Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Elmer Keith "Hell, I Was There"

The copy that Elmer signed to me turned-up on E-bay several years ago somehow, and somebody bought it for $250. Don't know how it got there or where it went � who sold it or who bought it. Just one more of life's little tantalizing, infuriating mysteries!

Yea, I had a signed copy a fellow borrowed and then moved away.

Don't recall that I ever lent my copy to anybody.

Had a full collection of first editions that Elmer had signed to me. No idea where any of 'em is now or how it got there.

No kidding that was a good deal.

I have to find a copy to read one day.

Hell, I Was There by Elmer Keith (Nov 1989)
CDN$ 171.06 used (4 offers)





Available from these sellers.








2 new from $898.98

Interesting. That signature looks different than the one in my copy.

I've read my copy so much the binding is broke, and the dust cover is ragged! LOL

I have a copy too, packed away somewhere, and quite enjoyed it. To show how things change over time, I bought mine off a remainder table for a couple of bucks. To be fair, that happened to a lot of books of somewhat specialized interests.

I also seem to remember Elmer's writing that his left hand got so badly burned as a youngster that it curled up and wouldn't open. He claimed that he got his father or someone to force it open and then tie it to a board or splint so it would stay open until it healed. Not much medical help or painkillers for poor folks in the boondocks back then. Was that in this book?

****************************************************

Like HawkI...

I, too, did some corresponding with Elmer Keith in the 1960s and found him quite literate... certainly NOT the "crude cowboy" some apparently jealous newer gun-writers attempt to make him out to be.

I found him refreshing honest and forthright, but he was no man's fool and I seriously doubt that the man lied as he has so often been accused of doing concerning his 600 yard killing shots on that deer with a 6-gun so often given by some doubters as an example of an outright lie.

I believe Elmer Keith was a "diamond-in-the-rough", and the man could certainly write a fine, interesting story. He seemed to me to be a very sincere and a relatively humble man in spite of his fame as one of "THE" top gun-scribes of the American 20th. century.

At least, that was my "take" on Elmer Keith.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Great book, I've read mine a few times, always works for me. I had no idea they were rare to find. I loaned mine to a co-worker once, he returned it and asked if I could find one for his son. Didn't have any problems finding it, but that was in the late 90's.

Anjin,

Yes he wrote about how his hand was brought back into use in the book. Without going downstairs to my outdoors bookshelf I can't remember the exact details. The book I have is in pristine condition, didn't realize it had so much value.

Jim

The question I would have concerning the 600 yard shot would have been just why was he shooting at the deer. Having only heard the story and not read it in it's entirety leaves the unanswered question. Why was he shooting at a deer at 600 yards with a pistol when he had written on more than one occasion that he considered the .270 too light for deer?

I have, in my later years, come to like big, slow bullets myself so can't fault him in that regard but nobody can argue with any degree of conviction that the .270 is too light for a deer.

Caliber of gun used in that robbery please.

Just so happens night before last I was reading "500-Yard Sixgunning" by Elmer Keith. Some of those long shots were on deer wounded by other people and those deer were headed over the mountain, while other shooters were trying to get into position.
And it was a different time, he tells it like it was. Not alot of one shot kills either, he had no problem telling how many rounds it took.

MIckey,

He was shooting at a wounded deer running away, about to head over a hill. The deer had been wounded by another hunter.

Looking back at the bullets they had back then versus what is available now, I can see his point regarding the .270, particularly when you realize that they made all kinds of raking shots to put an animal down. This wasn't sport hunting, this was putting up meat to survive on.

He wrote about a lot of bullet failures, stuff that we just don't see these days.

Ed

I have # 260 of the signed group of 500. Price $300. I consider
it a fair price, and am glad to have it. I also have Big Game Hunting, published by Little,Brown & Co. in 1948, which Mr. Keith
priced in Hell, I was there, I believe at $75. With Sixguns, some
O'Connor, some Ruark, Skelton, and a nice 1895 edition of Van Dyke's The Still Hunter, The gun/hunting part of my personal library keeps me well-entertained.
The angling section is bigger. Buy great books whenever you can.

I have also "desecrated" mine (read: opened it and read it numerous times as well as disposed of the bothersome dust jacket), thereby rendering it worthless in the eyes of collectors. To me, books are things to be read, usually many times, not something to be treated as if they were some priceless work of art from antiquity.

This quote from the Shroud of Turin thread seems to fit here very nicely.

Shooting at a wounded deer makes all the difference. I can't help but wonder at the shooting ability of the "old shooters" if they wounded that many deer.

Truth be told, I suspect the modern shooter wounds just as many.
I lost all respect for Dan Lilja when I read of them setting to shoot elk at 1000+ yards. Too many variables for wounding an animal just to be shooting. Not anti hunting but if you're going to hunt/shoot an animal you owe it to the animal and your honor to kill it as quickly and humanely as possible.

When I heard that "Hell, I Was There" was coming out I wrote Elmer a letter saying I would like a copy autographed if possible. He wrote back saying he didn't have any, they were still in printing but he had had other requests and if I would send $20 he would see that I got one. I sent $20 and he wrote back that he had some stickers he was signing and he would send them to Pedersen Printing and they would put one on and ship it from there.
Doc

i loaned my copy out over 20 yrs ago, never got it back.

I stopped bidding on a decent but worn, unsigned copy recently around $50 and I'm still kicking myself.

You got a real deal...... I'll just have to keep looking.