Vol. 3, No. 1         13 January 1995

January, 1995

The political outlook is pretty good, though in our enthusiasm we sometimes overlook the obvious obstacles in a leftover liberal Whitehouse, our inimical press and an overall moral malaise. We have mounted a pretty good horse, and we have a pretty good saddle, but the race has not even begun, much less finished.

"Personally I dread the weighty taxes, grinding inconveniences, and petty indignities of the leviathan state more than I dread violent confrontation with its enforcers."

Paul Kirchner

"Speaking for myself, there is only one government on earth I don't feel safe from - and it isn't Russia's."

Joseph Sobran

The purpose of the league, when founded, was to discover, by means of open, unrestricted, diversified competition with the heavy-duty sidearm, just what weapons, what tactics, what principles, and what general equipment would serve best in a fight. I remember that on one occasion the late, great John Plahn exclaimed to me, "Jeff, the rest of us are in this just to have fun, but you are using us as a research tool!" Exactly. That was what I was doing.

It may now be that that purpose was accomplished, though that would be a very dangerous position to take. Certainly, however, the so-called "race guns" that now lead the competition have indicated that a majority of the contestants have simply lost the point. They do not know what the purpose is. That is the reason why the question has come up for debate in the periodical.

• For Jeff - finish "The Art of the Rifle"
• For Janelle - uncover a space on her desk large enough in which to sign checks

We of course know that the only proper way to maintain a personally owned weapon in the household is loaded and ready. It would seem obvious even to a Harvard man that an unloaded weapon is totally useless. The interesting thing is that the newspapers who printed this piece and other newspapers who picked it up and reprinted it never seemed to think further about the matter.

I would certainly like to think that those people who received weapons training have profited by it, but we are not up against reasoned argument here. Hoplophobia is after all a true phobia, which means that it is not susceptible to reasoned argument.

Well, wash my mouth out with soap! To a large number of smallarms enthusiasts in the world, group size is everything. If that is the way they want it, that is all right with me, but I must say that these people are devoting a great deal of attention to an essentially trivial matter. Certainly a very accurate rifle - or pistol - is a satisfying instrument to own and use. Whether it makes any difference in practical application is another matter. Consider for a moment that group size is normally measured by group diameter from the impact centers of the two widest shots in the group. Consider further that even if that is a good measure, group radius is of considerably more interest, since group radius measures the distance between the theoretical point of aim and the worst shot in the group. And let us further consider that in any given group the majority of hits is likely to be located in the center of the group, so we can further cut down the "range probable error" to one-quarter of group diameter. In no case do we know of a man who can shoot well enough to appreciate that. I was told recently by a colleague that he was attempting to do some head-size groups at 500 meters coming up summer. I responded that I had once shot an ornamental 500-meter group with an SSG, using 1962 Lake City Match ammunition, but that since I had shot it from a bench it did not really count. I did not wish to hurt his feelings, but I do wish to point out that what the shooter can do from a bench is no measure of how he can shoot.

We are into the chapter in "The Art of the Rifle" in which we examine the true nature of marksmanship. This subject becomes more complex the more we study it. It is a humbling exercise.

"Faced with the pain of freedom, man begs for his shackles."

Gerry Spence, in "From Freedom to Slavery"

"Your critic is incorrect, and I believe that your use of the term `ninja' to refer to government agents engaged in violent assault on American citizens is not only appropriate, but historically accurate. The ninja in the Japanese Shogunate era (ca. 1600-1750) were hired assassins, and nothing more. To the extent that they battled oppression or tyranny, they did so at the behest of other tyrant oppressors; imagine an FBI sniper taking out a BATF supervisor, for example."

The PH, the client, and an apprentice PH, accompanied by two trackers, followed a shootable bull into some fairly thick cover. In an open space they got a shot at some 60 meters. The buff disappeared, and they followed him into thicker cover. Following a wounded buff into thick cover is one of life's great experiences, and in this case it turned out to be the last experience - for the principal. At ranges of perhaps ten paces, two more shots were fired - one to the head, one to the shoulder. When on the next close-range sighting the buff came straight in, the PH fired one more shot and was runover without serious injury by the buffalo, who, now reduced to crawling, made it to the client, got his horns under him and tossed him aside. The client was not mangled, but received a couple of horn wounds to the thighs, one of which to the inside of the right thigh apparently punctured the femoral artery. All hands did what they could to stop the bleeding, but it had gone too far by the time they got the pressure bandages in place and the client was dead on arrival at the hospital.

This is all very grand, as the sportsman died a man's death in his prime in noble adventure. What impresses me most, however, is the iron courage of the buffalo which, though mortally wounded, pressed home his attack and destroyed his tormentor.

Old Synceros caffer - the African buffalo - is not very pretty, but he just may be the grandest game animal in the world, regardless of the size of his trophy.

I do not choose to regard this episode as evidence of inadequate gunpower, since to begin with I do not know what gun was used, but the blood from that first bullet hole was light and frothy, indicating a lung shot. Regardless of what cartridge you use, you will not stop a buffalo with a lung shot. It is easy to be somewhat shaken on your first sight of the black bull, but above everything else you must shoot with extreme care. The buff may never start a fight, but you may be sure that he stands ready, willing and able to finish it.

(French horns in the distance.)

What was it that Heinlein said about an armed society?

"I am not prejudiced, I am postjudiced. Postjudice is the compliment that common sense pays to experience."

Florence King

"The egalitarian left says it isn't relevant, and the philistine right it won't help you earn a living. Probably not, but it makes life liveable."

1. For the politician, the commandment is: "Empower thyself!"
2. For the Third World chieftain: "Enrich thyself!"
3. For the populace at large: "Amuse thyself!"
4. For the good citizen: "Enlighten thyself!"

Vol. 3, No. 2         31 January 1995

Ground Hog Day, 1995

"The American people must be willing to give up a degree of personal privacy in exchange for safety and security, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said."

It has been a long time, but we still hope for the best.

Anybody is at liberty to call anything whatever he wants, but the Scout attributes were fully discussed at the Scout conference held nearly ten years ago at Gunsite, and customized versions have distinguished themselves all over the world. I have tried to write the matter up on several occasions, but I am amazed at the number of people who adopt a term without reading into it.

For example, in Lexington, Kentucky, recently the county coroner ruled that when a police officer making an arrest used the hammer-dropper to make the weapon safe, and shot the suspect through the head, the fatality was "unintentional." It is probably true to say that the cop did not intend to kill the suspect, but what he was doing pointing his pistol at the head while he dropped the hammer is another matter. That hammer-dropper does not always work. We thought everybody knew that. Certainly the Walther people, who invented it back in 1935, formally cautioned their users about it in writing.

Funny we did not have all this trouble with accidental discharge, either with revolvers or with single-action auto-pistols, in my youth. Apparently nitwittedness is one of the flowers of the Age of the Common Man.

A nifty Marlin 45-70 carbine, totally stainless, in takedown. The perfect instrument for bear and lion guides. If you are interested check with,

A Voere 6mm rifle taking the caseless cartridge. They are working up to 6.5, and when they get to 7, I will be interested.

303 British ammunition available from Hansen in quantity. (This for those who have been acquiring the fine war-surplus Enfield No. 4.)

The excellent 45 caliber 230-grain JTC bullet available from Nosler.

An African police shotgun with two magazine tubes, offering instantaneous selection of projectile type.

1. We did agree upon a weight ceiling of 5 kilos, which is better than meaningless, but only a little.
2. A range limit of 500 meters for international competition.
3. No minimum caliber.
4. Major and minor power factor.
5. Two divisions: manual and self-loading.
6. No limit on action type.
7. No limit on electronic sights.
8. All equipment to be fitted to the weapon throughout the match and not changed.
9. Scoring methods may be used at the discretion of the course director to include Comstock, One Shot Virginia, and Kahn-Hamilton (as used in the Keneyathlon.)

Our hope lies in course design, and we are very fortunate in having General Denis Earp, Regional Director for South Africa, in charge of approving all courses to be used in international competition. If courses of fire are realistic and well-designed, nearly all of our difficulties will be solved.

Well, it shoots flatter. (A bit, and that bit is so small that it makes no difference, since on the back curve of the trajectory differences in drop do not matter as long as they are known in advance.)

Well, it hits harder. (Yes, a bit, and to what purpose? If you sock any sort of beast short of buffalo in the proper place with a 30-06, you have him.) A friend, who was demonstrating the Blaser rifle at SHOT, told me that his most popular caliber is the 300 Weatherby Magnum. It turns out that he sells his rifles primarily to rich Texas cowboys who figure that they cannot do it with a 30-06, so they better have a 300 Magnum. Personally I am unconvinced.

"When law and morality contradict each other the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his sense of morality or losing his respect for the law."

Frederick Bastiat

It is time to come down hard on these regulators. I have been waiting for the news that the new boys in Washington are planning to do something about the BATF - so far with no results. I continue to wait. You continue to wait. Let us not wait indefinitely.

Interesting, what!

"I was much interested to read the editorial `Competition Notes' on the third page of No. 11 and 12 of the Journal."

"At issue is the purpose of the Southwest Pistol League - an interesting question."

"I once worked for a superb general at Quantico who posted up over the exit doorway of every office in the school complex the question, `What are you trying to do?' written in gold letters upon a scarlet background. That is truly a shocking question for the majority of the human race, which really has only a vague notion of what it is trying to do."

"I cannot say what the purpose of the Southwest Pistol League is at this time, though I certainly know what it was when I founded it. That purpose was to discover, by means of open, unrestricted, diversified, realistic competition, the best weapons, equipment and technique to fulfill the lifesaving mission of the combat pistol. (Some may remember that the original title of the organization was the Southwest Combat Pistol League, the word Combat extracted by the California Secretary of State when we became incorporated.) My thoughts, along with those of the other founders, was that only competition can develop excellence, but this is true only as long as the mode of competition reflects the purpose of the exercise. Once the goal of competition becomes simply winning, all sorts of irrelevant challenges may be substituted for relevance - as with, for example, checkers, frisbee or croquet."

"What we wanted to find out was how best to use a pistol in combat, and what the best pistol was. All of us had been previously trained by the military and/or the police and had always been faced with the problem of bringing a large number of people up to some minimum standard with the least time, trouble and expense. All you had to do in the public sector was shoot `expert,' but in competition you had to shoot better than your opponent. This kicked the lid off practical pistolcraft and turned the handgun from a rather trivial badge of office into a serious weapon."

"The revolution we created in the pursuit of that original purpose seems to have been achieved. Jack Weaver showed us how to shoot. John Plahn systematized the technique, and I explored the proper means of imparting it."

"However, as soon as competition became an end in itself, forgetting its purpose, the activity became trivialized and further progress came to a halt. This is not necessarily a disaster, since what we had learned is still there for those who wish to learn it, regardless of the bizarre impracticality that has set in. "Practical" pistol shooting certainly can be fun - every bit as much fun as impractical pistol shooting - but fun is not the purpose of the exercise. I remember once that John Plahn addressed me with some force saying, `Jeff, the rest of us are in this to have a good time, but you are using us as a research tool!' Just so, I learned what I needed to learn, as did many others, by the same process, and now we know how to use the combat pistol. The purpose has been accomplished."

"The first thing a conservative notices about leftists is how afraid they are. Any conversation with them soon, no immediately, leads to something they fear, and they fear almost everything. They fear food, tobacco, the sun, clothing, cars, open discussion, life, death, etc. Because of many of these deep fears it is not surprising that they are passionately interested in making life `safe.' Life must be renewed. If something incidental, such as this freedom or that freedom, must be given up in order for life to be `safer,' than so be it. (Perhaps this makes perfect sense because when someone is consumed by fear he is in effect imprisoned. Accordingly, the meaning of freedom changes.)"

"The first thing is to overcome fear. When that is accomplished everything takes care of itself."

Vol. 3, No. 3         22 February 1995

Winterset, 1995

Too often the good die young. God's will be done.

(I strongly advise against putting glass sights on a heavy. A buffalo is easy to see, and some of the time you may have to put him away at spitting distance. Under those circumstances a telescope sight is not only unnecessary, but possibly in the way.)

"Campaigns to bear-proof all garbage containers in wild areas have been difficult because, as one biologist put it, `There is a considerable overlap between the intelligence levels of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.'"

Richard Wabrek

"There is no moral obligation for any of us to obey immoral or unconstitutional laws, but if you are caught be prepared to pay the price."

Walter Williams

When we opened the Pandora-box of practical pistol shooting in California back in the late 50s, we did not realize that a definite split would develop between those who shot a pistol in search of excellence and those who shot a pistol simply because they had to. The feeling, which we sometimes hear from the mouths of idiots, that "only the police and the military should have weapons," ignores the fact that the police and/or the military are not likely to achieve any generalized level of excellence (though they indeed may turn out champions of highly specialized efforts). In any exercise in sporting competition only a limited number of champions will develop. It is possible that the techniques they use are not applicable to mass audiences.

We sympathize with the law enforcement people who are faced with the need to train increasing numbers of increasingly incompetent recruits forced upon them by politico-sociological conditions. For example, the late Bruce Nelson was once criticized when demonstrating the modern technique to some cop groups in California on the grounds that he "practiced a lot." I did not realize then, and neither did he, that people who practice a lot with their weapons may be excoriated as "politically incorrect."

At the other end of the line we find the contests now put on for the pistol by the Intentional Practical Shooting Confederation have got so far afield from the street application of handgunning that the techniques of the current IPSC champions may with some justification be denigrated by those who feel that the pistol is a primary means of defensive combat.

And then we get into journalistic discussion where "gun writers" have a strong tendency to assume authority that they do not legitimately possess. All too frequently one reads flat statements made in magazines by unknowns who have no real experience in combat, competition, or even in pistol hunting, which is, of course, a specialty all to itself.

The Special Services of the military and the federal ninja also get into the act, though they try to keep the matter pretty much to themselves. On what basis they claim expertise is again open to discussion.

So we get back to the question, "Who really knows how to use a pistol?" I am not prepared to accept the counter question, "To do what?" I am going to stick with the proposition that a pistol is primarily means of saving a life - stopping a fight that somebody else started. The best pistol shot to my mind is the man who can best stop a fight, and his equipment must not be restricted by the half-baked regulations of procurement officers.

I see really good pistol shots perform now and then, but not often, and not in ways that necessarily re-enforce the realism of the technique employed. Truly, pistolcraft has taken tremendous strides in the past thirty-five years, but we have not achieved the perfect solution even yet - mainly because there are two few people asking the right questions.

This is why a hunter should carry more ammunition with him in the field than he will probably need to bring home his venison.

"Power is nothing without control."

Pirelli Tyres Limited

This was a joke, I guess. But a bad one. Advertising must prevail, but for those of us who have struggled amain to establish that it is the man, rather than his equipment, which conquers, this sort of salesmanship is repulsive.

A friend was recently subjected to one of these training programs and was shown a text which insists, "Do not load your pistol until you are ready to shoot." And further, "Always unload your pistol when you have finished shooting."

A little thought please, Professor! These injunctions are the equivalent of saying, "Never wear a life-jacket unless you are sure your boat is going to sink." Or, "Never put on your armored vest unless you are sure you are going to be shot." Or, "Never fill your tank with gas until you are ready to drive."

Until the handgun is recognized properly as a life-saving instrument, we can expect more of this sort of administrative garbage.

"There is nothing more odious than the majority; for it consists of a few powerful leaders, a certain number of accommodating scoundrels and subservient weaklings, and a mass of men who trudge after them without in the least knowing their own minds."

Goethe

"No experience is so conductive to steady and accurate shooting as the knowledge of the impossibility to escape by speed."

Sir Samuel Baker

Vol. 3, No. 4         9 March 1995

March Winds

Furthermore, I cannot blame the computer for not checking itself out before distribution. I was in a hurry, and I left for Texas without checking. My fault.

[Editor's note: this error was corrected before Vol. 3, No. 3 was placed in the archive - Johnny]

"Saving is a very fine thing, especially when your parents have done it for you."

Winston Churchill

As we all know, a year without hunting is like a dinner without wine, and this episode with the blue bull filled in our 1995 slot to a nicety. I used the Lion Scout, loaded by John Gannaway with the excellent Swift partition 250. This combination is possibly a bit much for the task, although a big nilgai may run up to 700 lbs, but I suppose it is better to be over-gunned than under-gunned.

We gathered up about 145 lbs of prime venison, and in due course I expect a handsome black and silver rug.

So much for pistol information.

"There is a lot of internal friction in the ANC. Winnie is close to being evicted. There are numerous corruption scandals being investigated. Our budget comes out next week, and we are concerned at possible consequences. A change has been made in the tax structure with immediate effect. All tax rates for married men, married women, and single people have been changed to a universal rate, as the Constitution forbids discrimination on the grounds of sex, etc."

"Intellect without will is useless, whereas will without intellect is dangerous."

Carl von Seekt

Disconcerting alacrity. There you have it.

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."

Plato

Contact was made on a very superior specimen at about 60 paces, target angle 345. Monty, who is an excellent shot and widely experienced, placed his bullet exactly on the chalk mark, whereupon the bull spun and vanished. Monty and his PH tracked for about an hour. The wounded buff had pulled a classic 270 to port and was waiting for them on his back trail at some 30 paces. He came straight in as they emptied both rifles and died heroically spraying "blood on the shoes."

This was a very grand adventure, which Monty will not forget, and it points up our conclusion that the 375 Magnum is simply not a buffalo gun. It will certainly kill buffalo, as will almost any of the 30 caliber family, assuming proper bullets, but it should never be taken as first choice. For buff you need a big gun, which the 375 is not.

The buffalo is fantastic. When you take him on you challenge a noble adversary.

This is an ingenious instrument and deserves detailed examination.

"It's a shame such a great organization has such a low purpose."

"If you want to learn a trade, join the Army.
If you want a clean bunk every night, join the Navy.
If you want to fly, join the Air Force.
If you want to fight, join the Marines."

Sweetheart is Scout II, possibly equaled by successive efforts, but certainly never surpassed. The Lion Scout is the perfected Fireplug - the best medium I have ever seen or heard described. And Baby is, of course, the mighty 460 Special, the buffalo gun par excellence.

This is a trio that I present as an example as how things should be and seldom are. It is a wonderful feeling!

"Learning to trust is such a juvenile fancy!"

It seems to me that there was a rule which says you keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target. It seems to be too much to ask New York City's finest to observe such things.

Family members are invited to caption this picture. Contest winners to be announced.

"A man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on."

Winston Churchill

Vol. 3, No. 5         31 March 1995

Rustles of Spring

And then there are the snakes. Down in the desert the people are complaining about the unusual proliferation of rattlesnakes, which is being investigated by the media based on the number of phone calls the police are getting. I find this bothersome. It simply does not occur to me that one calls the police when he finds a rattlesnake in his backyard. Why is a rattlesnake the business of the state? And in what way is the state better qualified to handle a rattlesnake than the householder?

There are various things to be done about a rattlesnake in one's garden, but I do not see that the cops are in a position to do them. The first thing to do about a rattlesnake is let it alone. Unless there are small children about, or particularly dimwitted pets, a rattlesnake may well be allowed to go about his business. If, on the other hand, it is necessary to get this beast out of your vicinity, he is probably best scooped into a large jar and spirited off to the nearest high school biology lab as a demonstration.

If this idea does not take your fancy, he can be beaten on with a stick and dropped into the trash. Better, however, he may be beheaded, skinned, eviscerated, cut into one and a half inch chunks and deep-fat fried. (This works best for pretty big ones.)

His skin makes into a nice hat-band, and his rattles into a nifty presentation piece for travelers from abroad.

In no case, however, is he a matter for the state. If we truly have got to the point where the citizen's first response to anything he does not understand is to call the police, we are probably too far gone down the road to serfdom

"No one but he who has partaken thereof can understand the keen delight of hunting in lonely lands. For him it is the joy of the horse well-ridden and the rifle well-held; for him the long days of toil and hardship, resolutely endured, and crowned at the end with triumph."

Theodore Roosevelt

An exception to this, however, may be the "pistol ghost-ring" devised by Steve Wickert of Wells Sport Store in Prescott. Several old timers now have reported that this sighting system does wonders to make up for the increasing stiffness of the cornea that normally comes with age. This arrangement is somewhat more obtrusive than conventional rear sights on a pistol, but not enough to invalidate it as a holster weapon. If you find it increasingly hard to pick up that front sight in a hurry, you might well give this arrangement some thought.

As colleague Ross Seyfried recently pointed out in an article, the factories will not put good triggers in their weapons because,

(a) the handwork required is expensive, and,
(b) a really good trigger might be regarded as a liability in a lawsuit.

This problem is not found in the higher-grade European actions. The Mauser, Mannlicher and Voere rifles normally come over the counter with excellent triggers. And then, of course, there is the Blaser, of which I have spoken before. Conventional triggers may be said to operate as a pair of interconnected hooks, one the striker and the other the sear, which have to be scraped off in order to release the firing pin. This means that metal must be dragged across metal, and this calls for a very high polish of extremely hard, wear-proof surfaces in order to function well. The Blaser trigger, however, operates on a different principle. When the piece is cocked the sear proper is placed under powerful spring tension, which will pop it loose when permitted. It is not permitted, however, as long as the trigger pedestal resists this spring tension. When the trigger is pressed this pedestal is lowered out of contact, without friction. Nothing need be polished or tuned and every trigger comes off the line the same as every other. This is a beautiful arrangement. I wish I could say, "Don't leave home without it!" but as of now it comes only on one gun.

"Watching the unfolding political debate, it occurs to me that liberals feel the same way about truth that Dracula feels about sunlight."

Paul Kirchner

As we discovered later, Iwo was practically defenseless when we were busy down in the Mariannas eight months previously. Saburo Sakai, the great Japanese fighter pilot, wrote in his book that the island could have been taken by two destroyers and one company of military police when he was flying off it to attack us down at Saipan. If there is tragedy involved here, it is that, and not the battle for the island, which was an occasion for glory such as is not understood by the current administration of the United States of America.

Brigadier the 17th Lord Lovat, 24th Chief of Clan Fraser, was a legendary commando leader in the Second World War. He was what may precisely be termed "a gentleman of the old school" who fought with the dash, style and elegance befitting a hereditary aristocrat. No only did he bear the Military Cross, the Distinguished Service Order, and the Croix de Guerre, but the Germans did him the honor of placing a reward of one hundred thousand Deutschmarks on his head. He was a champion fencer, horseman and marksman, and did all the things expected of a man of his lineage. He hunted all over the world, and for thirty-five years he was chairman of the Shikar Club. Since the one son was killed by a buff and the other suffered a heart attack while riding to hounds, the peerage is now succeeded by grandson Simon, the 18th Lord Lovat. Now there is a lad with a lot to live up to.

"Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact."

Balzac

Nevertheless, military medals can be respected as tributes to heroism on various pretexts, and at both ends of the scale, varying from acts of the grandest performance of duty to acts of momentary hysteria. In the American tradition a man earns a Medal of Honor for throwing himself on a grenade, whether or not this accomplishes anything but his own death. Presumably this represents sublime self-sacrifice, and certainly such behavior ought to be recognized. However, it is not comparable with behavior which achieves dramatic military results by the demonstration of brilliant military capacity at risk of one's life.

We read recently of the death, from natural causes, of Brigadier General James Howard of the Air Force, who earned the only Medal of Honor awarded to a fighter pilot in the European theater in WWII. The story has it that this officer was a member of a formation of P51s assigned to protect bomber attacks over Germany. He became separated from the rest of his group, but when he located the bombers he discovered they were under attack from no less than thirty German fighters. By himself, he dove into the German fighter formation, disrupted its attack, and shot down four of the enemy aircraft.

This behavior demonstrated matchless devotion to duty, sublime physical courage, and total mastery of his weapon. This is the sort of thing for which the Medal of Honor really should be awarded.

"Freedom isn't Freeh."

I find this perplexing. If I one day wind up in the presence of a 32 auto-pistol, and have access to a 25 auto cartridge, I am going to try to duplicate this trick (not on myself, of course) just to see if it is technically possible.

As of right now, there is a rumor to the effect that federal marshals may arrest Lon Horiuchi and deliver him to the State of Idaho. Perhaps this is only a rumor, but it certainly is a good one.

(If I keep writing this sort of thing, I guess I can expect the ninja any quiet morning about 0300.)

Vol. 3, No. 6         25 April 1995

Maytime, 1995

A mild problem was caused by the radical divergence in background of the students, many of whom had been certified by me at Orange Gunsite. By contrast, daughter Lindy had never held a rifle in her hands before and had to play a fierce game of catch-up.

Mike Ballew and Brad Schuppan arranged the weather perfectly, providing us with one perfect week in between two spring storm sessions. Actually this caught me somewhat aslant because I had planned a good bit of class work between squalls, and when there were no squalls I felt we should spend our time on the range.

I awarded four classic Hawkeye badges to Kurt Miller (who won the shoot-off with an M1a,) Tom Graziano, Steve Hendricks, and Scott Larsen. These people are very superior marksmen, of a sort you would rather not compete against.

We were astonished again at the profusion of game at the Whittington Shooting Center. We were continually observed by the numerous local mule deer, and spotted as many as 60 elk in a bunch. Our tactical rifle exercise was run up a canyon preempted by a flock of turkeys who were conspicuously unintimidated by rifle fire. Evidently they liked that canyon and did not see why they should move simply because of occasional sudden loud noises.

The clay bird shooting was again impressive, with over half the class scoring on the first session. There are not many places where you can indulge in this advanced activity, but when you have convinced yourself that you really can powder a clay in the air, you know a feeling of comfort that is hard to surpass.

Whittington is a long way from anywhere, but the trip is worth it.

1. The Scout really should make weight, and weight is 3 kg (6.7 lbs) including sights.
2. The Scout caliber is 308. This is because the 308 ammunition is universally available worldwide (so is 223, but let us not go into that.) One cannot make a classic Scout out of a 30-06, simply because the cartridge, and thus the action, is too long.
3. A classic Scout must be short. Start with one meter (39 inches) and work down from that.

"A golf course is the willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range."

Bill O'Connor

"I rate my mail according to the following scale:

+5 unexpected checks

+4 personal correspondence from interesting people

+3 expected checks

+2 magazines

+1 interesting catalogs or junk mail

-1 entreats for money from causes of which I disapprove

-2 entreats for money from causes of which I approve (because I either have to kick in or feel guilty)

-3 anticipated bills

-4 unanticipated bills

-5 any correspondence from the IRS."

Here is a man who has his priorities sorted out.

(Incidentally, when I refer to a "family member," the implication is an Orange family member. The question as to whether a Grey Gunsite graduate can be a Gunsite family member remains open for discussion.)

"D.A.R.E. to keep cops off donuts."

In that regard, we note this new profusion of heavy caliber rifles for bolt guns now available for sale as semi-production items. Both Dakota and A-Square now offer bolt guns starting a 45 caliber 500-grain bullet at around 2,400 foot seconds exactly the ballistics of the 460 G&A Special that I have been using with great satisfaction for many years. In addition, A-Square offers the 470 Capstick, with slightly greater bore area and a tad more weight. This may be the best of the bunch when you consider that you can get five rounds into its magazine without an extension. The 450 Rigby is now also available if you wish, but none of these bolt-action heavies features a proper ghost-ring sight system. That point alone keeps Baby and her kin still out in front.

"Carry what you want, how you want, where you want, and we won't bother you unless you screw up."

Now hear the sequel. It seems that this girl felt that her safety training was inadequate and the proximate cause of the fatality. She fell into the hands of some shyster and proceeded to sue the city for huge amounts of money, claiming that she was now so upset that she could not pursue her chosen career as a cop. The case settled out of court for $70,000. Moral: If you kill somebody through your own stupidity, and find someone upon whom you can blame that stupidity, the taxpayers will buy you a nice new Mercedes Benz, of the inexpensive variety of course.

"Reuter News Highlights Bucharest, Reuter - Romania's top Olympic marksmen blasted away at human targets in a gunbattle at a Bucharest cemetery this week to defend the country's pro-democracy revolution, according to the official news agency Agerpres.

Olympic rapid-fire and free-pistol champions 'annihilated' pro-Ceausescu forces in the fire-fight at the Ghencea Military Cemetery, Agerpres said, without saying when it took place.

The shooting by 1984 rapid-fire silver medalist Ion Corneliu and 1988 free-pistol champion Sorin Babli was among 'genuine acts of heroism by the athletes of the military club Steaua,' it said."

Anyone who says he knows all about the behavior of wildlife is giving himself away.

It is up to your representatives in Congress to find out why this country needs a special force of civilian storm troopers in order to make war upon its own people. Now that we have a bunch of new boys in Washington, it is up to us to call upon them to answer this question.

Pass on in, brother!

"Any of you brothers seen my speedloader?"

"Speedloader?"

"Yah, something like this,"

and he brings out his Detective Special, fishes around in his pockets and says,

"A speedloader is something you use to load this piece. It's round and made of black rubber. I swear I dropped it around here someplace. Anybody see it?"

1. Who started it?
2. Who won?

Hence the enormous success of the Glock pistol. It is new, it works and it is cheap, thus it is the end product of one of the most successful marketing ventures the world has ever seen.

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."

Machiavelli, 1513

A detective investigating a murder case has been known within the past decade to call a spade a spade. Therefore: O.J. Simpson could not have murdered his ex-wife.

I am not qualified to pass on this work, but it convinces me. I invite you to study it for yourself.

You may order the book from,

Price for the book is $20.00, including postage and handling (but not Texas sales tax.)

"Life is a comedy for those who think. A tragedy for those who feel."

Tacitus

Vol. 3, No. 7         16 May 1995

Springtime, 1995

"A planted bomb is a despicable instrument, as any decent human being will attest. One may reflect, however, that more children were killed at Waco than at Oklahoma City. No sympathy must be shown to the perpetrators of either atrocity."

The buff, after having been shot several times, crashed through the group and pinned one of the party to the ground. It was a smallish bull, with a spread between points of some twenty inches, but it succeeded in driving its horns through the body of the victim in two places high in the shoulder and low in the pelvis. This fixed the victim on the horns and the buff ran off into the jungle with the man on his head.

The attempted pursuit was not very successful. After four days, when the hunters finally made it, the mortally wounded buffalo was unable to rise, but he still bore on his horns the rotting wreckage of what had once been a man. Ugly!

Moral: Don't hunt dangerous game with little guns. How odd that one should have to make that point!

This could be a really important development.

The massive gold ring, complete with our insignia and its diamonds, is quite beautiful!

"The people speak and act as if they regarded a criminal trial as a sort of game, partly of chance, partly of skill, in which the proper end to be aimed at is not that the truth may be discovered, but that both parties may have fair play: in a word, that whether a guilty person should be acquitted or punished may be as near as possible an even chance."

So much for justice!

"If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates."

Joseph Sobran

"Hey, hey, ho, ho!
BATF has got to go!"

At Orange Gunsite we used to run to about 500 rounds of pistol and 400 rounds of rifle per class, but that is rather intensive practice.

As a boy I was permitted to take just 50 rounds of hunting ammunition into Canada per hunt. Today I believe the allowance in Botswana and Zimbabwe is 100.

With the 22, matters are very different, and on a picnic one may easily go through 50 rounds of 22 per customer.

The subject is obviously very flexible, but the "one box a year" man should remember that two different lots of ammunition may well not shoot to the same point, and that he really should expend about 200 rounds with his hunting rifle before embarking for his annual hunt.

Certainly circumstances alter cases, but I clearly remember the old adage:

"One cannot have too many books, too many wines, nor too much ammunition."

"Most of us could get along better with much less government than we have; there are others though who seem to require lifelong shepherding from pre-natal care to the electric chair. It makes no sense to talk of self-government to a man who cannot even govern his own behavior."

Paul Kirchner

"If you cannot protect us, arm us.
If you cannot arm us, pray for us."

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted."

Italian Proverb

"By the way, I have had the experience of surprising a burglar. He fled. I notified the police, ID'd him and pressed charges. He had a very long record. Playing the continuance game, he and his lawyer caused me to spend 5 days in court. He spent 3. The judge sent him for alcohol counseling at taxpayer expense. I needed a drink; I paid for it myself. The judge was an ass, the court system was pathetic."

Bill O'Connor

I have often denigrated variable-power scopes. People ask why.

First, variable power serves no purpose. You can hit what you can see, and it need not appear larger.

Second, variables frequently shift point of aim when power is changed. Not always, but enough to be troublesome.

Third, variable power reduces eye-relief, which should be greater rather than less.

Fourth, complexity increases fragility.

Fifth, variables cost more.

So now it seems that Zeiss has discontinued fixed-power sights. Because of the "lemming principle," they don't sell.

Why are these men ashamed to show their faces?

Vol. 3, No. 8         21 June 1995

Independence, 1995

However, the material has just kept piling up, so we will try and put this one together in what time is available, which is, as usual, less than needful.

Our class in Guatemala went quite well, thanks to the ingenuity and activity of family members Bob Young and Tom Graziano.

It has been a short lifetime since our first visit to Guatemala, and while the geography remains the same the sociology is entirely different. The street hazard from bad guys is still there, but it comes from different directions, and while it is easier to combat, it is more difficult to predict. Most of our friends down there remain faithful to the 1911 pistol, as in our class the crunchentickers were pretty much the field of the military citizens and there was only one Glock (no revolvers.)

It remains so difficult to keep the thumb of an inexperienced shooter on top of the safety where it belongs that we are now thinking seriously of making the safety spring-loaded in the new pistol. Family member Rich Wyatt points out that if the safety goes on automatically when the thumb is not actuating it, it will be difficult for the weapon to be operated with the wrong hand unless the safety mechanism is "ambidextrous," a concept which is structurally unsound. Vamos a ver.

The other point which impressed itself again is that the student who chooses to use a crunchenticker must be shown how to operate the pistol in both trigger-cocking and thumb-cocking fashion, and given a choice by which he can prove to himself what system suits him better. This is not a matter to be left up to bureaucratic regulation.

The very good things about Guatemala are the climate, the tortillas (Mexican style,) the beef, the rum, and the people. On the negative side are the city traffic and the highly confused political situation. (Also the turistas, unless you keep your blood alcohol level at a proper count.)

We were delighted to meet again old friends: the Grimlers, the Harshbargers, and the Widmanns. Carlos Widmann probably should be president of the republic, but the very idea fills him with dismay. He flew us around in his helicopter, which, in that beautiful landscape, is a true luxury.

Today the Israeli pistol salesmen are roaming the world and providing pistol training for those departments who will purchase their firearms. I have seen the results, and it is quite clear that Israeli pistol doctrine has little to recommend it apart from the fact that the Israelis teach it.

Who then can define proper pistolcraft at this time? At the beginning of The Movement it could be said that the best shots were those who were winning in practical competition. Since the loss of practicality in practical competition, who can say what technique is best? The original lifesaving technique was invented by Jack Weaver, perfected by Elden Carl and Ray Chapman, codified by John Plahn, and promulgated by me. Now, thirty years later, I do not see anything better being demonstrated worldwide. On the contrary what I see, in the main, is retrogression. It is, of course, presumptuous of me to claim that I know the answer, but looking around I certainly can say that I have seen a great many people who presume to know the answer and do not.

The important thing is to keep the seekers after excellence free of the public sector. Neither the police nor the military, are proper places in which to seek individual excellence. Many cops and many soldiers are very fine marksmen, but they are that regardless of their civil status. The sad fact is that individual excellence is a matter for development by the individual and it is not something that can be imparted in the mass. Ask any fighter pilot the next chance you get.

ESCHEW ETHNICITY!

"Heroism" is not the same as coping. A man who does his job properly and succeeds through his own efforts is definitely to be commended, but he is not a hero in the classic sense until he deliberately lays his life on the line for a caus