Charles Allan 'Skeeter' Skelton (May 1, 1928 – January 17, 1988) was an American lawman and firearms writer. After serving in the
US Marine Corps from 1945-46 he began a law enforcement career which included service with the
US Border Patrol, a term as Sheriff of
Deaf Smith County, Texas, and investigator with both the
US Customs Service and
Drug Enforcement Administration. After his first nationally published article hit newsstands in September 1959, Skelton began writing part time for firearms periodicals. In 1974 he retired from the DEA and concentrated full time on his writing.
Writing
Skelton wrote his first article for
Shooting Times in 1966, in 1967 he became the handgun editor for the magazine until his death in 1988. His periodical articles were collected in
Good Friends, Good Guns, Good Whiskey: Selected Works of Skeeter Skelton and
Hoglegs, Hipshots and JalapeƱos : Selected Works of Skeeter Skelton. He was a contemporary of
Bill Jordan,
Charles Askins and
Elmer Keith.
Skelton's work frequently poked fun at himself. His "Me and Joe" stories of his depression era youth, while including references to period firearms, were character oriented rather than technical pieces. His 'Dobe Grant' and 'Jug Johnson' short stories were perhaps the only fiction routinely published by a popular shooting magazine. His son
Bart Skelton is a gun writer.
Shooting Times magazine is currently...
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