Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How Much That You Read In Outdoor Mags Can You Believe?

I�m going to drop the proverbial feces in the punch bowl here, I am curious about the response it gets.

I got a little story for you and you can take away from it what you will. About 25 years ago I was on a combination boar and deer hunt in Northern California. I was thrilled when the ranch owner told methat I was going to be joined by a gun/hunting writer from a magazine I won�t name here.

The writer was there with a test rifle from one of the well known rifle manufacturers. We were in a jeep with a raised back seat, I sat up front with the guide and the writer sat in the back. The writer smelled like a distillery and seemed a little unsteady on his pins. I was young and, at the time, was all impressed because this guy was a big time writer and all, so I didn�t say anything, I should have refused to get anywhere near him when he was holding a loaded gun. Shortly after we started out he pulled a bottle out of his coat pocket and started drinking, the guide just shook his head and looked pissed, I guess he was under orders from the owner of the ranch to make sure this guy had a good hunt so that they could get some ink in an article, and so he said nothing for a while.

Eventually the guy got so snockered that he fell out of the jeep and lay on his back in the middle of the trail laughing like hell, we went back and had to help him up because he was too whacked to get up on his own. At this point the guide unloaded his gun before giving it back to him, the guy didn�t even notice.

I shot a nice hog a little bit later and the guide asked me if I minded if he got a picture of the writer posing with my hog for his story as it was obvious he wasn�t going to be shooting anything anytime soon on his own. I agreed and we put him behind the hog posed with his test rifle and a pair of my sunglasses on. He fell over a couple of times before we could get the picture so the guide squatted down beside him with his arm around him ( all congratulatory like )to keep him upright and I snapped the photo.

A few months later I saw the picture of him and my hog in his publication with a story about how he stalked him and took the shot from a couple hundred yards. He went on about what a great job the rifle and bullet combination did and how he enjoyed those hog chop so much.

Now this guy is an editor of a pretty prestigious hunting magazine these days and I see him published in other gun rags on a fairly regular basis. I won�t mention his name because I met him some time later and he seemed like a pretty decent sort and I have no idea of what demons he was dealing with at the time. Maybe he is a tea drinker these days, I don�t know, and I don�t want to cause him any problems.

I have no idea how this one incident can be generalized among the general population of gun writers but I always look a little skeptically at the glowing reports I read of products in publications that depend on advertising from the same manufacturer�s whose products they are reviewing. This has nothing to do with any of the contributors to this forum, the fellow I am talking about is not a contributor. I feel lucky to have access to someone like Mule Deer and our other writer contributors at this site and this incident has nothing to do with them. I just wonder with some of the other writers I read who all seem to fall in lock step on praising some product that has a full page spread in the magazine that they work for.

There, I have that off my chest after 25 years.

Keez, unfortunately stories like this pop up occasionally and I have heard very similiar stories from other guides up here in Alaska. Good thing you got a hog.
All seriousness aside though, most of us aspire to become writers like that but it takes years of practice. If you are really good at it you can get sponsered not only by the rifle and ammo makers but the distillers and distributors as well.

That was funny, Phil!!

OH NO, I WAS AFRAID OF THAT

Interesting story Keez. Just another time truth-in-advertising "took the bullet".

Gdv

Should of kicked buddy in the azz.Myself, gunwriter or not he wouldn't be hunting with me under any circumstance.Should of left the drunk azz in the middle of the road when he fell out of the jeep.

Keez, man oh man!!! Now you've started something.
Are you in the habit of handloading cartridges next to the campfire?

I have a similar story about a well known writer who had an affinity for ethanol. He starred in some videos made in Botswana. The buffalo bull "he shot" was actually killed by a PH.

I guess the moral is, it happens.

SOS

Keez,

Common sense and experience should tell you the answer to what you ask. AFAIK, sporting mags are not peer reviewed and fact checked. Even then only the writer knows how true the article is. And perhaps not even then. The thirsty writer in your story may believe that what was published under his by line is what happened because that is the story the guide told him.

A line (paraphrased?) from a John Prine song: "a question isn't a question if you know the answer too." - John Prine

Some of the writing is very honest and objective, and you can trust it. But to be honest, I've read, and continue to read, a lot of utter BS that has disgusted and continues to disgust me.

For example:

The 1950s-70s gunwriter who claimed to have killed with the 270 Win. cartridge, amoung game animals, Lord Derby's eland. The trouble is, that writer had been on but two safaris in his entire life, neither of which was in a country that contained any Lord Derby's eland whatsoever, and never has.

The there's the gunwriter who posed with his PH's double-rifle beside a Cape buffalo, claiming that he had killed that bull with the double himself. In reality, he used a bolt-action magazine rifle of his own instead. He poses with the other rifle, and that same buffalo, in other photos! This same writer also posed with an elk that was actually killed by his hunting partner, claiming it as his own. In other photos, which were obviously taken on that same day, he was posing (same clothes, same hat, same mountain, same lighting) with another elk that he had actually taken himself.

Jack O'Connor claimed to have bumped into two "tough-looking French civil servants" armed with FN Mausers in 375 H&H. In another article, he claimed that those guys were armed with Model 70s instead!

I can also think of writer who had never shot so much as a single elk, but posed for a photo of one that was killed by another gunwriter who had actually don the killing. Even so, "Mr. NoBull" claimed it as his own!

There's also the writer who claimed to have killed over 100 big game animals with a certain cartridge. The trouble is, he only hunted with that cartridge for a very few years in his western state of residence, and that state typically issues one deer and elk tag per hunter per year, and usually on a drawing basis. If he killed as many animals as he claimed with that cartridge, he either poached them or just-plain lied about his experience outright..........

Of course, there's another writer who claims to have killed brown bear and numerous other game species. The trouble is, he never furnishes photos, other than photos of him aiming various rifles, binoculars, handguns, etc., in the same exact location, with the same exact mountains in the background everytime. No game animals of any kind in any of them!

There's more, but I'm late for an appointment.........

AD

Here's a surprise for some: gun writers are people.

Some of them are fabulous.

Some of them are pompous.

Some of them are infamous.

Some of them are dubious.

Some of them are outrageous.

But all of them are "just-ous."

touche -- I am actually afraid of bears and big rifles that recoil so prefer staying close to the single malts. someday I hope to be a real gunwriter

And then maybe you'll use a 6x42 with turrets instead of a 2.5 on your brownie rigs right......grins

Mark D

Honesty isn't too much to ask, or at least I hope not!

If it is, then it's time for me to pick up my chips and find a new game...........

AD

I remember when I was a pup and I got caught in a lie with my G-Dad whom I cherished the ground he walked on.

He simply told me "if you're not honest you're nothing"...!

It made an impression as it should.

Mark D

Not to hijack the thread, but wasn't there a discussion about a regualar column here on the campfire about reviewing and CRITICAL CRITIQUE of shooting and hunting equipment?

I have a friend who guides. Years ago he guided a semi-famous archery writer on a pronghorn hunt who had a pretty impressive list of big critters to his credit. Afterwards, he told me and the outfitter there their was something fishy going on with that guy. He called it dead on. I can't think of the writer/famous hunter's name, but he's the one who was caught poaching with a rifle on the Paunsaugant in Utah and then the authorities discovered video of him poaching in Yellowstone........he was sent to prison....I got other stories but I'll pass.

Ya' never know about the hunting/gun writing world, somes good, somes not so good--I kinda' like Rockraab's take on it

Casey

my take is that as long as there is fame to be had or money to be made, a certain number will be drawn to "cheat". It's human nature and affects all human endeavours.

Utah-

To the close observer it should be apparent that there isn't any human endeavor or part of creation that will not be abused by someone somewhere. I agree fully with you that it's human nature which isn't to say that all will abuse the same thing or to the same degree.

Strangely perhaps, but actually not.., I believe that anthropic principle-the one about human nature-is found in the Bible.

Gdv

It also usually occurs that the one's who draw the most attention to themselves deserve it the least while the one's who know they are doing a good job don't seem to require the acknowledgement. These latter will stand the test of time and end up with the most acknowledgement in the long run. There really are not too many shortcuts that work out in the end.

Allen,

I have to wonder if this sort of "utter BS" get published because writers are trying to publish something that will fill up the space just to meet deadlines. For example, in the February 2004 issue of GUNS AND AMMO, one of their main writers (who I generally enjoy reading and who is also a favorite of many on this forum) uses the "fact" that Jack O'Connor normally sighted in from two to two-and-one-half inches high at one-hundred yards to support his own opinion. Jack didn't! He normally sighted-in three inches high at this distance when using rifles for open country hunting. To find this out, all you have to do is take the time to read what he wrote!

This same person must like using O'Connor as a "source" even though he does not take time to read him, because in the 2005 issue of GUNS AND AMMO he has Mrs. O'Connor using a 7x57 to kill tigers in India -- she did not! She used a 30-06. It seems this writer was again too busy to research before he wrote "BS" as fact.

If I remember correctly, and I think I do, this writer was publicly taken to task by Ross S. in the RIFLE MAGAZINE because he had stated unfactual material in response to a reader's question concerning an African big game cartridge. Perhaps research was again not an option because a deadline was drawing nigh!

For me, the general problem with this, is that even though this author and others like him are enjoyable to read, their credibility suffers. I'm never really sure what is true and what is "utter BS" unless I've had personal experience concerning the material under discussion!

M. Bell

Thats funny and I am going to try hard not to step on toes.I guess one could ask,if you have a serious disease and ask ten doctors what the outcome or how to control this disease,you would get ten different answers or you could ask the many that have had this problem,what they have seen without a bill in the mail.

There are good ones and bad ones but how many go through what we go through year after year paying for it all?There are many people in this world with 10X the experience hunting certain animals that don't get a dime for there experiences and I believe those if it is something I am after, I have no experience at.There out to sell nothing other than maybe a free beer and feed there family's.

Hunting Elk and Deer has grown into a big money maker for some while the old timers did it with lever action rifles or the 30-40 krags of the world.Who would have thought the .300 H&H would be all but obsolete and nothing but a Premium bullet kills game?

The very last article I have ever read was by Brian Pierce on Sourdough Ed...Bout say's it all and Brian took the back seat in doing so.My hats off to Brian....True day to day living experience is different than payed for experiences with the skills to write interestingly.

A must read...
http://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/article.cfm?tocid=1532&magid=104

It is nice to see a gun writer take the back seat and give those that do it daily the credit they deserve and we all as men put our pants on one leg at a time.

An interesting topic would be Gun Writers Boo Boo's just like ours..We all make mistakes to learn.

Jayco