Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters I'm reading Jack O'Connor and I'm not impressed.

I like the old style writers, they took you on an adventure with them. Their personality came through in their work. Many of todays writers are faceless repetitive fact and figure infomercial writers.

I have all of O'Connor's books except for 'Conquest' and 'Boomtown', including the books he co-authored, as well as every issue 'Outdoor Life' since 1945, and I've been a student of his work for over thirty years. Quite honestly, I think that anyone who says they aren't impressed with O'Connor hasn't read enough, and needs to keep on reading and discovering more of his material.

O'Connor set the gunwriting standard for all time as far as I'm concerned, even though I disagree with some of what he said. Find copies of 'Jack O'Connor's Big Game Hunts', 'Sheep and Sheep Hunting', 'The Hunting Rifle', 'The Big Game Animals of North America', 'Game In The Desert', plus 'The Last Book', and you'll see just how brilliant this man truly was.

No tranparently giddy "gun-of-the-month-club", pimpformercial nonsense, either.................

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Ours is a nation addicted to hamburger... most don't know steak when they get it.

Well I'm willing to try reading some more of his material. It's too bad they sprung this book out filled with some of his weaker work. This book was 35 dollars...a lot of money for Jack's hamburger if any of you are thinking of buying it.

I did read a story of his in Bugle a couple of years ago that I liked. Until I bought "Lost Classics" that story and the opinions of folks online were my only info on Mr O.

I'm even willing to overlook his fondness for that necked down (and ruined) .30-06 round he liked so much. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I liked many writers back then and I knew what I was going to get with O'Connor but I was and am interested in more specifics.

Someone may write that he read everything that O'Connor wrote and it's all in there but the reality of it is that it was not there or easy to find. This was good however. O'Connor was a generalist and I am comfortable with that. He never changed and why should he have? O'Connor was fabulous at what he did.

Hello Leadslinger You have blasphemed and may have called the Hex of the Ancients upon your head. MD hit the nail on the Head, if you haven't read "Horse and Buggy West" and "The Last Book" you haven't read O'Connor. I was able to locate a copy of both through the local library, what a Great!!! read they both are. There are Keithites and there are O'Connorites, the battle of the Big Holes Vs The Little Holes, in my limited experience, I have found both O'Connor and Keith to be right. Both are probably spinning their graves having their names listed together as right, in the same sentence. I enjoy them both but the first rifle I would grab if I only had one shot would be a Ruger #1 in 270 By God Winchester. I've listened to the current GunWriters and have been driven to an affliction I call "Affluent Caliber Creep". As your income level increases so does the need for that specific caliber to hunt a given species-the all-around rifle is no more. I was fat, dumb and happy with only a 270, then I started up, 280, 7 Rem mag, 338-06, 9.3 X 62 (thanks MD) 300 H&H upward and onward the latest being a 416 Taylor. Dang I find myself being mostly Fat & Dumb now. Almost used it on Elk this year, I wanted to see if the "Eat right up to the Bullet Hole" logic works. I wish you luck bearing the Hex, it seems those of a fragile constitution seem to develop recoil induced stuttering. Good Luck & Great Hunting !!
Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Boom
Chet

Allen, from our conversation the other day, you know exactly where I stand on this subject as well. That is one of the reasons I gobble up what O'Connor has written whenever I can. Not to mention the fact that he can tell a story. I am growing awfully tired of this new "loaner" works wonders so it ought to work for you and so should the loaner I used last hunt nonesense. What has happened to getting familiar with a rifle and letting the reader become familiar as well.

I'm reading "fill in the blank with a bunch of modern writers" and I'm not impressed.

Chuck

Leadslinger,

I checked on Amazon the other day and $35 won't come close to what is being asked for good used copies of Sheep and Sheephunting or the Last Book. The Hunting Rifle and The Art of Hunting Across North America are available much more reasonably.

Cheers,

GrimJim

The main reason I like Jack's writing is that he can take you there and show it to you in words. There are only a few who can paint with words, and it's as much for the imagery as the info that I've always liked his work.

You're in luck -- The Last Book has just been republished , and for exactly $35.

Here's the link.

I read it over Christmas, and what a hoot it was. You can tell it was written by an older gent with a really dry sense of humor, who's already done what he wanted to do and is ready to let it all hang out.

My favorite two passages-- first, from the chapter on"Fans and Fan Mail" (O'Connor got 18,000-35,000 letters a year), a comment for those who repeat second- and third-hand stories about writers:

"The writer who gets much fan mail finds out many things about himself. I have found out that I take my wife on hunts so I can shoot extra animals on her license and also so she can shoot my trophies for me. I have recently learned that some years ago I went rampaging through Montana strewing the state with dead elk. To this day I have never hunted elk in Montana. I have heard of old hunting buddies I have no recollection of, of guides I cannot remember who have taken me out in country where I have never been. I have heard one way or another that I was a fine rifle shot and that I could not hit a tethered bull on the rump with a tennis racket."

Then, responding to a Keith disciple in "The Big Bore Boys":

"If I ever recommended the .270 for all African game except elephant, rhino and buffalo I must have done it when I was smoking a joint or something."

DPhillips,

You are not alone. I enjoyed both Keith and O'Connor.

I've been recycling all of my magazines as of late, even the ones that Mule Deer writes for <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> ...so I'm not sure, but I believe that in my last Outdoor Life, they ran an old article of Jack O'Connor's. It was a treat to read!

[bleep]

I enjoyed JOC but don't own a .270 . Instead he inspired me to buy 7X57s and 30-06s. He said he witnessed more animals dropped in their tracks with the 7x57 and most of those by his wife. He also said that he had probably killed more game with the 30-06 than any other cartridge. reflex264

Although JO'C was obviously a 270 fan, if you read his work he was also had a great deal of respect for the 7x57, 30-06, and 375 H&H. To call him "the 270 guy" really does him a disservice, as his writing and advocacy was a lot more nuanced than that.
Everybody has different tastes, and is entitled to them. I certainly think O'Connor was a tremendous writer. I have been ill this week, and have had the time to reread The Last Book, as well as review a recent catalog of letters to John Jobson. The Last Book is entertaining reading to say the least, and although it was published in 1984, it shows little signs of wear. Now, as to our friend Elmer Keith, he was a tremendous story teller and a raconteur. I wouldn't fall into a swoon if I found out that he stretched a tale or two just a bit... I recall reading a story by Boddington claiming that Elmer's articles required a great deal of editing, which is not a suprise given his background as a cow hand, compared to JO'C's stint as a journalism professor. Who was a better story teller is debatable-who was a better writer, well I think you can derive my opinion. Again, YMMV.

I'll tell you who doesn't impress me, that is E. Hemingway.

I didn't even get through the Green Hills Of Africa, and as much as I love ocean fishing, I thought the Old Man & The Sea was over rated... Fine fish, great fish, strong fish.
I read Mice & Men also, I just found them all simple, slow & boring. Islands in the stream made for a good movie, but I didn't read the book.

"Of Mice and Men" was penned by J. Steinbeck, not Hemingway.

RSY

whoops, your right...but I do like Stienbecks other writings.