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I like the last page as well, mainly cause for the most part he's speaking from tons of experience and a lot of our writers of today are not, or at least that is how I feel about it...

Dober


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Over the years, I have read most of what Warren Page wrote: both his books and his articles. From my reading of both Page and O'Connor, I think O'Connor was the better writer in terms of style and expression, but I always enjoyed Page's writing more because he was much more on a "gun-nut's" level. He enjoyed loading for and hunting with wildcat cartridges; O'Connor could have cared less!

My all-time favorite article by Page is "Around the World with Wildcats" that was included as the lead article in P.O. Ackley's HANDBOOK FOR SHOOTERS AND RELOADERS published in 1962.

In the above article, Page does refer to using, on a trial basis, in Africa, a short 7mm magnum that could well have been a Mashburn version; however, I think his main all-around rifle was the long version of the Mashburn 7mm. His other favorite "go-to" rifle was the .375 Weatherby which was really a wildcat at the time he was using it.

If I remember correctly, Andy Russell, the Canadian hunting outfitter/guide and author, who was a contemporary of Page and O,Connor, discribes Page as an ideal client: he was a supurb hunter, a good rifleman and seemed to be utterly fearless in a tight spot or two they encountered together in the southern Alberta mountains.

M. Bell



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I began reading Warren Page's writings back in the early 1950's and continued reading what he wrote till he died around 1968.
He was a very available writer, and I liked that a lot. And, he had a wonderful sense of humor that few writers posessed back then. His writings about the 7mm Mashburn were what had me get a 7mm Ackley Magnum built for my first custom rifle in 1957, right after graduating from Penn State. I've been a 7mm loony ever since. He also shot benchrest competetively, and was a very good shot.
He had taught high school English, in New Jersey I think, before going full time as a hunting and shooting writer.
Warren Page was a high class guy.
I have his book.

Don


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MM,

Yes, I liked Patrick McManus and also Corey Ford with the Lower Forty and Mister McNabb. Thanks...Bill.

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Originally Posted by Ten_Sleep
If I remember correctly, Andy Russell, the Canadian hunting outfitter/guide and author, who was a contemporary of Page and O,Connor, discribes Page as an ideal client: he was a supurb hunter, a good rifleman and seemed to be utterly fearless in a tight spot or two they encountered together in the southern Alberta mountains.

M. Bell



And I highly recommend Mr Russell as well. I treasure a copy of "Trails of a Wilderness Wanderer" I got from my Grandfather. The two other shooting books that most influenced my shooting opinions growing up were Page's "The Accurate Rifle" and Jim Carmichael's "The Modern Rifle"

Allen


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kutenay - you mention that Page was more or less a regular guy in camp. He was, however, not without his prejudices and by todays standards not politically correct.
I remember hearing him speak at an annual dinner of the Hart House pistol club at the University of Toronto just a short while before his death. One of his topics was a hunt he went on in some French protectorate in Africa. I was very surprised about some of his comments about Frenchmen made during that speech. While I am no particular fan of Quebec I was surprised that he would come to Canada as a speaker and then denigrate the residents of one of the provinces.
At that time Page was in poor health. Don't know whether it was just a severe cold or flu or if it was something which eventually contributed to his death. In spite of this he did honour his commitment to come and speak even though he was obviously not feeling well at all.
Just another aspect of the man that may interest some of you.

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Some of the guys I mentioned worked for Andy Russell when he guided into the "Kishinin" as we called it and Page was among his clients, as was O'Connor and divers other famous dudes from all over.

The anti-French animus is quite common among many Americans as witness many comments on THIS forum. However, I would point out that Quebecers are NOT ...French..., they ARE "les Canadiens" and the French Protectorate Page hunted in had/has nothing to do with Canada, other than a common language.

Now, if you want to discuss DE GAULLE, THAT is a different situation.......

Anyway, I detest PC rhetoric, historical revisionism and lies of any type, only imbeciles, crooks, dictators and their followers and other such scum indulge in being PC...as is obvious on one section of the Campfire, from time to time. So, as far as I am concerned, I couldn't care less what Page said about the French, some of whom ARE azzholes.

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Dober: HOORAHH on the Mashburn decision! grinI enjoy reading Page and Hagel articles on their exploits with the Mashburn,which is why I bought a 7mm Dakota...a modern version of the Mashburn.Could not help myself..... crazy

Bunch of well-read guys on here, and judging from the comments,there are a lot of people on here as old as me,which makes me feel good wink





The 280 Remington is overbore.

The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.
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Page was one of my favorites when I was a kid, back when F&S and the other mags had some editorial substance and weren't just newstand informercials. His book, The Accurate Rifle, set me on the true path. In those days, it seems we had a number of good writers and a few BS artists, today the situation seems reversed. Maybe it's just the perspective you get looking at the world over a beard gone white.


Mathew 22: 37-39



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That is really true, IME, I recently had a self-styled ...modern gun writer...on a small Canuck forum earnestly and quite rudely tell me, from his enormous experience as he is about half my age, that the Foster-style shotgun slugs SPIN a little bit, due to the fins on the back.........ayuppers!

Guys like Page, J'OC, Pete Brown, a much under-rated writer-gunny, "Spud" Sell, Pete Kuhloff, Elmer, and especially Hagel, my all-time favourite KNEW WTF they were talking about while most of the younger generation seem to be primarily advertising agents in new camo suits with little real wilderness hunting experience...or dsire to obtain any.

Going on a bazillion industry-paid guided hunts in fenced enclosures IS NOT an adequate substitute for longtime wilderness hunting experience, regardless of having shot 4-5 hundred animals while doing so. But, "bullschit walks, but, money talks,".....

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Details on W. Page. Born 1910 the son of a carpenter. Went to Harvard on a baseball scholarship and taught school, english I presume, in N. Mex. and Lawrencville Prep in N. Jersey prior to the wau. During the wau he was a Navy officer teaching skeet to air gunner crews. Died Jan 1977 at home in Conn. from heart failure. (F&S,May 1995, Lefty)

His 7MM Mashburn, Old Betsy #1, has recently surfaced (2006) and has been refinished and re-scoped but still shoots. (D. Petzal blog, 2006) It supposedly accounted for 475 game animals with Warren at the trigger. The .375 Weatherby is unaccounted for but supposedly had been rebarreled 3 times because of control shooting use against CB in Kenya.( F&S April 1969)

Although J. O'cnner seemed more literate as a writer and he left more of himself in the piece, Page's writing was weighter. It left me more filled up. Warren was more the technical reporter and less the PROFESSOR.

Our good mule deer is much the same to me as Page but shows more humor on the page.

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Docbill: Where is Old Betsy?




The 280 Remington is overbore.

The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.
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Quote
It supposedly accounted for 475 game animals with Warren at the trigger.
WOW! I'd like to have a rifle with 10% of that to it's credit...

I'd be greatly appriciative if anyone has any pics of that rifle!

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Darn Hookt on Foniks.

Luked all thru his book i bot. No huntin storis. Luked at kovur-it saes "warr en peace"

Bruce

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Originally Posted by bcp
Darn Hookt on Foniks.

Luked all thru his book i bot. No huntin storis. Luked at kovur-it saes "warr en peace"

Bruce


grin grin grin wink
Sad part is, I`ve wrote this way myself so long I can read and understand it with no trouble................ blush Then again I`ve never claimed to be a gun or any other typewriter wink


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For a current picture of Ol' Betsy, go to David Petzal's blog at Field and Stream and do a search for Ol' Betsy or Warren Page. A blog entry from 2006 with current pictures will come up.

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A rifle like Page's "Ol' Betsy" is the sort of rifle that I love and respect the most: The heavily-used, veteran rifle of many and varied hunting expeditions. And I'm sorry to say it, but that's the only sort of "field test" that means anything at all to me, and needless to say, such rifles are not exactly weekend-wunders.........

That's part of the reason why I loved to read Page's hunting stories, as well as the hunting stories of O'Connor, Jobson, and Carmichel. All of those guys hunted extensively with a comparatively small collection of solid, well-built, quality personal rifles, and those rifles were featured in hunting article after hunting article for many years.

Today, this practice is almost unheard of. Now it's the souless, classless "Rifle-of-The-Month-Club", one-hunt-field-test, appease-the-paid-advertisers, payback-the-freebie, I-never-met-a-rifle-I-didn't-love, 'Pimp My Ride' approach, which not only doesn't prove much, but it's stale, thin, and ultra-transparent.........

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Yup, I noticed this,too and it is one reason why I almost never read gun/hunting mags, anymore. To me, the whole point about obtaining a few good trusted rifles is to USE them and for every aspect of one's life where you need a rifle. I always used the best big game rifles I could obtain for both hunting and wilderness working....never had a purpose-built actual bear rifle until after I retired from bush work in 1993.

The type of "gunwriter" we have today, a VERY few such as JohnB, obviously excepted, leaves me cold and especially the younger ones who tout the least expensive production rifles as the absolute livinf end.....because they don't know any better and are too dammed arrogant to listen to anyone who does.

Case in point, the OLD CRF Browning FN rifles were and still ARE in high demand here in B.C. and I am very fond of these. Yet, self-styled "modern gunwriters" such as the lad who recently told me on a small Canuck forum that Foster style slugs ...spin... because of ...the fins on the back... are now praising Browning's introduction of yet another mediocre PF rifle as being an improvement......sad, really.

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Count me as another fan of Warren Page. I simply love his writing. I have read and re-read every word Warren Page ever wrote and he "feeds" the reader totally. He is your friend.

My last editor thought that O'Connor was the ultimate outdoor writer and sent me loads of his work (which I had already read) to prove the point. Frankly, O'Connor never turned my crank, then or today. I truly wish that I could worship O'Connor as many obviously do. To me, he was an super-arrogant professor who also wrote. (Steve speaks total heresy and is not even one little bit sorry grin)

Oregon's own Francis Sell is a dark horse that is seldom recognized; his stuff is SUPER. A local legend has it that Sell could neither read nor write and that his educated wife wrote down his words as he dictated them. True???? Who knows? Sell's work leaves the reader fed and satisfied.

Today, Johnny B is IT. Period.

Steve


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Steve,

+1 on all you said, except for O'Connor. Was and still am a Francis Sell fan. Never heard of his possible illiteracy though. Makes him even more interesting.

Bob Hagel and Ted Trueblood, along with Jack O'C were my top three.

I believe our JB is better than all of the old writers however, and far and away the best of the current ones. His writing, analytical and knowledge skills surpass anyone who has gone before him or is still in the business.

I've only read one of your articles and that is the one that is posted in the forum, and would love to read more. Could you pls tell me how I can do that?

Thanks,

Steve

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