Who Was Your Influence?

[LeverGunner]

On another forum there was a thread about which gun writers have influenced you the most. It got me to thinking and I decided that for me, John Taffin is probably the most influential besides perhaps Frank C. Barnes. Barnes gave me a love of cartridges that has grown into a love of casting, reloading, and now cataloging cast bullets. I connect with Mr. Taffin's writings because his taste in guns are aligned with my own I think. I wrote an article a while back about my Two-Tone Ruger 44 Special, and how Mr. Taffin was the major influence for it, so I figured I'd share with everyone. levergunner.com/my-two-tone-single-action-sixgun

Thanks all for reading.

[bigbore5]

Taffin, Linebaugh, Keith. Can't say which one influenced me more. All have the philosophy of a big slug doing great things.

[contender]

At a young age,, I began reading outdoor & shooting magazines.

I have to say that Skeeter Skelton was the one I enjoyed the most & he caused me to invest in several handguns.

But I also enjoyed Bill Jordan, & Elmer. But the simple man philosophy of a working gun,, even when you tweak them or whatever combined with his unique storytelling style always captured my attention. The closest anybody has ever come to his style (in my opinion,) is Jim Wilson. I came to reading John Taffin's work later on & found him to be quite insightful.

Then in rifles, Jim Carmichael, Jack O'Conner, stood out. But the one person I always turned to for serious studying in reloading is Rick Jamison. Even though most of Rick's work involved rifles,, his lessons in how to reload, as well as the in-depth details he expressed are excellent.

I consider them my teachers,, and maybe one day I'll get to leave high school & go to college. I'm still learning!

[Encore64]

At one time, I couldn't wait to read what Ken Waters wrote next.

These days it's Brian Pearce. So much research goes into his reloading articles.

The finest guns are no better than what we feed them...

[gnappi]

We didn't get gun rags when I was a youngster so my early influences were my family and living in upstate New York where everyone was a rifleman.

Then after I moved to Florida I began to read Guns & Ammo and the usual suspects Ackley, Cooper, Jordan, Keith, Milek and more got me on the path of handgunning. But it was Ed McGivern's book "Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting" that influenced me the most. Then being a S&W aficionado Kuhnhausen's S&W shop manual pulled me into making the best out of my DA's.

It wasn't until the mid to late 80's that I got interested in single actions and I'm still learning but I'll admit to still not going gaga over minutia of their refinements and inner workings. Factory guns are more than sufficient for my needs.

[singleaction]

I’m only 49, and I didn’t really start reading gun rags with voracity until the early 90’s, but I was immediately influenced by John Taffin, John Barsness, Dave Scoville, and Ross Seyfried. After college, I discovered Brian Piearce, who has been a huge influence. Then there’s Finn Aagard and Phil Shomaker. A couple of friends I met after college were as big of an influence as any gun writer. One was friends with John Linebaugh, and his family, and he really got me into shooting single action revolvers. When I think of my favorite guns and rounds, there are often gun writers and influential friends I associate with them. Here’s my list of favorite rounds and the writers and friends that influenced me:

Rifle:
222 Remington- a friend
257 Roberts- John Barsness
7x57- John Barsness, Dave Scoville
30-30- one of my brothers
308- Finn Aagard, a friend.
30-06- Phil Shoemaker, a friend
9.3x62- John Barsness, Finn Aagard
45-70- Dave Scoville, Brian Pierce

Handguns:
45 Colt- a friend, John Taffin, John Linebaugh, Brian Pierce, Dave Scoville, and Ross Seyfried.
44 Special-John Taffin, Brian Pierce.
44 magnum- John Taffin, Brian Pierce

So many folks stand on the shoulders of Elmer, skeeter, O’Connor and others. While I’ve read books Keith and O’Connor, the gunwriters and gun loving friends of my era have been the most influential to me.

[pacecars]

I read everything I could get my hands on about guns so there are many. I would say Elmer Keith, Ross Seyfried, John Taffin, Bob Milek, Bill Jordan, Skeeter Skelton, Jon Sundra, Craig Boddington and anyone that wrote about hunting in Africa.

[Ken O'Neill]

JT, JD, Hoover and Mark Hampton are all good friends of mine. I met Keith, Jordan, Wooters, and Askins. I have learned something from all of them. I never met Skeeter Skelton, Jack O'Connor or Bob Milek, but I learned from them, too. McGivern's writing makes my head spin. Gotta be tough to get through it.
I think the key to learning is reading and studying all these guys, and others, too, then going out and shooting ... a lot.
About 1959, Elmer Keith got me going ....

[seminolewind]

Jeff Cooper when I carried a weapon as a peace officer. He woke a love for 1911s in me. JD Jones when I started hunting with handguns. He took me down a long TC Contender road. Mr. Taffin when I got serious about single actions.

[bigbrowndog]

As a kid growing up in Europe I was always drawn to the stories written by Texans, because that’s where I was going when the family left Europe. Wootters, Dalrymple, Brister, Swiggett, Askins, and others were my first inspirations. Carmichael, Keith, Jurras, later on, and then handgun wise Milek, Jones, Kelly, Seyfreid. Others enjoyed along the way include Aagard, Boddington, and Sundra.

Trapr

[Lee Martin]

My dad. Around age five I started watching him build guns. Damn near every style of firearm I ever got into was the result of him building one (TC barrels, Ruger conversions, custom bolt actions, levergun conversions, benchrest actions, etc, etc). 46 years later, I'm still watching him gunsmith and constantly learn something new.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[Deleted]

Bushhog inspires me. Thanks Greg.

Ive read John Taffin a lot, read a lot of Tank Hoover, Max Prasac's big bore handguns book, and Jeremy Cloughs articles with great pics of custom guns. Ross Seyfried big time. Skeeter Skelton is huge influence on many. But I guess being a kid through the 1990s, I missed him. Ive read all of Elmers stuff because I appreciate custom guns.

[jgt]

When I first started searching for gun related information, it was for reloading. I had no mentors to reach out to. When I discovered Skeeter Skelton, I first related to his stories about me and Joe because it mirrored my best friend Gary and my experiences. Then, his writing on tuning and reloading was also a big help. I discovered Elmer Keith and Ed McGivern from Skeeters writing. After Skeeter passed, It was John Taffin and Brian Pearce that I enjoyed reading. I learned to reload shotgun shells from books checked out of the local library. Next was revolver cartridges. They were easy to learn after shotgun shells. Rick Jamison was my go to guy for rifle reloading and I still remember his in depth article on proper gun cleaning. I have a Remington 700 30-06 I bought on lay-away from Oshman's in 1968. I was thinking about having it custom rebuilt when I read Rick's article on cleaning. I did as he instructed and the result was the gun grouping sub minute of angle. I thought I knew how to clean a rifle after having been in the service, but that article woke me up to my shortcomings. My love of all cartridges of 44 caliber came from my shooting experiences in deep south Texas.
Today I am learning to load and cast for the 45 acp 1911. I have antifa and BLM to thank for that.
I might add, Sixshot is one I hold in as high esteem as any famous gun writer I have ever read.

[38 WCF]

In High School (1971-1974) I would sluff a class and slip into the School Library. They had a subscription to Guns And Ammo magazine and I would turn strait to the Column written by Elmer Keith. I had a Ruger Blackhawk in 41 Magnum and he always had lot's of information on that cartridge. He was definitely my inspiration.

[magman]

Swiggett, Milek, Jones, Kelly, Wilson, and Weishuhn.