early present to myself care of Elmer Keith

[sthwestvictoria]

I came across this on an Australian book site:

54192

It looks excellent so far having just flicked through it. He seemed to have been one tough SoB with a lot of living crammed into his life.

Looking forward to delving into it.

[bob208]

yes very good book i have it in my collection of books. i reread it from time to time. another good book is the one by skeeter skelton. good friends good guns good whiskey.

[gmsharps]

Excellent book. You will enjoy it.

gmsharps

[Reg]

Another good one, Unrepentant Sinner by Charles Askins. All of the above belong in a well rounded library.

:coffee:

[sthwestvictoria]

Folks sure were tough then - I have got to the part, page 22 where Elmer gets his father to re-fracture his fingers to set them straight as he states no doctor would attempt it!

[Bad Water Bill]

Another one from an old timer.

Yours Truly Harvey Donaldson.

While reading Harvey's writings I always feel like he is just across the campfire from me.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I was impressed by Elmer's constitution when I read about the time he pulled his hip out of the socket. He crawlled up on a table while the doctor hooked a block a tackle to his leg and pulled the hip back into place.

[firefly1957]

That is a good book i read it three times over 10 years and i bet i loaned it to a dozen people.

[Don Purcell]

How about him getting smacked in the face by a horse's front hoof and flattening his nose out. 20 miles into town during winter on horseback so he sticks a pencil up nose and shoves the bones back into place with the pencil. No doctor, just sheer toughness. It's no wonder Elmer always had some whiskey nearby.

[dale2242]

I am a great Elmer Keith fan.
I have read all his books.
Hell, I was there is the best....enjoy....dale

[Bullet Caster]

Now you guys have me wanting to read it. I love the stories about the old west and the intestinal fortitude they always displayed. Keep us posted as you read esp. when you get to the end. BC

[Wooly]

If you like the book,you would have loved the old gentleman. I had the pleasure of meeting him in 1979. The Idaho Sharpshooter & I went up to Salmon on my vacation from St.Louis. Quite the character. I should have gotten a copy of the book you have,but settled for an autographed copy of "SixGuns". I`ve never seen a gun collection like the stuff he showed us that morning. The Cabelas in Boise has a small museum of his guns, and a life size diorama of his trophy room & writing desk. The mannequin moves & talks to you. Pretty cool, worth a trip to Boise. W

[km101]

Looks great! I will have to find a copy.

[WILCO]

Have just added it to my list of titles for purchase.

[44man]

Wonderful book as are the others mentioned.
Elmer started my love of the six gun and I read everything he wrote. Due to Elmer I was shooting my .357 back in 53 to 100 yards all the time and in 56 with my first .44 I shot beyond 400 yards for fun.
He was a tough old bird for sure and he wrote from experience. There will never be another like him, some try by wearing his style hat. That kind of angers me, nobody can fill his shoes.
I hope he sits at God's side with a six gun.

[1Shirt]

One of the best ever written. Have to review cover to cover every couple of years.
1Shirt!

[Don Purcell]

We met Elmer for the first time in 1979 at the NRA convention in San Antonio. We were early and waiting for the exhibits to open when a friend of mine nudged me and says "Here comes Elmer". My lovely wife steps back around a corner, gets a hairbrush from her purse and tidys up her hair(as if she needed to, you would have thought she was going to meet Tom Sellick or Sam Elliott)and we introduce ourselves and had a short but freindly talk with the old master.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Fantastic book! I love the stories. Re-read it three times now. Reading what he went through with the fire didn't suprise me. I've found many great people (or at least patient, mature people) overcame tremendous pain and adversity which lasted months to years.

[429421Cowboy]

That is one of my favorite books i have ever read, i hope to own a copy someday, they sure aren't cheap on Amazon!
He was truely a tough old bird, and had seen it all. He grew up not far from where i live, near Helena, Mt. Even beyond his experementation with sixguns that gave us everything we base our sport on today, he was a true cowboy back in his time, as he had to be at that time in our states history. There won't ever be another like him!

[Brad Phillips]

For sure, Elmer was larger than life. Great read, you will enjoy it.

[John Ross]

June of 1977

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn302/JohnRoss_07/EK50-2.jpg

[sthwestvictoria]

Great photo. That is a heck of a rifle - what is it?


I am thinking of ordering the book Letters from Elmer Keith next - it looks like a great compendium of his writing on various topics.

[Bullshop]

Do I see Elmers favorite 4" tucked in there beside him?

[.22-10-45]

Hello, and I agree a very good read..lots of good info too! I don't think Elmer had the corner on toughness..It seems alot of those old guys born before or slightly after the turn of the 20th century had grit! In the early 1920's, my dads dad once fell in hay mow & ran pitchfork nearly thru leg..dad said he could see purple points of tines under skin on off side! Leg started to swell..then turn ugly color..doc wanted it off..Grampa said he'd go to his grave with it on! Soaked it in turn in Epsom salts..and urine! Dad said he healed up ok.
Stopped in to see my other Gandfather..he was in his 80's then..was repairing toe of leather shoe..kind of upset it had gotten damaged. It seems the hatchet slipped when he was roughing out a hickory ax handle..cut between toes to bone..he told dad he just soaked it in Epsom salts & bandaged up.. Didn't seem the least concerned..he was sure concerned about that shoe though!

[Bent Ramrod]

Keith was a great storyteller. I wish somebody would reprint his book Safari; I think it's the only one I haven't found yet in my price range.

I think peoples' toughness was dictated by the times. I remember my Chemistry teacher in high school telling us that before they had rabies vaccine, they would cut the dog bite open and pour hot concentrated nitric acid into the incision. He had gotten this treatment after a dog bite and it nearly put him into orbit decades before NASA started its rocket program. He said he had a black charred spot on his skin that had only disappeared in the last few years. Better than rabies though. He told us this story in the early '60's.

These days we go into anaphylactic shock when we enter a cell phone "dead zone."

[bob208]

i liked the one where he took his colt to school put it in his desk. the teacher asked do you have a gun. he says yea and why. the teacher says ok. then tells every body in the class it is elmer's businessand to leave it alone.
think that would happen now?

[sthwestvictoria]

I have just read Letters from Elmer Keith Edited by Timothy Mullins. An interesting read but not as much fun at Hell I Was There. Not as many stories in it with most of the letters being responding to loading information or about having rifles built. Elmer certainly did not get on with Jack O'Connor, JD Jones and is very down on anyone pushing the small, fast calibre hunting rifles over the plus 338 calibres.
Still interesting to read but not as much meat of a story as Hell I Was There.
Have also just finished The Pledge by Leonard Slater about the program to smuggle arms to the infant Jewish state in 1948 before the British pulled out. A really good read as the group Haganah race against time to arm the new Israeli state.

[DLCTEX]

Elmer and Skeeter have long been my favorite gun writers and Louis L'more was King of my fiction list. My great grand father was a tough bird also, he was a well and grave digger and dug them by hand until age 87. When he retired they bought a backhoe to do his job.He pulled all his own teeth with pliers, I won't be following him on that one.

[stubshaft]

A true "Mans,Man", read his book a couple of times and still find it interesting.

[Bad Water Bill]

Another author that left us to soon was Terry Johnston. His main character SCRATCH was clawed by a griz,scalped,and suffered many other injuries just like many original trappers. Unlike some authors who would have you believe the hero could kill 30-50 in each book and never break a finger nail.

[454PB]

I never met him, but I sent the cover from my copy and a stamped, self addressed envelope to him and asked for his autograph. He mailed it back to me, signed, about a week latter.

As 429421Cowboy stated, he spent some of his early life on a ranch just north of Canyon Ferry Lake, right at the base of the Belt Mountains and some fine big game hunting. There are a few stories in the book about Helena in the early 1900's.

[TXGunNut]

I stumbled across a hardbound version a few years back. Awesome read, colorful old scrapper. He'd be a lot of fun on a forum like this but he'd keep the mods busy.

[MT Gianni]

Without ever being stated in his books I believe the family ranch @ Winston either had some or most of it's ground lost to Canyon Ferry Res . Is that correct or did the family just move on to OR? I don't recall reading the reason.

[starbits]

I have Keith's Autobiography, Sixguns, and Safari all autographed by him. Been a while since I read them, looks like I will have to break out the reading glasses tonight.

The story I remember from the Autobiography is Elmer and his brother got beaten up by a bully. When they told their Dad he gave them a week to get even or he would beat their butts too. They followed the kid home a few days, picked their spot and laid into him with 2x4s. Never had a problem with that bully again.

Starbits

[454PB]

Without ever being stated in his books I believe the family ranch @ Winston either had some or most of it's ground lost to Canyon Ferry Res . Is that correct or did the family just move on to OR? I don't recall reading the reason.

Gianni, the new dam (and resulting larger lake) wasn't completed until 1953, and by then the Keiths were gone. When Elmer was living there, the lake was still called Lake Sewell, and was far smaller.

[MT Gianni]

Thanks, I should have PM'ed you, if anyone should know the history of the lakes you would qualify.