Free guns?
Yeah, right. I’ll admit there’ve been a few free ones in the past 25 years. Very few. More often you get nagging letters and phone calls from the gun companies because you are overdue on the 90- or 120-day consignment period. Once, someone called and asked for a gun back before it had even arrived. Always nicely, but they do ask you to pay up or send back a loaner gun. I always have. By the way, that return shipping is almost always at your own expense.
Free ammo? Yes, and I’ve always tried to not overdo my requests–usually they are only for two boxes of any type at one time. But, get this, a couple of years ago, after 25 years of dealing with Remington, they turned me down. Some young MBA-type there told me if I wanted to do articles on the cartridges THEY wanted publicized, like their Ultra-Mags, they would send something, but otherwise take a hike. I don’t shoot much Remington ammo anymore since I don’t shoot those fancy magnums.
Back to the real question: What does it take to be a gunwriter? It helps to know guns. I mean really KNOW them, which means a lifetime of studying them in detail. A fantastic memory is a great boon. Through high school and college I studied guns, not exactly what those palaces of learning thought I should study. Perhaps that’s the reason I’ve had some success at writing but graduated from college with a 2.11 grade point average.
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However, really KNOWING guns isn’t always the requirement it should be. So many of today’s writers have proven what you really need to know is only a little more than the editor you’re writing for. (Luckily at these digs the editors DO know guns and it keeps me hopping!) It also helps to own a great big cowboy hat, regardless of what part of the country you live in. (Duke doesn’t wear a cowboy hat ’cause he can’t find one to fit that inflated head he has/John Taffin.)
Being able to write is a benefit, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. Few people know less about punctuation and grammar than Clint Smith does, yet I consider him the best natural writer I’ve ever read. I majored in journalism in college so editors don’t have to work too hard on my material. I think that’s why it started to get accepted in the first place–lazy editors.
Good Shot?
Some would say being able to shoot well would be a great benefit. A few friends have chided me saying, “If you could shoot those teeny-tiny groups some other gunwriters always do, you would go farther in your career.” Maybe they’re right. I’ve been sent the exact same handguns as many other writers and yet they wouldn’t shoot as good for me even when mounted in my machine rest. I guess its one of my failings.
Having a desire to shoot does seem to help, even if you’re not real good at it. I’ve been to “gunwriter get-togethers” at seminars and such, and its amazing how many of them will pass up all that free ammo. You would almost think they don’t like to shoot in front of one another. I’m not so inhibited. At one seminar an ammo company put some H&K MP-5 sub-guns out with cases of 9mm shells. I stepped forward and said to one of our hosts, “Show me how to run one of these things.” And brother did I have a ball then! But, all by myself.
Thickish Skin
Being a gunwriter takes patience and sometimes a thick skin. I’ve written over 1,200 articles concerning almost every type of firearm, from .17 HMRs to .58 caliber Civil War rifle-muskets in long guns, and .22 rimfires to .454 Casulls in handguns, yet I’ve had editors tell me I must be more versatile so their advertisers will like me better. Funny how those same editors never worried much about what the readers liked. Luckily our editors here realize no one ever bought a gun magazine to see what Mike Venturino had to say about some sort of Super Short Magnum, or the .500 S&W for that matter.
Thick skin? You bet. Occasionally readers will write telling you how stupid you are because their favorite load will shoot better than what you listed. Once in a great while there will be death threats because you said something derogatory about someone’s favorite gun or cartridge. No one’s made good on that yet.
So why do I do it? When in New Zealand a few years back I was asked that by one of their Ministers of Parliament. I told him it was because I was too lazy to work, and too dumb to steal. After he laughed politely, I told him the real reason–I failed as a bikini designer, although I do claim credit for inventing those thong types. But nobody knows that and I swear I don’t get the credit I deserve for it either.
In grade school my goal was to become a Mexican bandit, but my West Virginia accent didn’t fit there. In junior high I wanted to be a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot but literally grew too big to fit in their cockpits, and learned they weren’t in use anymore anyway. In high school I decided to be a cowboy and later actually went west and tried that for a bit. It’s really HARD work and dangerous too.
In college I finally decided to become a gunwriter. My parents thought that was absolutely ridiculous because they knew I was obviously lawyer material. There’s no telling what Yvonne’s parents thought when we began making marriage plans and she told them my dream was to become a “gunwriter.”