Best and worst hunting/outdoor writers

[Elkmagnet]

You guys have hit the classics.
5 pages in with no mention of Guy Eastman.
Must be middle of the pack.

 

[mountainboat]

There are some great recommendations in here. Any recommendations on where to start with Ruark?

Near the top of my list is “Horns in the High Country” by Andy Russell. Andy Russell’s life story is incredible and he intertwined his sheep hunting stories with his research on sheep very well. I read his book before bed and had vivid dreams of sheep country each night. Highly underrated in my opinion. He wrote another book on grizzlies that I’m hoping to get to soon.

 

[Irrelevant]

Anyone have suggestions for hunting/fishing poetry? Maybe a compilation?

 

[Maverick1]

Ron Spomer? He's got some real knock down power behind him and quite a bit of down range energy & wallop. Something like that!

Geez, gone are the days when the hunting and shooting magazines used to arrive in the mailbox.

 

[Deleted member 16864]

WTF are you smoking? Way near the bottom of my list! Terrible! 0 stars. #NotWinning

Well, you’re nowhere near the top……

 

[Deleted member 16864]

I was doing a little reading earlier and it got me wondering who the good folks on here think are some of the better and worst outdoor authors past and present. Who is the best? Is it O’Connor?
I like Duncan Gilchrist He was no literary genius, compared to others, but that simple, matter of (questionable) factness is also why I like him.

And for the worst, is it Ron Spomer or Craig Boddington?

Keith and O’Connor are really the only two that really matter, although there are many others who are relevant.
Hemingway and Ruark are the other two that matter, but in different/similar ways as the other two.

 

[F250]

Just got my January/February copy of Bugle. Notice advising this is the last Rifles and Cartridges column by Wayne Van Zwoll. Going to miss him. Always the first section I flip through to read. Love his style. Grew up waiting for Outdoor Life to arrive each month and soak up Jack O’Connor !

 

[Lou (Louis)]

Kind of surprised nobody has mentioned Col. Tom Kelly, author of The Tenth Legion. I guess it's just an east coast turkey hunting thing.

I'm west coast, and he is my favorite turkey author. Right near the top of the list of all hunting books

 

[Salmonchaser]

Well I skimmed this thread from beginning to end, again. Some writers I still need to follow up on. I have yet to read anything by Rinella though I do enjoy his shows.

 

[brymoore]

Well I skimmed this thread from beginning to end, again. Some writers I still need to follow up on. I have yet to read anything by Rinella though I do enjoy his shows.

Rinella doesn’t rank top 25.

Spooner, whom I have met a time or two, gets my living rifle author vote.

Dead - Ted Trueblood is my favorite Idaho author.

 

[Irrelevant]

There's getting to be a pile of unknown authors who are getting published writing stories that are too emotional, too touchy feely, too fake. Bha mag, along with a few others, are where I see it the most.

 

[Kimber7man]

I rank John Barsness up there - possibly because I started my rifle looneyism back in 2006 about when I found 24hourcampfire (it was good then)

Also enjoyed Richard Mann and Steve Timm's articles. RIP Dogzapper.....

 

[brymoore]

I rank John Barsness up there - possibly because I started my rifle looneyism back in 2006 about when I found 24hourcampfire (it was good then)

Also enjoyed Richard Mann and Steve Timm's articles. RIP Dogzapper.....

Barnes’s is great. I’ve bought a bunch of his books. Optics expert

 

[BobT1105]

I have often told people that Jack O’Connor taught me to read, I still enjoy his writing. I always respected the writing of Warren Page. Bob Milek was a favorite and got me started on handgun hunting. Jim Corbet and John Hunter are up there too. As far as worst, Jim Zumbo leads the pack, Ron Spomer is pretty dry and spends a lot of time rehashing old topics. I don’t care for Larry Weishun or however you spell it in the least.

 

[Bonasababy]

Gotta assign categories.

Sig Olson and Aldo Leopold

O Connor and Carmichael for gun writers

Then there's the comedy where McManus was hard to beat..

Locally, the late Gary Clancy

Regionally, the late Tony Dean

 

[Nameless Range]

Anyone have suggestions for hunting/fishing poetry? Maybe a compilation?

I really like Abraham Lincoln’s poem, “The Bear Hunt”. Kind of cool cause a president wrote it, kind of cool cause it’s a good poem.


The Bear Hunt, [6 September 1846]


A wild-bear chace, didst never see?
Then hast thou lived in vain–
Thy richest bump of glorious glee,
Lies desert in thy brain–

When first my father settled here,
'Twas then the frontier line:
The panther's scream, filled night with fear
And bears preyed on the swine–

But wo for Bruin's short lived fun,
When rose the Squealing cry;
Now man and horse, with dog and gun,
For vengeance, at him fly–

A sound of danger strikes his ear;
He gives the breeze a snuff:
Away he bounds, with little fear,
And seeks the tangled rough–

On press his foes, and reach the spot
Where's left his half munched meal;
The dogs, in circles, scent around,
And find his fresh made trail–

With instant cry, away they dash,
And men as fast pursue;
O'er logs they leap, through water splash,
And shout the brisk halloo–

Now to elude the eager pack,
Bear shuns the open ground;
Though matted vines, he shapes his track
And runs it, round and round–

The tall fleet cur, with deep-mouthed voice,
Now speeds him as the wind;
While half-grown pup, and short-legged fice,
Are yelping far behind–

And fresh recruits are dropping in
To join the merry corps
With yelp and yell,—a mingled dim–
The woods are in a roar–

And round, and round the chace now goes,
The world's alive with fun;
Nick. Carter's horse, his rider throws,
And More, Hill drops his gun–

Now sorely pressed, bear glances back,
And lolls his tired tongue;
When is, to force him from his track,
An ambush on him sprung–

Across the glade he sweeps for flight,
And fully is in view–
The dogs, new-fired, by the sight,
Their cry, and speed, renew–

The foremost ones, now reach his rear,
He turns, they dash away;
And circling now, the wrathful bear,
They have him full at bay–

At top of speed, the horse-men come,
All screaming in a row.
"Whoop! Take him Tiger– Seize him Drum–"
Bang– bang– the rifles go–

And furious now, the dogs he tears,
And crushes in his ire–
Wheels right and left, and upward rears,
With eyes of burning fire–

But leaden death is at his heart,
Vain all the strength he plies–
And, spouting blood from every part,
He reels, and sinks, and dies–

And now a dinsome clamor rose,
‘Bout who should have his skin;
Who first draws blood, each hunter knows,
This prize must always win–

But who did this, and how to trace
What's true from what's a lie,
Like lawyers, in a murder case
They stoutly argufy

Aforesaid fice, of blustering mood,
Behind, and quite forgot,
Just now emerging from the wood,
Arives upon the spot–

With grinning teeth, and up-turned hair–
Bruin full of spunk and wrath,
He growls, and seizes on dead bear,
And shakes for life and death–

And swells as if his skin would tear,
And growls and shakes again;
And swears, as plain as dog can swear,
That he has won the skin-

Conceited whelp! we laugh at thee–
Nor mind, that not a few,
Of pompous, two-legged dogs there be,
Conceited quite as you–

 

[17remhunter]

Keith and O’Connor are really the only two that really matter, although there are many others who are relevant.
Hemingway and Ruark are the other two that matter, but in different/similar ways as the other two.

Second on Keith and O’Connor. I grew up with those two guys. Did a paper in College Topic was two writers who write on the same topics with apposing viewpoints. Keith considered the .270 to be a varmint rifle maybe good for Antelope. While Keith favored the .333 OKH as a deer rifle.

 

[Jbotto]

Gotta assign categories.

Sig Olson and Aldo Leopold

O Connor and Carmichael for gun writers

Then there's the comedy where McManus was hard to beat..

Locally, the late Gary Clancy

Regionally, the late Tony Dean

That’s a good list! thanks for including Gary Clancy! I remember reading a few of his books from the library in middle school. His columns in MN Outdoor News were always worth reading too.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Good to see this thread fire back up a little, need something new to read.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

I rank John Barsness up there - possibly because I started my rifle looneyism back in 2006 about when I found 24hourcampfire (it was good then)

Also enjoyed Richard Mann and Steve Timm's articles. RIP Dogzapper.....

I’ll prly never read another Mann book after this one. Failing to mention the .280AI is unconscionable when writing about 50 hunting cartridges. I’d understand if it were just 10, but 50? C’mon man.

Basically felt like I was reading a compilation of magazine cartridge reviews.

He also called the .30-06 a pedophile cartridge and his disdain for it grew once he found out a guy he knew that loved the cartridge was a pedo. I’m not really a fanboy of any cartridge but to do the classic .30-06 like that was just wrong.