For the Skeeter fans

[HCM]

The reprints of Elmer Keith's body of work haven't done too well. Both men haven't been active writers in decades and wrote about topics not relevant to the majority of shooters. That said, the EK reprints were pretty basic paper-bound volumes at reasonable prices, so I wouldn't expect Skeeter's to be any different. The main issue is lack of sales potential.

How many people under 40 know these two guys and find their work relevant to the Glock and AR crowd?

Chris

Elmer Keith was a more of a technical writer. If you’re hand loading and handgun hunting there’s not much there.

While technically proficient, Skeeter was a writer /storyteller first, gun writer second. A significant chunk of his work would be entertaining to people who aren’t even that into guns. The downside is Skeeter is less well known than Keith.

[oregon45]

Keith wrote extensively about both hand-loading and hand-gun hunting. His book "Sixguns" (1955) has chapters on both subjects; his early book "Sixguns Cartridges and Loads" (1936) does as well. Although not a storyteller of the same caliber as Skelton, I don't think Keith's writing was "technical" in the sense that we would think today. The majority of "Sixguns," for instance, is Keith's stories about using revolvers in the field. One criticism that can be made of Keith's writing is that the technical points that remain relevant today often are buried beneath endless paragraphs of storytelling

[gato naranja]

I remember Skeeter Skelton from the days when Shooting Times was my most-looked-forward-to gun rag; Skeeter was one reason why. Elmer Keith was still occasionally contributing articles here and there, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to him for some reason. I ended up discovering a bit too late that I could have saved myself some gun buying/gun owning grief had I at least read Elmer Keith, Phil Sharpe, etc, and applied some of their common sense to my contemporary situations. People who haven't read Ed McGivern, George C. Nonte and Roy Dunlap are missing out on a treat even though a good deal of their information is more of historic value. Don't look for a lot of "tactical" in some of the old-timers' stuff, but there is certainly enough "practical" (Bill Jordan and Jeff Cooper were two who would probably be considered exceptions).

I am not sure if Skeeter's storytelling as a stand-alone would sell, but I think his shooting/LEO reminiscences and firearms information might do okay, and I base that at least a little bit on my personal assessment of Keith's "Hell, I was There!" versus "Sixguns."

If today's outdoor types can still read and enjoy Kephart and Nessmuk, there isn't any reason shooters can't do similarly.

[awp_101]

Both men haven't been active writers in decades and wrote about topics not relevant to the majority of shooters

Yet Charles Dickens and Jane Austen can stay in print...

[Stephanie B]

Yet Charles Dickens and Jane Austen can stay in print...

I blame English teachers who are too snooty to assign anything written after the invention of airplanes.

[SCCY Marshal]

One of my favorites

http://www.darkcanyon.net/The_Mama_Mia_Mishap.htm

Mine, too. I also liked this little tribute to Skeeter Skelton from Jim Wilson:

http://sheriffjimwilson.com/2014/06/...me-in-trouble/

[blake_g]

I dropped my subscription to Shooting Times when he passed.

Likewise...

[BobM]

I’m glad this thread came back up, It got me re reading the books again.

[Checkman]

The older writers are great. A few years ago I was at an estate auction. There were numerous firearms for sale, but what caught my fancy was the entire NRA Firearms Classic Library. All 133 books - some still in the plastic shrink-wrap! I got it for $150 dollars. I've gotten hours of enjoyment from those classic titles. That was a lucky find. Love the old timers. There are books by Elmer Keith, Phil Sharpe, John Taylor, Julian Hatcher, W.W Greener, Walter H.B. Smith, Edward Crossman and Townsend Whelen to name just a few. A photo of a few of the books in the NRA collection. Not my photo, but the books look the same.

[Jim Watson]

I didn't have Skeeter's books because I read most of the pieces as they came out in Shooting Times.
When they were selling off his guns after he died, I got the list but did not get off the dime and bid on anything.

I lost my books in the house fire of The Incident in 2010. I especially miss the autographed Keiths and my collection of The Handgunner, Ltd.