Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters definitive Seyfried thread

I am getting so much great stuff here. I think this project might actually amount to something.

I think the next steps for me are to start compiling some spreadsheets with the data I'm getting.

Regarding my collection/bibliography, here's where I stand:

I have most G&As he wrote in, will work on compiling those.
I have most Handloaders/Rifles, will work on compiling those. Need Successful Hunters!

I am working on getting a complete collection of DGJs, because I think there are probably few he hasn't written for.

Still have nothing on Gray's sporting journals.

I found on archive.org where the IBHA (International Blackpowder Hunting Assoc) listed the articles and authors in each issue, so I know what he wrote, but have no text.

If you have any Seyfried germane DGJs, Blackpowder Hunters, or Successful Hunters you would share (give me, sell to me or let me borrow, I would pay a deposit) I would very much appreciate it. (PM me or reply here).

Thanks so much to everyone who has written or PM'd me... means a lot to me and hopefully I will have something to share with you soon.

I came across this, which is very surreal to me. I am a big fan of Ross, as you can probably tell, but I never once really considered what his voice might sound like.

I found this, which is part of the concerted Remington rebuttal to the CNBC smear, where RS chats about the model 700. Very strange to hear his voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngAE7QYXXis

I am a fan of an writer named Victor Niederhoffer, and actually got to attend an event at his NYC apartment a year or two ago. His voice was VERY different than I expected, and I sort of feel the same to hear the voice of Ross come to life in this video.

AlabamaGene,
Ross also had an article about Sporting Clays shooting in Cigar Afficionado----it REALLY shocked me when I stumbled across that one.

Gene,

You can read Ross's article in the cigar magazine online HERE

Might want to capture that article to your hard disk in case it does not stay there.

On another topic, I guess I am getting old and forgetful: I do not recall reading anything about Ross's early life other than he was PH somewhere in Africa for a while.

His writing makes me think he was educated in the UK or one of the former colonies -- South Africa perhaps? Anyway, from his writing, it was certainly somewhere where his parents got their money's worth!

Anybody know his educational background?

John

I am a great fan of Ross's writing and have been for many years. Sadly, I've not been one to retain periodicals. While some good writers are very informative, which is a very good thing, some of Ross's stuff seems to be inspiring in a way. Many of his articles would often inspire me to buy things that you need to seek out, a quest of sorts. I think most of his really interesting stuff was for dyed in the wool gun loonies. I suspect that is where his conflict with mass market publications lies. If you want to write about stuff you can't just go out and buy, you have little value to advertisers and publishers that rely on the income from such.

I really enjoyed some of his stuff in Successful Hunter, the bear hunt story with the obscure/antique rifle was a very good one.

I've read only one piece that Mr Seyfried wrote, and I've met him only twice, very briefly.

The man flat knows how to write exceptionally well, and by all accounts is an exceptionally accomplished hunter and shooter, with a rich knowledge of all sorts of guns. I have no insight into his veracity, but I suspect that he's basically a man of pristine principle.

The first time I encountered him, he came at me very rudely. The other time, he was as nice as he could be.

All in all, I figure that he's a gifted writer and a gun man to be admired � whatever may be his easily overlooked personal liabilities.

I've known a number of prominent people like that.

Don't know where he went to school, but he grew up on a ranch in eastern Colorado, hunting waterfowl, deer and pronghorns. During his formative years, he met a retired elephant hunter from east Africa and eventually did go to Africa where he was a professional hunter for many years. He guided hunters on his family ranch in Colorado, and later, on his Elksong Ranch. He also competed in Practical Pistol Competition and won the National Championship in the early 1980s.

That very article is what started me hunting the South side of the Breaks for Mule (and Whitetail) Deer. My first hunt was in 1995. We even took a boat, as in that article Ross was with a guide in a boat motoring up and down the Missouri. The boat Ross used was about a 20' jet -- which is what you need on this stretch of Fort Peck. Our little 13 footer nearly got swamped in one of many storms that Fall.

We hunted in pretty much the same spot as Ross had and, as I remember, passed up many smaller 4 point Mulies and some decent 8-10 point Whitetail. Next time I went back (maybe 3-4 years later) the hunting was not nearly as good. A rancher that we got to know there blamed the article(s) by Ross for all the hunters that flooded the area.

i believe i read once where he was a rancher near roggen, colorado.

in a may 1986 guns and ammo article on "coyote hunting", if i recall correctly, he wrote in that piece that fur hunting for yotes paid a lot of his college tuition bills.

don't know where or when he went to college, but in 1972 when i started hunting yotes, $5-10 bucks was about it, whereas in 1975 they would fetch $25.00, and by 1978 they could fetch many times that...

in photos, i noted he used a remington m 700 bdl 22-250 with the 1962-1968 checkering pattern on it, and either a 4-12 or 6-18 redfield on deck. remington didn't offer the 22-250 until (i believe) 1967, so that rifle, if bought new, would have been bought in 1967-1968, so that might put a "when" in context for college--maybe about 1970 onwards?

....you're close
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......Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Co. Pretty sure that it was some form a agriculture degree, but not sure about that.

His National Championship was in 1978, his world championship was 1981.

Here's a pic that I took of him at the '80 Nationals where I tried to be creative and pan him with a slow shutter speed while he was running in an assault course (this was during his lucky-shirt stage):

i dont quite get why some seem to think their favorite writers have to be fault free......everyone has faults and issues, some more than others....alot of times it has lil bearing on how good of a writer they are......

alot of ppl LOVE Peter H. Capsticks books, im one of them, yet there is a fair amount of evidence that alot of his stories written in the first person were actually stories that happened to others that he had heard through the grape vine....does that diminish his ability with the written word? nope just means you take his first person accounts with a grain of salt and enjoy the story....

Ross is a hell of a writer but i dont doubt that he isnt perfect.....

Interesting that you should mention Capstick in a post about Seyfried!

My cartridge book had just been published when Seyfried learned, at the SHOT Show, who I was. He approached me and assailed me rather viciously for not having listed the .475 OKH as the ".470 Capstick."

(My friend Charlie O'Neil had come-up with the .475 OKH when Capstick [born in 1940] was in his teens or younger, and I'd handled and examined both Charlie's .475 OKH rifle and cartridge as early as 1956 � long years before Capstick later "originated" it as the ".470 Capstick.")

Turned-out that Seyfried hadn't even seen my book at that time. Evidently, somebody had told him that I'd listed the cartridge as the .475 OKH rather than the ".470 Capstick."

Also, I'd watched Charlie seat a loaded .30-06 cartridge as the "bullet" in a .475 OKH case � and fire it as a stunt. Charlie also showed me some .45 ACP cases that he'd poured full of lead, for "emergency" .475 bullets when he'd run-out of Barnes .475 bullets.

need to pick up your book one of these days, had forgotten how much i like to read about wildcats till i ran across a first edition of P.O. Ackley's Handbook for Shooters and Reloaders last weekend while my wife was looking through an antique shop.....

http://huntingtons.com

Click on "Books & Videos" in the green left-hand column and scroll down until the blue thing shows-up.

I have always loved Seyfried.

I need a copy of your book Ken. I cannot believe I have gone this long without one.....

I'd say that your fondness for Seyfried's writings is well based, well deserved.

I recall RS mentioning in one of his articles that he'd been college-trained to be an engineer of some sort. He mentioned it in his article "20 Years With the .44 Magnum," while describing how he was waiting for some guys to show up at an oil field where he was doing some kind of engineering, and killed time by sitting on the hood of his truck shooting prairie dogs with his .44. The guys then showed up, and he won a bet by nailing a pd at 150 yards with his .44. He certainly writes like an engineer at times.

Greg Perry

great pic gmoats.

Greg Perry