Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Grancel Fitz and Larry Koller

Mr. kevinh1157;
Thank you kindly for the link, I just may attempt to order one up here.

Thanks again and good luck on your upcoming hunts.

Regards,
Dwayne

Mr. John G;
Thank you for the lead on the books.

Between your lead and Mr. kevinh1157's link I may indeed end up reading the Grancel Fitz book yet.

Thanks again and good luck on your upcoming hunts.

Regards,
Dwayne

For those that enjoyed "Shots at Whitetails" you may also like the deer hunting books by Francis Sell. The deer camp I learned to hunt in (in the UP of Michigan) never was very successful at hunting decent bucks until we read Sell's book "The Deer Hunter's Guide". We put his advice to use and became much more proficient at finding and harvesting good bucks. The book was also published under another title which I can't recall at the moment.

Yep, I have one of Francis Sell's books as well and really enjoyed reading it. It's been awhile and I don't have access to it right now, but some of the things I really enjoy about old books like these are where they discuss such politically incorrect things as burning real wood in your campfire, blazing trees with hatchets, etc. I like some of the old illustrations in them too, typically showing the woodsmen dressed in plaid.

I enjoyed the writings of Henry Stebbins, Francis Sell and Larry Koller. I thought that Kephart was too obsolete to appreciate fully. Stebbins and Koller were the tops for prose while Sell was more direct. All were practical hunters and i gained a lot of pleasure from their work. Shots at Whitetails was a classic.

Never got to read any of Sell's books, but I enjoyed his articles in Gun Digest. May have to look those books up.

Not as old, but I also enjoyed the work of Sam Fadala..... some of it in the same general vein....

I have and still do enjoy reading Archibald Rutledge books, my great uncle used to hunt with on Hampton Plantation and one of my uncle's deer heads hangs in the platation house today.I have several 1st editions of his books.

I've read most of the books above. One that didn't make the list is called WE LIVE IN THE ARTIC by Helmricks. You must put that on your list... and now as I get older I return to Gene Hill books more often than not.

Re: the art of writing, T.S. Eliot said (roughly quoted from memory):
"There is no good writing; there is only good rewriting."

John, that makes a LOT of sense.

I never cared overly for Fitz's stuff, but Koller's book, along with Jack O's, are the only hunting/shooting books I've re-read many times over the years.

I was born in the West but grew up in New England. Koller's "Shots At Whitetails" perfectly described the rolling, forested hills of my youth, replete with colonial era rock walls and ruffed grouse!

Koller is the reason I owned my first 250 Savage and likely why I love the round to this day... it reminds me of my New England youth.

Enjoying the comments here. Interesting how good writing/author's seems to withstand the test of time and enjoy some level of universal recognition.
I leave some of the books mentioned at my cabin, as I sometimes get lucky, the weather is bad, nights are long, I have to sit by the fire, maybe have a drink, & nothing but time to re-read some of the good stuff.
Also on the rack are copies of some early issues of Grays magazine. Really enjoy some of the writing found there.
John Gierach's writing, at least some of it, seems like it may prove worthy to become part of the library.

I got to know Paul, a little, when he owned Missouian Angler guide service. He was a nice man who, like too many people, was raised in a disfunctional family. He never said a harsh word to me about his Father, but it was obvious from Paul's comments that Larry was somewhat self-centered, in that he really enjoyed being Larry Koller, the center of attention, more than he enjoyed (or worked at) being Larry Koller, husband and father.

I never got the impression from Paul that Larry was an abusive father, just indifferent and always too busy to spend time with his kids.

The 1 thing that Paul did have heartburn about were all of Larry's "friends" who "helped" Mrs. Koller liquidate Larry's very extensive firearms collection. Paul told me that Larry had over 1,000 firearms when he passed away and that many of them were bought for pennies on the dollar by " helpful friends". For a long time I have thought that cheating a widow is about the lowest thing that a person can do, and Paul's long held anger reinforced that feeling for me.

Jeff

Wasn't Fitz the originator of the term "Grand Slam" for taking all four species of Mountain Sheep in North America? I think he and O'Connor hunted together - his name showed up in lots of O�Connor�s books and articles. He also was a leader in the Boone & Crocket Club if my memory hasn't completely failed me. Ovis_Chaser

Jeff, sad to hear. Not surprising though. Humanity is frail and contradictory. Jack O' was a word-smith par-excellence, but there was always a trace of bitterness in his writing to me.

Not Johnny B though, the man's stuff reads like it was brought down from the mountain on tablets of stone

O'connor's later writings suffer in comparison to his work from the 1950s and early to mid 1960s; by the early 70s the sarcasm in his books (I'm thinking of the book "The Hunting Rifle" in particular from 1970) began to throw a shadow over the content. Compare "The Hunting Rifle" with "The Big Game Rifle" from 1952 and you'll see what I mean.

I have all his books and know exactly what you mean...

Having all the books really does change the evaluation, the writing grew with the man and the growth wasn't always good.

The legend is he became bitter and developed an alcohol problem... could be related to the loss of a son in Korea. Can't know, and don't care to try and figure out. I do know he was a fine and honest writer and reporter who didn't ride hobby horses excessively and had his feet firmly planted in the earth.

I don't think that Jerry O'C was killed in Korea, I think that his death was related to alcoholism, something that (IIRC) Eleanor O'C also suffered from.

Jeff

I'd agree with that assessment Brad; even though there is bitterness in his later writings, it doesn't change the fact that he consistently advocated sensible and effective approaches to both guns and hunting. That he was a big booster of the American custom gunmaking community puts us all in his debt.