Who or what played the biggest influence on you 1.Becoming a handgun hunter and 2.Your caliber preference?My dad and Larry Weishuhn for becoming a handgun hunter and the late great Hal Swiggett and Elmer Kieth and Larry Kelly and JDJones for caliber.

Elmer Keith for both 1 & 2. I'm sure that my dads old SBH played a big role in my fascination with SA revolvers and the .44 mag round too.

becoming a handgun hunter stems from a long time love of handguns and the cartridge influences were Dick Casull and John Linebaugh.

No doubt my Dad for both. He shared his love of hunting and firearms of all sorts with myself and my two younger brothers since before we could walk. His biggest handgun when I was a kid was a SRH in .44 mag topped with a Leupold FX-II. Although not a big boomer by today's standards, I certainly remember thinking how big and bad that gun was that, at the time, I could barely hold out in front of me. Looking back to how I felt then, it seems almost comical now that I shoot a 18" long, six pound, scoped .460 Mag.

Bob Milek for me, I read all his stuff I could find and called him on the phone several times and he always was kind and had the time to answer my questions. After I got into the handguns pretty good, it was JD Jones.

I bought my first gun magazine in 1986 (I was 13). It was Guns and Ammo and it had an article about custom bigbore sixguns from Hamilton Bowen with the prettiest Grey Ruger Bisley in 500 linebaugh, if I remember right. From that moment I was hooked so I got every gun magazine I could about big bore revolvers. I noticed most were written by Ross Seyfried. It wasn't long before Ross became my favorite author. His articles formed my ideas of what a proper hunting revolver should be. I still remember his articles on shooting Cape Buffalo and Lions with his heavy 45, 475, and 500s, from then on my goal was to chase dangerous game with a revolver. To date I have taken a number of deer and hogs but this summer I will get my first chance to tackle buffalo with a revolver. In this case Water Buffalo but Cape Buffalo are schedule for 2011.

Elmer Keith got me started, but I've learned from a lot of others along the way.

My Grandfather taught everybody in the family how to shoot. He had a big tall pile of logs for a backstop and every other week he would have us out there shooting. He had a Virginian Dragoon and a 22lr, cant seem to remember what it was. Teaching right and wrong. My Dad took me out deer hunting when I was 12. I have been hooked ever since.

I know it sounds kinda cheezy but I found myself being very bored with rifles of shotguns. One day I looked up handgun hunting on the net and of course this site had came up. With my style of hunting, high up in the trees. This was very close to bow hunting, but of course with the shot distance not being an issue. Seemed to be much more comfortable way to hunt. Not lugging a long gun around. A hell of a challenge too!

my dad for making me get a 22 revolver before anything bigger. elmer keith. 44 mag still all ive needed so far

I really didn't have anyone get me started. My dad had a few handguns when I was growing up, but he didn't care much for hunting. I'm a self taught hunter. Took me about 10 years to get my first one. Never said I was a quick learner. I started putting more pieces in place,and now I'm pretty confident I'll put at least one a season in the freezer. Not a trophy hunter my any means, like the meat. after about a dozen I realized that the farthest deer I killed was about 60 yards, and most were within 30. I'm not even sure how I got into single actions, but I'll tell you this, my first one was a .45 blackhawk with a 5.5" barrell and I feel I got it right the first time. Rides on my hip all day, don't even know its there til I want it. I think with practice and the right opportunity I could shoot a deer at 50 yards. For now I like em within about 30. I know there a lot of guys better, but I like to keep things real, know my limitations, and not wound deer. I lost one, out of about 15 now, and I still feel it. In a way it was a good thing, now I put much more emphasis on practice and good close shots.

1. Bob Milek for sure.
2. Not really any one person, sort of figured that out for myself in terms of caliber and cartridges-had a lot of help along the way in the researching part of it though.

Started hunting at age five with my dad, he wasn't in to handguns but I always like them so when I got old enough to buy guns I bought a ruger single six, used it for plinking, I have bought several differant calibers since then, didn't get serious about hunting with a handgun until I joined this site
Ya know it's terrible to get old before you realize what's good in life

Nick

Bob Milek mostly.

For hunting big game with a handgun that would have to be Ross Seyfried & Bob Milek,but i've had a love afair with handguns from a very early age.My dad had a couple Ruger SA 22's he made his own holsters for, i used to love looking at.It was a great day when dad finally let me shot them,i think i was about five or six at the time. I have a large family and most of us hunt,but i'm the only one that hunts with a handgun,odd duck i guess.

Started handgun hunting at age 20 and i'm 47 now,and i get just as excided about it now as i did the very first time.

I always liked handguns but never thought about hunting with them. When I was stationed in Germany in 85, I read an article in a gun magazine about some guy hunting wild hogs with a handgun. After that I started to read Bob Milek.

Bob Milek was my biggest influence. I had hunted quite a bit of small game with handguns before he came onto the scene. But he was the one that peaked my interest in big bores and big game hunting.

I've always have liked handguns and wanted to try handgun hunting ever since I was 21. I would say that Larry Kelly had the biggest influence on me to start handgun hunting along with the caliber he used the most, the 44 magnum. My first 44 was a Ruger Super Blackhawk in stainless steel topped with a Leupold 2x scope. I really wanted one of those Ruger Super Blackhawk Stalker conversions, but didn't have enough cash.

The same as a lot of the others have put down
I would have to ad Skeeter Skelton
For me its all about the shooting the hunting is just a bonus that comes along once and awhile

no person in particular,just the understanding that the animal should have a fair chance,since i am getting older its not about the killing in numbers anymore,its the way ya get the kill.heavy cover,close stalk on public grounds always tells me there was a true effort involved.
caliber preference startedwith 44 mag and hasnt ended.several i own are my favorites now

Writers: Taffin and Jack O’Connor.

My main influence comes from my Dad. He would take me out twice a mouth shooting trodishinal Black Powder at the range. (Whitworth… my Dad taught me the advantages of shooting big boars at a young age. He loves his 54 flintlock!) He also taught me the meaning of one shot, one kill. His favorite handgun is a 686. And he has quite a collection of TC carbines… a few shorties. LOL

I have bowhunted all of my life and I love the up close incounters and the challenge it presants, that is what turned me on to handgun hunting,it has all of the challenges that bowhunting has. My biggest influences when I started hunting was Fred Bear and Chuck Adams.

For me it was a stack (100's) of guns & ammo as well as other shooting mags that were 15 years old. I picked them up from a buddy in the late 80's and started reading them. There were a few clips about handguns and hunting with them. I learned a lot from those old books. I must say they were much better reading than some of the current stuff out there. (Present company not included)

But as far as a person it would be Les Stewart and Jim Springer of Tuscaloosa AL

Jim had a FA 454 and a 7 TCU contender that I thought was the bomb and Les had several T/C's and a couple of XP-100's

These guys talked me into buying a 14" T/C in 30/30 the rest is history.

http://www.handgunhunt.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1043

No one really influenced me to hunt as Dad died when I was young and Gramps didn't hunt. But living on the farm and Mom cooking anything I'd bring home got me started at a young age.

I was always one to do things the hard way, so when I could own a handgun I went out and got a 357 Max revolver and figured it would be a challenge to take game with it. I got 2 deer that fall and have been hooked ever since. I never read much on handgun hunting, or even hunting when I was younger. I guess that's why I read and collect some many books on the subject now.

Elmer Kieth got me started but Bob Milek was the one that really opened my eyes to what handguns could do.

My father for getting me started in handguns and reloading, Bob Milek, the father of handgun hunting, got me interested in handgun hunting.

Wow, it took until the second page for Larry Kelly to make the field. The first handgunner to take the Big 5 Come on guys! JD, Hal Bob etc. all had huge impacts on our sport. I feel that Larry legitimized it.

Cottonstalk listed him in the first post. He was definitly a big influence for many of us. Al Goerg is also often overlooked. He was one of the true pioneers of handgun hunting.

Thanks for pointing that out, it seemed strange to me. I guess these 48 year old eyes just don't focus too well close up.

Larry Kelley is certainly one of the icon's of handgun hunting but he wasn't as prolific a writer as some of the others which is a shame. He's killed more Cape buffalo with a handgun than anyone ever and it's a record that will probably never be broken. Let's just say it's more than 50.

Exactly, Larry spent his time in the field and not behind a computer or typewriter in the day. But it is well noted that we are all less enriched by not being able to share in those 50 buff kills. He did have an article published in American Handgunner about a lion hunt where he stopped the young male with the 454 Casull at point blank range. The end of that article still send chills up my spine, if you have read it you know what I mean. I still re-read it several times a year...

I didn't know he had taken that many buffalo! Aside from Kelly and Jones' book Hunting For Handgunners and short pieces in other books, I have not read much from him.