Skeeter Skelton

[Moondancer]

In the same vein as the thread on Massad Ayoob, who here reads / read Skeeter Skelton?

For sheer enjoyment, I have yet to find any gun writer that I think is as good. There's a lot that I like, but Skeeter could go anywhere from dead serious to comedy and handle them both with aplomb.

A long time ago I had a magazine issue put out by Guns and Ammo IIRC that was 100% Skeeter. I darn near wore it out and then lost it in a divorce. Darn, I miss that magazine!

The "Me and Joe" stories always brought a smile. I've never visited Texas, but there were a lot of things I could relate to growing up on a South Michigan farm in the Fifties.

His LE writings also gave me food for thought. It was partly due to his writing that I decided to try LE via the Reserve Deputy program in the county. While I eventually decided that I wouldn't care for it full-time, I liked it enough to put in 12 years as an unpaid Reserve.

Anybody else out there enjoy his writings?

 

[Jim V]

Skeet wrote for Shooting Times not G&A. I have the magazine you are talking about around here some place. I have both his books that get re-read every so often.

He was a lawman for a different era and we'll never see the like again.

 

[444]

Sure, I loved reading Skeeter Skelton. I have his books. I believe he wrote two and then his wife came out with a book after his passing. I have them all. I picked up a magazine in the store the other day. It is put out by Hodgdon and is sort of half magazine, half reloading data. It has a couple classic Skeeter articles in it.

 

[Moondancer]

Oops!

Jim V.,

You are absolutely right, it was Shooting Times, not Guns and Ammo.

ST had Skeeter, G&A had Cooper.

 

[Wil Terry]

THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT SKEETER SKELTON WAS THE

Mark Twain of gun writers. I too still get out his books for a good read on a cold snowy day. I never knew the man himself but have been friends with his son Bart for many years now.
Do you remember " A NEW COLT FOR A YOUNG BUCK" about 30 years ago in SHOOTING TIMES ? Some years ago Bart brought that COLT to the Holiday just so I could shoot it...still chokes me up thinking about it after all these years.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

Skeeter Skelton was the only reason I used to subscribe to Shooting Times.

 

[J Miller]

Skeeter Skelton was my all time favorite gun writer. When he died, I couldn't find anything other than Bill Jordan's articles to read in Shooting Times.
And since then I have bought very few issues of the magazine.
I have his book Skeeter Skelton on Handguns, and would love to find the other ones.

Does any body know what happened to that ivory gripped Colt NF .44 Special with the 4 3/4" barrel he seemed to have for such a long time? I've always wondered this.

 

[Jim V]

After Skeeter died his family had to sell most of his guns to help pay for his medical bills. The guns he had are scattered wide and far by now, at least most of them. I believe that Bart still has a few of them. BTW, Bart looks like he may shape up to ge a fair writer too.

 

[s&w 24]

He was a fine writer. I'm still lusting after a 5" 27 based on his writings when he had a series about if you could only have one gun. Between him and Elmer Kieth they got me hooked on44 special as well.

 

[ahenry]

Skeeter Skelton was one of my “gun†heroes. His writing was superb and the stories he told were only topped by those of Bill Jordan (although I think Skeeter wrote about them better), and the lessons he imparted were second to none. I have heard his son is a fine writer as well, but I don’t believe I have ever read anything by him other than a eulogy of his father.

 

[cheygriz]

For entertainment and enjoyment Skeeter had no equal, although Elmer Kieth came close.

For correct technical information, IMHO, Ross Seyfried has no equal, with Venturino a distant second.

The rest of them, Pearce, Taffin, Clapp, Milek, Cooper etc, IMHO, just sling outrageous B.S.

 

[mrstang01]

cheygriz,

I must object to your lumping John Taffin in with the rest of the gun writing bs slingers. I'm proud to say I'm also a member of sixgunner.com, and Big John posts there frequently. He's a low BS kind of guy, tells it like it is, and doesn't sugar coat it. Our own Terry Murbach will probably bounce in here with a reply if he sees this thread, but I have to take up for my Internet amigo.

Michael

 

[Butch]

I never knew Skeeter, but I live just 60 miles from where he grew up & I grew up here at the same time he was growing up. I lived most of his stories ,that he told about Me & Joe. They were all true & I wish he had lived to tell more because the life of a boy in this part of the world at that time was so rich , even when you were poor.
I have his books & read them often. The last two were done from magizene articles ,by the editors of shooting times to help pay his med bills.
Skeeter Skelton & Bill Jordan , Two giants in the gun writing arena , Don't think we will ever see the like , again.

 

[Archie]

Another Skeeter fan....

Skeeter was probably the widest of the handgun writers. He knew about hunting and target shooting and self defense from both a military and lawman standpoint.
And, as mentioned, he was good with words.
Saxon Pig made a good point; his stories and observations are probably not those to sell modern gun magazines. But he was a real man in a man's world.

I'd like to disagree with some of you: We will see his like again, but it won't be until things get lots worse and we have to clean up the place.

 

[Standing Wolf]

He was a pretty good gun writer and a top notch humorist.

 

[NewShooter78]

Are there any of his older pieces posted online? I'm somewhat new to the shooting world and I'm not up on the zines that are out there or most writers. Since all of you are singing his praise I wouldn't mind being able to check out some of his writings online if they are available.

 

[MountainPeak]

I have a friend that collects "Skeeter stuff". Thanks to my friend, I know he was one of the all time greats!!

 

[Drue]

Skeeter was great! We all know prototype Jug Johnsons. I would sure like to meet Dobe Grant. Unlike most of the writers, he was not always reviewing (pitching) the latest and greatest but he was a subtle and effective salesman. His articles caused to to buy my first Colt SAA. Then there was the 5" 27. Then there was. . . Oh Oh, gotta go now. The furnace is up to temperature and I have to go cast .44 spl slugs.

Drue

 

[Dave T]

Skeeter Skelton was the only reason I used to subscribe to Shooting Times.

Dotto that one for me too. And I haven't enjoyed a magazine subscription as much since.

I was fortunate enough to meet him twice. Once here in Tucson when he was a guest attraction at a local gunshop (Jensen's Custom Ammo) and again at the home friend of mine who was also a friend of his (this was in Silver City, NM).

My friend was the man who got me intrested in LE. Skeeter Skelton got me interested in 44 Specials. He was also responsible for my first duty weapon. My department wouldn't allow the 5" Model 27 he favored or allow my second choice, a 3.5" 27 (you know how bureaucrats can be) so to comply with department regs I ended up with a 4" Model 28, when most of my class chose the Model 19 instead.

I also developed a love for Flattop Rugers thanks to Skelton. He is still missed.

 

[oscar]

I have a safe full of guns and Skeeter is to blame. I started reading him right after he started with ST. I read his articles and looked at the pictures of those guns and just deamed and hoped. I do now have just about every gun Skeeter told me about. My first Smith was a 6 inch nickel 57 cause Skeeter liked the 41 and he did have a nickel 29. I have a BHP, a 4 inch 27, a 25 in 45 Colt, a nickel snub 19, a nickel 29, Gold Cup, SAA (clone) etc. I wish that I could write Skeeter and thank him for all the guns he "gave" me. I bid one one of this guns when he died, but I didnt win. I did get a very nice note from his wife thanking me for bidding. A couple of months ago or so, Skeeter came up on the Smith forum and several of us wrote nice things. Last week I got a email from his son, thanking me. Bart is a fine writer in his own right.

 

[Prodigalshooter]

Yeah, I liked his style too. He did have a knack with the language and taught me a lot through his articles. I wish I'd kept all the old copies I used to have, but they disappeared during one of our moves some years back. Good storytellers are very rare, we'll have to wait awhile to see another like him in a gun magazine.

 

[444]

"she must still be selling some of his guns. I am sure he had quite a few."

How about that hidden gun vault that Dobe Grant had with handguns hanging on the walls from floor to ceiling and the mint condition 1928 Thompson which Dobe was allowed to own because he was a special deputy.
You gotta believe Dobe Grant was patterned after someone Skeeter knew.

I started reading Skeeter when I was about 10-12 years old. Now thirty years later, I bet my mother would instantly recognize the name of Skeeter because I talked about him all the time as a kid. I remember talking her into reading some of his stuff because it was too good to pass up.


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q="Skeeter+Skelton"

 

[tex_n_cal]

I look over now and see a copy of "Skeeter Skelton on Handguns" a compilation of articles by Skeet. I used it to answer a question about Colt DA revolvers a few weeks ago.

I too grew up reading SS' s articles, and they are still enjoyable today. The man lived an interesting and honorable life, served the public, had his good times, and wrote well of it.

"...I got enough cash to last me. I got too many cows, and maybe too many guns. The guns are more fun than the cows, so I'm cutting the mama bunch in half, and I'm going to buy one of every new gun that comes out...."

(from The Legend of Dobe Grant 1980)



I still seek that 5.5" New Frontier Colt in .44 Special, that Skeet praised so highly.

But I did recently acquire a 5" M27. I think Sheriff Skelton would approve

 

[Prodigalshooter]

NICE Smith, Tex!
Skeeter would approve.

 

[Lone Star]

Skeeter was to handgunners what Jack O'Connor was to riflemen: a drolly witty scribe who gave enough technical detail to satisfy most readers, without seeming pompous in the process. He evoked the flavor of the Southwest, and his writing ran the gamut from game shooting (within reason) to defensive shooting on a realistic level, not as a competitive sport involving "raceguns". He didn't write mainly to "service the advertisers", although he made it pretty clear who his friends were in the industry. Bill Ruger owed him more than Mr. Ruger may have fully realized.

Jim Wilson tries, but he isn't Skeeter, in my opinion. He IS one of the best of the current crop of gun writers, and comes from the same area, and had some of the same experiences as Skeeter did.

Most gun writing today is a commercial wasteland. Keith had to be heavily edited, but he usually didn't write something unless he believed it to be true. He had generally tried it, too. He was scathing in his remarks about quality control in a speech at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas a few years before his stroke. He went overboard on heavy calibers in some contexts, and I think he disparaged the .270 in print largely out of jealousy for the much better educated, more literate Jack O'Connor. But Elmer was the real article. I enjoyed talking with him, and he wasn't one of the puffed-up toads that some other writers have been, while having done less than Elmer.

I talked with Skeeter Skelton only once, I believe, at the SHOT show. He was friendly and informal and seemed to enjoy our conversation, although he had trouble swallowing due to a throat obstruction. I believe it was during surgery for this that he later developed the complications that killed him.

He and O'Connor both wanted to be successful novelists, but excelled instead as gun writers. Ironic, perhaps, but they brought a lot of joy to many readers. I'm very pleased to have been among them.

I really must tip my hat here to Mike Venturino, who has done more of real value to the shooter/collector of Old West guns than any current peer. His books will be classics; his experience in his chosen realm is prodigious.

It's a pity that Terry Murbach isn't writing anymore, now that he's got a job at Cor-Bon.

Lone Star