What you describe about your contact with Elmer Keith is analogous to my feelings about John Buhmiller, with whom I corresponded voluminously and with whom I was privileged to spend an entire Game Coin convention in San Antonio in 1971. For John's account of the same conference see http://www.24hourcampfire.com/buhmiller.html

I had asked John for advice on lining up an African hunt, and he invited me to accompany him and his wife to SA, where I had the experience of meeting Charles Askins, Jr. and Jack and Eleanor O'Connor, none of whom seemed to know who John was, although their African hunting experience was dwarfed by John's. It was a real privilege, and I only regret that I never had the opportunity to own one of John's guns, although I have several rifles with barrels made by John.

I have no idea what became of John's rifles, but I am sure they were not works of art. Like many experimenters, he had little concern for the outward appearance of his rifles, but was primarily concerned with their performance.