I know this is borderline heresy, but I've never been a big fan of Keith. He undoubtedly had a wealth of knowledge gained from first hand experience, but his "rough and ready" style of writing/speech wore thin to me after a time. At least O'Connor's writing was the obvious output of an English professor. I enjoy going back and re-reading Crossman's book on the Springfield, while overlooking the multitude of racist comments it contains. (Sign of the times of 80 years ago I suppose.)
Too bad more of the old gunsmiths didn't put their thoughts to paper. It would be enlightening to read of Harry Pope's ideas and philosophy had he taken pen to paper, for example. (But that would have taken away from his bench time.) Did Mr. Niedner ever publish anything?
