Intertwined: The Inseparable Legacies of Jack O’Connor and the Winchester Model 70

[SteveB]

https://fieldethos.com/intertwined-the-inseparable-legacies-of-jack-oconnor-and-the-winchester-model-70/

[okie john]

https://fieldethos.com/intertwined-the-inseparable-legacies-of-jack-oconnor-and-the-winchester-model-70/

Great article. It's a damned shame that Winchester spelled O'Connor's name wrong on the tribute model.

https://www.winchesterguns.com/products/rifles/model-70/Model-70-Past-Products/model-70-jack-o-conner-custom-tribute.html


Okie John

[Borderland]

Great article. It's a damned shame that Winchester spelled O'Connor's name wrong on the tribute model.

https://www.winchesterguns.com/products/rifles/model-70/Model-70-Past-Products/model-70-jack-o-conner-custom-tribute.html


Okie John

I think the model 70 is made in Spain or Europe someplace now. I doubt anyone there has ever read any of his books. I have all of them I think. I was a yuge fan of his as I started hunting deer in AZ in the 60's. Excellent, well educated writer, unlike some of the legends of the time. I won't mention any names but he wore a mighty big hat.

[Duelist]

60460
60461

.270, Featherweight

[okie john]

I think the model 70 is made in Spain or Europe someplace now. I doubt anyone there has ever read any of his books. I have all of them I think. I was a yuge fan of his as I started hunting deer in AZ in the 60's. Excellent, well educated writer, unlike some of the legends of the time. I won't mention any names but he wore a mighty big hat.

My father read me O'Connor hunting stories at bedtime when I was a kid, and I've read most of his other books. At some point he just kept writing the same articles and books but with the most current information. You can sense the exasperation, as though he felt like he had already done this and wanted to do something different but he knew what was expected of him and he still wanted to pay the bills.

O'Connor had an almost cruelly unfair advantage over most other gun writers: he was a writer first and a gun guy second. He taught journalism, which involves telling a clear story in less than 3,000 words. You have to know how to manage that narrative arc or the result will be unreadable. He pioneered the modern gun article that starts with a “there I was…” moment, then gets into a little history, then goes to the gear in question, then ends with the rest of the “there I was” story. Most of Finn Aagaard’s work is on the same model.

O’Connor also wrote novels, so he knew how to shape a story over 15-20 chapters, which is a completely different art. That’s why his books hold up so well—a thread runs through every chapter and unites the whole thing, even though it's non-fiction, each chapter covers a different topic, and the whole thing is crammed with technical detail. Of the writers working today, Boddington is probably the closest to O'Connor's talent and understanding of form.

Keith was a cowboy first and a writer ninth or tenth. I read somewhere that editors rarely had to change anything in an O'Connor manuscript, but that they had to roll up their sleeves and bring a lunch to get Keith's work ready for publication.


Okie John

[OlongJohnson]

I think the model 70 is made in Spain or Europe someplace now. I doubt anyone there has ever read any of his books. I have all of them I think. I was a yuge fan of his as I started hunting deer in AZ in the 60's. Excellent, well educated writer, unlike some of the legends of the time. I won't mention any names but he wore a mighty big hat.

I believe it's Portugal, in continuation of the long-time practice of FN family products being assembled there.

I have read comments to the effect that the rifles made in Portugal are of superior quality to the ones made in the last years in the US.

[okie john]

I believe it's Portugal, in continuation of the long-time practice of FN family products being assembled there.

I have read comments to the effect that the rifles made in Portugal are of superior quality to the ones made in the last years in the US.

Yep, Portugal. The new Model 70s do NOT have the old-style trigger, which matters greatly to some folks. I've heard from a number of sources that the current rifles from all major manufacturers are head and shoulders above older products. The M-700 that I've been fiddling with for the last year certainly falls into that category.


Okie John

[jtcarm]

As a college student in the 80s, I used to go to the library and read his old Outdoor Life columns on microfiche (anyone remember those?)

Old outdoor magazines over kegs & coeds. Can you say “Nerd”?