Looking Back on 1955

A Stable of Thoroughbreds

Editors make a magazine and publisher George von Rosen knew it. Over the years, the various helmsmen steered the magazine to excellence. They, in turn, knew the writers made the magazines, too. Over the years Guns hosted the work of the men we now consider the great past masters of gun writing — Elmer Keith. Col. Charles Askins, Jr. Major George C. Nonte. Bill Jordan. Under his given name of Charles Skelton, “Skeeter’s” first article appeared in Guns. Jan Stevenson, whom Nonte himself called “the most erudite of gun writers.” Col. Rex Applegate. John Taffin, Mike Venturino, Mark Hampton, Tiger McKee, Will Dabbs and many others. Being primarily a handgunner, I focused mainly on these writers.

I met all of them eventually. Keith, in a receiving line in the mid-’70s in Chicago where he didn’t know me from Adam but gave a crushingly powerful “.44 Magnum” handshake and yes, he had the 10-gallon hat on. Charlie Askins was affable and never withheld an answer from a question. I learned a lot from him. I met Bill Jordan in the mid-’70s at a police training seminar where he picked me to be the victim of his famous quick draw demo, and I took the opportunity to interview him as an introduction to his new position as Shooting Editor at Guns. He became a mentor and wrote the foreword for my first book in 1978, Fundamentals of Modern Police Impact Weapons, where he made the classic statement “it’s easier to convince the court that you didn’t shoot your opponent too much than that you didn’t hit him too hard.”

Nonte was a veritable encyclopedia of the gun and friendly in person. Likewise Col. Applegate: He and I disagreed on point shooting but he could “disagree without being disagreeable.” Skelton was a wonderful guy and his stories were even better in person. Venturino was surprisingly shy and humble when I met him. Mark Hampton and I corresponded but never met face to face; we once tested the same gun for two different magazines and he got better groups than I did. Sadly, none of them are still with us.

At this writing, fortunately, Taffin, Dabbs, Miller, Anderson and Stevenson still are. Taffin in person is the exact same classic gentleman you see in his writing, and Dabbs, the same happy-go-lucky but knowledgeable guy you sense in his work. Anderson and Miller are both all-around gun guys and good guys. Jan Stevenson went on to produce the outstanding Handgunner magazine in Great Britain before the anti-gunners killed it there. In person, he is brilliant and a ton of fun to be with. Which leads me to …