Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What about Pete Brown?

The dead gunwriter threads reminded me of Pete Brown, once the gun editor of SA, IIRC. What I recall of him was some positive things he wrote about the Remington 760 in .222, the Savage 340 chambered for the same round, and his attempt to kill a grizzly bear with a 7x57 and/or a .308. Looked in my copy of The Best of Sports Afield and it appears he didn’t make the quality cut, or perhaps he ran off with the publisher's wife or committed some other literary sin.

Anyone else?

I remember reading his stuff in Sports Afield back in the 50s & I think 60s. I didn't know enough then, probably still don't, to have an opinion on his writing. As I recall I thought it was pretty dry compared to the writers in Field & Stream and Outdoor Life. He was a big fan of the 308 Win.

Maybe that’s where I “caught” it…..


Him or Wooters.

Wooters was a 308 fan. I used to really enjoy his writing.

If I recall correctly he always posted his shooting results at 200 yards rather than at 100 yards. I don't know of any other writer who chose to do this.

Jim

ANY of the shooting writers of that era had a very hard time of it going up against Jack O'Connor at Outdoor Life.

Pete Brown got the gun-writer job at SA because he'd been in ordnance during WWII, but was a mediocre writer.

I always wondered why SA didn't make John Jobson the gun columnist during that era, because he was a far better writer, which brought across his enthusiasm for firearms in the hunting stories he wrote. Instead he was the "camping" columnist, which such magazines usually included back then, when they were trying to cover everything from hunting to fishing, and other things that might involve both, such as camping, boats, etc. But I also suspect that Jobson might have known that he might have been bored covering shooting/guns, because back then some of Brown's columns were reports of various shooting competitions.

Like you, I was pretty young when Brown was the gun editor, and probably not a very critical reader. I definitely remember liking Jobson better than Brown, plus he was a .270 guy, like I wanted to be someday! I also got the impression he enjoyed life pretty well, and not just because of his shape (round is a shape).

Found a copy of the 1967 SA Gun Annual on Amazon, presumably edited by Brown, maybe written by him. Don’t know how much actual writing is in it, but I alway enjoy the old catalog listings and the prices.