Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Writers that influenced you the most.

Gary Sitton is the only writer who caused me to buy a particular magazine just because they wrote in it. I would read whatever he wrote first regardless if it was the first page or the last page in the magazine.

I have enjoyed other writers such as Elmer Keith, Bob Hagel, Finn Aagaard, John B, Wayne Van and Tom Turpin to name a few, but none had quite the hold on me that Sitton did. It just seemed like I identified with him the most.

Blowing the dust off this thread . . .

My personal favorites go back a ways: Townsend Whelen, Julian Hatcher, Phil Sharpe, C.S. Landis, E. H. Harrison, Jack Lott, Elmer Keith, Jeff Cooper, Bob Milek, Skeeter Skelton, Finn Aagard, Ross Seyfried, Ken Waters, John Wooters, M D Waite, Pete Dickey, Garry James, Al Miller, John Barsness, John Taffin, and Paul Scarlatta.

I put together a collection of "old" firearms-related hardcover books starting in the mid 1960s through the mid-'90s. All of the titles ever published by Thomas Samworth and his Small Arms Technical Publishing Co., which included authors such as Whelen, Hatcher, Keith, Landis, Harrison, and others. Standard Publishing Co of Huntington, WV was a contemporary competitor of Samworth's SATPCO, and listed a number of popular sporting authors from the 1930s through the 1960s, including Phil Sharpe. I practically have Whelen's "Wilderness Hunting and Wildcraft" and just about anything else written by him memorized.

Reading Shooting Times and G&A from the middle 60s to the early 90s when I quit buying magazines except for Handloader and Rifle, I enjoyed reading Elmer Keith, Jeff Cooper, Bob Milek, Skeeter Skelton, Finn Aagard, Ross Seyfried, Ken Waters, John Wooters, Garry James, and Al Miller. Mike Venturino and Paul Matthews got me interested in straightwall case cartridges and the levers and single-shots from which they are fired. I find it ironic that Venturino has "discovered" vintage military firearms and machine guns because back in the day he eschewed them vigorously. I loved M D Waite and Pete Dickey technical pieces in the American Rifleman. John Barsness (MuleDeer), Paul Scarlatta, and John Taffin are later favorites, and I'm leaning toward adding Dave Scovill and Terry Wieland to my personal "hit parade" of authors.

I got a lot out of reading P O Ackley from a technical standpoint, but since I'm not and never have been a wildcatter both Ackley and Rick Jamison were not more than a passing interest to me.

One author who holds about zero interest for me is Peter Kokalis. I purchase the Shotgun News annual "Treasury" issue mainly for the historical pieces therein, and read Kokalis' stuff just to red-pen it; his articles are fraught with decades-old errors made by previous authors and just parroted again and again.

Noah

1980, picked up "The Varmint Hunter's Digest" at a local gunshop for around $5. Hooked me on varmint hunting/calling. Jim Dougherty.

Calling Coyotes (and other predators) by Jamison worsened the varmint hobby.

Should have just moved West then, would have saved alot of gas money.

Frank de Haas, single shots and bolt actions

Parker Ackley, Handbook for shooters and reloaders

MacFarland, Introduction to gunsmithing

Steve Acker, Home shop machinist

Jerry Kuhnhausen, Colt Double Actions

Vernon Speer, how to write a handloading manual

Zane Grey probably wrote almost as much on fishing/hunting as he did westerns. I believe William Faulkner also had some pieces published in Field & Stream when he was younger.

When I was very young, I read any book written by Jim Kjelgard. For those of you who don't know him, he wrote the book "Big Red" which Disney made into a movie and royally screwed up. His stories fueled my love for the outdoors.

Jack O'Connor, Robert Ruark, Archibald Rutledge, Havilah Babcock, Gene Hill and scores of others. I met Bob Milek and Col. Askins at a SHOT show in Atlanta years ago. The shooting sports are full of great folks.

Larry Flint

I'm not surprised Disney screwed it up, and it was likely on purpose. Disney was an Anti-hunter, and ytou will see it clearly in his films. He had hangup as well. No Disney employee can wear a mustache (even the men) though Disney himself had one. And the mothers in his films often die while the kid is young. (Just like Disney himself).

Hamilton Bowen is a most excellent writer. Besides that, Matthew Bracken. Then, William Faulkner, specifically the descriptions of hunting the Big Woods of the Mississippi Delta.

Jack O'Connor, because my Grand Dad had "Book of the Rifle"
Carmichel, for the 280
Gary Sitton- about having a 250 savage custom rifle built
Aagard and Barsness - guns/reloading can/should make sense
Ken Waters for Pet Loads
Bob Hagel (but i don't use his loads!)


Sycamore

Hob Hagle

Our very own JB has influenced me the most. Mainly because he is a close friend and lives near enough that sometimes he has manually forced whiskey down my throat in order to sway me to his way of thinking.....it worked every time! However I do like his writing the best of all because none of it has ever set off my BS meter....

Writers that have influenced or motivated me? Hemingway, Captsick, Ruark all gave me the yearning for Africa. John "Pondoro" Taylor introduced me to the 9.3 x 62 and have been super satisfied with that discovery. Ken Waters for hand loading. P. O. Ackley for giving me the bug to wildcat and an interest in "oddball" cartridges.

Early on in my formative years it was Skeeter Skelton, Bill Jordan, Robert Ruark, Peter Capstick, Jim Corbett, and Rick Jaimison. Did lots of reading in the old Varmint Hunter magazines too, as well as Precision Shooting, but can't really remember the names of those writers.

Mostly I went to the internet after that though, picking up information here and there.

But I will say that JB has been pretty influential to me in the last 3-4 years. Probably the only one in that time period that I could single out.

When I read the thread title, the first writer that came to mind was Hal Swiggett. Gun Digest used to be one of my favorite pubs to read when I was younger and impressionable. Hal was a fixture with GD for so long. For whatever reason, his style resonated with me. Ed Matunas wrote some great rimfire publications. Top quality stuff. I guess Capstick belongs in the conversation. As a creative hunting writer, he is without peer. I read just about everything he wrote. The entertainment value is off the charts. I have to give props to John Barsness. I read his stuff anytime I saw it in print. I hadn't bought a gun or hunting related book in years until I recently bought The Big Book of Big Game Hunting. It was a fantastic read. I most grateful though for the day in and day out contributions JB makes to the forum. I feel like I have a personal mentor on staff.

Bigstick ...... He's a legend in his own mind.

I would say that the writer who influenced me the most was Jack O'Connor. Not necessarily on his choice of firearms, although his recipe for calibers and scopes work just as well today as they did then, but more because he could write a story and make you feel as though you were there with him.
He lit a fire in me to go to the Yukon and be in the places he had been. It took quite a few years before I could do it but eventually I did and I carry the memories to this day.

For pure entertainment #1 was Russell Annabel, #2 was Capstick. I knew when reading them that there stories were to be taken with a large grain of salt but they are the sort of stories that everyone who has a bit of adventure in their soul should read. If they don't light a fire in you then I feel sorry for you because you are either a cynic or a non-romantic.

I am inherently distrustful of most gun-writers and the muck they shovel issue after issue, most of them would be used car salesmen if they weren't pimping guns and related products so I rarely wasted my time on periodicals.

drover

Skelton - is responsible for my addiction to Ruger Single Actions and S&W Revolvers, his storytelling

Sundra - is responsible my other addiction to Ruger #1 & M77's

Wooters - mannlicher stocked rifles , his writing about the .308 Sako he hunted with

Seyfried - wildcats and big bore handguns

Jamison - his technical handloading articles

Barsness - no nonsense writing style, best of the current writers

Aagard,Shoemaker, Capstick, for the hunting story's and the firearms used

Wieland & Sitton for the entertainment any and all of the articles have provided, just a pleasure to read.

F

Captdavid: I am certain I was most entertained, motivated and informed by Jack O'Connor.
I enjoyed his magazine articles, his Hunting and gun books along with his novels.
I have a very complete collection of his books and novels.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

You're right. I did read his works and the stories I liked the best were the ones from the Yukon and Northern BC. I've been to the Yukon twice and loved it. Even tried to move to Whitehorse. Going on a horseback moose hunt in the Cassiar Mountains would be another dream come true.