Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Clay Harvey....what did he do that was so wrong??

Just curious, but just exactly what did Clay Harvey do that has so many people so upset???

This is serious.....what did he do so wrong??

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...6336/gonew/1/Where_is_Clay_Harvey#UNREAD

scroll down to the links.

OK....what I am seeing is that Clay Harvey was a successful gun writer. And everyone else is pretty jellous about his success That's particularly true of Ken Howell.....who if you read his "christian" writings are .....suspect.

Tell me what Clay harvey did so wrong.....and not a "holier-than thou" rant.

There fixed it for you

Alright dipschitt, you obviously don't read very well. It is pretty plain to see the man is scum. He is one of those talkers who take advantage of everyone and everything as long as they can. Just because someone spins a good yarn, doesn't mean they are a man. Looks like that is the case here. I have no idea why you would defend someone such as this. Makes one wonder as to your values. That's not very "holier-than-thou", is it dumazz?

Well lets see what I found in a very short search.
If you want the truth, after screwing about every manufacturer in the industry, he got "blackballed."

I owned a jewelry store at the time and he didn't ignore me, either. The dickhead stiffed me for a three thousand dollar Rolex watch.

Last I heard, he was working in a frozen yogurt shop in South Carolina. That's fitting.

Yes, he could tell a yarn, but the man had practically no field experience. Almost all of his stuff was either the experience of others or total fiction.

Once, when I was working with Kimber, I was elected to be his ammo carrier and counter of gopher bodies. The man proved to be perhaps the worst shot I've ever seen. This was quite a revelation for me; after all, this was the great Clay Harvey. Any gopher beyond fifty yards was totally safe, even with the new Kimber Super America .223 that was presented to him.

Of course, Clay sold the rifle at a gun show the next week. Typical

He called me once and asked, "*****, how many .284 Winchester rounds,on the average, does it take to stop a mature whitetail buck." My answer was pretty simple; "ONE."

Those of us who are honest writers still feel the effects of Clay's dishonesty. Too bad, but I surely do not blame them.

*****
Or this one...

I "inherited" Clay as one of my staff writers when I succeeded the recently departed Neal Knox as editor of Handloader and Rifle magazines in 1978. He came out for a visit and quickly succeeded in making himself thoroughly unpopular with our staff. After a while, the material that he sent me got too sloppy to tolerate from a staff writer, so I took him off the staff but encouraged him to send me cleaner material as a free-lancer and earn his old staff position again (as he had done before). He acknowledged that he'd gotten increasingly sloppy and seemed to accept my decision like an honest man. But I never got any more material from him.

I don't think I announced his removal from my staff. IIRC, readers noticed the absence of his material and mast-head listing in later issues of the magazines.

Then I started hearing, one after another, from manufacturers from whom he'd borrowed dozens of guns (on limited-time consignments), which he'd neither returned nor paid for. The manufacturers were very lenient -- offered to extend the consignment periods, but needed signed copies of his renewed FFL for their records. He wouldn't answer their repeated inquiries. Finally, one manufacturer was forced to report to the BATF that he had not provided the needed FFL copy. Then it came -- in a BATF envelope.

The total value of all those rifles, handguns, and shotguns -- even at the much lower "friendly" prices for writers -- ran to a total well into five figures (that's $xy,000!). The last I heard, a grand total of no gun had been returned, and a super total of $0 had been received by any of several manufacturers.

And that wasn't all of it. Several ammo companies told me that a typical request from Clay was Send me a case of each load that you offer for the [.30-06, .44 Magnum, etc] -- a total, sometimes, of close to a dozen cases per cartridge.

Then I heard from some of Clay's shooter neighbors, including dealers and gunsmiths, who reported that Clay had (a) offered them great quantities of factory ammo at less than retail price and (b) had a huge selection of new rifles, handguns, and shotguns on his tables at local gun shows -- for sale.

Let me make this clear, because a number of my writer and editor friends condemned me for "exposing" and "firing" Clay and black-balling him with the manufacturers. I did neither. All of the "dirt" on Clay came out, independent of and separate from my limited role in removing him from his staff position. I learned of the rest afterward and had no part in spreading the word. That kind of word gets around this industry pretty fast on its own legs with no help from me.

A couple of other editors continued to buy material from Clay -- until he sold 'em both the same article, and both published it (neither aware that the other also had it) -- which is a cardinal no-no for writers. So I have no trouble guessing or understanding why you don't see his byline in any recent publication.

Too bad. Clay was able. But he fouled his own bed.

Or another one for you...
I have another Clay Harvey story. Few know it, but it really sheds a lot of light on the writing ethics of the man.

At the end of the Kimber ground squirrel hunt, Greg Warne, Clay and I had dinner together at one of Portland's snazziest restruants. Greg was one to spend all of his investor's money on fun, rather than put into the business, so you can imagine the spread.

Greg had a surprise for us. He had given Clay a .223 Super America earlier, probably on the expectation of good press. At the dinner, he gave Clay the first Kimber .17 Mach V, and asked him to do an article on the rifle and the cartridge. Clay said he would and that he would place it well.

At the same dinner, Greg gave me the second .17 Mach V and asked the same of me. I was new (on a totally freelance basis) at Wolfe. I promised to do my best, hoping sincerely that Al Miller would accept my beginners scribblings.

As an aside, I wrote for Wolfe Publishing for many years and was never asked to become a Contributing Editor. All of my articles were strictly on a freelance basis. It was for this reason, and the stupidity of a temporary and horrible editor (who I will not name) that I eventually signed on at Varmint Hunter. In my opinion, this was Wolfe's loss and the VHA's gain. Anyway, I digress.

A few days later, Ted Curtis (I love the man) and I were manning the tech phone at Kimber. Ted caught a call that got him to laughing so badly that he had to turn it over to me.

The caller was a South Carolina farmer with an accent that you had to hear to believe. Anyway, he bought a Kimber rifle from a short, fat guy at a gun show and it was a "Seventeen Mack Vee." He'd tried .17 Remington ammunition in it and "the bolt wouldn't close on the bullets." Duh.

Laughing, and trying not to wet myself, I informed him that the cartridge was a wildcat and that he couldn't buy factory ammo for it. This didn't please him much, but he knew of a fella in the next county who "stuffed bullets," so he guessed it would be OK.

About a month later, I got a call from Clay. He told me that he was just starting load development and wanted me to send all of my data to him. Even then, I was an ethical writer (some things are just natural to a few of us) and I told Clay that my data was hard earned; he should work up his own.

Of course, I knew that he had sold the rifle to the farmer and that, even if he had the rifle, he wasn't moxie enough to load the .17 Mach V successfully. Of course, the only Mach V data available at the time was in the P. O. Ackley Manual and it was silly, dangerous stuff.

By the end of the conversation, Clay was quite aware that my data would not be shared and that there was something quite wrong.

My article was published in Handloader #132 (March-April 1988) and I doubt that Clay ever published on the subject.

I ask you, what manner of man would accept a product, only to sell it a few days later? And what manner of man would ask for load data from another writer, so that he could copy it and cover his tracks?

Clay Harvey is the lowest-quality individual that it has ever been my displeasure to know.

Charles Askins, Jr. and his antics at Kimber comes close (that's another story for another day). In my opinion, Clay is the sole winner of the Writing Schmuck Award.

*****

Or another...
Geez, now that the cat's out the bag, let me add another Clay Harvey story.

Last August I hunted in Botswana. My PH soon found I was a gun/hunting writer and we started bandying names back and forth. Turns out he once guided Clay Harvey in Zimbabwe--the big, 21-day hunt. Clay had along at least 6 rifles and two huge cartons of handloads, along with his wife and two daughters, the daughters not too long out of high school.

That first evening Clay got the two PH's aside and told them he "knew how professional hunters were," and warned them not to try to seduce his daughters. My guy was married and as gently as possible told Clay not to worry. The other guy wasn't married, however, and told Clay his daughters were way too ugly for any of that.

Clay never did get his Cape buffalo because he shot it with some reduced loads designed for something else. They never found the buff. In general he shot very poorly, and there was lots of tracking on thin blood trails.

He also complained about the Zimbabwean wine in camp, along with some of the food, so they charted a plane to bring in fancier food and a case of South African wine. Clay stiffed them for the wine, food and several animals he shot that got away wounded.

Oh, and from the dates my PH could remember, this took place just after Clay got caught selling the dozens of guns he'd "borrowed" from various manufacturers. So he bankrolled his big safari with stolen money.

**

So as this quote says from a fellow Canuck.

Clay Harvey is a dishonest man who casts a cloud over gunwriters in general. The problem is, not everyone realizes it!
On a happier note, *********, I read Varmint hunter whenever I can find it.
C*******t

He didn't do anything to me that I'm aware of. I decide for myself on everyone and anything.

He disliked the 257 Roberts.....so I never read another word he wrote....

I know a couple of NC gunsmiths who would probably shoot Clay Harvey if they could find the SOB.

Never heard of him, but I suspect he hasn't heard of me either...

I guess the two of you are even then! You are probably lucky you don't know him.

I never heard of him until now. I have heard all I ever care to hear about him now though.

Same with me, I have my own mind.

BUT, someone asked, so I answered with what I found.

Now the OP can draw his own conclusion if he wishes.

I have my own mind as well, and although Clay Harvey never did anything to me, the accounts of his exploits cannot be ignored. In fact, I know and believe one of the men who accounted his own Clay Harvey tale. So, to say I haven�t judged him a thief and all-around scofflaw would be ridiculous. The evidence supporting that conclusion is overwhelming,

Magnumdood: The FIRST thread about where CH is, was pretty clear to me OR should I say there was enough 1st hand experience given that I would not want to have any dealings with him.

JWALL

You might want to buy this popular tome which seems to be appropriately priced.

Hunting "Book"

Still too much