Which old time gun writer?

[protoolman]

So over the years I saw a reference to one of the old writers. Askins? Something about saying shooters who couldn't handle heavy recoil of one caliber or another, 44 mag? Were likely to wear pink panties. I'm sure I've hopelessly misquoted the line but i'd like to get it straight.

 

[41Dude]

I absolutely remember that. I do not remember the exact quote.

 

[Johnnu2]

I had an uncle who would talk like that.... He looked like John Wayne and was even a Lt.Cmdr. (in the RESERVES).... nobody liked him and his opinionated style of communications caused him a life time of strife. We think it was genetic and fortunately "missed a generation"

J.

 

[Bob Wright]

It was indeed Col. Askins, and the comment was to the effect, "... they must have lace on their drawers."

I think that article was either in a Gun Digest or American Rifleman.

Bob Wright

 

[arfmel]

"This Magnum is a man's gun. It ain't for boys. Word reaches me that some joes, probably with lace on their panties, are putting on gloves to shoot it."

Col. Charles Askins Article | Single-Actions

I know everyone will start yelling "copyright", but I really want to post this one. A forum member emailed it to me and it's a great read from the 1950's. http://i192.photobucket.com/albu

singleactions.proboards.com

I believe he was referring to an article written by Jack O'Connor, who Askins detested.

 

[BULL'S-EYE]

Speaking as a repentant sinner...His book Unrepentant Sinner is required reading as far as I'm concerned.

 

[41Dude]

Different era. I think I can find the article from Bill Jordan. He said something about female LEO'S and the .357. He said they would be better served with a .22 mag revolver. I suppose because women are so dainty. He had never met my wife lol.

 

[gnappi]

Funny... today he'd be sued for hurting someone's feelings.

I was in a gun store and I overheard a snippet of conversation between a salesman and a lady customer... "I don't like drag races" and I said "How do they run in those high heels"

Everyone in earshot cracked up,

 

[Watertender]

Charles Askins and Bill Jordan were 2 genuine bad dudes. I have Unrepentant Sinner and it's a hell of a book. The quote about killing 27 men not counting Blacks, Indians and Mexicans was very telling of that time in history. I also remember reading about Askins killing a German that was taking a dump because the German would crap in full view of the American lines during WW2.

 

[Jeepnik]

Something to remember. Most folks of my dad's generation and many of mine started working doing physical things when they were young. They built a kind of strength that all the gym workouts will never build. And it's a type of strength that doesn't fade if one quits "working out".

So, likely the folks that were being spoke of never did physical work. They thought they were tough, but in reality they did not have near the strength that daily hard work builds. And as to wearing gloves to shoot, most folks have even softer hands today than when that comment was made.

Look at your own hands, are they scarred, beat up, and callused? For most of today's younger generation the answer is a hard no. In fact the medical profession gets concerned when they see hands like mine.

A while ago I got another new primary care doctor. During our initial meeting he, in a somewhat alarmed manner, ask what was wrong with my hands. I looked at them and said nothing was wrong. He pressed that they had a number of cuts and scrapes. So I told him I had been working on my Jeep. He still didn't get it. But, he's young and he's learning. He did however insist that I get a tetanus shot as mine had been probably more than a decade ago.

 

[Goldstar225]

This was attributed to a 1957 Gun Digest article by Askins:

"A Man's Sixgun, A Field Report on the Ruger and S&W 44 Magnum" by Col. Charles Askins. In it he wrote "This Magnum is a man's gun. It aint for boys. Word reaches me that some joe's, probably with lace on their panties, are putting gloves on to shoot it. I hear that after a few shots your hands feel like you have been swinging at some fast balls with a cracked bat. How soft can you get? I shot the big .44 all afternoon and found the recoil nothing more than stimulating."

 

[Jack Ryan]

Do you suppose he needed a "bedroom gun", and EDC, hiking gun and a bear gun or he just carried a gun fit for a grown man and did it all with that one gun?

 

[DBnoise]

I liked Bob Milek. Rick Jamison was about as technical in his analysis as could be. Don't know if he would be considered old time,

 

[sceva]

Not a bad writer but I never liked him as well as Keith and both paled in comparison to Skeeter Skelton.

I will say that after reading "Unrepentant Sinner" I think that Mr. Askins liked shooting people. Good thing he was in Law Enforcement.

 

[Johnnu2]

I think there is a psych diagnosis code for him/that..... (?)

J.

 

[Don Lovel]

My buddy Tiger's mom was Askin's sister. He inherited a few of Askin's guns from the estate.
His memories of the Colonel was a grumpy old Rosie O'Donnel who was no fun to go shooting with or have to listen to his BS.

 

[Xrayist]

If you do some looking, after Askins wrote the "lace panties" article, he did a 180 and said that the recoil was excessive. I think it had something to do with his dislike, to put it midly, for Elmer Keith and his promotion of the 44 Magnum.

 

[contender]

"I liked Bob Milek. Rick Jamison was about as technical in his analysis as could be. Don't know if he would be considered old time,"

Rick Jamison did quite a bit of excellent technical info on reloading. I always enjoyed his work as well.

Bob Milek,, well,, he trashed the .357 Maximum,, and it was part of the reason Bill Ruger stopped production. People paid attention to Bob,, and decided their Maxi was "bad" and complained. Bill wasn't one to put up with such stuff,,, so he just stopped production,, AND scrapped about 5000 Maxi's.
Never could forgive Bob for that.

 

[gunzo]

There once was a gun writer that kind of came clean, or had a strong opinion of past gun writers. Said of one, he could shoot better stone cold drunk than most, & simply couldn't lay the bottle down. Another, the more he drank the better his stories got. And there was one, that he said was simply a psychopathic killer.
Hard to guess or judge on these things, but knew the first one, suspected the second, & the last was Askins no doubt, in his opinion. Not hard to agree.

 

[Don Lovel]

"I liked Bob Milek. Rick Jamison was about as technical in his analysis as could be. Don't know if he would be considered old time,"

Rick Jamison did quite a bit of excellent technical info on reloading. I always enjoyed his work as well.

Bob Milek,, well,, he trashed the .357 Maximum,, and it was part of the reason Bill Ruger stopped production. People paid attention to Bob,, and decided their Maxi was "bad" and complained. Bill wasn't one to put up with such stuff,,, so he just stopped production,, AND scrapped about 5000 Maxi's.
Never could forgive Bob for that.

357 Max chambering in a levergun never happened and it is a shame.