Just read an article on line by this guy, very interesting. I know everybody is entitle to their opinions, I think his are just different from mine. And how many pounds of recoil does a 416 Rem. generate guys?

I thought it was funny that he didn't call crossbolts such but made it more complicated for uninitiated shooters by calling them "transverse steel reinforcing bolts". :-) But he did well by saying that the recoil lug on the barrel was "brazed" on. solder and braze are so interchanbable now most I guess would never know any difference.

I have never hunted africa but found his article humorous in an unintentional way.

Anybody ever miss Elmer Keith or O'Conner?

For the most part I think Petzel has an arrogent, offensive writing style. I've seen numerous replies from him in the cheers and jeers section of the mag, where it appears his main intent is to ridicule the reader rather than answer the question. He seem to be above being questioned. Actually he is one reason I don't take that mag anymore. I'm sure he is an expert hunter and rifleman, but I don't care for his style.

rqg

You can hunt a whole lot and be successful too without being a good hunter or knowing diddly squat. I have a coworker for instance that goes with a really big group of guys every year, they herd the deer and end up getting quite a few. He has no idea what his rifle shoots, never shoots it before season, and from description of their hunts I wonder if they even bother making sure the deer have antlers.

that just to say that being a successful hunter doesn't make a person worth listening too. I found a few of his statements to be not so much arrogant as "poorly formed thoughts" or maybe from lack of looking at things. Like saying most safari guns had two front sights, news to me, most I see have just one, although I know there are H&H style with flipover night sight beads out there. Also poking a stick at the 2 pop ups on express sights with the folding leaves. hey, maybe most guys don't use their DGR for over 100yds, but I bet there are a few on this board that have used those flip up blades for longer distances.

This is the first article I have read of his so maybe I need to give him a bit more breathing space and wait till I come across another one to check out.

Red

Well, he's been around a long time, but that doesn't make him know squat just because he's older. If I remember correctly he's been messing around with F & S for over 30 years.

Damn right I miss ol' Elmer and Jack! They were at least interesting as they poked each other in the butt over their ideas. They both had some good ones that made sense. Jack really had a way with words, but they could be arrogant as well.

Petzel couldn't hold their candle if he lives to be 150. At least that's my opinion and I think that is what was asked, so i gave it.

If anyone "brazed" my gun, he would be in deep do-do...Solder and brase are two completely different processes for conecting steel..For the most part one is silver and the other is brass in simple terms..silver is very much stronger and is used on guns in small percentages.

I never read Pretzels stuff anymore...Lot of scribes out there with a lot less experience than some might think from reading their stuff...but we do have some very qualified gun scribes writing today, but they may not be who you think they are and that applies to both sides of the pond...

the main thing is are they interresting to read...I like Phil Shoemaker, he has been there, Boddington has a world of experience, Our own in house scribe Terry has been to Africa and hunted many times, some are great gun editors and have not hunted much, others the opposite...

Guess its like anything else, you have degrees of expertise, but remember they all have to start somewhere, make their bones and go from there and hope for some breaks...O'Connor and Keith had a lot of rich friends, and without them they wouldn't have had enough experience to write a poem...It sure doesn't hurt to get a little help along the way to success....

Ray I might have it wrong but I thought that soldering was done at lower temp and was perfect for things like sights, but that the higher temp, and higher bonding strength, of brazing was better for smaller surface areas that were going to take a lot of impact, like recoil lugs and sling studs attached to the barrel.

Then again I have never done either myself and have only read up on it so might have the terms wrong, since they seem to be used quite loosely now.

Red

DR,



There is "silver soldering", that Ray is talking about, and low-temp lead/tin soldering that you mentioned. Silver soldering is used extensively in gunsmithing for a strong bond, such as front sights.



My opinion on writers is that most have sold their souls to big business and are nothing more than salesman. But the writer who draws from his own experiences, willing to admit learning from the school of hard knocks, has my respect and is someone I can identify with and respect. Too many don't qualify and opt to dazzle with BS...

The first and last article I read of his was some time back. He carried on how terrible horse and hound fox hunting was and made many nasty comments about a sport he has obviously never participated in. I am sure he cannot ride a horse at a slow walk and certainly could not gallop at top speed behind a pack of hounds either. He neglected to do any sort of research for his stupid article. Had he done so he would have dug up a lot of information concerning land preservation all fox hunt clubs promote. Many of us are also rifle and bow hunters!

I think his worst comment was to complain about male riders wearing breeches, well, hell, the last time I watched football the men were in tights! Petzel is a moron in my book.

I have seen silver soldering referred to as silver brazing in many instances. In fact silver solder is listed in Brownells under brazing/soldering and silver soldering. I thought the basic difference between "soft" solder and "silver" soldering or brazing was not only the composition of the solder but the temperature used to apply and the resulting deeper penetration of the parent metal by the "solder" thereby giving the higher temp application greater strength.

Dago Red:

I haven't read F&S in years so I missed the newest addition to the gallery of "gun writers" (although I gather from what I have read of posts after yours,that he, unsurprisingly, to someone who remembers Elmer Keith and Jack O'Connor when they wrote for F&S and Outdoor Life (I honestly don't remember that Jack O'Connor ever wrote for F&S) thinks a certain view -and is prepared to defend that view despite what those ignorant people (sometimes called readers and magazine subscribers) may think. I wasn't really too surprised to read that this "gun writer" kisses off people who wrote in and dared to disagree with him. In contrast, I wrote a letter to Jack O'Connor once when I was about 17 questioning his statement about the 270 being suitable for brown bear (Alaska). I owned a 30-06 at the time and was quite passionate in its favor. (I believed that the 30-06 with bullet weights up to 225 gr. would be better. Col. Keith would have loved me) (old joke for you youngsters. Keith believed in the big bullet) Mr. O'Connor gave me a brief reply but it was plain that he had read my letter and he was saying "Let's agree to disagree". No snide remarks about how many brown bears had I ever shot. I guess times have changed and Mr.Petzel is the current picture. ( I do wonder, how many DG has Mr. Petzel faced -and at what distance?)

Ray, Your age is showing , and I can easily say that because I have the drop on you. I, too, had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the notion that a joining process that had been called silver soldering for over 300 years, was silver brazing. I still slip up from time to time and have to stop everything and write 100 times, "I will not call it silver soldering". Technically the academics have it right. About 15 years ago the line they drew in the sand was at something around 1060 degrees F. At that time there were rumblings amongst the professors about shear strength, and other considerations. This group may have lost because the latest line in the sand is around 850 Deg. F. Someone sent me a link a while back, so the subject can probably read to mind numbing and blurred vision in short order
http://www.tinmantech.com/html/faq_brazing_versus_soldering.html . This one is probably broad enough to get you on
"New Think", This is an FAQ in Refrigeration circles.

I don't remember Jack ever writing for F & S, but he might have free lanced a few to them before he went on O L payroll as the gun editor before WWII. If I left that inpression in my previous post, my apologize as that was surely not my intent.