Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Jack Lott?

Was he really in the CIA?

Possibly, yes. Maybe a "secret agent man" ?

https://frontierpartisans.com/23220/a-tip-o-the-hat-to-jack-lott/

Unlikely...

Providing information to a paid or unpaid intel organization asset does not make a guy an intelligence officer. Neither does working as an employee of a company contracted to do work that furthers the goals of an intel org.

There have been guys who made reputations as intel assets, and who groomed those reputations to benefit themselves. Some had more veracity than others. It can be amazing what a guy can accomplish (or get away with) if people think his actions/goals are set or directed by the "CIA"

Lott seems like a mysterious dude. I think I remember he got mashed by a buffalo in Africa also.

My friend Lon Paul was one of Jack’s friends and Jack used to load up his car with guns and drive up to Lon’s family place above LA in order to shoot. Lon still has lots of Jack’s books and African related collection that he recovered from the dumpster outside his residence when he died.

Lon laughs when someone mentions Jack being in the CIA. He says Jack was a guy who liked guns, purchased and sold them to finance trips to Africa, and then wrote about them . Not much different than many other gun writers 😁

I read somewhere that George Nonte was also a CIA spook. Seems an unlikely choice, but...

It seems as though I read he briefly dated Marylin Monroe.

A lot of people enjoy having an aura of mystery surrounding them, especially of the cloak and dagger variety.

i own a 458 Lott Ruger #1 and plenty ammo if i ever win the lottery i would hunt Cape Buffalo in Africa, yes i like reading about Jack Lott thanks for posting some things about him.Pete53

I did a search for Jack Lott looking for the Cape Buffalo story and came up with this thread from 2010. Started by me, which I don't remember. It's tough getting old!

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/4143506/1

Two posts in that thread are particularly interesting and reference the CIA...

"Written by Boddington on page 552 (preface to 458 Lott reloading data) of "Any Shot You Want" A-Square Reloading Manual: "Legend has it that he worked for the CIA. We never knew that for sure, but I know he was with the anti-castro movement and he spent a lot of time in Rhodesia during the long bush war. With Jack one never knew where fact, legend and myth intertwined- but I actually saw his his Congo Cross awarded to him by Moise Tshombe for his courage in that long forgotten insurgency."
The premier issue of Wolfe's "Hunting Horizons" 1992 (predecessor to "Successful Hunter") page 50 has an article written by Jack Lott on the 458 Win Magnum describing his buffalo mauling and subsequent cover-up of ammunition deficiencies by Winchester which led to Lott's development of the 458 Lott."

"If Jack gotten a Congo Cross awarded to him by Moise Tshombe, chances are he walked out of the Belgian Congo with a couple of duffel bags full of money. Lot of the mercenaries of that time made out very very well. Of course the looted the place blind. The First Congo War was in 1960 or 1960. Tshombe was over thrown by Col.Joseph-D�sir� Mobutu. It was a very interesting bit of history on what when on in the Congo from 1959 to 1969."

And then there was this...

"Backing up a bit. Thirty years ago, two guys told me that Jack Lott worked as a contract machinist in between hunting trips. One of these guys was a fellow writer and the other was a machinist. So. Cal was booming in those days and anyone who could run a machine could find work. As has been mentioned, he apparently had a pretty minimal requirements. The way they told it, as soon as he had enough money for the next safari he was out the door!"

I found it interesting that Jack’s story in Hunting Horizon was diametrically opposed to his original story he wrote for Peterson’s Big Bore Rifle book. Jack was both editor and writer and the event had happened the previous year. He says the fault was simply due to his poor shooting and in no way caused by the 458. In fact he credits the 458 for saving him in the hands of his PH !

When I pointed out the major discrepancy to Dave Scovill, who took over editing Hunting Horizons, he couldn’t believe the difference in the story. The only reason for the sudden change in opinion on the 458 Win was the fact that the 458 Lott had recently been introduced .

maybe someday someone will make a movie with some fiction in it about Jack Lott ,Mr.Lott it appears is a interesting gun man and hunter . i sure enjoy reading about Jack Lott. thanks posting ,Pete53

Just an idle musing apropos of nothing: I wonder if his middle name was Hoffa.

It seems like Jack Lott wrote some articles for GUN DIGEST years ago when founder John Amber was stlll editing the publication. I suppose the various GUN DIGEST publications were at their peak when Amber, and later, Ken Warner ran things. However, Amber had a small group of odd/eclectic-type writers who wrote articles now and then. I'd put Jack Lott in that category. I don't know if I ever read a complete Jack Lott article and if I didn't, I'm not sure why, but it has been a while ago. The name doesn't surface often, though he may have been a fine writer.

Howard French is a name from about that same time frame who wrote quite a bit in the various gun mags.

I may not remember this correctly, but wasn't Howard French the editor or asst. editor of GUNS & AMMO for a time years ago? I haven't read the magazine in decades, but it was a good one in the '60s.

Howard French was the head editor of G&A for a number of years.

I remember an article he wrote for G&A, when he was converting a commercial BAR from 7mm Rem. Mag. to .458. Interesting article, especially for a teenage kid whose "big gun" was a .30/30. IIRC, he had a lot of issues trying to get the BAR to run consistently in .458, feeding issues galore, etc. Still, it was pretty neat to see someone even trying such a thing, which is why it stuck in my head (and still does!).

I later bought or traded into a .30/06 BAR that worked wonderfully well, and never, even once, choked, puked,or jammed in any way, but it was no .458. Actually, that Browning was a pretty nice piece, just heavy and clumsy as hell, but it was a stable, consistent 1.5" gun with any load, factory or handloaded.

I'll bet one in .458 would be fun, for at least one magazine's worth.

My middle and high school libraries got monthly issues of Fur-Fish-Game, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Sports Afield, and gun magazines like Guns & Ammo and Shooting Times. There may have been some others that I can't remember. I never got any work done in Study Hall. I read outdoor magazines every day.

Much simpler times. When I was in middle school I found an ad for a predator hand call in F-F-G, a Weems Wildcall. IIRC the call was something like $5.95 and the company was in Texas. I took the magazine to the librarian and she let me cut the ad out of the magazine but with one stipulation. I had to bring in the addressed envelope and written letter I was going to send to the Weems company to buy the call. I guess that was sort of a writing assignment for me. I remember sending actual cash and change with the ad and a handwritten letter ordering the call. Called my first predator with it, a grey fox on the creek that ran through our farm. I was so excited I didn't even shoot it. I think I still have that call buried in my collection.