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The Other Skeeter Sixgun
- William Bell
- Dec 1, 2025
- 9 min read
Updated: Dec 2, 2025
by William Bell
I first remember reading Bill Bell’s good articles in Combat Handguns Magazine many years ago, long before I became a writer. I finally met Bill at the Shootist’s Holiday a few years back and we’ve been friends ever since. We’ve attended some of the same writer’s events along the way and he’s always good company. Heck, we even teamed up a-one evening to win second place in a corn hole game championship. I don’t remember what Bill got, but I walked away with some good leather gear from Galco. Who says there’s no second-place winners! It’s a mystery to me how at the SHOT Show Bill and I seem to run into one another several times during the week in the huge buildings, teeming with thousands of other folks. I expect it’s because we share the same gun-related interests. You’ll see from Bill’s bio that he spent his adult life as a lawman and his resume of writing is equally impressive. We’re glad to have him here at Gun Tales. —Shane Jahn
William “Bill” Bell retired from law enforcement in 2014 after having served for 38 years with such agencies as the LaGrange (KY) PD, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Border Patrol, and U.S. Customs/CBP. He also served as an officer with the Kentucky and Louisiana Army National Guard for six years. He graduated from Eastern Kentucky University College of Law Enforcement, earning AA and BS degrees in 1976.
A self-taught marksman and hunter, Bell was a member of the KY ARNG combat pistol team, the JPSO PPC shooting team, and shot for U.S. Customs, Port of Calexico. Over the years he participated in IPSC, bowling pin, and steel target shooting matches. He’s been involved with cowboy action shooting since 1992. Bell was also a collateral-duty firearms instructor with USCS/CBP for 17 years.
Bell had his first gun magazine article published in 1983, and since then, has had several hundred articles published in such magazines as Combat Handguns, Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement, Concealed Carry Handguns, Guns of the Old West, Guns, Gun Digest Magazine, and NRA America’s 1st Freedom, among others.
Today he writes mostly for online publications from Athlon Outdoors, Lipsey’s Bulletin, Mid-south Shot Report, and more. He also maintains a Facebook page called The Firing Pen,
and contributes to Instagram and Linked-In. He’s been married for 46 years, has a son, and two grandsons.
It seems like I “broke the mold” in my family. None of my immediate relations when I was growing up had much if any interest in firearms. My proclivity for guns began in my mid-teens as I discovered magazines like Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and Sports Afield. I was a self-taught shooter, graduating from a BB gun, to a pellet gun, then a single-shot 20 ga. shotgun, and finally a .22 rifle. Westerns dominated prime-time television, so eventually I acquired a Ruger Super Single Six .22 SA revolver and a cowboy-style holster rig. My gun interests expanded beyond hunting guns when I started reading magazines like Guns, Guns & Ammo, and Shooting Times.
