This thread on Ross Seyfriend has taken several twists and has probably gone on long enough, but I want to make this observation before it's finished: In our world (meaning us shooters), we hold most gun writers up on a pedestal and consider them as being larger-than-life celebrities (the obvious exception being, of course, Clair Rees, who in all honestly seems like a nice guy, but his articles are, to be generous, a joke). In fact, given our inclinations, we probably place them above Hollywood stars and gazillionaire athletes on the idol scale. What's strange is that, unlike other celebrities, we actually know very little about them and their personal lives other than what they willingly disclose to us in monthly publications, which usually isn't very much.
Ross Seyfriend is a good example. I've never met him, or any gunwriter, in person, but I've read pretty much everything he's ever written since 1982, when he first appeared in Guns & Ammo. He began his public life as a world champion handgun competitor and Colorado cattle rancher. Now more than twenty years later, he's an elk guide and outfitter with his son in Oregon. His early articles showed his lineage to Elmer Keith and focused on guns that were the biggest and baddest for whatever application was at hand (like the 10 gauge, the .340 Weatherby, and big-bore Hamilton Bowen revolvers, to name a few). He shot a Cape buffalo with a revolver, then went through a long series on barrel-burner rifle cartridges. He's pretty much turned his back on the competitive handgun shooting scene, and lately he has almost exclusively devoted his writing to antique and/or obscure arms and ammunition. He's never come right out and said it, but I've always had the impression that he's something of a recluse. Glimpses into his personal life have been very scarce. One thing his writing did make perfectly clear was that he has an opinion about everything, and his opinions run either hot or cold. Objectivity is not his strong suit. His strong opinions have alienated some, even some of his fans. Some of the things he has said even I've taken with a grain of salt. But, after all, nobody's perfect, and he always seemed to have a sense of style that looked good on him, even when he was obviously way over the top.
And now something controversial and possibly scandalous has happened, and his legions of fans really have no way of knowing about it. Some will blindly follow his byline to wherever it lands. Others will shrug it off and find a new hero to worship. Others like me will continue to wonder: Is there some subtle hint of a major character defect in his twenty years' worth of writing that I've missed? That provides a clue to what happened? Is he dishonest? Did he get indicted? Is he a crack addict? A cross-dresser? A sell-out? Maybe he's just a jerk? Unfortunately, unlike Hollywood, we don't have any shooting tabloids that make their living from dishing out the dirt (whether fact or fiction) on gunwriters.
Another good example is Gary Sitton. He was a heck of a good writer, but his stories seemed to hint that he was plagued by unspecified personal problems, which apparently forced him to vanish from the scene, much to our disappointment. Wherever you are Gary, your fans miss you and are pulling for you.
So I guess I'm left with mixed feelings about finding out what happened to Ross. In a way, I share the common morbid sense of curiosity like those onlookers at the aftermath of a train wreck. And, I suppose I share a certain amount of concern for one of my childhood heroes, which feels kind of weird considering I really don't even know the guy. And then there is the fear that whatever it is, it'll knock the pedestal out from under him that I constructed as a twelve-year-old G&A subscriber.
I guess I'll just have to accept Mule Deer's invocation of gunwriter's privilege on this one, which is probably evidence of considerable maturity and self-restraint on his part, and take comfort in the fact that Ross's stories added a lot of value to my early life, and whatever personal shortcomings he may have won't ever change that one way or another.
