Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ross Seyfried on the 22 Hornet

Well Ol Elmer never learned to shoot well enough to kill elk with a 270 Win, so that pretty much shows us all we need to know about Ol Elmer.

Many times I showed up at Ross's ranch near Roggin and he was neck deep in some whacky project.

Took him a week to build half a dozen pin fire cartridges to hunt a big whitetail down on the Platte.

Other things the statue of limitations probably has not run out after 30 years.

Then there's "Miss America," the rifle Melvin Forbes built for Ross on his biggest action, for the .416 Rigby necked down to .30 caliber. It was NOT a lightweight by any stretch of the imagination, but it shot to well at a mile that the U.S. military asked Ross to send it to them. They concluded it was so accurate they refused to send it back to Ross--who had to enlist the help of one of Colorado's members of Congress to get it returned. (Have heard both ends of the story from both Ross and Melvin.)

Ross does not play only with older guns.

I recall him playing with a fast-twist .22/284 before such stuff became a “thing”.

A bit over-bore.

Did Ross ever do a write up, including a centerfold shot of Miss America ?

Hal

HalH,

I know he wrote it up in G&A, but don't recall one way or the other about a "centerfold" photo!

Man, I’d like to hear about that story.

That sounds like a good one.

ME TOO ,sounds very interesting

Ross, Phil, JB, and others - somebody with the ability to do so needs to either get them to write their autobiographies or else write biographies of them with their cooperation. Their stories need to be recorded.

Here are a couple of pics of Miss A when I was shooting her.

Bench in Ross's front yard and the 1 mile target.





The smaller group was with the "good ammo". I was holding left edge of the bull on the first 2 because the flags were showing slight right drift.
On the 3rd shot I said something abut holding left edge and Ross told me to hold center for the 3rd shot.

Even he makes a badish wind call on occasion.



JB's story of SOCOM trying to keep the rifle is true. It was a few douches who ended up getting an epic azz chewing.

I suppose this is going to trigger someone.

Cool post.

As a kid when most of my friends were talking about sports hero’s and Michael Jordan or Joe Montana I was following gun writers. Seyfried was my favorite and always the articles that I read first even when G&A was loaded with talented writers.

How did you get to know Ross?

Cool stuff John. Do you remember much about the bullets you were using back them. Pretty good shooting for a mile, even for todays tech.

Thanks for posting them up.

Be good to hear about the butt chewing that took place, or the details around it.

I wondered why this thread on the 22 Hornet had taken off to four pages...

Now I know, and it makes me smile.

Like many here I too read a lot of Ross's articles and grew up reading Elmer Keith's Sixguns. I think many of us learned so much from the gunwriters, then and now.

Regards, Guy

Here I am thinking about the last time I saw a 22 Hornet rifle for sale in a gun shop.......

I called John Linebaugh about his big bore revolvers. I was in Okinawa when Ross's story on the .500 came out in G&A.

When I got back to USA I gave Linebaugh a call and asked if any of his customers were in Colorado and would they be willing to let me shoot a .475.

Linebaugh threw Ross under the bus but I knew he was close so it was sort of a set up. This was back in the day when people answered their home phone.

I called Ross and he grudgingly agreed to let me come out and shoot his .475 revolver.

I didn't shoot his barn and seemed able to hit the target so he sort of took me under his wing. I owe him a lot.


Bullets were Sierra 30 cal 210gr MatchKings. Barrel was a Douglas and 32 inches. Rifle weight about 17 lbs.

From what Ross told me he made contact with SOCOM and offered to send the rifle and ammo out for them to test.

After a bit of time he got back in contact and was told the rifle was to dangerous to be in civilian hands and was not going to be returned.

Other phone calls happened and a General was involved and apologies were made, by the General, and a rifle was returned post haste.

The General claimed azz chewings were done but I always thought an O-3 or two should have been fired and cashiered.

Ok

Very cool.

In the G&A article on Miss America, as I recall there was a "centerfold" shot of Ross at the bench with the rifle (perhaps cleaning it), and the Continental Divide just barely visible in the background. I thought it was pretty cool.

Pretty sure mine is the first one I saw, or at least one of the first three. My LGS received four Browning Low Walls. The counter guy took his pick, then I got to choose from the remainder. His must’ve been really something because mine is pretty nice. $695

Just a random trip to the shop. Serendipity.

Very good stuff John. It is a bygone time. I know getting to shoot some of his stuff he was writing about back then would’ve been a helluva treat for me.

And the recount about the rifle, epic cool [bleep].

Agreed about the 03’s getting the business. I can’t even imagine the conversations occurring back then. When a GO has to reach down and work some stuff out, heads usually get spinning.

I believe that Ross wrote that the bullets were 220 SMK. I do remember in a phone conversation Ross said they were 220 grain SMK