Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles John Jobson Sports Afield .270 article

Same for the hunting shows.

True to a degree.

O'Connor continued to write positive words about the 257 Roberts long after the 243 and 244 had been introduced and the 243 had bulldozed its way to the top of the market niche that included the 243, 244/6mm, 250-3000, and 257. OTOH, JO'C never struck me as being particularly progressive, so he might not have given the newcomers an unbiased review.

I have always felt that Barsness was honest and objective in his writing. He is particularly progressive in his reloading, as he is always trying/testing new powders.

+1
And tempered with a good dose of common sense.

I took a few minutes looking for your article online. No luck, but found a John Jobson article in "The Best of Sports Afield: The Greatest Outdoor Writing of the 20th Century", stashed in an online archive. I started reading and I couldn't tear myself away.

This collection of articles from the best writers of the '30s, '40s and even into the '60s just entranced me. These men were poets, writing from the heart as well as from the head. Cape buffalo hunts, Dall rams, huge canvasback ducks on Lake Manitoba, stories with names like "The Mist People", "Eyelids of the Morning", "Lions of the Kalahari", "The Banka Leopards", and more, so much more...

As my eyes began to burn from struggling to read the dull, gray, photocopied pages reproduced on my computer screen, I realized I might be able to actually buy the book and enjoy the read, rather than blind myself from the effort. I jumped to Amazon.com and found multiple copies of the hardcover, in various states of use and disuse, priced from $0.38 in poor but "acceptable" condition to over $60.00 brand new.

I picked a middling number for one in "very good" condition and got the order off quickly. If you love great hunting, fishing and outdoor adventure stories from some of the best writers ever to peck out a story on a manual typewriter, get onto Amazon and BUY IT!

I recall an article in a Gun Digest Annual Mr. Jobson wrote about mountain hunting that may have the info about the .270 Winchester in it? Had to be early 70's publish date, maybe '72-74?

John B is a good friend and a knowledgeable and forthright guy. Same for Phil. I regularly learn something from their writings.

I don't get much out of most of the other stuff that is published.

He did one in 1978 titled, "Horns of Gold" about a sheep hunt, but the .270 he carried played only a small part in a fascinating story.

Rifles in general only play a small part of the story, but no one seems to get it.

I thought O'Connor favored Passport Scotch?

Thanks for posting that Brad. I enjoyed it. E

Always liked Jobson when I was a kid. He could be a little set in his ways even compared to O'Conner. To bad Sports Afield never made him the hunting editor instead of Pete Brown, but Brown was already set in the position. So camping editor had to do.

Actually Pete Brown was the shooting/firearms columnist, not hunting editor.

But I agree that Jobson's gun writing was far better than Brown's. From what I remember, Brown had been a military ordnance officer, so knew technical stuff, probably more than Jobson. But he was also a pretty technical writer, and not nearly as good a writer or storyteller as Jobson.

I suspect Jobson simply didn't want to HAVE to write as much about various firearms as a columnist would be required to. Instead he could own and use the rifles he wanted to, and write about them now and then.

It seemed Jobson was a chip off the old block - Col Townsend Whelen and it was apparent he liked to experience camping and writing about it. He got me hooked on Dutch Oven cooking, making sourdough bread and bannock.

He wrote an romantic article on the Whelen tent and I bought one. The whole concept sucked. Wind, rain, wood fire smoke and insects made me put it up for sale pronto.

In Jack O'Connor's book THE HUNTING RIFLE,, 1970, O'Connor had a chapter on the 7x57mm titled " Big Punch in Little Case".

Jobson wrote an article in a 1973 Sports Afield magazine on the 7x57mm titled " Welterweight Rifle with the Heavyweight Punch." It probably is a coincidence, but the title sounds a lot like O'Connors. No matter he wrote about my favorite cartridge.

I've always suspected Whelen (and others) really LIKED wind, rain, smoke and insects when they were out there in the wilderness.

Just did an article on such misery, as a matter of fact. Theodore Roosevelt apparently liked really suck conditions too. Both he and Whelen were kinda wimpy youngsters, who grew up in the East in pretty privileged families. Suffering in the outdoors was something different.

BWalker
I was in Mr O'Connor's study and home only once. I was around 21 and was quite overwhelmed just to be there. When I called him he said that if I was willing to drive the 5 hours to get to Lewiston that he would give me an hour. He was very gracious and friendly. I was there for about 4 hours.

I could pretty much repeat verbatim everything he had written. I was surprised that he said the same things in our visit that he had written many times before. I later concluded that he really meant what he offered to his readers.

When we first entered his study, there were at least two empty scotch bottles on the floor. He said,"better bury these dead soldiers". He picked them up and tossed them both into an old green metal garbage can which already held another bottle. That trash can was at least 12 plus feet away. I swear, both bottles were in the air at the same time. Both landed in that old can without tipping it even a little. His throw was smooth and accurate. My impression was that he could have done that with his eyes closed.

I wasn't an experienced booze drinker so I may be wrong about the brand but am clear that all three were green bottles with yellow or brown labels. Actually I was pretty much in a state of shock to see all those big sheep heads in his garage/study.

I always enjoyed Jobson's articles - and mostly, O'Connor's.

O'C ruined himself for me when he wrote about twice deliberately shooting animals in the hams to cripple until he could reposition himself for a killing shot. I've shot one animal in the butt myself (last year) , but it wasn't deliberate. I messed up. At least he was honest about it, but a "Sportsman" he was not, IMO. He could write tho!

This was , IIRC, in "Sheep and Sheep Hunting", which I read after my first sheep hunt. Other than some stuff on ranges, and natural history, which was interesting information, I learned nothing about the actual hunting of sheep from the book that the prior hunt did not teach me. I guess it isn't rocket science? . The most valuable thing I learned from that hunt was to break the "rule" if that's what it takes. What it took was stalking that band of 11 rams from below, after watching their pattern for 14 hours the day before - from above, an impossible approach. Those suckers had EVERYTHING covered, the from-below approach the least, tho. Their mistake was doing the exact same thing the second day as the first, when I'd watched them from night bed to night bed.

He also wrote about at least one trip where he and his guide horse-backed in for days (IIRC it was over a week), and shot several head of game. There was no way they could have salvaged the meat. Not a "Sportsman" I'd care to associate with, even if it was legal at the time/place.

It also amused me that he would write in detail about these wonderful hunts he had taken, then 5 years later try a repeat and piss and moan about how that area had become over-run with other hunters.... Well, Duh!

Good reading here .. Hope others add info.. I liked Jonson, after I gained some age and experience JOC moved to the back burner of my interest & has remained there for the last 50 years.

I always laugh when blood sport participants pat themselves on the back for killing nicely.

" I always laugh when blood sport participants pat themselves on the back for killing nicely."

Not quite sure what you mean by that, but you are welcome for the lighter moment in your life, anyway.

So you see no difference in deliberately gut shooting or ham shooting an animal vs a "clean" kill or passing up the chance if one cannot make a "clean" shot?? Or in not following up wounded game when things go south vs doing so? Hell, the animal is dead or dying, anyway, and dead is dead, so why bother??? Putting a finishing shot into a dying (eventually) but not yet dead animal is a waste of good ammo?

Not much "nice" about the killing itself. The prior hunt, the country, the eating of the game, yes. The killing should be only a small (and worst) part of the hunting experience, comprised of equal parts regret for taking the life of an animal and satisfaction on a job well done. If it has been well done. Or even done at all.

Every "blood sport" participant should ascribe to that. If you don't, get out of hunting, assuming you do.

I've read a lot of books about hunting from the late 1800's on through the early1900's, and believe you me, it was common practice to only take the choice cuts and leave the rest. It was also commonplace to shoot an animal late in the day, go back the next morning and find that an predator had gotten the meat that night.....and they didn't worry about it in the least. Instead, they just went out and shoot another one. Of course, to be fair, many of these hunts too place when game laws weren't as strict, and also some of these hunts were for museums, with numerous tags available. I've read O'Connor a bunch, and didn't come across with the idea that he was a bad sportsman. I think he was probably a better one than some of his contemporaries.

When I think of people who are bad sportsman, I look no further than the bowhunting shows that are on TV these days. I can't recall the number of times I've seen some archer shoot a nice buck "a little too far back", as they like to say. Then, "we're going to back out of here and come back in the morning", and they find a deer that's been eaten by coyotes, or died and the meat is obviously ruined because of the temperature. These guys are after two things......antlers and fame from being on TV. That's bad sportsmanship.