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

The following paragraph is from The Close-Combat Files of Colonel Rex Applegate:

Shooting interests continued as well with Applegate’s “Guns of Famous Shooters” collection and documentation of the exhibition shooters he knew as a boy. This showcased firearms and accessories owned by Peret, the Topperweins, FitzGerald, McGivern, Askins, Jordan, Wesson, and even a Colt ordered by Sykes for the Shanghai Municipal Police. One result was the location and presentation of a number of videos of rare film footage of these shooters at work.

PG, there are lots of people who have a problem with the Col. Love him, hate him, here we are talking about him.

Famous/infamous are pretty close words. He already had to answer to his maker, so it’s way above my pay grade to judge him.

My Askins research proved very interesting. I learned a lot, not otherwise published, due to my interaction with Bill, who’s a very interesting guy in his own right.

DF

By accident, I met Askins Jr. I was on a flight through Salt Lake and he was sitting across the aisle one row ahead of me. I asked if he was Col Askins and he looked at me and said “well that depends on who is asking.” He was tall and very well dressed. Had a big tan white hat and a grey suit. He had a big voice and I had the impression he was hard of hearing. I also had the impression that he wasn’t afraid of anything.

He invited me to join him and we had a delightful conversation about rifles and hunting. He was really knowledgeable. The downside of the experience was that he was pretty vulgar. He used the N-word frequently as well as other slurs which were spoken loudly in the cabin. The other passengers were pretty uncomfortable. He was completely unconcerned. He also volunteered how he enjoyed hunting men.

He must have enjoyed our visit because he gave me his address and we corresponded for a time.

Sometime he complained about his compensation. So, I wrote an affidavit which he said he was going to send to his editor to justify an increase in pay. It was something to the effect that he was clearly the very best gun writer alive. He enjoyed it.

I read it too, once upon a time.

Fact is, US forces trained most of the cadre that spawned the Salvadoran gangs that infest cities across the Americas now

Anastasio Somoza, who ruled Nicaragua for a large part of the 20th century was educated at West Point
He was denied entry to the US when forced to flee Nicaragua

Evidence points out that even Jimmy Carter supported and armed Eden Pastora

Most evidence points towards US operatives training and equipping the Libyan terrorists that bombed Pan Am 103

And it's been a long time, but I seem to recall Askins Jr writing about his time as an advisor in Viet Nam before the US participated in expanding operations there. He had no combat role, and never participated operationally in any manner. He wrote that, while he was hunting there, he killed a Vietnamese individual, because he "knew that he could"...
I'd almost hope that my memory is faulty on this, but it jives with what I know

I had a close friend and mentor who served as an advisor in Viet Nam in 1962-63. When diagnosed with cancer he refused treatment indicating that he deserved to die

Askins Jr wasn't the only one of his type, and America and Americans haven't always been the best sort of neighbors

Got me thinking. In contrast to the Col was Elmer Keith. I was a guest in his home several times. He was a real old school gentleman. He always insisted that I join him for a big bowl of ice cream. He treated his wife like she was a princess. Good guy for certain.

I have not followed this thread all the way through. Has anyone clued in the article in the original post by Courtney Wills was actually Jack O'Connor. He used that name in the American Rifleman way back for some hunting stories.

Frim the Colonel's book

"Based on his autobiography, the last man he killed was in 1957. Charlie was a U.S. military advisor in Vietnam. While hunting in the jungle one day, he ran across a Viet Minh soldier. Askins was carrying a Savage .358 lever action rifle (with which he had blown away a couple of other Viet Minh who interrupted his hunting on another occasion) but chose to draw his new Smith & Wesson Model 29 and fire it left hand only.

"I let the ambusher have the first 240 gr. slug right through the ribs on the left side. It was probably the first man ever killed with the .44 because it was quite new in those days," Askins observed casually. He finished the man with a second shot to the throat. [7]"

And a fine businessman.

Ha!

Bet he did like that one. It just reinforced what he knew all along....

DF

Thanks...

If I ever knew that, I forgot it

That's pretty cool. I'd rather have talked with Keith personally but I'd definitely have settled for Askins

You led a charmed life

Right place at the right time with the right stuff.

DF

Cool recounts Rick. Enjoyed both.

I visited with Mr. Keith while working a summer job in Salmon. He was easy to find. Everyone in that town knew him.
About that same time I traveled to Lewiston to meet Mr O’Connor. I called after getting his number from the information operator. Spent around 6 hours there. He was very impressed that I could quote verbatim everything he had written since around 1958.
While in school at the U of Utah I met a gentleman who knew John Jobson and he took me along for a visit. Jobson lived in a small town near Ogden.

I met Warren Page at the NRA convention in SanDiego. He was not kind. Actually he was pretty dismissive of me. Not a nice man.

At the 1970 NRA Convention in New Orleans, I was at the Ruger booth, visiting with Mr. Vogel, who I later learned was Bill Ruger’s son-in-law, real gentleman.

Elmer wandered into the booth with his big hat. He picked up their new Security Six, pointed it, aimed it, told Mr Vogel to “wrap it up”. In essence, Elmer letting them know it met with his approval. Mr. Vogel was very cordial, thanked Elmer.

My brother had the first .41 Blackhawk in our area. He double charged a round with Unique. It split a cylinder, but no damage to the frame. He sent it back to Ruger, bragging on how strong the Blackhawk was, admitting his mistake.

Mr. Vogel said he remembered that one, said it was the first time a customer didn’t blame Ruger. They rebuilt that gun, no charge, now one of the slickest Blackhawks ever.

DF

Thanks for that tidbit of information—the "time-tried 270" and "excellent little 7x57mm Mauser" descriptions in the article stick out now!

I don’t see the author’s name.

DF