Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Major Charles Askins?

The major was a writer for Outdoor Life, O'Connor took over that position. The Col. never forgave O'Connor.
I liked the Col. the world be be a lot better place today if we were able to follow his example.

How on Earth could the Colonel believe that the 8mm Magnum had any merit when God Himself had dismissed its introduction with "What good is it?"?

5, probably for that reason!!!!

I was at the 1970 NRA Convention in New Orleans, saw Elmer, JOC and the Col.

I was at the entrance of the Hilton, which was the NRA Headquarters, saw the Col leaving the hotel, walking towards the French Quarter, alone at night. My thought, don't think I'd want to do that. Had I been closer, I'd have warned him, but he was too far ahead and I wasn't gonna run after him.

After learning more about him, reading "Unrepentant Sinner", I think he was OK. If the ghetto thugs wanted to get him, I think he'd have had them windrowed, lined up for the NOPD to sort out and toe tag. Don't ya know he was packing.

The area between the Quarter and the Hilton was dark, wasn't a good place to be walking at night, especially alone, unless you were Col. Askins. In that case, it would be more than OK.

DF

I read a lot of the colonel’s writings. It was a competitive field back then and Colonel Askins and Keith were both pretty much bitter sounding at times. I’d surely love to have that superposed O/U. Sadly Gary Chatham has dementia now but he was the head of the Browning Collectors Association for years and very knowledgeable.

I noticed that, too, when I read "My Old Man Was A Pistol" a few days ago.

Though Dubiel was mentioned in that article, no gun blow ups or accidents were, oddly enough.

Um.. different time and place possibly? I don't know. But people spoke differently then. speak differently now too.

The guy who ended up custodian of that historical gun is a firearms collector and historian. He's a great writer and did an article for the Double Gun Journal. But, the DGJ closed shop.

I did get the Major's Ithaca double from Bill Askins to Walt Snyder who did a great article in the DGJ on that one. Bill offered me the gun, but I wanted it in the hands of someone who could do it justice, thus Walt.

Walt has written books on Ithaca's, has the New York Ithaca factory records. So, it was the right thing to do, getting that gun in his hands.

I'll get that DGJ issue and post, just don't have it at my finger tips.

DF

He had been a Border Patrol officer. I suspect his take on the job isn't the same as what passes for such these days.

From "My Old Man" by Col. Charles Askins:

He called me late one night while I, was
away at school. He could not hear very
well; deafness grew on him with the years,
and ordinarily he could not be persuaded
to talk over the phone. I knew this call must
be important.

"I'm not feeling so good," he said. "I
think you had better come home." I drove
like a demon the rest of the night; got
there at four in the morning. He had blown
up a .276 wildcat which he and John Dubiel
had made up. His face was full of brass
and steel, and one hand was mangled. He
was in a' state of shock by that time, and
he had lost a lot of blood. My Old Man
,and Dubiel had tamped in a couple of hat-
fulls too much propellant and the .275 H&H
case in the old Mauser action had let go.

It wasn't the first time he'd had a shooting
iron come to pieces. A year or two before,
he'd been reloading for an old 10 gauge
lever-action repeater and the breechlock had
flipped ends. The receiver ~ bulged and
cracked, the stock split, and my Old Man
suffered a concussion and took the usual
profusion of brass and steel through his
whiskers.

https://gunsmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/G0461.pdf

Thank you for the correction on the magazine. I guess I should look up the article and re-read.

Here's a picture of the Major, looks like in his old age, sitting on the running board of his Studebaker. He appears to have all his fingers.

BTW, the Superposed he's holding is the one I ended up with.

DF

No way.

The Col wasn't too P.C. In fact he'd have been canned for any number of the events he records. Even if only a percentage were true, would be way more than enough to can him in todays Border Patrol, maybe even put him in jail.

DF

Correction: I was speaking of the "Col", Askins Jr. I don't know anything about the Major, his Dad. Sorry about that.

.
Askins passed away in 1999, leaving a legacy few will ever match. Skeeter Skelton, a close friend of Askins, once said, “If Charley Askins had been born 100 years earlier, he would have been a mountain man, an Indian scout, a buffalo hunter, or a horse soldier. As it is, close to the end of the 20th century, he has lived the kind of life boys think they’re going to live and that most old men wish they had.”

Well since the Colonel is figuring so prominently in this thread I will say the two most interesting books ever penned by gunwriters are "The Unrepentant Sinner" and "Hell, I Was There" by Askins Jr and Keith. They lived amazing lives

Skeeter was right, of course.

Back in the day of which he speaks, ole Charley would have been a hero. In our woke present, a pariah.

That was back when men were men, not some amorphous pronoun.

Charley lived at the twilight of that era, glad he doesn't have to witness what we have today.

DF

Neither one of them let the truth get in the way of a good story.



The dude was a murderer. The fewer of his types we have in the world, the better.

Askins Jr was a tuff man doing a tuff job.