Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters "Skeeter" Skelton

Lately, I have been enjoying some old articles written by Charles A. "Skeeter" Skelton. I know he was originally from Hereford, Texas (in the northern panhandle), and was living at Demming, New Mexico at the time of his death in El Paso. I cannot seem to find where he is buried anywhere. Does anyone here know? Just curious? Maybe I could pay my respects if I should pass that way. I know Bill Jordan is buried at Linden, Texas and Elmer Keith at Salmon, Idaho. Don't know that I will ever get to Salmon, Idaho, but I pass through Linden, Texas a few times every year. Maybe I will stop by next time I have a little extra time.

Skeeter was a good writer. He could actually step away from the real writing and do fiction that was enjoyable to read. (That from me, who is not a fan of fiction.) I wish that someone would write a biography of him. He seems to have lived an interesting life, occasionally giving brief glimpses into it that left me wanting to know more.

According to Find-A-Grave, his wife is buried in Deming, NM so I would bet she is buried with him; Mountain View cemetery.

A great writer has the reader along side, participating in the topic, part of the action.

That's a gift. Don't think they can teach that in college...

IMO, great story tellers are born. They can fine tune their craft, but it has to be first of all a gift.

DF

When I can't find anything else to read, I dig out one of Skeeter's books. For me, his writing never gets old.

I wish I could find some of Skeeter's books at an affordable price. They can be had, BUT out of my price range. Same with Elmer Keith's "Hell, I Was There". I sure wish I had bought a copy years ago. Now they are out of my price range as well. Strangely, there seem to be plenty of Elmer's other books available at reasonable prices. Another hard to find is Bill Jordan's "Tales Of The Rio Grande". I had an autographed copy of Jordan's "No Second Place Winner" years ago, but made the mistake of loaning it to someone. Gone forever. However I scored another copy at a resale shop a few years ago.

As are writers - and we spend way too much time banging our heads and the heads of students against the wall forcing them to "learn" creative writing.

I have always enjoyed reading Skeeter Skelton's work in Shooting Times, along with his books "GOOD FRIENDS, GOOD GUNS, GOOD WHISKY" and "HOGLEGS, HIPSHOTS, AND JALAPANOS". I have the book that his wife wrote, "I REMEMBER SKEETER", but I don't remember too much about it. I particularly enjoyed the "Me & Joe" stories and the stories about fictional characters Dobe Grant and Jug Johnson that centered on Grant's Turkey Track Ranch. If there was a compilation of those stories, I'd buy a copy.

Skeeter Skelton's writing influenced me to embrace the .44 Special cartridge, Ruger Single Action revolvers, and S&W Double Action revolvers, particularly the N-Frame Models 24, 27, 624, and 625. Skeeter was a fan of the 5" S&W 27 and a fan of the .44 Special, so I mated the two by having Ahlman's pistolsmiths shorten the barrel on a S&W 624 from 6.5" to 5" and reinstall the front sight. I liked this configuration so much that I had two of them done, the second after the first was stolen out of UPS on its way back to me after being engraved by S&W.

[quote=Henryseale]Lately, I have been enjoying some old articles written by Charles A. "Skeeter" Skelton. I know he was originally from Hereford, Texas (in the northern panhandle), and was living at Demming, New Mexico at the time of his death in El Paso. I cannot seem to find where he is buried anywhere. Does anyone here know? Just curious? Maybe I could pay my respects if I should pass that way. I know Bill Jordan is buried at Linden, Texas and Elmer Keith at Salmon, Idaho. Don't know that I will ever get to Salmon, Idaho, but I pass through Linden, Texas a few times every year. Maybe I will stop by next time I have a little extra time.

I was born about 12 miles from Linden in Atlanta. Linden is the county seat of Cass County. I didn't know Bill Jordan was buried there. I have a very close friend that was from Austin that has ended up living just outside of Linden and several Cousins still in Atlanta. Next time I go up that way I'll try to remember to take the time to visit Mr. Jordan's resting place.

'

Square peg, round hole.

But you can fine tune that gift.

JOC had a masters degree in Journalism, taught in college. Elmer was a cowboy who could barely type. Both were great story tellers, both excelled at their craft. Elmer’s copy may have needed more editing.

DF

Henryseal,

I bought a new copy of GOOD FRIENDS, GOOD GUNS, GOOD WHISKEY during the fund-raising auction at the Jack O'Connor Hunting Heritage Center in Lewiston, Idaho in June. It wasn't exactly cheap, but I tend to overspend there, for the good cause (the center is not only a fine museum, but helps in youth shooting programs). I have been savoring it for the past several months.

Luckily, I bought my copy of HELL, I WAS THERE! back when it was first published....

Was he the one who wrote in vernacular? If so, I could never stand that writing style. Never liked it in Western fiction either: "I'm a-fixin to go to tha boardin' house and et me some hens' aigs."

Blech, I can never make it past the first paragraph of any of that, including Skelton or whoever the gun writer was that wrote like that. To each their own. Just not for me.

Skeeter most definitely did not write in what you describe as "vernacular." The quality of his writing stands alone among gunwriters. Try, for example, his short story "The Golden Spurs of Dobe Grant."

If I recall, his ashes were scattered in the mountains near his New Mexico home.

The Golden Spurs of Dobie Grant was a great story, I wish that I knew what issue of Shooting Times it appeared in.

i grew up reading Skeeters stuff, have his books, didnt know that his wife wrote on tho! I know he was sick for awhile and had to sell guns, it sucks as I had to go thru this myself! I also have many of Elmers books, and a signed copy of Bill Jordans hand gun book!

Must have been some other writer then. Could have swore it was him. The joys of getting old.

Both of Skeeter's books had been out a few years before I got around to buying either one of them, but I think that I bought "I Remember Skeeter" not long after it was published.

A few years ago, a wealthy friend who lives in Manhattan asked me to recommend some reading dealing with guns--especially handguns. I pointed him to Skeeter's books. He went and looked on Abe Books and was flabbergasted to find that copies were selling for $200-$300 or so apiece. I offered to mail him my copies to read, if he would agree to return them.

He suggested that I not ship them, but if I did, to use UPS and insure them for no less than $500 for the set. I have to admit that I was somewhat taken aback by how much they had appreciated in value.

Every once in a while I check their value on used book sites, and it looks like these days, their selling prices may have declined somewhat from those of several years ago..

Way back in high school, 50 some years ago, I was wondering the riverbank waiting on dad to finish filling the truck with wheat during harvest. That old 1959 Gleaner Model "A" only had a 50 bushel tank and 13 ft header so it took a while to fill the truck for the trip to the elevator. I happened on an illegal trash dump and spotted a copy of Shooting Times in decent shape. As a young gun nut in a family not interested in guns or hunting, it really kindled a fire in this guy. The story that caught my eye was Skeeters article about casting bullets for his revolvers, especially the 358156 and 429421. Man I wish I had a reprint of that old article. I was a lifelong convert, with Skeeter occupying a pedestal just about as high as JOC. Nowadays I shoot more cast than jacketed, I really enjoy the whole process from scrounging the lead to the shooting.

I was an instant Skeeter fan after discovering Shooting Times in my youth, and was lucky enough to get a couple of his books for reasonable prices back before prices went crazy.

A friend lives in Deming and his wife worked at the school with Sally until she retired some years back. I always intended to come up with an excuse to make a pilgrimage to Skeeter's back yard shooting range out there, but never got around to it.

I enjoyed his writing on cast bullets. He said 357 brass was harder to come by and he didn't use it for plinking . Used 38 Spl brass , seated the bullet to OAL of the 357.