Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters So...how bout Charles Askins, Jr.?

Re: dogzapper's comment that Askin's was rumored to have cheated his way to the top:

Before WWII the main pistol game was NRA bullseye (the only other game was PPC, based on the FBI course). Then, as now, there were three parts to bullseye pistol: .22, centerfire and .45. Centerfire could be any centerfire round. So Askins got the bright idea of adapting a Colt Woodsman Match pistol to the .22 Velo Dog cartridge, which was an obsolescent centerfire cartridge about the size and power of a .22 LR. I don't recall if he had to cut the case down in length or was able to use the cartridges intact. In any event, the obvious advantage was it had the recoil of a .22 LR, significantly less than the .32 and .38 caliber centerfire revolvers that were then favored for that class, clearly a benefit in timed (5 shots in 20 sec) and rapid fire (5 shots in 10 sec), which accounts for 2/3 of the overall score.

He actually shot a few matches with that gun, but IIRC he didn't actually win a championship with it. I believe the next year, the NRA modified its centerfire rules so that a centerfire pistol had to be at least .32 caliber. In his writings, Askins was clearly proud of the way he gamed the system to gain an advantage over his competitors. Whether it would be considered cheating depends on your idea of sportsmanship - it was definitely gamesmanship. But he was a national pistol champ so he clearly was a top notch target shooter.

I also read somewhere (possibly on the 'fire) that he had a dislike of Jack O'Connor because O'Connor replaced his father as Shooting Editor of Outdoor Life when the elder Askins wasn't yet ready to go.

I remember reading an artcle or excerpt by Askins in a monthly magazine some years back, which detailed his being the first to kill a man with the S & W 44 mag. I can't remember which magazine it was but at that time I wondered why they would print it. I realized that Askins came off as an arrogant, pompus bully who would probably throw tantrums if he wasn't quoted verbatum. I never read any of his ramblings after that time.

It was at either the first or second Bianchi Cup, Askins attended as a VIP. Ray Chapman and John Bianchi were courting the NRA (or perhaps the NRA was courting them) to sanction the match and start a "practical shooting event" (the name changed in 83 to "action shooting" at Jeff Cooper's insistance). Anyway, Askins was seated at the head table during the awards dinner, wearing a cowboy hat and looking flamboyant and bored. IIRC, Bill McMillan (ex Olympic pistol shooter, Marine Officer and San Diego Deputy) was giving a short talk. Right in the middle of the talk, Askin stands up, looks out over the crowd and then just walks out, totally disrupting the presentation. He never came back, nor did Ray invite him back IIRC. He also wrote a critical piece for the American Rifleman after the 1978 US IPSC championsip that was egregious enough that the champion, Ross Seyfried wrote a response---this was years before Ross had ever penned an article---maybe in a way, Askin is responsible for Ross' writing career.

I'll loan you a copy after you buy it.

Never met Charlie's dad.
Wish I had.
From all accounts, he was a man to ride the river with.

When he was laid-up too sick, too long, to write his columns, Elmer ghosted 'em for him.
(IIRC, he was JO'C's predecessor at Outdoor Life.)

When Elmer was bed-ridden in the hospital, terribly paralyzed after his stroke, Charlie opined that if Elmer had any guts, he'd kill himself.
Charlie offered to "off" Elmer as a favor, and our colleagues gasped with shock and horror at what they saw as his callousness � but I think that may well have been just Charlie's weird approximation of compassion.