Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hell I was there and Unrepentant Sinner

Anyone know where to get cheaper copies than Amazon? "Hell I was There" is over $80.

I bought my soft cover version of "Hell I was there" from Barnes and Noble for like $29 a couple of years ago. I don't know if they still offer it.

Last I checked Sinner was out of print and used copies were $80 or more on Amazon. if my son in law doesn't return my copy there will be family troubles.

O

You know a Soloman like decision would be to send me the copy...to keep down family troubles!

A Campfire compadre gave me a paper-back copy of my late friend Charlie's sppropriately named autobiography. PM me your name and mailing address, and I'll pass it along.

Somebody made-off with my signed copy of Hell, I Was There, and I've been unable to find a replacement at a reasonable price.

My hardbound copy of "Hell I was there" is all dog eared and the binding is cracking from being read so many times.....

It's one of only three books at my bedside, the second is Jim Carmichaels "Book of the Rifle" and the third is my bible......

Fond memories still very much alive include hours of Elmer telling me details that he later put in Hell, I Was There � and some that he judiciously did not include in the book. Somehow, they always made reading the book a richer than usual experience.

ABE sellers have 24 used copies ranging in price from $40 to $158. The three of you guys who get there first can each get one, one for $40, one for $50, and one for $60.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sea...mp;tn=hell+i+was+there&x=40&y=14

Dr Howell you raised an interesting thought. The stories Keith wouldn't tell and the stories Askins couldn't tell would doubtless have made one of the most interesting books of all time.

My impression from reading their writings and things written about them, is that Keith was a salty characture and Askins made him look like Mother Teresa. Of course I could be entirely off base. Have to believe dinner with either of those gentlemen would have been memorable.

O

I wish all the Elmer bashers would read "Hell I Was There!". It might not make them Elmer fan club members but might change their opinion a bit. He lived an amazing life and did much to pave the way for modern sportsmen and their equipment.

Try half.com, might find it there

sam..,

Wasn't bashing Keith or Askins in the least. If you took it that way you got it wrong. Salty, in my world, is not always a bad thing. The same adjective has been applied to me. I deserve it,likely.

O

In private, Elmer was a lot milder than he's suspected of being.

Only in confidence and never bitterly did he name, for example, the well known gun writer who'd tried to kill him, and he never spoke disparagingly of the well known gun writers who always jumped at every opportunity to belittle or to embarrass him.

TRIED TO KILL HIM???

Lord that's a story. Can't believe one of them wasn't dead on the spot. It's no secret that about the Keith/O'Conner conflict. And someone, I forget who, did a long article about the 600yd mule deer shot with a .44 mag and how it was bogus. But, Jeeze Louise, murder is a whole other thing. I prefer my .270 over an '06 and my .357 over a .45ACP but certainly not enough to kill someone.

Can you divulge the details with out giving the name of the other gun writer? My dad always said when a man died it was like a library burning down. You seem to be the Library of Congress.

Please understand my posts are in no way meant to disrespect anyone. Always enjoyed Keith, Askins and just about everyone else who put pen to paper about firearms.

O

Correction. Starts at $40 followed by $60.

I just snagged the fifty...

Big plus one for Frogman...he just name three of my favorite books!

Keith was an amazing story teller and Carmichael's gift is to make complicated ideas understandable.

As to the third book, being on the best seller list since Gutenberg says it all!

405wcf

That would have been my first pic, that is if I didn't already have a copy I bought years ago through the Outdoor Life book club for a paltry sum. That makes the second good investment I've managed in my 50-plus years.

Glad someone is taking advantage of those "deals".

At the start of World War Two, Elmer tried to enlist but was rejected. General Hatcher got him the job of running the repair facility for small arms at Ogden.

One of the armorers (I'll call him Voyd here) had an engineering degree and resented working for "that ignorant cowboy."

One day, two of the armorers asked Elmer how far a 1911 .45 was effective � "[Voyd] says nobody can hit anything with it beyond fifty yards." Elmer took a 1911 out of a bin, a magazine and a handful of cartridges from other bins, and adjourned the meeting to the range outside. On the slope beyond the butts was a rock about the size of a man's torso. Elmer put one bullet over it, another under it, and the others on it.

He never let a "repaired" gun go back into service without personally function-testing it.
To test the twelve-gauge pumps, he'd stand beside a stake-bed truck with racks of guns, boxes of shells, and three girls in the back � one loading 'em, one taking the fired ones from his left hand and putting a loaded one into his right hand (kind of like an OR nurse handing a surgeon his next surgical instrument), and the third girl putting the test-fired ones into other racks.
Elmer would take the loaded gun, tuck the butt under his arm, hold the trigger back, and shuck that gun empty � bang, bang, bang, bang, bang � as fast as he could, then hand it empty back up to the girl who then put the next loaded one into his right hand.
One day, he was about to shuck one dry when something about the feel of it made him pause and examine the gun.
The barrel was tight-packed full of rags, from the mouth of the chamber to near the muzzle.

That little stunt could've cost Voyd his job � or worse � but typically, Elmer let it go.

Voyd later became a good, very successful, well known writer (books and articles) but never turned-out good gunsmithing work (I've owned some of it and have seen a lot more � all very rough and slap-dash). I've also known (well) a number of his former colleagues and employees. Charlie O'Neil (the "O" in "OKH") said it most pungently � "[Voyd] is a skunk."

An immature young officer there also gave Elmer some undeserved grief, but he later matured enough to become a fine fellow (and good friend of mine) and deservedly respected author of several classic gun books.

"Hell, I Was There" gave me a lot more respect for a person who I already respected a great deal.

"Unrepentant Sinner" made me loathe someone for whom my previous opinion had been completely neutral.

Thank you,sir. A most interesting story and a unique bit of history.

O