bout
the Author
John
Dutcher was raised around guns by people who liked them. His father introduced
him to plinking at age seven, and one year later his grandfather gave him
a .22 rifle. At age nine he was taken pheasant and duck hunting, shooting
his great-grandfather’s 16 gauge shotgun that recoiled so harshly he gave
up any further bird hunting until age eleven.
A new gun in
the house was an important occasion, and as John’s interest grew, three
of his uncles gave him old guns. Later on, his mother and grandmother gave
him gun books, and so it’s not surprising that guns became an important
part of John’s life.
His introduction
to single shot rifles was in 1958, when he bought an old Remington Rolling
Block rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition. Shooting and reloading that rifle
kindled further interest in single shot rifles, resulting in a lifetime
of collecting and researching them. John bought his first Ballard in 1959.
The outcome is this book, twenty years in the making.
Since 1971, John
has published numerous articles pertaining to single shot rifles, cartridges
for them, and their reloading tools. He has also written about noted shooters,
shooting clubs, and gunsmiths. These articles can be found in past issues
of the Gun Digest, NRA Gun Collector, The Gun Report, Rocky Mountain Bullet,
International Cartridge Collector, and European Cartridge Collector magazines.
Most of his articles have appeared in the Single Shot Rifle Journal, official
magazine of the American Single Shot Rifle Association, of which Dutcher
is Ballard Editor and Schoyen archivist. John is a lifetime member of the
ASSRA, member of the NRA, life member of the Ohio Gun Collectors Association,
and one of the founders of the Colorado Gun Collectors Association.
John Dutcher
lives in the Denver area, where he is in the warehouse business.
Price $75.00 plus $5.00 s&h*.
Contact John Dutcher
2545 West 8th Avenue,
Denver, CO 80204
303-534-6250
*$5 s&h in lower 48 states