Gun Writer Generations/List

[Wooosh]

Recently, I got into buying and reading old publications and books. I soon discovered that there was such a thing as gun writer generations. From what I was able to glean, writers such as like Skeeter Skelton were considered first gen (pre-war), writers like Jeff Cooper were considered second gen (post-war to 80s), and writers such as Massad Ayoob are considered third gen (post-80s). Can someone fill me, a noobie, in on the writers worth reading? (Of course, I already know about Tamara.)

Also, I figured that this would also be the place to ask for old magazines worth hunting down for.

[Borderland]

I was heavy into bird hunting and collecting about 20 years ago. Michael McIntosh was my favorite shotgun writer. I think I read everything he wrote several times. I don't read any magazines anymore so not really current with the latest generation as I mostly own older firearms.

Here's a few that will never go out of style.


https://sportingclassicsdaily.com/america-s-greatest-gun-writers/

[45dotACP]

Nate Parker and Chris Baker if you frequent online gun content. They are both excellent

Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk

[Moylan]

"Gun writer" sounds narrow, but can be construed broadly. Under that broad construal, I'd mention Robert Ruark, Peter Capstick and Herbert McBride. Ruark is by far the best writer in that bunch, and probably superior to any other gun writer I can think of. The Old Man and the Boy is pretty much just a solid classic irrespective of genre. The Old Man's Boy Grows Older can't quite live up to its predecessor, but it's still pretty great, and The Horn of the Hunter is maybe the best African hunting book I know of. Capstick wrote quite a few African hunting books and I've enjoyed all that I've read. And McBride's main work is A Rifleman Went to War. Haven't read anything else by him.

Living gun writers I have found enlightening are Ed Mireles (FBI Miami Firefight) and Michael Wood (Newhall Shooting).

If you want to get into the weeds, a classic is Meditations on Hunting by Jose Ortega y Gasset.

[okie john]

Recently, I got into buying and reading old publications and books. I soon discovered that there was such a thing as gun writer generations. From what I was able to glean, writers such as like Skeeter Skelton were considered first gen (pre-war), writers like Jeff Cooper were considered second gen (post-war to 80s), and writers such as Massad Ayoob are considered third gen (post-80s). Can someone fill me, a noobie, in on the writers worth reading? (Of course, I already know about Tamara.)

Also, I figured that this would also be the place to ask for old magazines worth hunting down for.

Your main source of information should be The American Rifleman, published by the NRA. Up until 1977, when Harlon Carter assumed a strong role leading the NRA, The Rifleman was a probably the best source of technological information about guns and shooting in the world. Study how their masthead evolved up to then and there's the core of your list.

It also depends on which war you're talking about. Several writers, most notably Townsend Whelen, Charles Askins, Sr., Phil Sharpe, Jack O'Connor, and Elmer Keith, were active before and after WWII.

There was a big change in the publishing world in the 60s, when post-WWII wealth enabled Americans to get into all kinds of hobbies. The market for story-based articles exploded, and the post-war writers stepped in to fill it, really hitting their stride in the 70s and 80s. This roster includes Skeeter Skelton and Jeff Cooper (both Marines during WWII), plus Chuck Taylor, Charles Askins, Jr., Bob Milek, Bob Hagel, Warren Page, Ross Seyfried, Finn Aagaard, Byron Dalrymple, Jon Wooters, and a bunch of others whose names evade me right now.

John T. Amber was an editor and Bob Peterson was a publisher. Both were at least as influential as the writers who worked for them.

The real guys you want to talk to about this are Mas and Outpost75. They were there and can speak with far more authority than me.


Okie John

[Mas]

IIRC, Col. Charles Askins, Jr. was published before WWII. His dad, Charles Sr., was one of the great gun writers before that. Elmer Keith early on, of course. Charles "Skeeter" Skelton began writing for publication in the mid-50s if I recall. Jeff Cooper's work first appeared in print in the latter 1950s. My first gun magazine article appeared in the February 1971 issue of GUNSport, and John Taffin, Jon Sundra, and others currently writing were in print ahead of me. There's a lot of crossover. And take heed to what Okie John said about the editors: they were the gatekeepers who determined what was going to be published. I wouldn't know what year, or even what decade, to place a demarcation line.

[okie john]

IIRC, Col. Charles Askins, Jr. was published before WWII. His dad, Charles Sr., was one of the great gun writers before that. Elmer Keith early on, of course. Charles "Skeeter" Skelton began writing for publication in the mid-50s if I recall. Jeff Cooper's work first appeared in print in the latter 1950s. My first gun magazine article appeared in the February 1971 issue of GUNSport, and John Taffin, Jon Sundra, and others currently writing were in print ahead of me. There's a lot of crossover. And take heed to what Okie John said about the editors: they were the gatekeepers who determined what was going to be published. I wouldn't know what year, or even what decade, to place a demarcation line.

Thanks for this. I defer to your experience.


Okie John

[Half Moon]

Most of the folks that immediately come to mind have been mentioned. For an older, but still valid, take on hunting rifles probably add in Jack O'Connor. For a later writer on six-guns, maybe add Mike Venturino. Some of those mentioned that I know online archives exist for (all mostly revolver oriented, none being complete assemblages of their work):

Skeeter Skelton (http://darkcanyon.net/skeeter_skelton.htm)

John Taffin (http://sixguns.com)

Elmer Keith (http://www.elmerkeithshoot.org/GA/)

[rcbusmc24]

Major Julian S. Hatcher - Textbook of Pistols and Revolvers -1935

It's still a must read for handgun guys...

[HCM]

Recently, I got into buying and reading old publications and books. I soon discovered that there was such a thing as gun writer generations. From what I was able to glean, writers such as like Skeeter Skelton were considered first gen (pre-war), writers like Jeff Cooper were considered second gen (post-war to 80s), and writers such as Massad Ayoob are considered third gen (post-80s). Can someone fill me, a noobie, in on the writers worth reading? (Of course, I already know about Tamara.)

Also, I figured that this would also be the place to ask for old magazines worth hunting down for.

Your timelines are off and I don’t really agree with your “generations.”

Skeeter Skelton often wrote about his childhood in the depression but was actually too young to even serve in WWII much less be a “pre-war” gun writer.

Pre-war gun writers would be people like Charles Askins, Elmer Keith, J. Henry Fitzgerald, Ed McGivern etc.

Many of the writers you’re talking about actively wrote for most of their adult lives. Skelton and Cooper both actively wrote up until their passing. Of course Mas is a member on this forum as is Tamara.

Going back to Skelton, there are technical gun writers who write about hardware and there are writers who are storytellers who just happen to write about people’s experiences related to guns. Skelton exemplifies the latter.

A better question would be given the internet, social Media, video streaming etc is the current generation of gun writers the last, and will they be replaced with multi discipline content creators.

PS:

I grew up reading Askins, Jordan, Skelton etc. but there seems to be a disconnect with certain parts of the gun community who can’t quite understand that the era those writers worked in was nearly a century ago and the border (and border law enforcement) is not a time capsule.

[Wooosh]

I don't read any magazines anymore so not really current with the latest generation as I mostly own older firearms./[/url]

Let's say I'm living in the 50s (or even the 60s-80s), and want I want to be well-read on firearms (cowboy action shooting, collecting, hunting, defensive shooting, etc). What gun magazines were a must read, or at least, can someone inform me of what magazines were popular at the time?

It is difficult to get a hold of good information on guns (I only recently learned about the LAPD grip makers: Farrant, Hurst, and Hogue), and what information is easily avalible is usually inaccurate or too simplified for my tastes. A decent chunk of it isn't even avalible online, so I often have to search for discontinued books and old publications at shows and online auctions.

[Hambo]

Bob Milek
Ross Seyfried
Finn Aagard

[Ed L]

Let's say I'm living in the 50s (or even the 60s-80s), and want I want to be well-read on firearms (cowboy action shooting, collecting, hunting, defensive shooting, etc). What gun magazines were a must read, or at least, can someone inform me of what magazines were popular at the time?

Good question. A half decent response would require a long magazine article to answer. I really can't tell you about the the 1950s and 1960s since they were before my time. For the 1970s the main magazines were Guns & Ammo, Hunting, Gun World, and Guns Magazine. Guns Magazine was where I first read Mas Massad Ayoob articles that emphasized civilian judicious use of deadly force and legalities. In the late 1970s Soldier of Fortune Magazine hit the scene, which reviewed military style handguns and longarms that you might not have found elsewhere. Before that you would indeed find articles on the In the late 1970s Guns & Ammo had a survival column with Mel Tappen that also covered some military styled semi auto longarms and handguns. Then things took off with a larger number of magazines in the 1980s, with SWAT magazine launching in 1982 which I consider to be the best of the breed for articles on firearms and training.

I am simplifying it. Here is a link to a PDF of Guns Magazine from December of 1964 where they review the commercial semiauto AR-15 for civilian sales on p. 20: . https://gunsmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/G1264.pdf.

And here is link from Guns Magazine from 1956 with articles on The Guns of Teddy Roosevelt, on old west gunfighters--"Could Gunfighters Really Shoot?" and "Are Pistol Champs Alcoholics? on p. 24 by Col. Charles Askins: "I have seen pistol shooters so drunk that they could not hit the ground with their hat — but boy could they hit the bull's-eye!" : https://gunsmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/G0156.pdf

Here is a link to a bunch more issues of Guns Magazine from the 1950s to the early 1970s: https://gunsmagazine.com/guns-magazine-classic-issues/

If we are talking about great people who write about guns, don't forget Ken Hackathorn.

[1Rangemaster]

Jeff Cooper was pretty prolific(and opinionated, but still entertaining). By Cooper:
*Principles of Personal Defense - I believe it's available online, just scanned in. I have a little copy from the 1980s I reread every year or so.
*Cooper on Handguns - Published by Guns&Ammo, it's a snapshot of practical shooting in late 70s and 80s.
He wrote a monthly newsletter and the compilations are available on the Gunsite website- "Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip"
There are other great books there too.
My friend R. Walt Rauch(RIP) wrote a lot for Combat Handguns magazine. His little book, "What has worked for me" is a nice description of Eastern US carry pistols and techniques.
Chuck Taylor(RIP)wrote "Combat Handgunning" which was his take on the Modern Technique.

"Shooting to Live" by Richard Fairbairn was to me a fascinating little book about combat shooting in Shanghai in the 1920s/30s. His work filtered into WW2 and influenced a man named Rex Applegate who wrote "Kill or get Killed" which has the shooting techniques of the time.
Have some good reads...

Edit to add: look at some of the YouTube Wilson "MasterClass" video for great viewing of Ayoob and Hackathorn.

[Borderland]

Let's say I'm living in the 50s (or even the 60s-80s), and want I want to be well-read on firearms (cowboy action shooting, collecting, hunting, defensive shooting, etc). What gun magazines were a must read, or at least, can someone inform me of what magazines were popular at the time?

It is difficult to get a hold of good information on guns (I only recently learned about the LAPD grip makers: Farrant, Hurst, and Hogue), and what information is easily avalible is usually inaccurate or too simplified for my tastes. A decent chunk of it isn't even avalible online, so I often have to search for discontinued books and old publications at shows and online auctions.

Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, Sports Afield, Shooting Times, Fur Fish and Game, Guns and Ammo and The American Rifleman are some I remember from the 60's-70's. I don't think Cowboy action shooting was a thing 50-60 years ago. I don't remember reading about it, if it was.

[BN]

Wooosh If you want old magazines, here they are. Just come to Eastern Ohio and haul them away. Probably start around the early 1970s and go from there. Also Combat Handguns, Guns, and some others. I just grabbed some from the top of the pile when I took the pictures.

100750100751

[Jim Watson]

It is hard to imagine, but once upon a time, the print periodicals were good sources of information.
I watched Guns & Ammo go downhill.

Some of the less well known authors I like are Henry Stebbins, Jan Stevenson, and Ray Ordorica.

[Navin Johnson]

Other than a few of the respected writers mentioned above

The 80s and 90s periodicals we’re just rehashing all the shit that had been said before and most of the writers were shills for products because they get paid by how many articles they write and he can’t write an article if somebody won’t give you something to review

Terminal ballistics of handguns became huge during this time, and every writer seem to be a scientist and re-told folklore stories about certain calibers. Also had goat tests and the garbage Ed Sanow put out was treated as gospel with these magazines. Cor-Bon likely wouldn’t have existed if they didn’t pay magazine writers to espouse their 115 grain fragmenting 9 mm bullshit.

Not that this doesn’t happen in today’s world, but there is ways to check and do research that didn’t exist back then.

So other than a few above mentioned writers, there’s nothing to really learn, unless this is just for nostalgia and fun.

[Welder]

Other than a few of the respected writers mentioned above

The 80s and 90s periodicals we’re just rehashing all the shit that had been said before

This might be true for mainstream stuff, but Precision Shooting and The Accurate Rifle (both
the same publisher) were definitely exceptions. I got started with PS in the late 90s and with TAR as soon as it came out. There was a really short -lived tactical mag too, which I never subscribed to.

The writers and topics in these were varied, but most were technical and all were interesting. They're worth searching for on eBay and used racks. I'd sell most of my guns before I gave up these mags. Can't think of anything better for fireside reading on a dreary winter day.

[okie john]

The 80s and 90s periodicals we’re just rehashing all the shit that had been said before

The 1986 FBI Miami shootout ushered in an era of scientific inquiry into terminal ballistics, so this has been greatly reduced, at least as far as terminal ballistics for handguns go. Still plenty of bullshit to go around, though.


Not that this doesn’t happen in today’s world, but there is ways to check and do research that didn’t exist back then.

The internet has radically democratized access to expert information. Yes, there's a huge amount of bad information online, but you can find bona fide experts on any number of topics who don't publish anywhere but on forums like this. It's driven a huge change in how products are marketed--it's much harder for manufacturers to sell the old, tired bullshit any more, and to make claims that are barely true.


So other than a few above mentioned writers, there’s nothing to really learn, unless this is just for nostalgia and fun.

Sadly, this. Definitely beware of old load data. Things change, including our understanding of how things actually work.


Okie John

[JHC]

IIRC, Col. Charles Askins, Jr. was published before WWII. His dad, Charles Sr., was one of the great gun writers before that. Elmer Keith early on, of course. Charles "Skeeter" Skelton began writing for publication in the mid-50s if I recall. Jeff Cooper's work first appeared in print in the latter 1950s. My first gun magazine article appeared in the February 1971 issue of GUNSport, and John Taffin, Jon Sundra, and others currently writing were in print ahead of me. There's a lot of crossover. And take heed to what Okie John said about the editors: they were the gatekeepers who determined what was going to be published. I wouldn't know what year, or even what decade, to place a demarcation line.

Sometime between 1988-1990 (?) I submitted an article to Combat Handguns titled the Hidden Advantages of Appendix Carry.
It was based on access, guarding it with your forearm, carry in NPE's, carrying around toddlers with lots of bending over, and included safety during certain physical activity such as "flip falls" which I was doing in old style jujitsu training. But alas I got a letter that it "did not meet our editorial criteria". Oookay. :D Good times.

[Borderland]

Sometime between 1988-1990 (?) I submitted an article to Combat Handguns titled the Hidden Advantages of Appendix Carry.
It was based on access, guarding it with your forearm, carry in NPE's, carrying around toddlers with lots of bending over, and included safety during certain physical activity such as "flip falls" which I was doing in old style jujitsu training. But alas I got a letter that it "did not meet our editorial criteria". Oookay. :D Good times.

Anything you write won't be rejected here. Of course you won't get paid for it either. ;)

[JHC]

Anything you write won't be rejected here. Of course you won't get paid for it either. ;)

It's all been done now. lol

[Mas]

JHC: Try again. New editors now.

[JHC]

JHC: Try again. New editors now.

It's all been said a thousand times now. ;)

[Mas]

It may have all been said before, but as @BBI has noted, there are new people by the millions who haven't read it yet...and it never hurts the rest of us to be reminded and even affirmed.

[Dave Williams]

My favorites over the years were: Mas, Col Cooper, Seyfried, writings by Linebaugh and John Ross and Bill Bagwell and Jim Cirillo, Ordorica, Keith, Lamb, Kokalis. I’m sure I’m missing some.

[Wooosh]

Wooosh If you want old magazines, here they are. Just come to Eastern Ohio and haul them away. Probably start around the early 1970s and go from there. Also Combat Handguns, Guns, and some others. I just grabbed some from the top of the pile when I took the pictures.

100750100751

Thanks for the offer, but I'm afraid that I have been much too busy lately to drive to Ohio and back.

[okie john]

It's all been said a thousand times now. ;)

For some readers, your slant might make an old topic new again.


Okie John

[willie]

George Nonte, Dean Grennell, Jack O'Connor, Parker O. Ackley, J. D. Jones, and Ned Roberts are other writers from decades past.

[BN]

Thanks for the offer, but I'm afraid that I have been much too busy lately to drive to Ohio and back.

Thanks for the answer back.

OK, offer's now open to anybody who wants some classic pieces of history. ;)

[EDW]

A plug for Mark Moritz — the Claude Werner of the 1980s.

In the late 70’s the only two writing consistently and well about the use of firearms as weapons were Cooper and Ayoob. Generalizing, Cooper gave you the way it should be, and Mas gave you the way it was. Most of the good stuff since then has been derivative of these two standouts.

Yesterday, I perused the magazine rack at the local Barnes & Noble. The gun section was a sea of “tactical” publications but I didn’t see anything I thought worth buying, even at the 40 percent discount on everything in stock. It is sad to witness the death of a bookstore. On the bright side, they still had a copy of Yunger’s Storm of Steel.

The old books will likely be available well into the future, but there was a lot of useful info published in the periodicals that may be lost because, increasingly, it just becomes effectively inaccessible.

[Jim Watson]

I went 'round and 'round with Mark Moritz in his time at AH. (Didn't he move on to be a lawyer?)
He had a column in which he would frequently make fun of errors and exaggerations in other periodicals.
So just for fun, I started sending in the errors and exaggerations I found in AH.
He said I didn't understand.

[EDW]

I had forgotten about that column. I was thinking of his stuff in CH.

As a Gunsite guy he wanted to carry his Commander, but as a lawyer living in the desert he was often reduced to a J-frame. The eternal see-saw of concealed carry. Many are similarly conflicted.

[Horseman]

As an impressionable kid growing up in the 70's and 80's, I was heavily exposed to the writings of Col. Cooper and the rest of the Guns and Ammo masthead of that era, as well as the American Rifleman.

I read these at the local library, as my parents weren't really gun nuts back then.

Later, my horizons expanded with publications like SWAT, Guns and Weapons for Law Enforcement, Soldier of Fortune, and Fighting Firearms. I eagerly read stuff by Peter Kokalis, Ken Hackathorn, Massad Ayoob, Chuck Karwan, Gary Paul Johnston, Jim Wilson, and a whole host of others.

This pretty much spoiled any of my chances at leading a "normal life"... :rolleyes:

[willie]

George Nonte may have been the most prolific writer. I studied his writings on hand loading as a young man and occasionally corresponded with him. The American Hand Gunner magazine originated an "Outstanding Hand Gunner Award" in Nonte's name. Mas was its first recipient.

[Tamara]

I love reading older stuff, and some stuff that's technically not all that old...

I guess Mas will get tickled by this older blog post (https://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2011/09/wokachika-wokachicka.html)...

Recently at McKay's, I picked up a copy of Law Enforcement Handgun Digest, 3rd Edition, circa 1980, and that soundtrack practically wafts up off every page.

Wow, Massad Ayoob looks young!

Jeff Cooper, on the other hand, was already old, but as far as I can remember, he always was.

[Tamara]

A plug for Mark Moritz — the Claude Werner of the 1980s.

In the late 70’s the only two writing consistently and well about the use of firearms as weapons were Cooper and Ayoob. Generalizing, Cooper gave you the way it should be, and Mas gave you the way it was. Most of the good stuff since then has been derivative of these two standouts.

Yesterday, I perused the magazine rack at the local Barnes & Noble. The gun section was a sea of “tactical” publications but I didn’t see anything I thought worth buying, even at the 40 percent discount on everything in stock. It is sad to witness the death of a bookstore. On the bright side, they still had a copy of Yunger’s Storm of Steel.

The old books will likely be available well into the future, but there was a lot of useful info published in the periodicals that may be lost because, increasingly, it just becomes effectively inaccessible.

As someone who has a pretty good selection of periodicals from the last forty-plus years for reference material, I gotta say that the rose-tinted glasses of memory seem to cause people to forget that Sturgeon's Law, like the poor, will always be with us.

[Jim Watson]

Sturgeon's Law

That is a pretty old reference all by itself.

[Tamara]

That is a pretty old reference all by itself.

Not as old as Matthew 26:11. ;)

[Jim Watson]

Not as old as Matthew 26:11. ;)

Yes, but I was around for Sturgeon's comment, not St Matthew's.

[Tamara]

Yes, but I was around for Sturgeon's comment, not St Matthew's.

1951 was a little before my time. :o

[LittleLebowski]

I'm trying to remember who wrote it in the 80's (I think Ross Seyfried), but there was a great story about an Africa hunt gone wrong when a guide accidentally double loaded a 4 gauge. I'd love to read it again.

[Half Moon]

I'm trying to remember who wrote it in the 80's (I think Ross Seyfried), but there was a great story about an Africa hunt gone wrong when a guide accidentally double loaded a 4 gauge. I'd love to read it again.

Probably not this one but maybe:

https://safariclub.org/stopping-power/

Finn Aagaard is a name I'd forgotten...

[Jim Watson]

I'm trying to remember who wrote it in the 80's (I think Ross Seyfried), but there was a great story about an Africa hunt gone wrong when a guide accidentally double loaded a 4 gauge. I'd love to read it again.

Key line: Renowned hunter Frederick Courtenay Selous said in his book “A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa” that “…the 4-bore guns kicked most frightfully and, in my case, the punishment received has effected my nerves to such an extent as to have materially influenced my shooting ever since, and I am heartily sorry I ever had anything to do with them.”

[BN]

The magazines back in the day had a lot of articles about rifles, shotguns and hunting. Very little about handguns and self defense. The only handgun game was PPC. Handgun Silhouette came later.

Very few states had a method for legal concealed carry. It was a different time.

[Tamara]

Here’s a “generations” thing that amused me.

When I was writing the “Good Guys Win” column in S.W.A.T. Magazine in the mid ‘Teens, I sent in a photo with each column. One month I sent one that I thought looked artsy in B&W.

Denny Hansen emailed me back and pointed out that one of the first things Rich Lucibella did when he bought the mag back in ‘01 or so was to take it all color from cover to cover. (Like Combat Handguns back in the day, S.W.A.T. used to be a few glossy color pages in the middle with the rest being B&W on pulp.) Color was expensive and there was no way the mag was going to put a B&W photo in there.

“Can you send it in color?” Denny asked.

“Oh, sure,” I replied, “I have the original file right here.”

“Digital makes such a difference. Back in the old days ,” he told me “we’d sometimes get the film back right before we had to send everything in and one time I noticed that I’d laid out a nice shot of a test pistol on a table without noticing that there was a whisky bottle clearly visible in the background at the edge of the frame and there was no time to reshoot it.”

God bless Photoshop.

[Jim Watson]

I remember when Handloader and Rifle went to inside color, and increased the Me and Joe Went Hunting articles.
I complained but the editor explained that was what it took to get advertising and newsstand sales.

Much earlier, Analog Science Fiction went from digest size to full size so as to garner advertising in the standard periodical format. After a couple of years, they changed back, saying that they did not get enough advertising to support the large format because the advertisers did not believe their readership survey. None of that Buck Rodgers stuff could possibly have an audience so highly educated and highly paid. Right.

[BN]

The magazines back in the day had a lot of articles about rifles, shotguns and hunting. Very little about handguns and self defense. The only handgun game was PPC. Handgun Silhouette came later.

Very few states had a method for legal concealed carry. It was a different time.

I found this "Right to Carry" gif today.

https://www.handgunlaw.us/images/right-to-carry-history.gif

[Wease]

What are the defining characteristics and differences between the various "gun writer generations" and how have they influenced firearms journalism and gun culture as a whole?