Photo courtesy of the Jack O’Connor Hunting Heritage and Education Center
His name is synonymous with top-tier writing on all things guns and hunting. Jack O’Connor was born in 1902; between that year and his death in 1978 he witnessed some of the most monumental changes in hunting and shooting that have ever occurred. Thanks to Jack’s entertaining and informative writing style, generations of readers have prospered from his observations.
The man who gave fame to the .270 Winchester was not given to circuitous or flowery language. When he wrote about a cartridge being blistering fast or a hunt’s unusual difficulty, his readers knew he wasn’t simply filling column inches. He was what every editor dreams of: a writer who milked every drop of effect from the words he used, with no filler to be found.
Here are nine quotes of wit and wisdom from Jack O’Connor.
“Assuming a cartridge can make its way on merit alone, that cartridge is the .270 W.C.F. In its early years it sat in the corner, dressed in sackcloth and covered with ashes, while few riflemen suspected that underneath it had a figger like Miss America, a disposition like an angel, and it could bake pies like Mother used to make.”
— “The .270 Can Do Big Things,” featured in The Lost Classics of Jack O’Connor, originally in Outdoor Life, 1943
“Often when I see a big bull caribou, I am curiously reminded of a gal I knew in college … Beneath the exquisitely contoured bones of her skull rattled the brains of a chipmunk.”
— “Caribou: Beautiful but Dumb!” from The Art of Hunting Big Game in North America, 1967
“I like a handgun. I hold a shotgun in high regard; but rifles — well, I love the darn things.”
— The Rifle Book, 1964
“Well, Arizona’s some place,” I told John. “I knew you climbed for water and dug for wood, and that it had more cows and less milk than any state in the union, but it’s the first time I’ve ever climbed for ducks.”
— “Mesa Ducks,” featured in Classic O’Connor, originally in Sports Afield, 1936
“We had worked much harder getting that ram and packing him off the mountain than at any time we were prospecting, but we enjoyed every minute of it. Fellows who like to hunt are that way.”
— “My First Mountain Sheep,” featured in Classic O’Connor, originally in Field & Stream, 1945
“Unless a great deal of good luck enters into it, any sheep hunt includes among its necessary ingredients a lot of looking, a lot of climbing, and a lot of aching muscles and creaking joints.”
— “Myles Gets His Circle,” featured in The Lost Classics of Jack O’Connor, originally in Outdoor Life, 1946
“This Brittany is my most cherished possession — the darndest bird-finder I have ever seen, a tough and wiry little dog with a choke-bored nose and the ability to read birds’ minds. I say he is my most cherished possession, but whether I own him or he owns me I cannot say.”
— “A Family Affair,” featured in The Lost Classics of Jack O’Connor, originally in Outdoor Life’s “Arms and Ammunition” column, 1962
“By the time an old, belligerent bull comes bursting out of the timber, the most blasé hunter is as taut as a violin string,”
— “Elk: The Greatest Stag,” from The Art of Hunting Big Game in North America, 1967
“Because of the psychological angle, I heartily approve of the use of such cartridges as the .375 and .338 on Alaska brown bear, lions, tigers, and such like. If the hunter believes he has Old Death and Destruction in his hands, he’ll be less nervous and he’ll shoot better.”
— “Cartridges for Heavy Game and Foreign Hunting,” The Rifle Book, 1964
There’s something about the deer-hunting experience, indefinable yet undeniable, which lends itself to the telling of exciting tales. This book offers abundant examples of the manner in which the quest for whitetails extends beyond the field to the comfort of the fireside. It includes more than 40 sagas which stir the soul, tickle the funny bone, or transport the reader to scenes of grandeur and moments of glory.
On these pages is a stellar lineup featuring some of the greatest names in American sporting letters. There’s Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning William Faulkner, the incomparable Robert Ruark in company with his “Old Man,” Archibald Rutledge, perhaps our most prolific teller of whitetail tales, genial Gene Hill, legendary Jack O’Connor,Gordon MacQuarrie and many others.
Altogether, these carefully chosen selections from the finest writings of a panoply of sporting scribes open wide the door to reading wonder. As you read their works you’ll chuckle, feel a catch in your throat or a tear in your eye, and venture vicariously afield with men and women who instinctively know how to take readers to the setting of their story.
This is an anthology to sample and savor, perhaps one story at a time or in an extended session of armchair adventure. That’s a choice for each individual reader, but rest assured that on these 465 pages, there’s an abundance of opportunity to be enlightened and entertained. Buy Now
