Who are your favorite gun writers and their books? What do you like about them?

the standard catalog of s&w firearms 3rd edition by Jim supica and richard nahas

i like it because its a great reference book.

I used to like reading skeeter the best, also elmer. I like mike venterino too.

I find gun magazine writers are terrible.

Their articles usually are totally subjective (not in a good way) with no objective performance testing (ie. shooting groups and reporting on a firearm's accuracy without a Ransom Rest, that's a bit ridiculous). Their writing is full of colloquialisms and poor grammar, with a lot of "flavor" that is merely drool. Also, they never met a gun they reviewed they didn't like....

I've stopped reading them.

YMMV, sorry if I've offended anyone.

Certainly not offended. Not just magazines, though, any books about guns?

Louis L'Amour

(oops, that's not what you meant.... but I'm sticking by my answer)

I'm re-reading Tolkiens quadrogy right now, and really enjoy his writing style. My other current favorite is Bernard Cornwell.

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Even older, even crankier....

For fiction:Clancy and Stephen Coonts. for Science Fiction: David Drake and David Weber. For reality: I read the Bible, this tends to make all others pale. (I most enjoy an accurate translation in a currebt dialect but play around in the origianal languages also). I agree with "dcxplant", that many if not most gun magazine authors have been "mailing it in", but I've found our very own "Paliden" has a talent for depth of infomation in a limited space! Ivan ( O, if only I could spell)

Edgar Allan Poe...everything he wrote. Used to love to hang out at the Poe Cottage on Fordham Road & the Grand Concourse back in the day. Nobody would mess with it, it was open 24/7 in a high traffic commercial area, and we guys from Fordham Prep would meet up with the girls from Mother Butler. I understand they have moved it further north to Kingsbridge Road & the Grand Concourse. Fond memories, and believe it or not, we guys and gals really did talk about, read outloud Poe's works...sometimes we smoked cigarettes and made out, but no drugs, no alcohol, and no sex; times have changed for the worse, I'm afraid.

If you want the best info on hunting rifles to his death in 1978, read Jack O'Connor. He was a Journalism professor before becominhg a gun writer, and had a wry, informative style and much experience.

Jeff Cooper was also well educated and was a founder of the modern school of combat pistol shooting. A bit elitist, he was nevertheless informative and entertining.

The late Geoffrey Boothroyd was an excellent writer, very knowledgeable about both antique and modern guns. His, "The Handgun" is probably the best basic treatise ever written on the subject.

I like murder mysteries, and David Lindsey (now writing as Paul Harper) stands above most in his superb use of the English language. He rode with Houston PD homicide detectives to learn the craft and is a graduate of the University of North Texas, where he learned to write so well that one reviewer has called him "the master of the small scene." His plots are also creative and he provides remarkably well thought out, real, characters and motives.

I have many other favored writers, but no time to list all here (again). One I will plug is Peter O'Donnell, whose Modesty Blaise thrillers I love. He wrote them from 1966-1996.

Bernard Corwells Sharpe series . Historical novels about the Napoleonic wars. Historically accurate and lots of talk about the firearms of the day.

For gun writers, which is what you asked about I believe, it's hard to beat Skeeter Skelton, and Jack O'Conner. (Skeeter Skelton could write a story about making toast and it would be interesting.) I liked a lot of them back then though. Warren Page, Jim Carmichael, Jeff Cooper, and Elmer Keith are some that come to mind.

Today about the only names I'd recognize are Massad Ayoob, and Mike Venturino, and I like both of them. There are probably some others, but just as I seldom look to see who wrote a post here, I seldom look at a byline. Who wrote it just isn't important.

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John 3:16 .

Whoops...I failed to RTFFQ; gun writers....sorry.

I find it somewhat curious that no has mentioned either Ernest Hemingway or Robert Ruark. "Horn of the Hunter" by Ruark is a classic on African Safari writing and his columns for Field & Stream entitled "The Old Man and the Boy", were a mainstay of my younger days, and are a perfect example of writing that both entertains and teaches.
For pure literary merit is is difficult to find a better author than Wallace Stegner. His depiction of the west brings back tremendous memories for me and is without peer IMHO. Search him out and you will have a great read.

I wasn't thinking in those terms, but you're right. I have Ruark's books "The Old Man and the Boy" around somewhere, as well as a collection of Cory Ford's (The Lower Forty) writings. Gene Hill's "Mostly Tailfeathers" column's were among my favorites in the old Sports Afield magazine. I have a couple of book collections of those also. Good grief. I just remembered a couple of more names from "back in the day." Ted Trueblood, and H.G. Tappely. Haven't thought of them for years.

Peter Hathaway Capsticks "Death in the......" books are good for cold winter nights reading too.

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John 3:16 .

Right on CajunBass!! See what happens when you get too much snow on the mountain. Thanks for reminding me of some of the other great outdoor writers I had temporarily forgotten.

Another vote for Louie L'Amour. I think he is a gun writer. The names of just a few of his books to prove it - The broken gun, the ferguson rifle, The sixth shotgun. Just sayin,,

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It aint rocket surgery

Gun Writers, I'm assuming?

Skeeter Skelton (late), Bart Skelton, Elmer Keith (late), John Lachuk, Bob Milek (late), George Nonte (late), Dick Metcalf, plus a few others of whom I cannot remember their names.

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It is....what it is!

Skeeter Skelton, Elmer Keith especially "Sixguns" and "Hell! I was there", Sam Fadala's Winchester 94 book was the first I ever owned and I still have it even though at the moment I don't have a Model 94 Winchester.

As far as non-gun writers, well I have always been an H.G. Wells fan, The Time Machine and other books and some of his short stories. I have taken up reading A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean and I like his writing style.

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Vaya con Dios

Unfortunate my feeling towards the modern day "Gun Writers' is that they are really just Pitchmen for the shooting & firearms industry - not much more. Not saying they aren't nice guys just trying to make a living, but let's face it, if they were to bad mouth a product and it turned out a poor seller for a Company that regularly advertised in a magazine - do you think that writer would still have a job? I think NOT! Think back to all the articles you have read over the last 20 years or so........ do you ever remember a Gun-witter REALLY bad-mouthing a product? Do you ever remember a G/W ever saying "what the heck do we need this new esoteric cartridge for"? Did you ever see a G/W state that this new pistol is nothing more than a cheap knock-off of another Company's gun? I think NOT.

Hey, I don't blame them because they have to know where their bread is buttered! You just have to take what they say with a big grain of salt and enjoy the article for what it is.

When I first got into the gun game about 45 years ago I used to pour over all the different magazines, books, and so called instructional books. Some of them did make sense and some of them do have real facts, but I was too young and too naive back then to separate fact from fiction, truth from story. Like most of us here I learned mostly from experience and trial and error. Thankfully I have not had any terribly bad experiences due to buying into G/W articles - just a lot of wasted money over the years.

About the best books that I know of on firearms are Jerry Kuhnhausen's and Jim Supica's. Those are the real deal - IMHO. These Gun Writers are no different than writers for any other hobby, sport or activity so read away, just keep your common sense about you while doing so.

Chief38

Well I guess I will not make a lot of friends with my post BUT- IMHO most of the good gun writers are now up in that big rifle range in the sky or perhaps like Col. Charles Askins stoking the boilers in a much lower area.

I really miss Keith, both Askins , O’Connor, Milek, Nonte, Metcaf ,Skeeter & Bill Jordan were great and sort of in a class by themselves.

Like I said above most of now what’s out there are second stringers but they try hard. I follow & enjoy Bart Skelton and have read just about everything Massad Ayyob has to say both in books and magazines. While I read what most of the other noobies have to say they just do not have the pizzazz of the departed greats.

Now putting on my flak jacket and Fritz helmet as I think I will be taking “incoming”

FWIW some commented on fiction writers and by far my favorite is Clancy in his stand alone books. Those he coauthored after trying a couple, I save my money!

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

Thanks I'm getting really good answers here that I'm going to use to shop for some books.

It's funny that I don't hunt, but I love to read hunting stories. 'Lions of Tsavo', Capstick, I have a book now of hunting stories by various authors, including Teddie Roosevelt that I'm enjoying.

For general reading I like any kind of history, great wars, science/technology, biographies, Chess, Literature in general, actually just about anything in print that has (to me) quality writing.

Skeeter, Chuck Taylor (he sometimes met a gun he didn't like, and Told!), Keith, Hatcher, Connor. Others: Chesterton, Belloc, John Buchan, Xenophon, M. R. James (great ghost stories), Dorothy Sayers, Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, LeFanu.

Anything by Peter Hathaway Capstick . Heis one of the best. Jack O'Conner on hunting and hunting rifles is not too shabby either. Most current is Boston T. Party aka Kenneth W. Royce Boston's Gun Bible.

For modern day gun rights, John Ross..."Unintended Consequences", and Matt Bracken for "Enemies Foreign and Domestic" triology.

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Existimo ergo sum armis

Two words: Bukowski

Peter Capstick was just as droll and humorously macabre in person as in print. I miss him. He was a superb writer.

I always figured that an elephant, snake, or lion would get him, but he died under open heart surgery in a hospital in Pretoria.

I once sent him a cartoon of a safari camp with a tent that said, "The Millers" on a sign outside it. Two hyenas are looking at the tent and one says to the other, "It's Miller time!"

Peter was duly amused and thanked me on one of those fold-up blue letters that becomes its own envelope, with a nice South African stamp featuring a protea flower. I kept the reply and it stays in one of his books.

I once asked him to autograph one of his books for me. He grinned and said, "I'll trade a nickel's worth of ink for a book sale any time." I didn't have the heart to tell him that the book was a review copy, but did later mail him a copy of the review. I hope he liked it.

I have some of his hunting videos, too.

P.S. Very few general writers, novelists, know much about guns and most are liberals who don't like firearms or are indifferent. Jack Higgins and Davd Lindsey try to get by wth brands and calibers, no models mentioned. Sephen Coonts is sometimes a little better. I think he wore a S&W M-19 as a naval aviator (Intruder pilot) and one of his characters has one and a Colt M-1911. I think Peter O'Donnell read gun magazines and made usually quite good choices for his characters. Donald Hamilton was actually an outdoor writer as well as a novelist, and his Matt Helm series had accurate gun info. He was also a precise user of language and had Matt's boss being miffed when someone misused the term, "presently" when they meant, "at present". That's especially interesting, because he was born in Sweden and learned English after his parents emigrated here. He was miffed as a child when he learned that he couldn't carry a pocketknife in school in New Mexico. Today, I bet that a pocketknife of larger size is legal in that state than in Sweden!

Since I posted on this earlier today I got to talking to my wife about Capstick (again) and thought "I'd like to read those again." I used to have several of his books, but they got misplaced somewhere along the line, during a move I suspect. So I went to Amazon and found a bunch of them for sale.

I ordered a half dozen.

Thanks for reminding me.

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John 3:16 .

You're most welcome. BTW, an excerpt from one of my reviews appears in some of the paperback editions. I called Peter the "principal chronicler of safari lore today." (He was still living when I wrote that.)

I enjoyed a blurb from, 'Field & Stream" in the paper editions, too. I'm pretty sure it was written by David Petzal, and was rather Hemingway-esque in tone. But quite justified. Capstick combined good writing with just enough hyperbole to entertain and excite.

Ken Waters and the late Bob Hagel.

I enjoyed most of the older stuff and have read many by the some of the writers mentioned but one that comes to mind is " The Modern Rifle " by Jim Carmichel from the 70's. I consider it a must read for any young guy or gal interested in the basics of rifle shooting.
Some things are just timeless.

Hemingway is one of my faves. 'The Short Happy Life of Frances McComber' is a great hunting story. The idea of being charged by a buffalo that won't die no matter how many times you hit it gets my adrenalin up.

I'll have to put Ruark on my shopping list.

It appears MANY of you have never read any of the Wolff Publishing companies offerings? Namely "Rifle" or "Handloader" ??

Of course Elmer Keith, Jack O'Connor, Skeeter Skelton and Robert Ruark for the great writers who have passed on.

But current writers; John Barsness, Mike Venturino and Brian Pearce.

If you want informative, well done articles.... You guys need to look at Rifle and Handloader magazine.

FN in MT

I'm usually successful at reading a couple chapters a day. I enjoy reading it and I get a lot out of it. That's cool about the original languages.

I really like John Taffin, but everytime I read him, I get the urge to run out and buy a single action SOMETHING that I really don't need. Masaad Ayoob is another huge favorite. His book "In the Gravest Extreme" really made me think about self defense and firearms use and carry. Very highly recommended.

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MARK

Gun-writers, most of them that I agree with. Others, William Johnstone, writer of the Smoke Jensen series. Almost a Louis L'Amour type......

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GA Carry member
Vietnam Vet

Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton, Bill Jordan, Bob Milek, are the ones I started with. Really enjoyed the monthly columns with Bill and Skeeter sparing and telling tales. I think Bart has a good future ahead. A lot like his dad. Never cared much for Charles Askins. Just something about his style. Like the no nonsense style of Massad Ayoob. Met him once and was pretty impressed. Always enjoyed the FYI page by Jerry Constantino in Shooting Times.

Elmer Keith and Peter Hathaway Capstick are two of my favorites.

Skeeter and Stephen Hunter.

I too am a Stephen Hunter fan, although his last couple offerings have been IMHO a little . . . . well let's just say not quite on the same level as his earlier books, like Dirty White Boys. I always wanted to read more about ol' Bob king of the jungle.

All of my favorite gun writers are dead.....................

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Have guns...will shoot'em.

The late Dean Grennell was my favorite......acerbic wit, and an inveterate experimenter. Invented dozens of handy tools (widgits) without a thought of profit, he put his ideas out there for anyone who wanted to try them. I miss him terribly.

Robert Traver

"I fish because I love to; because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion; because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters; because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness; because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there; because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid; and, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant - and not nearly so much fun."

Also Hemingway, J.M. Coetzee, and T.C. Boyle

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always trust your cape...

Wow, what a small pool of writers.

Skeeter was the best...period. Todays writers seem to have lived thier life studying ballistic tables, going to school to learn a bunch of big words that I just don't understand and poking on the keyboard. Seems that few of them have any actual, in the field experience. Out of the present group of gun writers, Bart is without a doubt the best.

I liked Hemingways description of shooting a charging buff and how it would have run him down, except it "tripped over a blade of grass or something". I remember reading that when I was pretty young.

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Halfway and one more step

Grew up reading Bill Jordan and Elmer Keith from dads magazines.(Argosy, Field&Stream, Guns&Ammo). He sort of folded the page and handed it to me and said "read this". He introduced me to Col. Jordan once, and afterwards said "son, that's the toughest tushhog that's ever popped brush." he had his reasons for believing that, too.

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Halfway and one more step

Just to start with a few,
John Barness, Great articles for HandLoader and Rifle,Hemingway-Classic, Michael Connelly,
Big Fan of Connelly (how can you not like Harry Bosch)
Destroyer series, Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir
Tom Clancey earlier writings

ROY JINKS IS MY VOTE. I THINK HE KNOWS SMITHS

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JAKE BRAKE
[curt]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Vince Flynn, lots of gun work in his books, and they're quick, entertaining reads. We could use a Mitch Rapp in the real world. Teddy Roosevelt wrote a couple of entertaining hunting books, and was fond of his guns as we all know. I know I'm forgeting a couple of others, but have to agree on Capstick, everyone of his books kept me riveted. Miss his wit and style of writing, take care...

Mine too........John Amber, Pete Kuhlhoff, Jack O'Connor, Warren Page, Elmer Keith, Larry Koller, George Nonte, etc.

We are showing our age .