Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters David Petzal and Philip B.

I wanted to commend two firearms writers that I've come to really enjoy. I along with others have expressed how much we enjoy the folks at Rifle, especially our own Mule Deer <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> However, I wanted to sing the praises of two that get limited if no billing at all on this forum, as far as I can tell.
David Petzal and Philip Bourgelaey (don't have my F&S handy to check the spellig of Phil B.'s name).
I like Phil B.'s shotgun articles. I find them interesting and helpful. He seems to be very down to earth, like John Barsness. Phil B., I'd consider that a big compliment!
David Petzal, on the other hand comes across as a sophomorish smarty-pants. I can't help but find myself endeared to the type. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Mr. Petzal has me in stitches half the time. I wish that F&S would allow him more type-space, but I've grown used to the way that O/L and F&S have gone to short snippets, instead of indept articles. I think that Mule Deer has hunted with Mr. Petzal. Anyway, just wanted to compliment these two and bring them out for discussion.
[bleep]

Thank you for bringing up these two fine writers. Phil Bourjaily is a great American and a terrific writer. He is the son, by the way, of Vance Bourjaily, who was a major novelist in the 1950s and 1960s. We must not judge Petzal too harshly. For decades, he has seen all his really funny stuff removed from his copy on the grounds that F&S is a family magazine, and it has made him bitter before his time. Mule Deer has hunted with him on many occasions, and remembers each one with horror and loathing.

I do enjoy Petzal's articles but also wish they were longer. I think he hit the nail on the head with his last article about heavier rifles being easier to hit with. I really enjoy my Kimber 84M but do realize it's limitations as a light rifle. I REALLY wish Kimber or someone else would make a quality rifle for about the same price that fed longer cartridges, like the 30-06, but had some ass to the barrel!!

Phil is indeed a fine shotgun writer. His only fault is growing up in Iowa, where a 7-1/2 pound Browning A-5 is considered a truly fine "game gun."

I have hunted with Dave Petzal many times. In fact I have known him for over half of my 52 years, which makes it amazing that I have lived this long. Have guided Dave on a few occasions. On the very first one he threatened to shoot me in the Achilles tendon if I did not slow down while heading up a mountain.

He taught me many other things that have proven useful as well, such as that the "ideal FIELD & STREAM article is like an extended joke, with a punchline at the end."

Due to the strange living accomodations in hunting camps, I have also slept in the same room with Petzal on an occasion or two. We both snore in varying degrees, but once I slept on the upper bunk of a bed above Dave. This meant that periodically during the night I was levitated by his feet as they rose rpaidly against the bottom of my mattress. I did not quite wake up, but Dave reports the shift in position at least temporarily halted the sound of chainsaws and snarlin grizzly bears.

MD

This is a hideous libel. Petzal did not offer to shoot Mule Deer in the Achilles tendon. That would have been poor behavior with firearms. He offered to bite him. There is an important distinction.

Have been on several trips with Dave since 1978 but never shared a cabin or hunting spot with him. I like him very much. He's quiet, with an outstanding sense of humor � very dry. And he flat knows the business.

Never met Phil Bourjaily. If he'd even been born when I knew his dad (1960�1966), he was at most a tad or toddler. Since the last time I saw Vance Bourjaily, someone told me that he went into a career tailspin as a writer after a terrible auto crash that killed his daughter, or a neighbor's daughter, or both. Vance was good enough for Hemingway to cite him as the best new writer of the time. He was an excellent teacher, too � one of the best whom I've studied under. Excellence in Phil's work is no more than I'd expect.

.

I too enjoy Dave Petzal's writing and like the fact that he can (and is often) brutally blunt. I still wonder if he really does varmint hunt wearing a tie like I once read in a Nosler reloading manual IIRC.

Yea I like Petzal's humor - and I think that was Nosler Reloading Manual number 4 - (22-250 maybe?)

MD - I enjoy Petzal. He manages to be curmudgeonly in a was that most people can accept. (I am told that this is a trait that I somehow possess. I have always thought of myself as just an old grump.) When I was about eleven, I had an upper bunk at a church camp with the counselor (a minister) in the lower. One day during rest period, I was staring at the ceiling when I suddenly was propelled into the air, sideways, through the open rafters, to the floor. I somehow managed to stick the landing to the terrified delight of the counselor who just wanted to sort of establish himself as one of the guys by giving my mattress a little shove with his feet, never realizing the power that he had. I also need to stick up for us cornfield hicks. We toted whatever we could in pursuit of pheasants back in the good old days of the 50s and 60s. I never once heard anyone allude to the weight of a shotgun as being anything to cause concern as they were all light as a feather compared to hay bales and bushel baskets of feed. Best, John

I grew up shooting an 8-1/4 pound M97 Winchester for everything. We called 870 Remingtons "Montana Purdeys." Both are indeed lighter than hay bales but not as well-balanced.

MD

Hmmmm! Shotguns for Wingshooting, by well-known writer Barsness says on p.104, "I grew up with side-by-sides, never firing a pumpgun at game until I was 20..."

Probably the safest inference from the seemingly contradictory statements is that the growing-up process was still going on at age 20.

( My own 61st birthday is coming up next week. I'll probably have to decide pretty soon what I want to be when I grow up.)
--Bob

The 97 was the shotgun I REALLY learned to shoot with. Before that most gamebirds died somewhat accidentally.

Dunno if I am grown up. Many people do not believe this is a suitable job for an adult.

MD

MD--

Your comment about being an Iowan and knowing what a fine shotgun is are mutually exclusive entities made some swallowed soda reappear suddenly on my desk by way of my nose. Man, did you live in Iowa for awhile? Additionally, the "pheasant gun" must still have thirty inch barrels and be choked full..or fuller and 11/4 oz high brass are the minimum and you go up from there. It doesn't matter if the "gun" has the proportions of a gorilla's forearm either..

Dave Petzal is a helluva writer. I love his stuff. He remains one of the most talented in the biz, and he's funny, too. I love the way he re-spins his same "why you missed your deer" article and it's better each time and just as true.

His story on horses listed as one of F&S's "best" is a classic. Plus, he's a lefty.

Goodnews--

I have not lived in Iowa but did live in southeastern South Dakota (whuch is basically the same thing) for a couple of years in the early 70's. Have also visited Iowa now and then, and even witnessed some of the boys using their pheasant guns on a running buck. The buck lived, but the ammunition companies became much richer.

MD

MD - you are certainly correct about the deer hunting (in the form of drives) being an even better deal than a money tree for the ammunition companies. I have always been terrified of having deer running between hunters who are attempting to create a solid wall of lead. We do not drive. A couple of years ago a young man that my son had competed against in high school sports was struck at the base of the skull by a slug, causing paralysis. I am not one to question others on their choice of hunting methods, but I have always felt that there is a serious safety issue involved here.

I really like Dave P. He is somewhat irreverent as is F&S, which I also like. It is a much better magazine today than I ever remember it in the past.

I think the prior edition of Nosler's manual pictured Dave at a benchrest for the intro to the .222 Rem load data - Dave was at the bench in a white shirt and tie...

In the notes sectiion of the .222 data - someone on the Nosler staff wrote "and Dave actually does hunt varmints in a shirt and tie" I thought that was hilarious.

TM