Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Gun writers and leverguns

MD, let's have some Pearl's of wisdom on the subject. Not that I'd attempt it, just interested in your observations.

Similar to what Wyatt Earp said in Tombstone “I’m already famous, I might as well have the money too”

Here are my top 10 tips:

1) First, it's easiest to write for magazines you like to read--but you might also find out if they actually pay money. Most do, but often pay far less to freelancers than staff writers. These days most magazines pay on publication, which means a freelancer may have to wait months, perhaps over a year, until the article appears. (When I started in the business, all but the very smallest magazines paid on acceptance, meaning you got a check within a few weeks.) Not as many magazines take freelance articles these days as when I started out, so it's tougher to break in.

2) Figure out what article length they want. Submitting a 3000-word article to a magazine that only runs 2000-word articles usually doesn't get you anywhere. Yeah, editors can cut it down, but they generally prefer the writer do his job in the first place. When I was editing Gray's Sporting Journal, I assigned a well-known writer a piece on Dall sheep hunting, with a limit of 2000 words. He sent 5000. I cut it down, but never gave him another assignment.

3) If you haven't written much before, beginning and ends are the toughest. One old rule of magazine (and speech) writing is to first, tell the readers what you're going to tell them in a short paragraph, maybe two. Then tell them with details in the next few pages, with then summarize what you told them, ending with one of my long-time editors called a "punch line." In fact he said an ideal article was like an extended joke, with a punch-line--even if the story wasn't supposed to be funny. All the rest should build toward the defining end. (One good piece of advice, even for long-time professionals, is to make sure your first paragraph--or page--is the actual beginning of the story. Very often, writers take a while to get to the real point, and lopping off the initial wandering-around helps a lot.)

4) Provide at least one piece of new/obscure information, or at the very least gather several interesting pieces of information from various sources. Magazine articles are almost never all new stuff. Instead they're built on previous knowledge, with some new info. (One major exception is when writing about the 7x57 Mauser, you had better mention Karamojo Bell and his dead elephants. If you don't, at least one reader--and probably more--will complain to the editor.)

5) FOCUS the article. One advantage non-professional enthusiasts often have over full-time writers is more knowledge about a specific subject. So pick a subject you really know, say one model of Winchester lever-action, rather than trying to cram all your knowledge of Winchester lever-actions into 2000 words

6) On the other hand, if you don't have some other perspective on the subject, say some knowledge of Marlin lever-actions, then your point-of-view isn't as interesting. One long-time gun-magazine editor said that nobody who's only used the .30-06 for hunting can write an interesting article on why the .30-06 is the greatest all-around big-game cartridge.

7) Keep the average reader firmly in mind. You're not writing for other enthusiasts on the same subject, but for people who might not be interested unless you explain clearly why your perspective might interest them.

8) Double-check your facts. Don't just rely on one source, whether printed or Internet, unless it's THE source.

9) Limit your use of adjectives and adverbs, as well as fancy punctuation. If you decide to liven things up with a little conversation, here's some good advice from Elmore Leonard, the bestselling fiction writer: "Never use a verb other than 'said' to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. Said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied." In other words, what the person says should carry the idea.

10) Provide around 10-12 digital photos to illustrate your points; generally around 1 mexapixel is minimum.They should include overall shots of firearms, close-ups, some field photos of shooting or hunting. Don't use flash unless you're a semi-professional and understand how to eliminate "hot-spots." Firearms are best photographed in relatively soft lighting, whether artificial light indoors or cloudy days outdoors.

Did Norm Strung take the photo?

Yep--with a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera.

Awesome.
My dad was a barber, I grew up reading F&S from the shop when Mr. Strung was with the magazine. You're a lucky man.

md I can say that to me a lot of writers do not write about what my interest is . I will not bad mouth a writer cuzz they don't write about what I want to read.i miss skeeter he was [is] my hero

Bry, yes I was lucky in meeting Norm, but Norm was also lucky in some ways.

The reason I got to know him was because of Norm being in my father's freshman composition class, compulsory for all students, no matter their major Norm was majoring in wildlife biology, because of wanting to be a hunting and fishing writer. My father told him those classes would help, but the primary job of a writer is writing, so he needed to learn more about writing than a freshman composition class could teach. Norm switched his major to English, and eventually even started a master's degree in English, but had to quit because his writing career took up too much of his time. (I had a similar moment, though as an undergraduate. I went to college after getting a few years of experience in "real life," and had actually started selling articles when I decided college might help specific aspects of my career. It did, but my progress was slow. Back then Montana universities were on the quarter system, and I took fall quarter off to hunt, and went half-time in spring to fish, only taking a full course-load in the winter. Eventually I somehow ended up in my junior "year," where I had a choice of writing a research paper for a history class, or writing my first book for money.)

My father also informally tutored Norm in both writing and photography. Among the jobs my dad had when younger was as a printer, which taught him a lot about what sort of photos reproduce best, especially black-and-whites--which dominated the magazines back then. I also strongly suspect my father informally traded his advice for Norm taking me hunting and fishing when I was young. (Was eight years old when I met him.)

But Norm was also unlucky when he developed fatal stomach cancer at 49.

It sounds like most of us cut our teeth reading these magazines, and maybe it was the crazy mind of a twelve year old boy but this this stuff seemed magical . (sometimes, reading it under the covers with a flashlight)
Thanks for continuing on the tradition, John.
It takes me back in time and this is quite a gift. Cheers

Thanks MD. I always wondered about that, as in "how do those guys make a living." Seems like for someone just starting out the chances of being hired on as a staff writier for a national magazine are about the same as a golfer making the PGA tour.

Might be!

I've noticed today that often "new" staff writers are often in their 30's or 40's, and already successful at some other aspect of the shooting/hunting business than magazine writing, such as outfitting or competitive shooting/instruction. Back when I broke in (admittedly primarily as a teller of hunting and fishing stories, rather than a gun writer) it was also easier to start selling articles when in your 20's.

The market is also more fragmented now, with far more smaller, specialty magazines. While I wrote for a few of those when starting out in my 20's, I primarily aimed at the larger, better-paying magazines. Sold my first article, in fact, to Sports Illustrated back when they still ran some "blood sport" stories, a "regional" piece on flyfishing for trout in the winter, for the equivalent of what today would be over $2000, and sold SI a feature article (that ran amid the football stories of the week) on hunting a year or two later for what would be over $5000 now. These days even the bigger hunting and shooting magazines usually don't pay $2000, and many smaller ones pay $500. You have to write an awful lot of $500 articles to make a decent living, but quite a few people do it.

However, $500 isn't bad "extra" income if something else is your primary income. In fact, one Campfire regular sold his first hunting article last year for exactly that--at age 60. I know this because of taking a look beforehand, at it and making a few suggestions, both about the story and where he might submit it. But the story was pretty much there, and I strongly suspect the magazine would have run it anyway.

I am always willing to help aspiring writers, but generally can be a lot more help after they've actually written something, so it can be discussed more concretely. Which is how Eileen and I run our monthly adult-education writing class, offered through the local school system. Every student writes something, then e-mails it to everybody else, so it can be read before the class is held. This is probably the most common method used for writing classes, because the writer gets a lot of direct feedback from a variety of readers. (Plus, we also find the class often inspires us in our own writing.)

I only shoot levers and have all my life, though I have dated a couple of single-shots. And much of my writing, whether an article, novel, or non-fiction book, will contain a lever-action rifle or two in it somewhere. Will not hunt with anything else. I have owned four BLRs -- but none at the moment. I do have the new Henry Long Ranger in .308 but I am not particularly crazy about it. I have a premier elk hunt coming up this September and may likely take the old standby, my Marlin 1895G.

I was hoping the new Henry would be offered in more chamberings. I have looked at them myself, the competing BLR is lighter and has that folding hammer safety.
Why did you not favor it?

comerade, I got one of the first ones off the line and the action was so rough I had to send it back. It came back smoothed and tuned, but it seems really finicky. I am going to play with it some more -- it does like the expensive Swift premium ammunition topped with A Frames -- and see what I can do.I gave up reloading for it.

I have other Henry rifles and the quality seemed decent, just supposed this new rifle would be on par with Browning.
Finicky is not something a hunting rifle should be, hopefully the good Swift stuff proves functional. I don't understand why a company launching a new product puts it out there.
Our little machine shop/ gun shop has a new one and we have been negotiating for a while now. That is half the fun. I will try chambering a few next time to town.
It is kinda ongoing and they owe me a little money.
Hey, keep us posted....thanks

I'm a lever lover and have rifles from Winchester, Marlin, Savage, and Henry. My last two purchases have been a Henry Long Ranger 223/5.56 and a Big Boy Steel in 327 Federal. I've been really pleased with both. The Long Ranger is ridiculously accurate. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that it has a .22 caliber hole in the same profile barrel they use for the 308. I haven't had the 327 very long, but it functions well and is a lot of fun to plink with. You hardly notice when a 32 S&W L with 2 grains of Bullseye goes off, and even the heaviest 327 load is pretty quiet and easy on the shoulder.

MD
I have four levers that if not as fast to cycle as a pump are darn close. Okay, they're only good for small game hunting, but Marlin 57's in .22 LR and 22 Mag and 62's in 256 Win Mag and 30 Carbine were named Levermatics for good reason. Your hand doesn't leave the grip and your trigger finger stays in place. All you have to do is flick the lever a short distance with your last three fingers.

jones,

Thanks for the post. Yes, I am aware some smaller lever-actions that work very fast. Still dunno if they'd work as fast as a pump, though, but it would a lot closer than with bigger centerfire levers.

Gents

Although I no longer own one, my FAV lever Rifle is the BL 22. It works just like the ‘levermatics’ that Jones describes. Yes they are indeed very fast for L A rifles but are not
for deer or bigger game.

I called the BL 22 the “finger flickers”.

SWEET.


Jerry

The Daisy Red Ryder was fast and furious and has a legendary reputation. Just use your imagination....I haven't seen a review for quite a while.