Shooting Iron
Looking back, the “Iron” part of Duke’s column’s title wasn’t much of a coincidence. He loved the metal stuff, primarily sixguns, but as many of you well know, he drifted into surplus handguns, rifles, and full-auto historical weapons in more recent years.
Roy recalls some discussions about those non-metal guns. “Duke was happy because we let him write what he wanted to write about and would never force him to cover some ‘vile plastic gun,’ as he called them. I once asked him to do a shoot-off between a Glock (I heard the pause on the phone …) and a Colt Single Action Army. ‘You had me at the Colt,’ he laughed. ‘But I’m not sure how I would have told you no if it was just the Glock!’ The article was great fun, readers loved it and even Duke said, ‘Roy, I think those Glocks aren’t too bad after all.’ Shhh…
“Over the years, we had countless pleasant phone calls talking about all things ‘gun,’ and I always left the chats in a better mood. I’d try to wind up the call, and he’d invariably say, ‘Oh, wait a second, did I tell you what I found at the last gun show?’ Then the call went on.
“Duke was one of the kindest, biggest-hearted, most patient gents I’ve ever met. To read his articles is to know the man. Duke was always a bit shy and humble when a reader wanted to meet him at a show and afterward would almost always tell me, ‘You know, after all these years, I still can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be doing this.’ No, Duke, we were lucky enough to know you.”
Farewell and happy trails, Duke …
Subscribe To American Handgunner
Read the full article here