We have lost the finest prose stylist -- ever -- to write about guns. It is the end of an era, one Michael helped create.

He was in intense physical pain when I visited him in late June -- yet till the very end he still intended to go to the Fieldsports Shooting School this week. He loved his craft, and was a master at it, and he loved loved words and shooting and guns and the folks he met through them.

Damn, I will miss him.