Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ross Seyfried

It was a crown royal box.. C'mon! Everyone knows that!

John

We all have bad days. I've seen gun writers at shows get mobbed by "fans" and it must be very tiring.

And let's not forget he was the 1981 IPSC world champion. Back in those days they didn't have big-name sponsors, he paid his own expenses and bought his own guns (which he had customized on his own) and loaded nearly all of his own ammunition, at the tune of 50,000 to 100,000 rounds a year. And, he can expertly shoot anything that has a trigger. Contrast that with some of the young IPSC grand masters they've had on Top Shot who are amazing speed shooters with an unlimited race gun but have to be instructed on how to load and fire a single-action revolver.

Yeah, I wonder if he still wears shorts with those tall, striped tube socks and one of those cool foam hats with the mesh back. All the fast IPSC guys did back in the day.

I've enjoyed all he wrote on the old blackpowder English cartridges; his writings were pretty handy when I was working with a .500-450 #1 blackpowder express. I did write him about the rifle - care of Rifle - they said they would forward questions to Ross but I never did hear from him.

The downside was that twenty years ago the guns - British single shots were fairly cheap, because no one knew knew anything about them. After he wrote many articles it seemed suddenly the price of the guns shot up, because people could then learn how to run them. I figure he must have had a couple hundred of them stashed away, and made a tidy profit

saying that tongue in cheek, of course

Many years ago, I read in one of his articles where he complained about the price of brass for one of his Martini rifles (I can't recall the cartridge at the moment, but it was an odd ball). Anyhow, I stumbled across a source for the exact same brass he wrote about, but at about 1/4 of the price he complained about in the article. I wrote him a letter with the info on how he could get the brass, and sent it directly to him. Never heard back.

I still enjoy his articles a great deal when I run across them. He was the guy who got me interested in fast twist 22 calibers.

Brian.

I thought of starting a new thread called "Seyfried's Sartorial Splendor" but thought it might fit better in response here.

I got to know Ross in 1979. During the period between when he won the US Nationals in '78 and thru '80 he wore a "lucky shirt." If you see any of the old American Handgunner ads of him having lept a barricade, he's wearing this same shirt:

This pic was taken at the '80 Nationals. His wife at the time (Judy????) would wash that shirt in their motel room every night (either that or he had a bunch of identical ones). He wore jeans and projected an "awe-shucks-good-ole-boy" persona, which wasn't ingenuine.

With success his image started to change (or his lucky shirt wore out). By 1981 (when he won the world shoot), he had progressed to more conventional shirting garb. Here he's at the '81 Bianchi Cup wearing an IPSC tee shirt:


By '82 he appears to have picked up some sponsorship. Here he is at the '82 Nationals which marked the beginning of the billboard-uniform phase of competitive shooting that still plagues our tournaments:

Sorry to take up so much space---the comment about his clothing and the general interest in Ross made me think that some of you would like to see some pics from his early years of notoriety.

gmoats-
Thanks for the photos. When I read fremont's post about the clothes, I dug out some American Handgunner magazines from the 77-82 period. I think Seyfried always wore blue jeans. Raul Walters wore the striped socks in some of the photos.

Walters did well outside of IPSC too: 2009 Obituary

Photo below shows Walters & wife on the left, Buzz Aldrin & wife on the right.


--Bob
edit oopsie; misspelled Aldrin

The only pic that I could find of Raul is during a concealed carry match--can't see his socks, but you're correct, he's wearing them:

I'll check my archives when I get home and see if I don't have more of Raul---I used to shoot in the MPPL with him and know that I have more. If you kept Handgunners from that era and scour them well, you'll find some incredible writers!!

Raul was a tightly wrapped athlete--I don't think that he ever fully recovered from losing his son in a motorcycle accident. He and Dick Thomas were largely responsible for the Columbia conference that started IPSC and were directly responsible for the Chapman Academy being in Columbia (they were initial co-owners with Ray).

Count me as a fan of Seyfried's writing.

I know some folks(gun writers included) that like to tear Ross down- says more about them than it does Ross, IMO.

I've never met him but have always appreciated his writings.

I think the aticle he wrote on the .340 Weatherby was very refreshing and showed up the industry for being quite stale at that time.

John

Having counted Ross as a good friend and mentor for over 20 yrs I would say Ken H hit the nail right on the head.

Just like all of us Ross might have a bad day and I can definitely see how he could be prickly on a first meeting.

I have never met anyone with his breadth of knowledge on all things concerning firearms and having personally seen many of those famous late 80s early 90s Guns and Ammo articles come together I would say he was very careful to write the truth as he saw it and didn�t do some of the standard embellishment that can go on in gun articles.

Had a chance to chat with him at SCI this year and he was still the same ol Ross.

What I liked about Ross' writing was even if his subject matter wasn't something that usually interested me I still enjoyed the article. I can't say that for other writers. I can't really bring myself to read about bird hunting, whitetails on the farm or most blackpowder stuff. But if Ross was writing about goose hunting or some ancient blackpowder piece it was good.

Too bad his writing is in short supply now.

John:

Since you know him, you might know this: Double Gun Journal changed its name to Double Gun & Single Shot Journal at some point, and IIRC, it was about the time that Seyfried got heavily involved with the magazine.

Was that his doing?

Whoever it was, I heartily approve. I particularly enjoy Seyfried's work with those English single shot bp rifles he's so fond of.

- Tom

Most likely, it was the Double Gun Journal's owner Dan Cote's doing. He did it to broaden the readership/advertising base of the magazine.

I do not blame him for doing so. It was a smart move and probably saved it. I helped Dan promote the magazine to advertisers in the first few years it was published. He sacrificed a great deal of his own time and treasure to keep it alive during the 1990s.

It has always been a fine magazine and it makes sense that it attracted a writer with the talent and knowledge base of Mr Seyfried.

Is he originally from Africa? I seem to remember that he had ties to Africa, maybe as a PH.

Nope ,he is was raised on a Farm/Ranch in central Colorado just northeast of Denver.

He did a bit of PH work in Africa in the 1980s, I believe.

If Mrs. Walters needed any help putting a napkin over her dress to keep soup dribbles from falling on her, I'm sure many of us would volunteer (just to be helpful, of course).

I've long enjoyed Ross's writings and the one time I had a telephone conversation with him, he was an agreeable and articulate man. He also followed up that conversation with a well written letter. I hold him in high regard.