Shotguns by Keith
The author of this book, Elmer Keith, needs no introduction to the older shooters out there. To you younger ones, and those who have or may develop an interest in shooting, Elmer Keith can easily be said to be the dean of American shooters of the twentieth century.
Born in the waning years of the nineteenth century, Keith grew up in Missouri and moved to Montana when he was six years old. Before he was much older, he developed an abiding interest in firearms that lasted the rest of his life. Keith's interest resulted in experimentation that made him one of the undisputed authorities in the field of ballistics and led to development of the Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum in 1935, and later the .44 Magnum S & W revolver cartridge as well.
Always a hunter, Keith spent much of his time afield, in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in pursuit of game. In Shotguns he remembers when you could hunt without a license and the only game law was no hunting on Sunday.
In the late 1920's Keith won a contest for his account of an elk hunt that was published in American Rifleman. From that point on, he was frequently published in the NRA magazine and then became a writer for Outdoor Life. Always a cowboy, Keith bought a ranch in Idaho so he had room to experiment, and became a gun writer in earnest.
Keith was always a figure to attract controversy, wearing a ten-gallon hat in nearly all pictures and preferring his smoke poles of large caliber.
Alternating writing with his hunting trips as guide and hunter, Keith began to write works of greater length. Shotguns by Keith followed several of his earlier works, including Rifles for Large Game and Big Game Hunting.
Shotguns is a work that considers the weapon common to every farm boy of the early to mid 1900s. Behind every kitchen door in rural America was the ubiquitous shotgun, ever ready to accompany its owner to fetch something for the pot.
It will hold no surprise to a shotgunner that Keith preferred the feel of a classic English double to any type of repeater. Viewing the book as a product of its times, we can consider the state of the art in 1950 when he first published Shotguns. Guns were freely imported from Europe and English, Italian, Belgian, and German weapons were available for those who had the means. For the average American, there were excellent American doubles and repeaters available, including, Ithaca, Parker, Fox, Springfield, L. C. Smith, Lefever, Remington, Winchester, Savage, and on and on. The weapons of that era had handwork that would be almost unattainable today and are unseen on any typical repeating shotgun you will find in your local sporting goods store.
Keith unpretentiously covers all aspects of shotguns, repeaters and doubles alike, including history, gauges and their uses, barrels, chambers, chokes, stocks, sights, cartridges, and so on. The book is a classic and will be valuable to anybody who likes guns and shooting.
Recommended:
