Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mike Venturino Health

But it is his fault. How dare he get old? I wish Mike all the best even though his articles have caused me to spend a boatload of money over the years. Because of his bad influence I had to travel to Montana and order a Shiloh Sharps in Big Timber. I had to have a Colt SAA and lever guns of all varieties. I refuse to follow along on this WWII fad of his though. Well, maybe a Garand. Nah, I'll just shoot the old Springfield Sporter using his handload recipes. Thanks; Mike

Isn't this the whole reason for gunwritters existance? They get paid to have fun and show us how much fun we can have too.

to true......one of my sisters went from trim to having a weight problem in a real short time due to a medical issue.....had a gland go ape chit and cause her to gain weight no matter how careful she was with what she ate short of starving herself.....sometimes the weight gain and it sticking around can be a symptom of an underlying medical problem and not the actual cause of it.....

granted im not over weight but i cant hit the ideal weight on most charts short of starvation, fit and trim i run 20 pounds heavier than most the charts say is right.....

Mike lost me with that picture of him wearing a helmet, a Hawaiian shirt and a stupid looking grin. I still read his stuff, but I don't enjoy it....I swear I don't. I hope he gets off his military kick before too long and gets back to some real guns. I did the military thing back in the 60's and I try to not go backwards as often as I can.

Hope he gets better soon. We all have problems and one day something is going to take us all out. We are just getting better at picking what it will be. You guys that live out that way, watch out for him. To me he is the same class of writer as Skeeter and we already lost him....

Mike is one of my favorites too, and hearing his stories about his friend Shrapnel have given me many hours of enjoyment.

I feel a loyalty to Mike because he is an old Mingo County, West Virginian, which is not too far from where I live. We are comparable in age. He had the nerve to go to Montana when he was young and I didn't. I wish now I had.

Anyway I wish you and Mike speedy recoveries.

Thanks,
Bill

I haven't bought a gun magazine in probably 10 years.

Back when I was on active duty far from here, and a regular reader, I always enjoyed Mike's articles, and his especially his accompanying photos often including Montana scenery.

By far one of my favorites. His bullet casting articles could not be any more straight forward and informative. He's helped me much.


Travis

Mike is from southern West Virginia and used to write about how things were growing up. He had some interesting things to say about firearms here many years ago. I hope both Mike and Shrapnel have a full recovery.

More about Mike...

He grew up in West Virginia and from the time he was a kid, he loved guns and history. He heard about Montana and that with the historical aspects of the Custer Battle in 1876, he decided he would come to Montana.

Nothing against you people in West Virginia, but he wanted to get out and move to Montana. He was searching for something that only young people look for...adventure. Western history was a favorite of his, but he had studied World War II battles and history extensively and it isn't something new to him.

He went to school and studied journalism as his desire was to become a "Gun writer", something few "Gun writers" have done. As with all aspiring writers and photographers, he started small by submissions to any gun magazine that would take his writing. This eventually led to his being accepted on staff of "Guns and Ammo" magazine, where he became a well respected writer.

When I met him, he didn't even own a lever action rifle. He was writing about modern guns of all sorts, something few writers do. We met at a gun show in Livingston and found out we had a common interest in our love for Colt Saa's. Later I sold him his first lever action rifle, an 1894 Winchester in 38-55 which he still owns today. He wrote a book on lever actions of the old west and that gun graces the beginning of the book, something we both prize as it was a key to a friendship that has developed into a "brotherhood".

I have copied some of the replies on this thread to him, bad ones included, it helps me keep the distance from his fortune and my fame from becoming too large...

You should read my Merwin thread on Handguns. If it ain't on the current page it should be one over.

I very seldom buy a straight-up gun mag anymore either. It got too repetitive. If I buy one, it is some old west type thing or specialty mag.

Mike is like me. He has the L.A. look. (Lard Azz!)

Did he ever tell you who bought and published his first published article?

Did he ever tell you who, at the first SHOT Show, introduced (and endorsed) him to all the components people? � or what the result was, when he got home?

Did he ever tell you who first put him on the writers' staff of which two magazines?

I think he did, it was John Barsness...

Thank God!

For a second I was afraid you were gonna say Clay Harvey...

In 1979?

Ask him.

And convey my sincere best wishes to Mike and Yvonne.

Shrapnel,
Let Mike know that I wish him the best with his health issues and tell him that I love all of the articles he is writing on military firearms.

This is Mike's response, as I told him of people and their best wishes on this thread...

My first article was bought by George Martin at Guns & Ammo and published in 1972, seven years before I even met Ken Howell. I had another article published in Guns & Ammo in 1973, a third went to Handloader's Digest, and a fourth was printed in a now defunct magazine called Gunsport & Gun Collector. It was the only one of over 1600 that I was never paid for. A fifth article was printed in Horse & Rider Magazine and a sixth was bought by Neal Knox and printed in HANDLOADER Magazine in February 1976 more than two years before Ken Howell went to work there. Number seven was printed in GUNS Magazine and number eight was printed in a GUNS Annual.

So that puts Ken Howell as buying my ninth one. I can quote all this because I have kept a handwritten list of all articles both as to when they were written and as to when they were published. I still do.

Ken Howell DID NOT introduce me to anyone at the first SHOT Show. I talked to him for about 15 minutes at the Wolfe Publishing booth. Anyone I met at that SHOT Show in 1979 I introduced myself to. He did endorse me to components people later and for that I have been forever grateful.

None of this is to denigrate Ken Howell. We worked just fine together until he left Wolfe Publishing around 1983.

I'm just giving the straight scoop as shown in the written records I kept. If anyone got my career as a gunwriter going - for good or bad - it was me and me alone. And my wife Yvonne always supported me through the lean times and has now become my wonderful photographer.

Oh, and I can't forget Shrapnel who has put more than a pound or two of butter on my bread...

I began reading Mike's stuff back when he was working with varmint rifles. Solid info, no fluff...my kind of writer.

Keep on keepin' on, Mr. Venturino. -Al