One of them is David E. Petzal Field and stream magazine’s shooting sports expert and is considered a top-rated writer on firearms, hunting and shooting. That said, it leaves several themes untouched and has delighted its readers for over 50 years.
Petzal started at Field and stream in 1972 as editor-in-chief. In the following years, he published six different titles for this brand, and since 2006 he has been exclusively a writer, covering all topics related to the outdoors, but specializing in weapons and hunting.
He hunted game throughout North America, most of Africa, Europe and New Zealand and wrote extensively about it.
Petzal, now from Cumberland, Maine, has written several popular books on guns, shooting and hunting. Total Gun Manual, co-authored by Phil Bourjaily, is considered indispensable reading for anyone interested in the various features of firearms and for those looking to improve their hunting and shooting skills.
Outdoor News: Describe the years you grew up. Did you spend a lot of time practicing outdoor sports, and did that influence your career? Were you interested in journalism early in your career, or did it come after high school?
Petzal: I grew up on a farm in what was then an uncrowded part of New Jersey. We had a lot of land and I traversed it every day after school armed with either a Bear bow (60 pounds, way too hefty) or a Sheridan air rifle.
Around the age of 12, I started reading Field and stream, which cost 25 cents at the soda shop. I didn’t feel like writing about anything.
That didn’t come until much later, when I got my first job in a magazine. I wrote an article titled “The Archer’s Guide to Shooting” and when I returned to the kitchen and saw my words in print, I was hooked.
Outdoor News: How would you describe the “dues paying” period before joining? Field and stream?
Petzal: I paid dues at that first job, at a compact magazine called Weapons and hunting. I was paid so little that I won’t tell readers what it was because they wouldn’t believe me anyway.
Bob Elman, the editor I worked for, was a master of both magazine writing and editing, and a perfectionist to boot.
If I made a mistake, the whole office knew about it, so I stopped making mistakes. I didn’t like it, but I had enough sense to realize that I was getting an education that money couldn’t buy. I stayed there for 4.5 years and remained friends with Bob for the rest of his life.
Outdoor News: Your initial focus on Field and stream he was the editor. Then you started writing. How did it happen?
Petzal: There has never been such a decision. I started writing the so-called Shooting Department in 1981 every other month, and after some time I established contact with readers and started writing on other topics. By the behind schedule 1990s, everyone realized that I was now a writer, not an editor, so I left my position as executive editor and became a features editor.
Titles among editors are largely the same as virtue among whores. Your title doesn’t mean much unless you’re editor-in-chief.
Outdoor News: You focused on weapons and hunting. Why focus?
Petzal: I’m damned if I know.
When I was 10 or 11 or something, I crawled to the top of the closet and there, in the case, was a Savage Model 99 and an M-1 carbine that belonged to my uncle who did some hunting. It was like holding a live electric cable. I’ve never been the same.
Guns are the most intriguing thing I know. Same with hunting. Everything about him was just fascinating. This is not something that can be rationally explained.
Outdoor News: In your many years of gun journalism, you’ve seen more than a few transitions from certain types of guns and ammunition to others. Was this recent shift towards AR style rifles anticipated? Or maybe it was a surprise to those who have been involved in shooting sports for years?
Petzal: It was a surprise to me, it’s true. It’s significant to remember that Colt began selling the first commercial ARs in 1965. They sent one of the first ones to Larry Koller, who was the photo editor Weapons and hunting, and he hated it and gave it to me.
I don’t think ARs really caught on until the mid-90s, and that’s a long time for something to go unnoticed. I think very gradually people realized that it was several centuries ahead of everything else in terms of ergonomics and that you could build it (or have it built) to your own specifications without spending a fortune.
I should add that I have seen more prints and statements about regular firearms than about all other firearms combined, starting in Vietnam when we were told that 5.56 rounds “flipped through the air” on their way to the target.
Outdoor News: You are well known for writing several popular books on shooting sports. If there was one piece of advice you gave readers of these books that you felt every shooter should know, what was it?
Petzal: As for shooters, I will quote my behind schedule friend G. Sitton: “All the good shooters I know have the nervous system of reptiles.”
Effective shooting involves self-control, hand-eye coordination and concentration, the first of which is the most significant. For hunters, patience is the most significant thing. Saxton Pope, the great bowhunter, wrote of his friend the Yahi Indian, Ishi, that the bows Ishi made were not very good, but Ishi had patience almost beyond comprehension, which gave him every chance he needed.
Outdoor News: During your long career, you have hunted in regions of the world that many hunters can only dream of. What was your favorite hunting spot and what species did you hunt?
Petzal: I love Africa more than anything. When I was 10 years aged, I read a book by professional hunter Alexander Lake called Killers in Africa and I was addicted.
I liked everything about Africa except the tsetse flies, which are the worst insects in the world, but my favorite animal is the Cape buffalo. If you get bored with Cape buffalo hunting, there is something seriously wrong with you.
Outdoor News: What does the future hold for David Petzal?
Petzal: What’s in store? Who knows? I’m grateful I can still shoot and write. If I can keep it up, that’s all I can ask for. Almost nothing I’ve ever done has turned out the way I expected.
