I'd have to say Elmer Keith on the hunting side, although I found that standard-sized rounds killed exceedingly well. What I valued about Elmer was his wealth of hunting experience and down-to-earth common sense.
I know that Elmer was reporting honestly on his field experience and that bullets back in the 30's and 40s weren't what we have now. If Elmer was alive today (and I surely wish he was), he'd recognize the fact that we now live in the Golden Age of incredible bullets.
Then, there was load development and such. I'd have to say that Ken Waters and Warren Page influenced me most; with a bunch of PO Ackley thrown in. Ken, of course, had very little hunting experience, while Page had oodles. Anyway, for tech stuff, I followed the lead of Waters, Page and the Ackley stuff that wasn't full of obvious bullshit.
Still on the subject of tech, I knew Bob Hagel and liked him a lot. We talked often and I learned a good deal from him. He loaded waaaay too hot, so I never followed that part of his guidance.
I'll be honest and say that I never liked Jack O'Connor much. I knew him and that REALLY tainted my reading of his words. And that's all I will say about that.
I've had a couple of editors who adored O'Connor. Neither had much hunting experience, so I guess they liked the prose.
I also knew Elmer Keith since I was a gun-crazy kid of twelve years or so. He always had time for me and just plain knew stuff. Karen and I even stopped by his home (by invitation) when we were on our honeymoon, 52 years ago. Man did we all have a fine time!!!
To put Elmer in proportion; many of the older gunwriters have told me that whenever gun scribes gathered at a watering hole, the sound level of the visiting, jokes and laughing would approach 100 decibels. Then, Elmer would walk into the room, take the stogie out of his mouth and clear his throat ... and the sound dropped to 0db ... silence.
The other gun writers realized that whenever Keith spoke, they learned things and that it was based on great deal more experience than most of them had.
My writing? (Not that I ever attained any status at all) Hell, I was busy making money so that I could retire forever at age 49. That and hunting my ass off in some really wild places. My writing style always was totally my own and the stuff in my many articles was always purely my own.
Anyway, for what it's worth, those are the gunwriters who influenced me.
Blesssings,
Steve
PS. I've always loved Johnny's writing. He writes really, really well and all of his words are based on experience ... and no bullshit (don't tell him I said so
) And after I met the John and hunted with him several times, I liked his writing even more. Johnny writes like he talks, so whenever he writes a piece, it's like a personal conversation.
For some reason, at gunwriter functions, we always seemed to be assigned as roommates. And I would have to say, that was always a great pleasure.
Johnny is the real deal and a man who will always have my respect and friendship.
We are very lucky to have John Barsness here at the 24HCF. Like Elmer Keith, Johnny "knows stuff."
