Who is your favourite gun writer?

[John Telford]

I prefer hunting writers over gun writers. All the articles comparing calibers and telling me that you need a .300 WM to shoot anything over 300 pounds drive me crazy! I am just a hunter who likes guns.
That being said as @sestoppelman mentioned, Gary Sitton was a gem for me. He wrote the “Backtracking” column for the back page of Peterson’s Hunting for years and every one was excellent.

Agreed! Autobiography is always better than theory!

 

[sestoppelman]

All my favorite authors are dead and buried!

If I see something on an interesting subject, I will give it a try and if good, finish it. If not I toss it.

No worries, I have a decent size library of good books that will do me for years. Complete collections of all the works of best favorites. Sort of like spending time with old friends.

That is exactly how I describe how I feel whenever I pick up what to me is one of the best books ever written, The Riddle of the Sands, by Erskine Childers. Fantastic, spy and sailing adventure story. Author was eventually excecuted for his alleged involvement in the Irish "troubles".
Have read it several times and it never fails to enthrall me.

 

[TOBY458]

Ross Seyfried was always my favorite gun magazine writer. His writing was the catalyst for me wanting to hunt in Africa. I also went through a pile of big bore rifles and handguns on his behalf.

 

[sestoppelman]

Capstick was the eventuall fire lit under me to go, but Ruark was the first to light that fire in the 60's with Horn of the Hunter.

 

[tedthorn]

John Barsness

Hands down!!!!

 

[Pondoro]

Robert Foran, Jose Pardal, Tony Sanchez-Arino, Ian Nyschens...John Taylor..

 

[WAB]

Jim Corbett. The only writer who actually makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck! After that Bell. His accounts are so detailed, you feel yourself transported back in time.

 

[Ravensview]

For a good modern read and one that I just finished reading, John Sharpes book was a good read

 

[Jeffrey]

Contrlemporary: Richard Mann

Historical: Jeff Cooper

 

[Chuck Kazen]

When I was getting interested in guns and shooting as a teen ager in the 70's I would buy Guns & Ammo for Elmer Keith and Shooting Times for Skeeter Skelton. I would say I learned more about shooting and handloading from those two great gentlemen than any other source. Still read their writings today.

 

[Trail Rated]

Jack O’Connor for sure, and I appreciate reading Terry Wieland’s articles in Grays Sporting Journal.
My favorite gun article of all time is this one, not by a “gun writer”:

One Good Gun: My Sporterized Mauser

I think the idea of sporterizing a military Mauser has been with me since I was in my early twenties. There is no doubt that it was the direct result of reading Jack O’Connor’s books and articles.

gundigest.com

 

[Bearbait1]

Why of course, PATRICK MCMANUS

 

[typilotguy]

One gun/hunting writer that I have recently come to enjoy is Joseph von Benedikt. I really like his approach. In my mind, it is pretty cut and dry, yet informative and entertaining. I also enjoy his podcast, called "Backcountry Hunting". He just seems to be to the point, without a lot of pretense and such.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

In the category of modern online bloggers, such as Chuck Hawks, Hickok45, Gunblast, Randy Wakeman, etc, I really like Joe D'Alessandro at Realguns.com. Joe has a very witty, sarcastic style of humor which I enjoy. Realguns.com was a free website for several years and is now a $30/yr subscription. Joe usually publishes 2 articles a week, with lots of photos and usually part 2 details results from various handloads in the subject weapon.

I like Randy Wakeman too, but his articles usually have a few grammatical errors and he uses the double negative a lot, so it's sometime difficult to follow. I'll say this though, Wakeman is one of the few modern gun writers / bloggers that will call a junky gun junk.

 

[lwaters]

My favorite is Jack O'Conner by along ways. He kind of reminded of Mark Twain. A lot of what he said is still true today.

 

[Dewald]

My favorites of the old guard in no particular order:

Primarily article writers:

Jack O'Conner (An educated journalist, Jack knew how to craft an excellent article - unlike most then or today)

He sure had a way with words. I discovered my old 1978 Speer reloading manual ( my dad bought it new then) and read what he had written in the foreword - an extract from 1963 infack. And remarkably enough it holds true even today for the fellows chasing Quickload formulas, rather than spending time behind the rifle and looking at the target.

 

[Happy Myles]

Jack O’Connor was a gifted writer, good style. I learned to read by listening to my dad read Jack’s column, Getting The Range. He got me yearning an African safari. Robert Ruark cinched the deal. Jim Carmichael knew the most about rifles and a good writer. Today Dave Petzal has great style, Terry Wieland is bright, knowledgeable and a good craftsman. Craig Boddington has more African experience than all of them and good grammar but I find his writing style a bit of tin ear. Still love him. Kindest Regards to all

 

[John458Lott]

John Barsness but for story telling Capstick!

 

[degoins]

Ross Seyfried

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Liked all the above at various times, O'Connor was surely the best writer in his day, Keith was a great story teller but a terrible writer I gather.
No issues with Boddington, read most of his stuff, have most of his books, some better than others of cour
Quite a few years ago there was a very laconic fellow name Gary Sitton who's writing I was fond of, sadly he passed away while in his prime.
Mike Venturino is a good writer and a nice guy, have met him a couple of times at SHOT. Another good writer is John Barsness with Wolfe, but I think he is a jerk for personal reasons. Same with Scovill.
Skeeter was great as were Jordan and Askins.
Ruark and Hemingway of course.

@sestoppelman
I find John Barsness's book the Big book of Gun Gal a great read and very enlightening and at times entertaining. As a person I can't comment.
I do enjoy the old writers as well.
Some of the more entertaining writers I-mate the ones found on this forum like @major Kahn, @ Kawshik Rahman, @ Panther Shooter, @Professor Malwa and a few others.
These gentleman should be put into print as I find them as good if not better than some of the old timers. They also put an honest and unbiased spin on things as they were there when it happened.
The thing I like about there writing is they are easy reading, funny at times, gory at other times and based on THEIR OWN experiences thru hunting. They are not embellished in any way but a factual account of things.
My apologies to all the other great writers on this forum you are all good in your own special way. Some humerous, some factual some bringing but ALL good.
That is what I like about this forum. Everyone can write on it and and all are good reads in their own right.
Bob