…not of Earl, Earl, Earl. I have two books by the late Mike “Duke” Venturino I want to get cataloged. And while I’m at it, I want to also hit another Samworth and another O’Connor. So why don’t we get started?
I think, before I insert the jump, that I do want to note: I know there are some people (including one reader here) who don’t care for Duke’s writing. I’m 100% okay with that. While I enjoyed reading him, I understand tastes differ. De gustibus non est disputandum and all that crap. Plus I don’t have a personal investment in people sharing my tastes. I remember having this discussion with one of my nephews once upon a time: I don’t want you to like the same things I do just because I like them, but I would like for you to be able to articulate why you do or don’t like things. (Again, that was one of my nephews. That’s not an issue with anyone here.)
Anyway, if you didn’t care for Mr. Venturino’s writings, you’re welcome to skip over the last two entries. Deal?
Modern American Pistols and Revolvers, A.C. Gould. Thomas G. Samworth, Plantersville, SC, 1946. Riling 1220 (but see below).
This is a companion Samworth to the same author’s Modern American Rifles, about which I have written previously. Also like that volume, this is a Samworth reprint of the “original”: Mr. Gould originally published this in 1888 (which is what Riling catalogs) and a revised edition in 1894 (mentioned by Riling). The Samworth volume is a reprint of the 1894 edition (also documented by Riling) with an added preface by Frank J. Kahrs, who knew Mr. Gould personally. Biscotti also documents this edition, but I believe he is mistaken about it being a reprint of the 1888 edition. Smith backs me on this being a reprint of the 1894 edition. This also has a March 1947 ad page date and untrimmmed edges, which (again, per Smith) mark it as a true first printing in this state.
This was another one of the books in the batch I bought from my book buddy. He had $20 on it, which seems low to me, but is actually slightly above what copies are going for on ABE. I’m not complaning, though: this is very good in my opinion, tending in the direction of fine. There are some small chips along the top and bottom of the spine, and about a 1 1/2″ tear to the back cover near the spine. There’s also a little bit of wear to the front and rear corners of the jacket. But you have to really look to see a lot of this. I think this is a very clean copy of a valuable reference for folks interested in pre-1900 handguns.
The Big Game Rifle, Jack O’Connor. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1952. Too late for Riling, but documented by Biscotti in both his bibliographies: this is one of the Borzoi books for sportsmen.
One of the O’Connor books I haven’t read yet. (I did read, and liked, Horse and Buggy West: A Boyhood on the Last Frontier, but as I suspected, it really isn’t that much of a gun or sporting book. There are a fair amount of hunting stories in it, but the book is more autobiography than anything else.)
I don’t feel a need to explain Jack O’Connor here, as I’ve written about him pretty extensively. I should really add an “O’Connor” tag, and may do that tomorrow. (And as a side note, I have a future post I want to put up about the .270 Winchester, the 6.5 Creedmoor, the pre-64 Winchester Model 70, and another more modern gun I bought recently.)
Also part of the batch from my book buddy. He had $80 on it, which is about market and maybe a little under. I’d call this “good”: other than the chip on the lower front spine, there’s some small tears to the upper left part of the jacket, a 1″ tear to the top of the rear jacket, some wear on the spine, and some more edge and corner wear. I think it’s nice, but not “fine”. But a “fine” copy with a “fine” or “near fine” jacket would run about double or triple that $80 tag. (Remember, I bought these as a batch for one money, so breaking out individual prices is a bit difficult.)
Mike Venturino’s Shooting Iron: Thumb Bustin’ Musings From the Duke, Mike Venturino. FMG Publications, no city, 2024.
No photo, because this is actually a new book you can get directly from FMG. This is a complete collection of Mr. Venturino’s “Shooting Iron” columns from “American Handgunner” from 2005 through 2024, and runs 130 pages.
I have not read all of this yet, but as an “American Handgunner” subscriber, I’ve already read many (if not all) of these columns. This suffers from one of my problems with these FMG reprint collections: instead of re-typesetting the materical and the art, these collections are just basically photo reproductions of the original pages bound together between covers. I don’t much like this: while it reduces the cost of putting the book together, it introduces weird and distracting artifacts in the text. Just flipping through the book, I don’t see as many of those as I did with the Best Of Smith & Wesson 2010 – 2019 collection (which I owe you a longer review of).
Reviewing this seems irrelevant, though. My personal view of this book is that buying it wasn’t buying a gun book: it was a mitzvah to help out Mr. Venturino’s family. (I assume FMG is giving them some kickback or royalties from the book’s sales.)
Shooting Buffalo Rifles of the Old West, Mike Venturino. MLV Enterprises, Livingston, MT, 2002.
Also have not read all of this yet, though I did read the section on Billy Dixon’s long shot. The late Mr. Venturino was a big fan of shooting vintage (and reproduction vintage) black-powder rifles, and even did so competitively at one time. This seems to be pretty much what you’d expect: what is a “buffalo rifle”, various makes of “buffalo rifle”, black-powder loads for various BR cartridges, and a “miscellaneous” section that includes cleaning advice.
As I believe I have written before, I kind of want one of these (specifically, a Billy Dixon Sharps reproduction). But I’ve also had the opportunity to handle them, and they are heavy. On the flip side, I wouldn’t need to buy weights and do curls to build up my arm strength: I could just practice lifting my Sharps to my shoulder and lowering back down.
I paid $40 (plus tax) for this at Half-Price Books. That’s probably a little above market, even if this one was mint: Wolfe Publishing will sell you a new copy for $30. However, they also collect tax, and their cheapest shipping was over $10, so this was a break-even proposition.
Next time: I have one more Samworth and one more O’Connor from the batch to catalog. Also, I have a very curious volume that’s sort of tangentially related to gun books, but might be of interest to FotB RoadRich and some other folks. I also have a somewhat interesting Paladin Press book, and I might try to stretch it to five with a book I’m currently reading about Robert Ruark.
I did get my historical letter from Colt, and it turns out there’s some interesting stuff there, so I want to get the gun post up in the next few days as well. Also, FotB RoadRich reminded me that there are fun shows in Killeen and San Marcos this weekend. Also I badly need to get my notes from the lecture portion of MAG-20 typed up. My classmates are way ahead of me on that, but I had thought Mr. Ayoob said “wait two weeks, then go back and type up your notes”.
(Yes, I did take MAG-20. But just the lecture, not the shooting component. I want to get better skills before I take the shooting part. Also, the shooting part at KR Training was Thursday and Friday, when I was working. Also, it was 100+ degrees both days: I do not think I could have spent 10 hours a day over two days in 100+ degree heat shooting. And I don’t plan to write much, if at all, about MAG-20, mostly because I gave Mr. Ayoob my word of honor I wouldn’t.)
Dislike of his style aside, his articles were always well researched and the photographs almost always reinforced the topic rather than distracted from it.
I’ve kept several of the magazines with his articles because it’s the only good source I can get for some of what Mr Venturino was writing about.