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

Drug Enforcement Administration

The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...

. 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 Jalapeños : Selected Works of Skeeter Skelton. He was a contemporary of Bill Jordan

Bill Jordan (Marine)

William Henry "Bill" Jordan was an American lawman, United States Marine and author.Born in 1911 in Louisiana, he served for over 30 years with the U.S. Border Patrol, while also serving as a US Marine during World War II and the Korean War...

, Charles Askins

Charles Askins

Charles Askins, Jr. , also known as Col. Charles "Boots" Askins, was an American lawman, US Army officer, and writer. He served in law enforcement in the American Southwest prior to the Second World War...

 and Elmer Keith

Elmer Keith

Elmer Keith was an Idaho rancher, firearms enthusiast, and author. Keith was instrumental in the development of the first magnum revolver cartridge, the .357 Magnum, as well as the later .44 Magnum and .41 Magnum cartridges.-Personality and life:Keith's trademarks were his cigars, his ten-gallon...

.

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 reprinting past "Hip Shots" articles by Skelton.

Legacy

Skelton is credited by firearms writer, John Taffin

John Taffin

John August Taffin is an American author from Boise, Idaho who writes several columns for gun magazines including Guns, Gun Digest, Sixgunner, Shoot! and American Handgunner...

 with the revival of the .44 Special

.44 Special

The .44 Special or .44 S&W Special is a smokeless powder center fire metallic cartridge developed by Smith & Wesson in 1907 as the standard chambering for their New Century revolver, introduced in 1908.-Development history:...

round.

External links

Collected writings at Dark Canyon