His favorite carry gun was a S&W M-39 9m/m and he had at least one that was modified to fire a more powerful round using .223 Rem brass and a 90 grain bullet at about 1500 fps. Most gun writers of the time favored big bore handguns with slow bullets for defense but he seemed to like "light and fast".

Fortunately, I've lived long enough to remember him.

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Foster Positivity.

I sold my autographed copy of Nonte’s “Guide to Cartridge Conversions” at the gun show yesterday.

After having fun with .240 Gibbs, .30 Gibbs, .257 Roberts Improved, 6x47, .338-06, and .338-280 I’m about done with the wildcats. Getting older and less energy means enjoying the more mundane cartridges - .220 Swift, .25-06, and 6.5x55.

Unfortunately my RCBS .30-06 to .243 die forming set didn’t sell.

Dean Grenell was an aerial gunnery instructor at a base in Utah. In WWII the honor graduates of courses were usually recycled as instructors. Grenell said he had access to unlimited amounts of ammunition and firearms, he mentioned that once he became proficient with the the M1911A1-he was right-handed-it took him about two weeks to achieve the same proficiency with his left hand. Nonte wrote about learning to reload without proper tools in 1944, said he had an H&R revolver that he found out was not up to sustained double action shooting.

You know we really liked(and trusted) the gun writers we grew up reading in the 60's-70's and early eighties. And the music during that era was the greatest........To me, music today and gun rag writers are just BLAH!..........Ever read a critical gun article in the last 10 years?......Didn't think so.

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S&W Accumulator

HANDLOADER and RIFLE aren't what they once were, but they remain the best in the business. I think GUNS and AMERICAN HANDGUNNER deserve honorable mention.

While AMERICAN RIFLEMAN has seen a great deterioration compared to what it was thirty-fifty or more years ago, the firearms reviews they do (only a tiny portion of the magazine) seem to be fair with nothing held back. But, honestly, I seldom read a complete review as I tire easily of reports on $5000 shotguns and another 9mm handgun.

However, most accuracy reports in AR include the average of five, five-shot groups at 100 yards for rifles and 25 yards for handguns. No other publication does such stringent testing. No Internet three shot groups (best of twenty) measured with a caliper to three decimal places.

When I began reading gun magazines about 1962, the best, in my opinion were AR and GUNS & AMMO. Hard to believe what has become of GUNS & AMMO. SHOOTING TIMES wasn't far behind and it remained a good magazine until about twenty years ago. GUN WORLD and GUNS were pretty decent publications.

A deceased friend got his start gun writing thanks to the Major when Nonte moved in next door to him on an army base.

He sat on his front porch and watched the movers carry a continuous cycle of guns in to the house.

According to my friend, Nonte was quite a hoot to hang out with.

The trouble with Guns and American Handgunner is the ADS! If you took the ads out of those magazines they wouldn't be but 12 PAGES!......Use to subscribe to both.

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S&W Accumulator

The ads are the only way they can survive these days; subscriptions and magazine sales alone won't do it.

I remember reading an article of his on the Model 39 late 70s. At the time the 39 was my only gun. He said it was the gun he'd have if he could only have one gun. Then I saw the hole my friend's National Match 45 was putting in some cans and I got started in guns big time.

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9tenz

Nonte’s book”Handgun Hunting” was a classic. I still have a hardcover copy of it. Great stories of he and Lee Jurras hunting New Mexico antelope with Auto Mags and Tennessee black bears with 1911’s and Super Vel ammo. I just ate that stuff up when I was a teenager!

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Everybody could shoot

Handloading for Handgunners was one of my very first gun books I bought as a young shooter. I bought it in 1980, shortly after he died. This book has given me hours upon hours of reading enjoyment and excellent loading information. There are a few technical errors (one was saying that WW296 and H110 are different powders, and another was advice to use faster powders in shorter barrels and slower in longer barrels, but that was common understanding at the time) but minor in nature, and there are still people who still convinced of their veracity.

I liked his no-tools loading info. Not everyone can afford to buy everything they need, and my respect goes out to those who are able to improvise.

That 'stache of his was creepy, though. Why would anyone actually TRY to look like a clown?

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I've been reading since the early 60s. He wasn't my favorite writer. Some of his stuff seemed like the magazine editors had bought it to just be "filler".



I was not aware he wrote under other names. Does anyone know them all?


The rumor back in the 70s was that he died by his own hand. Does anyone know?

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Wikipedia has a page on him with some info. Says he "died in his office at work".

George Nonte - Wikipedia

Best Regards, Les

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SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

I do remember hearing that, but can't remember where I heard it. I also seem to remember reading that he died of a heart attack. Conflicting reports, neither of which I can verify with online searches. Yet. I also saw the Wikipedia thing about him dying "in his office", which is about as vague as you can get.

I remember being shocked at his death because he was still a relatively young man. I read about it in one of the gun magazines back then, probably Guns & Ammo. I wonder if the magazine is archived for that period of time. Be interesting to read what they said about it.

Editors would often say something like, "Give me six hundred words on the new Smith & Wesson so-and-so for the next issue." Writers like Nonte could do that stuff blindfolded, because most of it was just boilerplate, with maybe a few personal anecdotes thrown in. Quote some stats, mention muzzle velocity/fps/bullet weights blah blah blah, and you're done. The editors would do this simply because they knew competing publications would be doing their own articles on the same gun. Writers were also sometimes paid by the word. I think it was Jack O'Connor who liked to complain about magazine editors' tight purse strings.

I also heard the heart attack story first.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

I used to enjoy reading him .However he died or was to young.