I've seen quite a few books by him, but I know very little about the man. Anyone read, or recommend any of his books? I was looking at "The Revolver Guide". There is a pretty cheap copy on Ebay and Amazon.

IIRC his dates were 1924-1978 and many of us have fond memories of reading articles by Major George C. Nonte and later George C. Nonte, MAJ, ORD, Ret'd. He also used several pseudonyms-C. George Charles is
one I remember. His writings were characterized by elegance, precision, straightforwardness and very little biographical information-it seems he wanted to write about his projects and share them with fellow shooters, not talk about himself.

I have read and recommend the Pistol Guide and the Revolver Guide by George Nonte.

I'm confident that you'll find them useful and entertaining despite their 1970s vintage information.

His book "Modern Handloading" is a must have if you are a reloader. Not so much for the data, but for the technical info within.

According to his contemporaries, he was a fun-lovin' guy.

Great mustache, too.

When I saw the title, that's the first thing I thought of. This is from the 1970 Gun Digest. Wax on...

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"I also cook."

If you like odd firearms get a copy of Home Guide to Cartridge Conversions.

I heard that he got pretty violent once at the SHOT show when another writer teased him about his mustache.

I think he was an in-law of Lee Jurras, who founded Super-Vel. Anyone know for sure?

Read a lot of his material over the years, but never met him.

T-Star

I had one of his handgun books and read it over and over when I was a kid. He was real innovator like Keith or Cooper and some of the other old timers, and would chop down 1911s or big bore revolvers, and did a lot of creative gunsmithing and cartridge wildcatting. Seems like his favorite gun was a Smith M-39 9m/m rechambered to shoot a 90 grain pill at about 1500 fps.

His book "Handgun Competition" is one of my favorites. It is pretty dated now, but it gives a good look at IPSC and some other disciplines in their formative stages.

DLB

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Veritas et Humanitas

Yep, I had a copy of Maj. Nonte's 'Handgun Hunting', put out by IIRC, Stoeger Publications. Started me on a lifelong interest in handgun hunting.
Also, mid-'70's he did an article in G&A about a black bear hunt using the then-new .45 ACP Super Vel 190 gr. JHP load. Exciting stuff.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

I met him and knew him when he was stationed at Rock Island Arsenal and later when he was living in Peoria ,Il. and virtually writing Shooting Times magazine single hand. He had at least 7 or 8 names that he wrote under. To say he was interesting to visit with is an understatement. I always enjoyed my contacts with him.

One of our Forum members that goes by "sth44" has a Model 21 that letters to George Nonte.

Wish I could learn & remember all that he had forgotten....good guy.....
I teased him about his one book that had the "backwards" (reversed) picture of a Colt revolver on the paper cover.......I really thought he built ME a "left handed revolver'..........may he rest in peace.

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dan
NRA Benefactor,PMA

I used to read Nonte's stuff regularly years ago. I met him in person in 1970 at the World Shooting Championships in Phoenix out at the old Black Canyon range which was then renamed for Ben Avery, a local Phoenix gun writer and enthusiast. Nonte wrote a classic on survival guns which is still very apropos. I really miss a lot of the old authors - Jeff Cooper most particularly, but also Charlie Askins, Skeeter Skelton, Elmer Keith, Jack O'Connor, Dean Grennell, and many others. They had all "seen the elephant" and knew their stuff. They called a spade a spade, and didn't cow-tow to the gun manufacturers if the product wasn't right. I think it used to be called integrity, if I recall that right.

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Read his stuff since I was a kid. Very knowledgeable. I do cringe though when I see the stuff he put in one book about swapping revolver barrels using the vice and hammer handle through the cylinder window method.

I know what you mean about the hammer handle, I have his book Pistolsmithing and years ago I warped a 25-2 frame using his advice, I was lucky enough to get it back straight but after that I put the frame in a large Machine vise and remove the barrel after wrapping it very well so I wouldnt skin it. It must have been an off the cuff remark that he didnt think any one would take seriously but I did! Jeff

An article on the ASP conversion of M-39's on The Gun Zone claims that George Nonte was making the early ASPs before he had a falling out with Paris Theodore.

For sure, he wrote an article in Shooting Times about chopping model 39's (March, 1973) -- and .45's in the July and August, 1971 G&A -- as well as the first article about the ASP in the February, 1971 Guns magazine.

Same as Old Corps, 'Handgun Hunting' is in my library. I bought it in 1974 when I first moved to Florida and wanted to hunt wild hogs with a handgun, there is a chapter in the book about that exact subject.

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"Life is short, hunt hard"

I was introduced to handguns in the early 1970's by George C. Nonte in his books and magazines articles. Much of what I knew in the early days came from him.

I seem to remember that he also had a miniature Gatling gun; I'm back to being envious again.

I always liked reading his articles and books. Never one to shy away from customizing handguns for actual use. Looking back at the 1911's and other pistols altered, people cringe but that is nothing new. Mausers and '03s are in the same catagory. They were cheap back then. All the writers we generaly respect from that era did it. Skelton, Keith, etc all had their collection of custom handguns and they were done with shooting in mind,,not hiding behing glass.
He took some flak for his support of the Spanish arms industry in his writings. I understand he had a monetary interest in one of the US importers of them (Stoeger perhaps?).
I still find the Spanish pistols interesting and owe alot of that to his articles.
Interesting gentleman, as were many of the writers of the same time.

I recall his writings and that I liked him very much. Other than some magazine articles I don't have any of his writings. Need to do something about that.

There were some good and influential writers in bygone days.