I was greatly influenced by both men, but moreso by O'Connor than Keith. I started reading them at an early age, but did not have a subscription. I read magazines in two places, the local doctor's office and at a local drug store that had outdoor magazines, including Outdoor Life. My dad would have delivered a litter of horned toads at the thought of spending money on magazines. As I grew older, and gained experience, I learned that based upon my accumulating pool of experience, I found that O'Connor's writings mirrored mine much moreso than did Keith's. That could be due, in large measure, to the fact that I used much better bullets than were available to either man when they were amassing much of their experiences. I was a big fan of Nosler partition bullets until I found Bitterroot bullets, and then used them to the exclusion of all others for hunting, when I could get them. Partitions then became my fall-back bullets. I got my first .270 in the mid-sixties and haven't been without at least one ever since. I suppose that O'Connor influenced my decision to get my first .270, but after that, my experiences with the cartridge was the major influencing factor to me. It worked very well for me and one lesson my dad taught me very early on was that if it wasn't broken, don't fix it! I did not find that the .270 needed fixing.
As far as the men themselves went, I never had the pleasure of meeting O'Connor, but I did meet and spend a very pleasurable hour or so with Mr. Keith. I found him to be personable, outgoing, friendly and entertaining. I have known many people that knew Mr. O'Connor very well, and have spent considerable time with most of them. They told me basically that he was not nearly so outgoing as I found Keith to be, and that he didn't make friends easily. He was somewhat more aloof, and he even wrote about it in one of his books. Once he got to know someone though, they report he was as good a friend as anyone could want.
Both men were highly opinionated. Personally, I admire that trait and don't think much of folks who aren't. I believe the "feud" between the two men was somewhat exaggerated. I think that, down deep, O'Connor admired old Elmer, and he as much as said so in some of his writings. I doubt that Elmer reciprocated however.
Were we influenced by those two men? I suspect that all shooters and hunters were influenced by both men, whether we know it or not. I also suspect that their influence will remain for a long time to come.
