement in the old coal bin by using his welding skills and we shot from the other side of the basement using shorts in the rifle. The Ranger in the nearby woods. Then we were on our own. I became a small game hunter and then deer. I bought 4 shotguns over the years . I hunted deer with a shotgun and handgun and taken deer with both.
When I went into LE I was issued an ancient Colt .38 cal revolver. I became interested in shooting hand guns, got pretty good at it, and I have collected a variety of them over my now 80 years. I still have the Ranger and the Remington. I wasn't particularly influenced by any gun guru, though I enjoyed the magazines like field and stream etc, read Ruark's books, and have carried a concealed handgun daily for 59 years. So other than my dad, I suppose I was my own influence.
I found the gun boards in 2000 when i got a computer and enjoy reading about others experiences, skills, and interests.

 

[welldoya]

I was influenced more by friends than writers.
I bought my Super Blackhawk, Weatherby .22 and Ruger 10/22 Sporter all because friends had them.
I bought my S&W K-22 because I drooled over my uncle’s when I was a kid. I bought my Browning A5 because I used my wife’s uncle’s and liked it.
I bought my TC Hawken because I ran into a guy in the woods who had one and liked it.
Now, my 1894s I bought because I loved westerns growing up and still do.

 

[Hookeye]

.38 Special,

Met Mr. Asbell at Cloverdale Traditional Archery Championships in '88.
Got his then new Instinctuve Shooting book. Didn't think to ask for it to be signed. Doh.

Got a coworker into trad archery and he took the Blackwidow Clinic. Got me a repro of Bowhunter Magazine issue #1, which Mr. Asbell signed.
Dang that was 20 yrs ago.

My archery interest came from Fred Bear Adventure Theater, that and my mom and dad both shot recurves in the local league.
I was 4 yrs old and remember the circus target on the garage.

 

[Hookeye]

As for gun stuff, my dad and his buds were gun nuts.
Big glass ashtray and a coffee pot.........folks would swing by every weekend w a new gun magazine, or gun.

Pretty heavily into the gun/shooting culture. But not really hunting.
My dad shot some stuff but actually couldn't stand the sight of blood. Field dressing? Forget it.
Why he shot varmints.

He didn't even watch me and my bud skin deer hanging in the oak tree out back.

I read and watched more hunting stuff, than that of just guns/shooting.

 

[Old Dog]

I've read Maneaters of Kumaon at least three times.

Awesome book. Have you read Man-Eaters of Tsavo by John Henry Patterson?

From 1907. Some stilted Victorian writing, for sure, but still fascinating. Semi-autobiographical account by Patterson of the drama where two lions terrorized the crews and local villages for a year when the British were building a railway through East Africa. 135 people (allegedly, but the number of victims was never disproven) were killed by the man-eaters in less than a year before Patterson managed to kill them.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Awesome book. Have you read Man-Eaters of Tsavo by John Henry Patterson?

From 1907. Some stilted Victorian writing, for sure, but still fascinating. Semi-autobiographical account by Patterson of the drama where two lions terrorized the crews and local villages for a year when the British were building a railway through East Africa. 135 people (allegedly, but the number of victims was never disproven) were killed by the man-eaters in less than a year before Patterson managed to kill them.

Yup. Like Corbett, Patterson got his own chapter in the same Capstick book.

Patterson lived a very full life outside the scope of his book on the Tsavo maneaters:

John Henry Patterson (author) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Bill Raby]

Too many books when I was a teenager made me want to get a 4 bore rifle. I got one now and I have so much fun with it that I am building another.

 

[Bazoo]

John Taffin is one of my favorites. He's not the reason I carry a single action revolver, but he is the reason it's a two-tone. I wrote an article about it a while back. My Two-Tone 44 Single Action Sixgun.

Elmer Keith and Skeeter Skelton both influenced me, as did a little bit of Craig Boddington. I've read several of RL Wilson's books, which helped me fall deeper in love with Winchesters and Rugers.

I think my favorite though is Frank C Barnes. I've read just about all of Cartridges of the World. It's what really sparked my love of cartrdiges and firearms history, reloading and bullets.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

I also read every Argosy and True magazine I could get my hands on for the hunting stories they contained.

If you like True magazine (I collect old issues from the 40s and 50s, BTW), see if you can find a copy of this collection:

Amazon.com

Interestingly, one of the True staff photographers credited in this collection was Robert Halmi Sr., who later went on to become a significant film producer for television -- he did some pretty good stuff too, mostly for the Hallmark channel.

Robert Halmi - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Choctaw]

Bill Jordan, Skeeter Skelton and Gene Hill among others.

 

[Frulk]

My list of who I followed in print is pretty short. Keith and Cooper. Neither influenced me to buy a particular caliber or gun. Just enjoyed reading their stuff.

Keith appealed to me because he came across as the Everyman…although there were hints of self aggrandizement.

Cooper because his thought process squared with mine (even at my young age).

Never cared for Boddington. To me his writing seemed like he was always describing his job…full time hunter flying non-stop around the world on guided hunts killing exotic species every month. Same topic month after month. Only the species and location changed.

Two situations come to mind where someone DID influence me to purchase a firearm.

1. LGS owner in SA Texas in the late 90’s. Talked me out of buying a .30 carbine Ruger BH and into a .45 Colt one. My first centerfire handgun.

2. Closer to home…THR member Armored Farmer posting a picture of his Ruger .450 bushmaster leaning against a tree. In that discussion it was mentioned they were compatible with AR mags. A fact I was unaware of until then. Week or two later a .223 Ranch rifle was in the vault.

My only gun related reading these days is pretty much on THR. Truth be told it’s more informative and entertaining than the gun mag subscriptions I had over the years.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

60 years ago as a teenager I was heavily influenced by reading C.S. Landis "Hunting with the .22".

 

[JTHunter]

Unfortunately, I didn't get that interested in firearms until I was in my 20s in the mid-70s. As such, most of those writers mentioned were somewhat before my time. Of greater influence to me were actors and actresses in various westerns and other "gun heavy" movies (Wayne, Bogie, Eastwood, etc.).

 

[Mk-211]

You gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?

Josey Wales - Or Whistle Dixie

youtu.be

 

[bannockburn]

Growing up in the '70s and having a subscription to Guns and Ammo magazine, I was somewhat influenced by Col. Jeff Cooper's writings, especially whenever he wrote about the M1911. I have owned (and still have), my fair share of this particular semi-auto to this day, thanks to the Colonel's
interest with it.

Another favorite writer would be Skeeter Skelton who I thought took a slightly less serious approach in describing the various exploits he had (both fictional and non-fictional), while
writing about handguns. It was also a side effect of reading his articles and magazine column that in his honor I got a Ruger Blackhawk in .44 Special when they were first introduced.