Joined
·
10,462 Posts
Question for Steve Wenger
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
Joined
·
1,105 Posts
No, I Never Met...
I did meet Rex Applegate when I was a child in Mexico City, then re-connected with him, in 1997. In fact, I was with him in the hospital in San Diego, just a few days before his death.
I did meet and interact with Jim Cirillo at a few ASLET seminars and had several phone conversations with him, while he was living in Panama City. I will always prize the inscription that he wrote to me in Guns, Bullets, and Gunfights but, like many others, I mostly prize the invaluable tactical lessons from him, whether they came directly or indirectly.
...Jelly Bryce.
I did meet Rex Applegate when I was a child in Mexico City, then re-connected with him, in 1997. In fact, I was with him in the hospital in San Diego, just a few days before his death.
I did meet and interact with Jim Cirillo at a few ASLET seminars and had several phone conversations with him, while he was living in Panama City. I will always prize the inscription that he wrote to me in Guns, Bullets, and Gunfights but, like many others, I mostly prize the invaluable tactical lessons from him, whether they came directly or indirectly.
Joined
·
10,462 Posts
Panama City was a little further East than my folks place. You could hear the gunfire at Hurburt Field. Dad was stationed at Eglin Field at the time.spwenger;560497I did meet and interact with Jim Cirillo at a few ASLET seminars and had several phone conversations with him said:
I've got a copy of Guns, Bullets, and Gunfights in my bookcase and have read it at least 3 times. Also have No Second Place Winner by Jordan. Didn't Jordan write for Shooting Times at one time?
Joined
·
1,105 Posts
My Recollection...
I'll be happy to defer to better memories on this one.
...is that Jordan wrote an occasional piece for Shooting Times, mostly as a counterpoint to Skeeter Skelton. In fact, he may have written those pieces during the times that Skeeter was ill.
I'll be happy to defer to better memories on this one.
Joined
·
10,462 Posts
Skeeter Skelton was my favorite writer of the time, maybe because he, like me, was a Texican. His "Me and Joe" stories reminded me of my growing up in West Texas. Jordan and Elmer Keith were great too.
Had the good fortune to me Adolph Topperwein and Wes Kline. Kline never gained the recognition as a exhibition shooter as Topperwein but that be partly do to Ad's using Plinky, his wife in the show.
Had the good fortune to me Adolph Topperwein and Wes Kline. Kline never gained the recognition as a exhibition shooter as Topperwein but that be partly do to Ad's using Plinky, his wife in the show.
Joined
·
1,105 Posts
If Memory Serves...
...Topperwein was some sort of relative of Rex Applegate's and had some influence on the eventual development of his eponymous technique.
Joined
·
3,920 Posts
I'm hoping "Plinky" doesn't mean what I think it does...
And I only met Cirillo once, at a SHOT show.
We had a nice chat during which he remarked: "That's a Rosen belt."
Pretty good eye.
And I only met Cirillo once, at a SHOT show.
We had a nice chat during which he remarked: "That's a Rosen belt."
Pretty good eye.
Joined
·
10,462 Posts
Down here plinking has to do with shooting cans and bottles and with both the Topperweins aerial targets. That's the way Mrs. Topperwein got her nickname. Ad's specialty was "portraits" drawn with a .22 rifle.
Joined
·
10,462 Posts
I thought that Sykes-Fairbain were the initial driving influence on Applegate. Didn't know Applegate and Topperwein had any connection.
I remember meeting Colonel Askins at the West Avenue Range here. Boy, what an abrasive SOB he was. But he was a old man by then. Wes Kline hated him as did a number of shooters who were at the 1937 National Matches. He had a .22 center fire built using a Mexican round, the Velo-Dog, and a .22 Colt Woodsman Target. Everyone else used a .32 Colt revolver and just couldn't handle timed and rapid like Askins' Woodsman.
Joined
·
120 Posts
The late Colonel Applegate might have had some relationship with the Topperweins (I not sure but my father-in-law, who was close friends with him, told me that he didn't think so and, in fact, he wasn't sure if the two had even met) but I believe the Exhibition (Trick) Shooter that he was related to was his Uncle, Gus Peret.
Peret was an amazingly talented man who sadly, never seems to make any of those "lists" we see from time-to-time about such historical performers. Maybe that's the price you pay for shooting for Peters and not Winchester!
The Colonel told me a bit about Peret over the years but he told my father-in-law a lot more regarding things like that, as they were always "visiting" in one way or another; trading stories and exploring new ideas and techniques.
"Uncle Gus" was Applegate's primary influence and pretty much his sole "instructor" (although "instructor" might be too formal a word when it comes to familial-oriented learning) for shooting (especially non-traditional and non-military-related shooting) until he came under the spell of equally famed "gun man" William Fairbairn (ultimately a Colonel himself), from whom he learned and derived a lot.
Colonel Applegate was an amazing man who never stopped learning or thinking and who, contrary to things I've seen written by people who didn't know him, never lived in the past. I treasured our friendship. I learned a lot from him and it was always great catching up with him; either in person or on the phone. He was always willing to answer any of my usually dumb questions and he spoke of things (even grizzly things) with the intelligence and the detachment of a skilled technician but also with the wonderment and the excitement of a man just a fraction of his age.
Lately, as I seem to be growing older by the minute, I can only hope that I do as well in the years ahead.
I hope you two gentlemen do not find my correction insulting but I just thought you might find this of interest. Have a good rest of the week.
Joined
·
1,105 Posts
No Offense Taken...
I never take offense at any correction of facts.
...by me. I replied from years-old memory and failed to take the time to crack open any of Applegate's books.
I never take offense at any correction of facts.
Joined
·
1,105 Posts
By the Way...
...Applegate made the point that one of the departures that he made from the technique that he learned from Fairbairn - raising the outstretched gun arm "like a pump handle" - was the result of an unplanned stop in Deadwood SD.
When he realized that the train on which he was riding had stopped there, he got off and sought out what I recall as the local library. Inquiring as to any material on Wild Bill Hickok, the librarian found him a box of unsorted papers. In it, he found an unmailed letter in which Hickok had replied to an inquiry about his technique in gunfights. Again, relying solely on memory, Hickok had penned that he raised his pistol as an extension of his arm and fired just as it was pointed at his target.
...Applegate made the point that one of the departures that he made from the technique that he learned from Fairbairn - raising the outstretched gun arm "like a pump handle" - was the result of an unplanned stop in Deadwood SD.
When he realized that the train on which he was riding had stopped there, he got off and sought out what I recall as the local library. Inquiring as to any material on Wild Bill Hickok, the librarian found him a box of unsorted papers. In it, he found an unmailed letter in which Hickok had replied to an inquiry about his technique in gunfights. Again, relying solely on memory, Hickok had penned that he raised his pistol as an extension of his arm and fired just as it was pointed at his target.
Joined
·
10,462 Posts
My thoughts too.
Thanks to the both of you for providing info on people I've admire many of my 80 some years.
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
