I'm not a famous writer. I kind of got into it with a little help from Dan Johnson who introducted me to Dave Arnold, who bought my first piece of material for Handguns Magazine. I was thrilled beyond belief to have a feature article in Handguns, but my art sucked! So Dave did something I never would have expeced. He used file photos and had a two page opening photograph of several percussion pistols, some old leather and horse shoes in the sand. He did all this work and still paid me full price! Since then, Handguns has printed two more features from my submissions and is sitting on another. That's not a lot of volume, about one a year, but I am a hobby writer, not a professional. Truth is, I'd do it for free just to see my byline.
I don't have what I would consider to be a wealth of technical experience at the reloading press or the casting pot or the case-prep station. I'm a minimalist! If my rounds go bang and strike the target within an acceptable amount of error, I am pleased. But I am mightily disappointed when I read a review of a new handgun in which the author eschews the tried and tested twenty-five yard benchmark for accuracy, in favor of fifteen-yard "combat accuracy" to categorize the latest in a line of anti-personnel contraptions. If my gun won't do 2.5 inches at twenty-five yards, I'm having a bad day, or I'm shooting a gun that will never find its way into my safe...or my heart!
My interests are mostly historical, but as a life-long (now retired) law enforcement person, moderately talented handgunner and twenty year military man, I have some things tucked away in my brain that actually have the potential to make for decent reading (according to a few writers who have passed on a compliment or two.)
But I'll more than likely never be famous and my name will never be a "house-hold" word in the shooting and writing fraternity. So, I don't consider myself a "gun writer." I'm just a gent who loves guns and hunting, thrills to long rifles and cap & ball revolvers, has a soft spot for Browning High-Power pistols and 1911s, and am turned off by cops in ninja outfits and face masks.
I appreciate this forum and the chance to introduce myself. I've corresponded with MEC a bit, and really like what he does.
