Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Brian Pearce of Handloader Magazine

Rockinbbar,

That is great to hear about Pearce. He has become one that I enjoy reading as well, though I've never met him.

His recent article on three handgun cartridges (45 LC, 44 Spec, and 44 RM) was great and has very nearly provided the final nudge I need to start casting my own bullets.

He kinda reminds me of a modern day Elmer Keith without the arrogance...

The more I read,the better I like his writing.Seems like he would be a good guy to hunt with!!!

I get pretty much all the mags sent over here but for only 3 writers, Phil S,JB and Brian for me they cover everything that i find interesting,but Brians indepth knowledge of handloading and pistols is something to behold for a guy from the wrong side of the water and who is`t allowed to have a handgun.

Was EK arrogant, or was he just a very confident man, having been there and done that?

Do you believe what he wrote, claiming in print to have actually been there and done that for better than 50 years? Or do you think that he "puffed" his resume to make himself appear to be greater than he really was?

Have you ever met a successful person in any field, other than prehaps the clergy, who didn't have a big ego?

There are definitions of those 2 words, arrogance and confidence:

Arrogance = 1. offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.

Confidence = 1. full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing: We have every confidence in their ability to succeed.
2. belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance: His lack of confidence defeated him.
3. certitude; assurance: He described the situation with such confidence that the audience believed him completely.

From what I have read, most people found EK to be very accessible and easy to talk to. If you knocked on his front door in Salmon, ID, he was more likely to invite you in for a cup of coffee then he was to slam the door in your face. That doesn't sound like an arrogant man to me and it about 180-degrees opposite of the stories that you hear about the greatest gun writer of his time, the late great Jack O'C.

Jeff

unlike Keith, Brian doesn't stretch things and you don't have any salt to believe what he says.

Brian is kind of hard to get a hold of. He doesn't spend to much time on the computer other than for work. Between his big family and writing work he is a very busy man. I know him and don't get to talk to him a lot. I wish I could spend more time with him and pick his brain as, like others have said here, he doesn't just know leverguns and pistols, he knows them all.

How do you KNOW that EK "stretched things"?

Were you THERE with EK?

How do you KNOW that BP doesn't "stretch things"?

Were you THERE with BP?

I think that you have to take much of what is written by any gun writer with a grain or 2 on NaCl, 'cause you're often talking about a sample size of 1 firearm and fairly limited load development. I've been misled and outright lied to too many times to take much at face value and, at times, have come up with very different outcomes trying to duplicate something that I'd read about.

Just sayin'

Jeff

Like many have mentioned in this thread, Brian Pearce is an excellent gun writer. I have enjoyed his articles for several years. The one recently published in Handloader on the 44 Special, 45 Colt and 44 Magnum was very informative. I think he would be a great guy to hunt with, and i usually prefer to hunt alone.

Confidence easily slips into arrogance at times. That doesn't mean he wasn't a humble and approachable guy one-on-one, but he had an understanding of how things worked that was hard and fast. That isn't to say it wasn't borne of incredible experience.

I happen to be a huge fan of his, and agree with his "school of thought" when opposed to JOC. That doesn't mean I don't recognize that at times in his writing he was arrogant.

There are a lot worse things in the world than being arrogant.

I haven't heard anything you insinuate concerning JOC nor about Keith, so I don't know how either of them were in person. I know the Keith was one of the most experienced in what he wrote, and I have observed that of Brian, and that is what I was suggesting.

When I think of arrogance, I think of self-serving, but when I think of confidence, I think of BTDT experience. Perhaps EK's writing was more self-serving than I perceive it to be.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but if you don't know about JO'C's reputation of being standoffish and for having contempt for most of the people who read (and continue to read) his life's works, you should read Robert Anderson's book or some of his letters to John Jobson.

Jeff

I too enjoy reading Mr. Pearce's aricles. They have helped me a lot in my loadings for revolvers.

260Remguy, It's not hard for anybody to realize that Keith "stretched things' with out being with him. When he said that he shot a jackrabbit with a .270 and it just scratched itself and then ran off, or he stated that 5 guys showed up in his camp all at the same time and all 5 had .270's (what are the chances of that) and they all shot elk and they all got away and were not recovered. Then the next year the same 5 guys came back, all 5 had .333 OKH's, (again, what are the chances) they all killed and recovered their elk, all one shot kills. He put these stories and more in print for all to read.. Maybe that's not stretching, it could be called something else. I agree, he knew a lot about guns, anybody that is around them and uses them as much as he did has to know a lot about them. I've never been with Brian when he was hunting but, I've known him for over 25 yrs. and know that he tells the truth and you can take what he says to the bank. I've never known of him to tell the kind of stories that Keith did. Brian knew Keith and respected him. I stick by my opinion of Keith.

While we are taking cheap potshots at a genuine legend. Keith stated that he once shot a buck with a 30-06 and that the bullet removed six inches of the neck vertabrae but that it still got away! I have always wondered how he knew exactly how much of the neck it had removed.
He also stated in his book that he knew for a fact that possums breed through the nose ( Their scientific name is Didelphus ( which means double penis) marsupialis) and the female vagina is also paired on the inside.

As much as I admired Keith - I did meet him once at an NRA convention - it was his writing that first taught me that no matter how famous a gunwriter may be - you still need to keep the salt shaker handy.

I certainly enjoy and learn from Brian Pearce's writing. He and John Barsness are probably the two most knowledgeable writers in the business (IMO). Many other writers write of their experiences and results (and I learn from this also) but Pearce and Barsness seem to be more curious as to why things work. They experiment and report on the results and, this is triggers my interest.

Good to hear that Pearce is a gentleman as well.

The only thing I've read by Brian that I didn't like was the phrase "1000 lb range bull". Just because I see it over and over and it's worn me out. The guy does know what he's doing though. Glad to hear he's as good in person as on paper.

Well, yeah, but it is accurate. I think you have the weight wrong....they tend to go closer to 2000 lb. But a range bull is one that is still young enough to be active and out doing their job with the cows. When they get old too old and are not active enough to do the job, they become hamburger bulls.

A range bull is tough, big, and quite an athlete.

When I was about 5, a neighbor butchered a 6 year old angus bull. I remember it well, the carcass hanging from the winch truck was HUGE. My dad said the hide off the shoulders was an inch thick. The neighbor who butchered it gave everyone who helped a package or two of hamburger, as was the custom in those days. Though I don't remember the quality of the meat, I remember my dad saying that he was surprised that hamburger could be tough, and amazed that the gravy was tough. He may have been exagerating, though.

Yep, Brian sure seems to be the real thing. As an advanced Gun Reader I wasn't too sure what of make of him when he first burst onto the scene. I was afraid he might be all color and no substance, all hat and no saddle. But I've assigned him to my absolute trust category of gun writers.

A lot of writers are primarily entertaining. Some of the entertaining writers are pretty knowledgeable in terms of broad experience and keen skills of observation.

But there are only a handful that I will just take their every word at face value due to their because they obviously high regard for accuracy coupled with a broad range of experience and the intelligence and diligence to ensure that every word they write is relevant and correct. These are my "absolute trust" category.

As I became familiar with Brian's writing I immediately found that he had the bona fides and life experience to make for very entertaining reading. When I read his article on the three pressure levels of .45 Colt loading, I was blown away! For me his intellect and diligence were certified by that article.

Anyone can write for or against loading up the .45 Colt (and many have), but the new-to-me information on how the safety limits of firearms are actually quantified in laboratory settings brought the debate to a whole new level. On my chart that article put Brian beyond entertaining, beyond trust but verify, squarely into trust absolutely.

There are very few writers I hold in that category. JB is another one, Phil S. is another. And I'm not knocking all the rest of the gun writers - all the rest of you! Reading your articles is my life and there is scarcely a writer out there that I don't enjoy, but there are differences. JB's recent article on Grouse of the West (?) in American Rifleman struck me as an example of a scholarly piece. There was so much absolute detail that I just knew he had turned to some research resources to get it all right - as opposed to just dashing off what he could remember. I don't doubt that he already knew every word he wrote, but you could still sense that he had verified that every single word was dead nuts reliable information and not just color or impression.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear confirmation that Brian is the man I take him to be.

Now I've got to go home and digest the latest issue of Fur-Fish-Game, a title I've never seen mentioned around here.

Yeah, it seems that most of the best gunwriters are gone now. Brian and J.b. are two of the best nowdays, in my opinion. I am sure that just about any of the writers know more about it than I do and that I can learn some something from any of them. I did enjoy reading Keith and could tell that he knew a lot, I just don't know why he had to "embelish" his writing like he did. I have to say though that my all time favorite was/is Jack O'connor. And please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to flame anybody on here, or Keith for that matter. I enjoy reading what you all have to say and wish I could meet each and everyone of you. I always enjoy meeting another gun loony and b.s.'ing a little. We can all learn from each other. Hope everyone has a great upcoming holiday