Who is your favourite gun writer?

[mark-hunter]

Gents,
Apart from frequent discussions on reccomended books, on this forum, let me ask following:

1. Who is your favourite gun writer today?

2. Who is your favourite gun writer in history?

For me, in order of prefernce:

1. Modern:

Dave Petzal (Field and stream), with fantastic style of writing, and good american sense of humor, which makes him different from all the rest. Being technically oriented - the gun writing buisness, it is hard to keep there literary value and style, within the tecnical subjects of guns, shooting, or hunting. Besides the factual knowledge and experience, this quality makes him my number 1.

Terry Wieland, expert on firearm history, then guns, hunting, etc - nuomerous books and articles.

Craig Boddington - most prolific gun writer today, books, magazines, but most important of all, producing most updated contemporary information about African safari today.

2. Historical:

Robert Ruark
John Pondoro Taylor
Ernest Hemingway (except, he is not gun writer by proffesion, but writer, short story writer, journalist, big game fisherman, boxer, nobel prize winner, passionate shotgunner, BUT qualifies well in this subject, too )

And, all these three are most quoted authors even today. I enjoy reading them.

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

My favorite gun writer - Terry Wieland.

 

[John Telford]

All the above are great but I’ll have to go with Koos Barnard simple yet practical and entertaining in his humble style. He was with SA Man Magnum for many years until they were sold to SA Hunt where he was promoted to ed.

 

[Sika98k]

I gave up buying gun/shooting magazines some years ago. It became apparent to me that reviews, there were no bad ones, were overshadowed by the fact that the products were heavily advertised in the publications.
I,ve enjoyed the old writings of John Pondoro Taylor amongst others who were mainly concerned with hunting. If anything Jim Corbett gave me the yen to get a Rigby 275. After many years dream accomplished !

 

[fourfive8]

Good question! Obviously there's a blurred, overlap area between "gun writer" and "hunting story writer". More recent, favorite author is Mike Venturino. And from the past, WDM Bell, even though Bell is usually associated more with ivory hunting chronicles.

 

[R.M.C.]

1. Boddington
2. Hemingway (not sure if he counts but I love the fishermen and the sea )

 

[Ravensview]

1. Really don’t have one anymore, I think most of them are a horses patooty, but if I were to pick one Mike Venturino.

2. Elmer Keith, Col. Charles Askins (sp), Grits Gresham, Jack O Conner, Skeeter Skelton am sure I forgot some.

 

[Thumper Mcgee]

Peter Hathaway capstick for sure. Anyone that has not read his books is missing out. Jim Corbett would be a close second

 

[Red Leg]

My favorites of the old guard in no particular order:

Primarily article writers:

Jack O'Conner (An educated journalist, Jack knew how to craft an excellent article - unlike most then or today)

Books/short stories/literature:

Ernest Hemingway (purely for "Green Hills of Africa")
Robert Ruark (Horn of the Hunter is the best safari book ever written, period - and the Old Man and the Boy collections are wonderful)
J. A. Hunter (His work "White Hunter" set the standard for autobiographical works by professional hunters. He has been equaled but never bettered.)
Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell (No one has better chronicled his personal adventures better unless it is ...........)
Jim Corbett

Modern

Primarily article writers:

Terry Wieland (his books are largely anthologies or expansions of his articles - I should note I don't always agree with him - but he is worth arguing with)
Ross Seyfried (He writes primarily about classic guns and rifles - their care and feeding)

Books/short stories/literature

Peter Hathaway Capstick (As long as one doesn't take them or him too seriously, most are a fun read)

I have enormous trouble wading through anything written by Boddington - "surely"

 

[wesheltonj]

I don't really have any favorites. I do enjoy reading the "Ask David Petzal" Column in F&S and reading this smart ass answers.

I don't read anything from the General, er I mean Colonel. I will give him this, he can turn out the volume! Thus the problem! Among with others! Not that I claim to be a great writer!

 

[Firebird]

I could agree or disagree with all of you pretty easily. . . I have trouble reading anyone who is being sponsored by a company wether it is Outdoor Life magazine or Remington.
I have always loved Ruark and Elmer Keith of old and I guess Walter Prothero and some of the existing African authors such as Kevin Thomas or Kevin Robertson more our time. All of the modern PH’s should leave a book behind wether it be about guns or hunting.
Want something new but old? Check into Gordon MacQuarrie which is good Americana hunting and fishing-but nothing of guns. . .

 

[375Fox]

I don’t have a favorite writer, it’s hard to have a favorite when you can see what they are willing to endorse, both in writing and on tv shows. However, I will say my favorite magazine to read is Sports Afield followed closely by African Hunting Gazette.

 

[JimP]

Elmer Keith, Col. Charles Askins (sp), Grits Gresham, Jack O Conner, Skeeter Skelton are some of my favorites. I have a number of books by all of them. But perhaps I enjoy the antics in a couple of of Skeeter Skelton's books Hoglegs, Hipshots, and Jalapenos, and Good Friends Good Guns Good Whiskey the best.

 

[sestoppelman]

Liked all the above at various times, O'Connor was surely the best writer in his day, Keith was a great story teller but a terrible writer I gather.
No issues with Boddington, read most of his stuff, have most of his books, some better than others of course.
Quite a few years ago there was a very laconic fellow name Gary Sitton who's writing I was fond of, sadly he passed away while in his prime.
Mike Venturino is a good writer and a nice guy, have met him a couple of times at SHOT. Another good writer is John Barsness with Wolfe, but I think he is a jerk for personal reasons. Same with Scovill.
Skeeter was great as were Jordan and Askins.
Ruark and Hemingway of course.

 

[Hunting Sailor]

I’ve really enjoyed both books and articles by Peter Flack.

 

[meigsbucks]

Current writers: Dave Petzal, Terry Wieland, Craig Boddington, Phil Bourjaily (Shotguns)
Past: Jack O’Connor (Reading him got me hunting), Jim Carmichael, Warren Page, Bob Hagel, Elmer Keith and Bob Milek (Reading him got me into handgun hunting)
Greatest ever: O’Connor

 

[Nyati]

Modern, Terry Wieland, Pierre van der Walt, Kevin Robertson.

Old timers, any of them, I will mention Bell, Hunter, Manners, Foran, Sanchez-Ariño.......

 

[jeanes]

Besides those mentioned, Ruark, etc., I have enjoyed Michael McIntosh, Galen Winter and Steve Lamascus.

 

[crs]

All my favorite authors are dead and buried!

If I see something on an interesting subject, I will give it a try and if good, finish it. If not I toss it.

No worries, I have a decent size library of good books that will do me for years. Complete collections of all the works of best favorites. Sort of like spending time with old friends.

 

[Ragman]

I prefer hunting writers over gun writers. All the articles comparing calibers and telling me that you need a .300 WM to shoot anything over 300 pounds drive me crazy! I am just a hunter who likes guns.
That being said as @sestoppelman mentioned, Gary Sitton was a gem for me. He wrote the “Backtracking” column for the back page of Peterson’s Hunting for years and every one was excellent.