Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Col. Askins

I get home from the slope the 18th. It should be waiting for me when I get there at my favorite dealer. I'd love to have a copy of that article or know which magazine it came out in and I'd keep an eye out on eBay and Amazon for one. I have his book, "The Hunter's Rifle" ordered.

I'll definitely get some photos going. I doubt I'll be able to hunt it this year as I'll be caribou hunting right after getting home. I did find some brass already and a friend has several boxes of factory ammo. He has promised to share a couple boxes with me.

This rifle fits right in with my passion for unique firearms. I really don't have much in the way of what most would call standard rifles.

We have different definitions of "bad". Lets see those pics when it shows up.

Yup,pictures when you get the .308 NM in.

Are you serious? That is way cool!

BTW, "THE HUNTERS RIFLE" is a great read and he talks about that .308 Norma.

I'm 70-odd pages into Unrepentant Sinner

Even if some of the stories are embellished in telling, he was quite a contradiction. At one point casually describing a violent deadly encounter, and on the next page waxing poetic over the death of a favorite horse. The style of writing likewise is interesting - a straightforward declarative style, but with esoteric words that I'm not quite sure ever existed in the dictionary

It's not a dull read. Would be interesting to see what sort of movie a good director could make of it - someone like Eastwood.

The waxing poetic about the horse was Major Askins. Charlie included it to give us insight into what his Dad was like.

yeah, I understood that. His dad dug the grave and buried the horse himself. Charlie nonetheless included it in the book, so I reckon he felt much the same way.

Besides being a cavalry officer in the old Army, the Major hunted a lot from horseback.

His Ithaca double that Walt Snyder ended up with, has a worn area on the left side of the forearm, from years of saddle horn wear. See Shotgunworld link for details. http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=369279

He had a special relationship with those animals, they were family.

So, no real surprise that he would react to a loss like he did.

DF


edited to add link.

the part where he talks about them having a few drinks to knock the edge off before a match, is what i use to do when i was shooting ipsc.

I'm sure it works. I always shot better at Pool after a couple drinks.

I've been told by others that this trick works wonders.

Yup. I had a sweet spot, sober I sucked, hammered I sucked, but there was a nice place right in the middle where it all came together.

Pat-
There are some eerie parallels between Col. Askins and Col. Kurtz of Apocalypse Now. Both Askins and the fictional Kurtz were in Vietnam well before the build up in the mid-late 60s. Both went to Airborne School later in their careers, which is apparently an unusual move.

One of the writer for Apocalypse Now was John Milius, who has been up to his eyeballs in firearms lore for a long time, including being an NRA director. It would be fun to ask Millius if Askins was an inspiration for some facets of Kurtz's movie character.

--Bob

I know I'm a lot better singer when I have had 4 or 6....

Unfortunately, no one who is listening seems to realize that.

Congratulations. I've only got one feeling and you sir, have just hurt it.