Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters "Gun Writer" Backgrounds

Have always enjoyed O'Conner, Barsness, Hagel, Taffin, and the late great Gary Sitton (a rare talent gone too darn soon). Does anyone know much about Gary Sitton, other than living in Tucson and liking to hunt on the Bagget ranch near Abilene TX...? A friend of mine met Craig Boddington and according to my friend is genuinely one fine fellow...I have enjoyed his work also. The thing that makes all these writers is the sharing of their foibles as well as their successes...

Really have enjoyed this whole thread..one of the finest...
thanks ever so much one and all...Blessings...

Thanks to all the writers who have shared there experiences here and in the many articles and books that have been written. It's real nice to be able to put 2+2 together and figure out who each person is and there writing tendencies.

Again Thanks to All,

Rob

I know a gent who was G. Sitton's hunting and shooting buddy who speaks very well of him. Whenever I find something he wrote, I put it into my library. If you can find a copy, his article "Favorites" tells a lot about him.

He definitely had to leave too soon.

jim

Haven't been on this thread for far too long. Glad didn't miss it, and waitng for that elk stuff, in an inpatient way, !!!


Also got a good chuckle out of the Johnny Buffalo , !!!

_______________________
"Real trucks don't have spark plugs"

DZ, a followup to that line may soon be...

" Real trucks don't have diesel "

All well
Dew

PS
Of course in a few years at this rate there may not be any real trucks... Gas or diesel

I've been in the hunting business long enough to peg most of these guys including hunterJim...They are all first class gunscribes IMO..In fact I can't think of one gunscribe that I really dislike, I may not agree with them all the time, but I don't think they require me to do that...

I think some folks get to into personalities sometimes and draw conclusions or put gunscribes on a pedalstal with unrealistic ideals...If their writting entertains, educates or even aggrivates, then that is all that is required..

I loved old Elmer and I knew him personally, he was a great guy, and so was Jack O'Conner, but I'm pretty well convienced they really didn't care much for each other, yet they are both among the greats...I can't imagine growing up without Outdoor Life and those two old reprobates, and they were that! and their bantering made for some great reading!

I had an article published three-ish years ago when i was 13 about a mountain lion hunt that i did (man o man was that a story). I'm not sure if that counts me as a gun writer though.
-Henry

Gunwriters............... HMMM, good or bad, love or hate em, they help stir the passion for a sport that is dying off at a alarming rate in Canada. (I'm not sure about the USA). Therefore I support all of them. I personally do not read articles used to sell magazines. I find them boring. These are the same articles I read 25 years ago with huge vigor. I read ever word, and used whatever I could out in the bush. I quickly found out what worked and what did not. Which writer knew what he/she was writing about and who was into self promoting fluff. The bush and the bench is where most gun writers earn the repect of the reader. I bet there are a lot of people on this forum that did the same thing. We envolved, most of the articles haven't. You can only repeat the "10 best ways to shoot a whitey" so many time. IMO, these articles are still required to help the next generation of newbies become hunting and gun "loonies". So write gunnies, write we need the press.

P.S. To help promote this sport, the next time a newbie shows up at your local gun club. Don't be a pompus smug ass (you know who you are)and help he/she out. Shelve the superiority and teach them. On second thought don't we cannot afford another generation of gun snobs.

alevas - amen to your P.S. Best, John

Very interesting backgrounds. Tim, through your reloading articles in the Nosler #3 reloading maunual my FIL and I always thought you were a varmint hunter.....

The only reading I really did was through a Shooting times subscription from probably 1980 until just after Bill Jordan passed. I always enjoyed the articles by Bill and Skeeter, and felt they both were probably the kind of gentlemen most hunters hope to be. I almost owned a 7 STW, but after consulting Mr Jarret to have him rechamber an ADL I assembled on a McMillan, we decided 3350 fps in a 140 partition, and 1/2" 3 shot groups would be hard to beat. I digress.

I luckily stumbled onto this website in search of information for my MkV 300 wby, and thankfully so. This seems like a really good place to share knowledge, and hopefully soon when I get the rifle I spend more time prepping cases, and loading for it and my other neglected firearms I haven't shot much in the last 10 years. My son and son in law need to learn how to load, and I need to discharge some old powder to be replaced with new. There is never enough time to hunt and fish, but in 5 yrs I hope to do some catching up on old friends with my family.

May you all continue to share words with us, may we be able to thank you for those words, and may your bullets hit there intended mark.

Allen

Very interesting read on here. It took me a while but I went through it all. 'Outdoor Writers' seem to draw a lot of response, whether positive or negative. Why is that?

This is a great thread, great reading. For Those who Like Bill Jordan, he did publish a collection of articles all written after he retired from the Border Patrol. I was self published in 1987 it seems the Editors had him pigeon holed. It was called Mostly Hunting I bought one at a gunshow somewhere which is signed by Bill, unfortunately not for me but the previous owner. If you check ABEBooks.com you may be able to find a copy.

Len

Bart, I still love the Me & Joe stories and your Dad and Bill were quite a pair. Kind of like OConner and Kieth, but they really liked each other.

Hey John, long time no see. How goes it?

Although I've visited 24HR a few times, I just signed up as a real, ruttin', tuttin' full-fledged member.

I'm not a "gun writer" per se, though I do the occasional article on gun-related topics. Anyway, rather than retype a bunch of stuff, here's a little bio of who I am.

******
Tony Mandile lives in Glendale, Ariz. and has wandered the waters and woods for more than 40 years in pursuit of game and fish. During that time, he has traveled around North America to fish or hunt in 39 states, 10 Canadian provinces, Africa, New Zealand and Mexico.

Mandile has been a full-time outdoor writer/photographer for 24 years and his 35-year active membership in the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) included three years on the board of directors. He has served on the board of the Western Outdoor Writers (WOW) and the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), which he helped organize in 2005. He also was a contributing editor for ARIZONA HUNTER & ANGLER magazine for 10 years, and spent nearly 7 years as the Arizona Editor for OUTDOOR LIFE magazine. Mandile finished his first book project -- HOW TO HUNT COUES DEER -- with noted guide Duwane Adams. He's now working on book #2.

Mandile's articles and photos have appeared in OUTDOOR LIFE, FIELD & STREAM, CABELA'S OUTFITTER JOURNAL, PETERSEN'S HUNTING, PETERSEN'S FISHING, AMERICAN HUNTER (NRA), DEER HUNTING, ROCKY MOUNTAIN GAME & FISH, CALIFORNIA G&F, WASHINGTON-OREGON G & F, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, NORTH AMERICAN HUNTER, PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER, ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPORTSMAN, WESTERN OUTDOORS, BOWHUNTING WORLD, SOUTHWEST SPORTSMAN, SAFARI, ARIZONA WILDLIFE VIEWS and a few dozen other outdoor, conservation and travel publications.

Additional writing and photo credits include books, posters, product packaging, print ads and even the photo on a MasterCard credit card. More than 100 magazine covers have carried his byline. His photos have also won numerous awards in the annual photo contest sponsored by the OWAA, and Nikon selected several to appear in the company's prestigious Outdoor Photographers Showcase.

Hi, Tony!

Yeah, it's been a while. Things up here in Montana are just fine. The winter started off nasty but lately it's been more like Arizona. Well, maybe Flagstaff....

Mule Deer, I am glad that writing full time for Wolf is working out for you, but personally I am still ticked you are no longer the back page of Rifle. Heck that rag is not worth reading any more. Do I remember correctly you left that because you are now editor of something?

The bios are interesting, not because I am impressed by guys who went to college, heck probably few besides Mule Deer spent as long going to school as I did, just means we were other wise occupied or slow learners, but the background does tend to flesh out the experience behind the writing. A decent writer can do the book research and sound knowledgable. A good writer has experience behind the research and is knowledgable. A great writer has both and reads like sitting around the fire together. For me there are two guys like that, O'connor and Barsness. I would have to say I feel very fortunate to have been on so many hunts with John. I can remember hunting upland birds together several times before I remember I have never yet had the chance to hunt those upland birds. And a couple of times in Africa we were talking about...Oh wait. Well anyway there have been plenty of times when we were hunting deer and elk and talking about... Well anyway I think I saw him in the junipers once near the Colorado state line. There are plenty of good writers and I have learned a lot from many of them. Even some I am pretty sure I don't much care for. I was once on an oryx hunt the same time as Mr. Zumbo, but I only have memories of hunting with two guys I have never met. That is a gift beyond good writing.

He Dog,

Thanks very much. Actually I am not working at all for Wolfe anymore, and it was there that I was editing SUCCESSFUL HUNTER. Nowadays I am a staff writer for several other magazines (SPORTS AFIELD, AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, GUNS, VARMINT HUNTER) and freelancing for a bunch more.

Actually, though I did go to college for a number of years, I am by no means as university-educated as my parents were. They both had Ph.D's, but after my freshamn year my progress slowed down considerably, because I was already making most of my living writing about hunting and fishing. (Not much of a living, but a living.) The U. of Montana was on the quarter system then. I didnt go at all during summer and fall, went full-time in winter, and half-time in spring, in order to hunt and fish and take photographs. So adding credits was a slow process!

Mule Deer, 1992 Gun Digest article, "Cults"

Do you remember this one. It's the best call it like I see it type article I can recall before or since and still worth reading today. A lot of punctured sacred cows there. I always wondered if there was any negative feedback on it.

Norman Strung was a good writer, I never had trouble with Remington 700 extractors, my 870 always worked as well as my Model 12 and I used a Bushnell Banner 4x for a lot of hunting before I could afford Leupolds.

Never heard about any negatives--but Leupold was about to introduce Multi-Coat 4. That changed things!

Glad to find somebody remembers....

Yea, one of my favorite articles as well. Make sure I read it at least once a year to "remind" myself of what's really important in hunting gear. Caused me to purchase more than a couple Remingtons as well as a few Rugers.
Already liked Norm Strung; he moved from NY to Montana and was making a living teaching/writing so he was my hero!

Mule Deer, you would know this one. I Swear I saw an article by Norm Strung right after my college days wherein he spoke of tying flies to look like popped corn in order to catch carp in metro New York...was it him??
Ingwe