Behind The Byline: Mike “Duke” Venturino

A modern-day frontiersman is in the midst of the FMG family, known best to readers as Mike “Duke” Venturino. Born to the lineage of West Virginia Hatfields (yes,the Hatfields of notable feuding fame), Mike’s desire to be an author specializing in firearms was established early, and cemented with a journalism degree from Marshall University (yes, of the movie fame).

Summer stints at Yellowstone National Park made him fall in love with the area, so he moved to Montana in 1977 and has since called 70 acres of land home with his wife (and ace photographer) Yvonne and assortment of dogs, cats, horses and one donkey. From his home on the range, over 2,000 articles and seven books have been published.

A passion for — rather, hobby of — WWII history has guided some of Mike’s most treasured work. Stories following flight in a restored B-17 bomber and visit to Iwo Jima have been highlights of his career with GUNS and American Handgunner.

At the top of the list of reasons Mike values writing for FMG Publications for the past 13 years is the lack of pressure to write something solely to please an advertiser. “We are permitted to write to please the readers,” Duke shares. “Our editors are smart enough to hire true ‘gun guys’ because they’re also ‘gun guys’ and turn them loose to write about the things they are passionate about.”

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