Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters John Wooters- any fans?

When or has John Wooters passed away? Back in the late seventies and early eighties, I used to get Peterson's Hunting, and really enjoyed his Whitetail deer articles. I knew a stock maker (Joe Balickie) that knew John personally. Joe hunted with him on his ranch in Texas. I enjoyed hearing stories from Joe about John and his wife. His articles always seemed to reflect personal experience. I remember seeing a picture of one of his favorite deer rifles in Peterson's Hunting- a .308 pre-72 Sako with a mannlicher stock and a 1.5-5x Leupold. I obsessed over that rifle and scope combo until I found one for myself. Anybody have info about John Wooters?

Haven't talked with either John Wootters or Joe Balickie for too many years. Both are fine fellows. Fervently hope that both are alive and well.

I met John Wooters at an SCI event in the 80's, and spent a few hours chatting with him when a friend and I took him to the airport. Great guy; one of my favorites, and how can you not like him and what he did. He was at least partly responsible for the whitetail craze we have today.And he was a very knowledgeable guy around a rifle.I think he is still alive, or at least I've heard nothing about him passing away.

Ken, Joe Balickie lived just minutes away from me. His stock work and checkering were first class.

Bob- yep, he was a QDM guy ahead of his time, and very knowledgeable about rifles.

Sako: Now that I think of it, I have a memory that Balickie may be deceased. I never saw his rifles in the flesh, but they looked very nice in the pictures. Wooters had, I think, a 280 and a 416 Taylor made by Balickie.

I read that Wooters suffered a detached retina and retired years ago. I have his book on handloading and its packed with common sense.

I was a big fan of Wooters. When he and Gary Sitton were both still writing for Peterson's times were good!

Bill

I too loved John Wooters, I read his work along with Keith, Cooper, and Bill Jordan in Guns and Ammo in the seventies.

I realy liked that Magazine back then.

BMT

I know John and at least as recently as last winter he was alive and well. One of the best gun/hunting writers of his era--or any other.

Maybe 15 ago at the SHOT Show, John told me something that has stuck: "We may think that gun ahd hunting writing is journalism, but I've done real journalism, and this ain't it. What we do is ENTERTAINMENT." And by and large, he was right.

JB

I just did a little searching, and I think Balickie is still around. He used to be quite a cook. I remember having some good spaghetti sauce over at his house. He was quite a character, and loved to talk.

I like JW's work too.

jim

John Wootters is a true gentleman of the old school. It is my understanding that John and his wife Jeanne are still living in their mountainside home near Kerrville, Texas. John lost the shooting vision in his dominant eye some ten years ago and then taught himself to shoot left-handed to continue work with cast bullets. I believe that he had a stroke or similar in the last year or so. Haven't visited with him in a couple of years.

John told the story of his Sako as having once been invited to a Sako collectors group. He gently deferred saying that he wasn't really a collector -- he had only one Sako. The response was something to the effect of, "That famous Sako of yours is a collection all by itself."

I remember seeing one other Sako of his. As I recall, the original version of his little .25 Copperhead was in a little Sako 461 action. That must have been 35 years ago, and the gun was later lost in a fire at his home in Houston.

Forty years ago he told me that there might not be a market for chronographs. "After all, a wise shooter could invest in a twenty-five cent ruler, shoot a few groups at various paced ranges, measure the drop at each range, and forget about muzzle velocities and ballistics tables." Hard to argue with that.

Whitetail season opens here next weekend, and I should take him a few rings of the smoked fresh venison sausage.

KenO

Was hunting with a good friend of mine from Kerrville last weekend who knows Wooters pretty well. He is indeed alive and doing well.

I knew Wooters a little bit and my main impression is that he was a straight shooter, which is not all that common in that business.

A forgotten fact is that he was responsible for the compromise that solved the SCI vs SCI local chapter dispute and saved SCI and allowed SCI to grow as it has.

I met John and his wife back in 2000. He had a wonderful knack for making you feel like you had been friends for the last 50 years. I liked him very much. I always read his whitetail articles in Hunting Magazine as soon as I got each new issue. Thanks...Bill.

I have always liked Mr. Wooters' work and think that he could have a successful book if he expanded his reminiscing about the early east-Texas deer camp(s) into a couple hundred pages. I still remember his stories about hunting with Mr. Fonville, who carried a Savage 99 in 250-3000 and a Colt Huntsman, and Palmer "Peg" Melton, who was a deadly jump shooter with his Winchester 64. I think that if he could put together a book, it would rival Skeeter Skelton's "Me and Joe" stories for easy reading entertainment.

Besides, a guy who shoots whitetails with Remington 141s, Sako mannlichers, Savage 99s, and Winchester 88s can't be too far off track.

Jeff

Have been a fan since I found his book Hunting Trophy Whitetails in the school library when I was a freshman in high school. Actually did a book report on it. Couple years ago I found out that book had been revised and I just had to buy a copy.

I agree, I'd buy a book of his stories in a N.Y. minute.

I read his stuff while growing up in the 70's as well. Always enjoyed it, and it was pretty obvious that he knew his subject. Hunting and G&A were really good magazines back then.

Jeff

I don't want to start a rant again, but the key words there are "back then."