Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters definitive Seyfried thread

Ross Seyfried is my favorite gun writer ... bar none. Too many writers cater to Joe Average who fires 2 shots a year out of a loss-leader '06 with the cheapest ammo and scope they can fine. Ross writes to a gun nut audience, maybe even a post-doc gun nut audience. The questions he explored for his articles often paralleled things I was trying to do myself at the same time like Ruger #1s and heavy cast bullets in revolvers and so on.

Some of the other guys wrote stuff that was ... useful. Ross writes stuff that I found INTERESTING. It's not the same thing.

Exactly!

I have very little interest in handguns, but I recall his article on his quest to develop a revolver-ammo combination that would shoot genuine MOA. It was interesting and actually suspenseful right to the end -- even to me!

The bastid also wrote a story on high end British rook rifles that will certainly cost me a lot of money if I ever see one for sale! Now, I need a high end rook rifle like a fish needs a bicycle, but his story was so dang interesting that I want one anyway!

John

It really is a good story, but not what Ross's fans would like to hear...

Why bring it up if you're not willing to at least share the gist of it? Saying, "I have a really good story but I'm not going to tell it" is a waste of time, effort and band-width.

I would expect that could be said about most writers.

The thing that draws me to Seyfried's writings is that he can make something that I have absolute zero interest in interesting. I have read some of his articles about some arcane firearm and immediately wanted one. He does have a way of writing that holds ones interest.

drover

*shrugs* i think Peter Capstick is a hell of a writer too but its likely some of his first person tales werent......given the history that is known with him at Wolfe im guessing your story wouldnt be a total surprise give its obvious Ross's ego is bigger than most, still think he is a fine writer and he writes bout stuff im interested in......take most of what most ppl say with a grain of salt, gun writers are no different....but doesnt mean i dont enjoy their writing....

allways enjoy Ross's writing, as he writes very well even about topics I personally not that interested in. magnum Man

Hey everyone, I really appreciate the responses. It seems like I am not alone in being interested in his status and legacy. Just a few notes:

Greg Perry-- My G&A collection is a little sparse in the early 80s and I'm missing a few issues. So you're pretty sure August 82 was his first feature article? I wonder if that's when his column started as well.

Shrapnel-- I really would be interested in any background you could provide on the Montana thing you mentioned. I am a RS fan, but I am interested in learning as much as I can, good and bad.

As far as the Elk Song sale:

http://www.landreport.com/2011/07/for-sale-elk-song/

I haven't seen any definitive explanation, but my hunch is that it's a sibling of his that is the troublesome family member. His family owned a Colorado ranch, which was sold and some or all of the proceeds were used to purchase Elk Song, I think. I bet that one or more siblings are agitating to get their money out of the real estate and into their pockets. I bet sharing his guiding income without any other farming income isn't enough to make them happy, when they have multi-millions tied up in the land.

Again, this is completely speculation but it seems the most plausible unless someone has some facts

Also Greg, I had no idea RS was mentioned in Keith's Gun Notes. I've always meant to get a copy of those, but I am putting vol II right on the top of my list.

Although quite a few of us at Wolfe had long standing issues with Ross - I think I can also safely say that we all respected his shooting and writing abilities.

I have known some other writers that worked with Ross at Guns and Ammo that didn't particularly care for what he wrote in regards to what he thought of the reader. I have no issues there, I just never saw anything that he was writing about that interested me enough to care.

As to the Missouri Breaks...

I was hunting the south side of Fort Peck with a friend of mine, we would come across the lake in the morning with a boat, then hunt south into the breaks. We had gotten as high as we could when I noticed one hunter in hunters orange and 2 others with him wearing just camo.

They were walking on the backbone of a ridge, skylining and moving down the ridge toward the bottom. I told Dave, I would bet it is 2 guides with one hunter. I asked him what he thought of the 3 fellows walking single file down the backbone. Dave figured they weren't hunting, as no one would travel like that if they were.

We watched them for some time from behind a Cedar just to see what would happen. They continued down to the bottom, sat down in plain view on a knob and appeared to be looking for deer. After a while, we decided to move on, we were well above them, just below some sandstone rims.

They stayed there for quite a while as we moved along the rims. I told Dave, "let's have some fun". So I took a shot into the sandstone cliff above me with my 25-06, then watched to see what they would do. They were looking all around to see where the shot came from and before too long spotted us sneaking along the base of the rims.

We continued on our way, shooting at rabbits and laughing at the neophytes in the bottom of the ravine. We covered quite a bit of real estate and they stayed in the bottom watching. We knew there probably wasn't any deer in the valley as they had just walked down the backbone of that ridge and we had been shooting rocks and rabbits.

Meanwhile they sat watching.

I Didn't have any idea who they were or what they were doing, but deer hunting didn't resemble their efforts.

When I got home I called a friend of mine that guided the breaks for Keith Atchison and told him about our encounter in what I thought would be a good remote area. He asked me what day in November that was and I told him. He then told me that it was Ross Seyfried who was guiding for him in the breaks. I asked him what he thought of his work and he just laughed, as they didn't get any deer. It wasn't all my fault.

Nate called me up about 6 months later and told me I had been mentioned in another hunting magazine, and I told him I hadn't done any such thing. He said listen to this, and he read out of Peterson's "Hunting" magazine, an account by Ross Seyfried of how he was guiding a hunter in the Missouri Breaks of Montana and that they were stalking a big Montana Muley buck, when gunshots rang out above them in the breaks. Further adding to the story, he said that there was another hunter above him shooting at another big Montana Muley buck.

In truth it was a rabbit, and he was no more stalking a big buck, than I was flying a helicopter. It also took some shooting before he put on his hunter orange, but he did put it on.

It isn't much of a story, it doesn't make Ross a bad guy, but I know for a fact he wasn't telling the truth.

Kirk,

i remember you telling me about this incident around about 20 years ago--but in your account here you left out a small detail, a detail that when you told me the story personally, had me laughing for several hours--and even years later, whenever I thought about it, I would have to laugh all over again--it wasn't anything bad or negative, it just added a little zest to the story...

i did enjoy his writings on both revolvers and coyote hunting though, and saved quite a few of the articles...

shrapnel,

That story says a lot more about you than Ross or anyone else. Then to flaunt such on a public forum. I wouldn't make a habit of acting like that in front of a hunter with a good rest. Not all would be so restrained.

Good point, I'm glad Ross didn't take his liberties with a well placed shot and dispatch us there and then. No matter what a person does, there is someone that knows better and isn't afraid to voice that opinion. I appreciate your help, I won't ever do that again.

As Hi Vel pointed out, that was about 20 years ago, there was more to the story and to try and tell everything to the greatest detail and keep the story short enough to get the drift, some aspects are less detailed.

I hope you can forgive me...

Well said.

Still, if I saw some guys who appeared to be hunting (whether or not they had any chance at all of success)(whether or not they appeared to have any talent) I can't conceive of blundering through the hunting area firing numerous shots at rocks and rabbits, just to ruin whatever hunting experience they were seeking. It goes against the grain to me. I hunt, whether it be for small or large game. If I'm small game hunting, and I observe a man in a tree bow hunting for deer, I do everything I can to both avoid his zone and not disturb the forest around him.

But as you've said, that was 20 years ago. I'm sure that we all have done things in the past that maturity or a change in attitude would be beyond us now.

Regards

Dan

I agree. Why try to [bleep] up another's hunt? Sounds like the fact they were in your hot spot had you pizzed?? Popping off a shot at some rocks, wow................

I've done plenty of dumb things but sure as hell wouldn't post them up to make another guy look bad?

I think that's plenty exhortation. Let's move on.

I once found an original Alex Henry Fahrquarson-design single for sale. I didn't have the duckets to buy it at the time but immediately thought of Ross, so I called him. He didn't buy it either but thanked me for the referral and chatted with me for a bit. Would like to meet the man.

Seyfried has done it again. I just finished reading the for sale ad for Elk Song ranch and if I had the money I would buy it in a heartbeat. The man has an amazing way with works, descriptive without being overly wordy or being pretensious.

drover