Due to the fact that I'm cheap and love to read, I'm always hitting up used book stores for something to read. Today I went to a store I've never been to before and hit the jackpot. Looking through their hunting section I couldn't believe it when I saw a copy of Elmer Keiths "Hell, I Was There!" sitting on the shelf. Needless to say it followed me home along with a copy of Handgun Hunting by Nonte & Jurras and Metallic Silhouette Shooting by Elgin Gates. Being cheap can pay off sometimes!

All 3 can make you feel all warm and fuzzy on a rainy day. I've gone cover to cover on each of them several times.

I've been trying to find a deal on Hell, I was there. Good find!!!!

Thats a good read. Elmer was and is my hero. I read his book "Hell I was there" Like 20 times. Still get excited about it.

Lars

Damm good score.....Great reading.....

COOL! I have read 2 of the 3. I have the IHMSA Handloads book. Guess I need to add the Gates book to the must get list. We really need to make a list of "must" read books for handgunners.

Another set of good books to read are Skeeter Skelton's.

Awesome book. Still looking for my copies. LOL

Great finds pab1.
I remember finding my dad's copy of "Hell, I was There!" when I was 9 yrs old. That sure is tough reading for a 9 yr old, but I re-read that book many times with amazement and fondly remember the absolute adventure contained in it's pages and how much of an impression that made upon me at that age. While all the other kids read Dr. Suess and such, I had my Elmer Keith. I still own and re-read that same copy. Great book.

Wow great find, there is no one better to pen a story than Elmer Keith, I have his book and like the rest have gone cover to cover, then hit the highlights over again..Good reading, ElDee

Thats a good idea Tig! I would recommend the following:

Hunting For Handgunners by Larry Kelly & J.D. Jones
Handgun Hunting by Mark Hampton
Successful Handgun Hunting by Phil Johnston
The Ultimate Guide to Handgun Hunting by Clair Rees
Handgun Hunting by George Nonte & Lee Jurras
And from what I have read so far I would have to add "Hell, I Was There!" by Elmer Keith

What do you guys recommend?

Those are great books. Good find. Read both several times. I really like the book by Elgin Gates. The reason is I knew and have a couple of XP's by one of the guys that is talked about building silhouette pistols back in the late sixties and early seventies. His name is Jack Dever. Three of his pistols are on page 130. I have the one in the top of the photo, a 7x250 Savage. It has a different stock now. The one pictured cracked. Also a couple of years before he passed he built a .223 XP for me. On page 85, the gentleman shooting prone is my neighbor, Royce Weddle, shooting one of Jack's pistols. He became the pistol instructor for our police dept. and after retirement he building custom .45's for Bulleye and other pistol competitions.
I need to get Elmer's book out and read it again.

Mike

From what I have seen, Mr. Dever did some very nice work!

Well lets see, all the ones you mentioned are good.

John Taffin has 5 books that I know of, all good, more history and loads than hunting.

~Single Action Sixguns
~Book of the 44
~Big Bore Handguns
~Big Bore Sixguns
~Action Shooting Cowboy Style


Skeeter Skelton's books are very entertaining. I have two and I think there might be a few more. Some are just a compilation of his articles.

~Good Friends, Good Guns, Good Whisky
~Hoglegs, Hipshots, Jalapenos


Hamilton Bowens book is a good read. Huge amount of info about building custom revolvers.

~The Custom Revolver


A fellow by the name of Ron Sabo put together a book on long range shooting and careful case preperation. It's hard to find. I know sscoyote got a bunch of them for us at SP a few years ago.

~Long Range Pistol Handbook

I'll have to look thru my books and see if there are any more worth mentioning.

The one book no one has mentioned is the seminal handgun hunting book by Al Georg - Pioneering Handgun Hunting . I know he was the real deal because he hunted mountain goats - the reason I started carrying a Contender into the mountains instead of a rifle. He also died here in Alaska years ago in a plane crash on his return from hunting - many of his photos from that trip survived the crash and were published in Outdoor Life (I believe - still have a copy of it somewhere).

Good luck finding a copy for under $300. I have a spare but hanging onto it for near term.

Also, if you want to read the initial recorded idea of a Contender type handgun, read Addison Powell Trailing and Camping in Alaska . He extolls the idea of handgun hunting and wishes aloud in writing that soemone would make a single shot longer barreled handgun in a cartridge like the .44-40. This was in 1909.

I have wanted a copy of Pioneering Handgun Hunting for a long time but its too much $$$. I'll keep checking those used book stores and maybe get lucky again! Powells book sounds interesting.

I came across a copy of Pioneering Handgun Hunting on EBay that started out at a price I could handle. Problem was that it ended up selling for a lot more than I thought a book was worth, at the time. Going by the prices I've seen it listed at since that first copy was a steal. Should have bit the bullet and gone for it at time. The Long Range Pistol book from Ron Sabo sounds like it might be a good read.
Geo