Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JOC 50 years later

I’ve always been a big fan and even wear an Eddie Bauer 1936 Skyliner down jacket similar to the one JOC is wearing in that iconic pic on the mountainside with the trophy Stone ram.

We own one of the two Zeiss Contax cameras Jack O'Connor used. Eileen bought it during the fund-raiser auction at the Jack O'Connor Hunting Heritage & Education Center a few years ago. It came with a B&W photo of him with the camera hanging around his neck, on a hunt somewhere..

One thing is for sure, if O'Connor was still with us and happened by 24 Hr Campfire, many of the posts would have him in stitches. There is a lot of inspiration here.

And this is a picture of a monkey riding a chipmunk.

Cool deal MD. I loved reading JOC's stuff growing up, and his adventures made me feel like I was there with him.

Being a gun guy he most assuredly would have found value in the ways the rifle and cartridges have advanced....His mountain hunts were often month long adventures, and I doubt he would think the in and out we often have today was anything to get excited about....Re hunting, in most ways he had us beat....

Too add to my previous post, I suspect there are some young gun and hunting enthusiasts who read Mule Deer, and hang onto his every word as I did with O'Connor 50 years ago, and who are doomed to be saddened when Mule Deer announces his retirement someday! But they will keep him in reloading supplies and beans by buying his books.

Opinions about the "best cartridge" is like asking what is the "best handload", "best ice cream", or "best car". Everybody is apt to have their own opinion and experiences.

"Behind every great man is a great woman". I have always been impressed with what Eleanor O'Connor did with a 7x57 mm and a 160 grain bullet @2,660 fps.

It was interesting, the times were so different.
For a long time I didn't know he was all that well known, it seemed like he was writing to me, for me.
I was 12 when I discovered him, already had a .270 and was a hunter . I casually mentioned him to my uncle and
found he was a big Jack fan, a seasoned Handloader and old school mountain hunter.
I then realized Jack was rather famous in the hunting and shooting circles and he was a sheep hunter....my life took a turn that way.
Albert Einstein, Bobby Orr, Mickey Mantle and Jack O'connor were on my hero's list....to this day

One the comment about Jack actually liking the 30-06 over the .270, at the time of his retirement, he gave an interview with Jim Carmichel. Carmichel asked him id he was limited to one cartridge to hunt all of North America, what would he choose? O'Connor replied immediately, "The 30-06." I still have that copy of Outdoor Life someplace in a huge stack of gun and hunting magazines.
Paul B.

Yeah, I was always impressed with Eleanor. She reportedly was an excellent shot and was able to keep up with Jack on numerous hunts across the globe....

Quite a woman, for sure.

DF

My wife was always there too. 38 years of being there...

"You know the wind is blowing from right to left! Why didn't you aim off more??"

"It's getting dark. Why didn't you take the shot sooner? You're going to be field dressing in the dark!"

"I expected a heart for supper. What's taking so long?"

"It's pretty scrawny. What's your excuse this time?"

The great white hunter got skunked again! You better produce by the end of the week!"

"Remember what I said? Take the one with the smaller rack. Did you listen?"

"It's minus 10. And you're surprised you missed?"

"Who was supposed to pack the spare set of ATV keys?"

"I should be able to to provide something for the diocese, father. What are you going to tell Fr. Bob now?"

John,

I received the book today and it is a compilation of articles that JOC wrote. I believe that it was put together by the same guy, Jim Casada, who did the Lost Classics book.

There is a short piece written by Bradford O'Connor and another written by a guy who I never heard of by the name of John Madson, plus some pictures that I'd never seen before. Probably worth the $33 that I paid for it.

Thanks! This quote on whitetails is gold: “Whitetails aren’t often hunted in real wilderness. They are often hunted in the tamest of farmlands. But even in a horse-weed patch at the edge of a cornfield, a deer lends special wildness to the land so that wherever the deer is found, it is truly a wild place. Deer carry wilderness entangled in their antlers; their hoofprints put the stamp of wildness on tame country”.

I loved his humor, dry & witty. Elmer would rarely, it seemed to me, try to be humorous, but he could.

Yep. A few years back, when Eddie Bauer resurrected the Skyliner, I bought the first one I could get my hands on. Jack actually had a hand in it’s design.

So you are good deliberately ass-shooting bighorns and mulies if that is the only shot offered?? That kinda put me off on Jack. Honesty counts, tho. I guess....

Sheep and Sheep Hunting", IIRC. , Which I read after my first Dall hunt. Good info on sheep distributions and some other stuff, but technique-wise he didn't tell me anything I hadn't already learned. And more than was in the book. Until then, I was an avid fan.

Oh, well - it's still worth reading. Damned good writer.