Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Francis E. Sell - anyone else read his stuff?

Went to a local auction yesterday that offered a lot of hunting and fishing stuff and I came away with some (too) many items. One was a book by Francis E. Sell - Art of Successful Deer Hunting and it took me on a trip down memory lane.

I read some of Sell's stuff years ago in Gunsport Magazine and etc. If I recall, he championed the 6.55x55 Swede and the use of a 3 inch 20 gauge shotgun.

Yep,

I've read several of his articles in Gun Digests.

Great writer and hunter.

One of his best was called the middle ground deer rifle, about a lever action wildcat based on the 25-35.

He lived near Crow, Or. About 20 miles from me.

Virgil B.

I have had a copy of that book for many years, and reread it now and then. Sell was a very worthwhile hunting/shooting author.

His book on small game hunting was one of the first that I ever read, and I still have it today. I like his work quite a bit.

If I recall correctly, he was an advocate of using the the same type of firearms action for each type of hunting. I liked that approach, but never could cotton to a bolt action shotgun, and never could find a lever action one.

Found his book Advanced Hunting: On Deer and Elk Trails on Amazon, havn't read any of his material but heard he hunted with a 71/348.

Virgil B, forgot about his articles in Gun Digest. A few minutes ago I pulled out some old ones and noted some articles for reading when the weather gets crappy.

I agree. Have read lots of Sell's articles, and still have a book of his. Nothing flashy, just salt of the earth common sense experience. I like that!

One of my favorite gun/hunting writers. His book "The Art of Successful Deer Hunting" is a classic and I still use some of his techniques. I have read most of his books.

Everytime I read one of his 20 gauge articles I would think I would get one...and I did, but the 12 is still my mainstay. Of course he wrote before the days of steel shot and worked a lot on adjusting his reloads. When it comes to shotguns, mainly I just want to shoot them.

Nothing to add to this statement.

I've got that same book: Small Game Hunting. Reading it makes me want to grab a rucksack and a .22 rifle and head for the woods for a weekend of living off the land.

He was definitely a practical, fun to read, sportsman.

Francis Sell was my go-to writer back in his days of writing.
He had the "knack", of communicating very well. His integrity was flawless. He was honest. He was a lot like Ray Bergman who wrote fishing for OL; just a plain, honest citizen who could captivate me for hours
Sell championed the 20 gage shotgun too.
A great guy from yesteryear.

Sell and Don Zutz were the two biggest influences for me in reloading shotguns for clay birds, waterfowl and upland game birds.

I loved his work when I first read it. I still learn from and thoroughly enjoy his work.

I have three of his books...as someone said he just used common sense and shared real experience in his writing.

Plus, as much as he used and liked scopes he was a champion of peep sights and the Winchester 71. I love both things myself!

My 1964 copy of �The Deer Hunter�s Guide by Francis E. Sell is-hands down-my favorite book on deer hunting. I did all my deer hunting in heavy timber in those days and never have I found so much good stuff on deer hunting in general and particularly on deer hunting in deep woods.

Sell lived year round in blacktail country-he hunted with camera-rangefinder-stopwatch-when he couldn�t carry a rifle. He also spent plenty of time hunting whitetails-which worked for me. And he hunted open clearcuts and also mule deer country and includes great stuff about long range deer rifles.

But it is his work on deer rifles for hunting deer in heavy brush that really stands out. His little 190+ page book has complete chapters on bullet deflection in brush, the speed of deer, snapshooting by aiming with your feet, iron sights for brush, and scopes for close work.

He liked a lot of rifles for brush hunting and knew what he wanted. Either a hammer gun or a sliding tang safety like those on his favorite 20 ga. 3-inch Spanish doubles. And stocked to come up and snap in just like those doubles.

Short barrel but enough gun weight to lay in there for off hand snapshooting. He writes of some bad experiences with rifles weighing more than 7 � or less that 6 � pounds. He wanted a 3 � pound trigger pull that breaks like a �winter icicle.�


On page 24 there is a classic photo of the old woodman setting on the top step of his front porch of his cabin holding what he had been writing about.
A 20-inch Mannlicher-stocked Husqvarna with a sliding tang safety and a 2X scope. It was a 6.5x55 and he fed it his favorite 150/160 grain loads.
Never have I wanted a rifle so bad!

For his long range rifle-he ended up with a .300 Short Ackley Magnum and he tells you exactly why.
His book is dedicated to all the fellow woods loafers that he has shared campfires with and sometimes he lets one of them do his talking for him:

�In a world clutter with material possessions, Al Lyman �goes light.� He has one change of clothing, on and off. He has, usually a broken box of 180-grain soft points for his Krag�He has cursed his Krag up one side of the barrel and down the other�He wants, and needs, another deer rifle more the more open shooting, but not to the extent he would put out the labor required to buy one.�

�Next year, Spud, you�ll see me out on Bone Mountain with one of them Gibbs 30 Magnums�I know where there is some good gold pocket mining over toward Rouge River for this summer, muskrat trapping come winter��

�But alas for Al�s good intention. When he gets as much as ten dollars together, above stark necessities, he loses it in a poker game�Al Lyman takes a running deer with a more effortless technique than anyone with whom I have ever hunted.�

�I am going deer hunting; you come, too�we will share camp�talk about the Hiyou kokum mowich.�
Francis E. Sell
Riverton, Oregon

I like to read his stuff for the hunting techniques, and I recently added a copy of Hunting with Camera and Binoculars to the library.

jim