Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 5


Vol. 1 | Vol. 2 | Vol. 3 | Vol. 4


No. 1, January 1997
No. 2, Mid-Winter, February 1997
No. 3, Winterset, March 1997
No. 4, Peregrinations, March 1997
No. 5, The Sowers of April, April 1997
No. 6, The Rites of Spring, May 1997
No. 7, Summer Solstice, June 1997
No. 8, The Big Year, June 1997
No. 9, High Summer, August 1997

Jeff Cooper's Commentaries

 Previously Gunsite Gossip 
Vol. 5, No. 1         January, 1997

1997

So here we are in the new year, the acknowledgement of which is always a matter of good cheer for the optimists and gloom for the pessimists. Our best advice is to ignore the scruffy and extol the exemplary. This is not easy, of course, since that which constitutes news is uniformly bad, while good behavior does not attract attention. We can do it, however, if we put our minds to it. 1997 will probably not rid us of the Billary menagerie nor of O.J. Simpson, but game management continues to be successful, automobiles continue to improve, South African wines continue to delight the palate and Lindy's new book has taken off like the proverbial big bird. In regard to this last, I must repeat that the book was not my idea. I did not write it nor edit it. I do not own the copyright, and I have no copies for sale. This is Lindy's operation exclusively, and all I can do is sit back and cheer.
We have never been enthusiastic about the use as a battle round of the 223, which is essentially a varmint cartridge, and our view is shared by most of the people who have used the M16 in close combat. However, we ran across an amusing anecdote from Vietnam which suggests that there are two sides to most questions. It appears that this marine sergeant became involved in a short-range daylight firefight in which his people were supported by two M48 tanks mounting 90 millimeter guns. As things developed the sergeant noticed a gook a short way off armed with a bazooka (RPG), which was aimed precisely at one of the supporting tanks and well within rocket range. The sergeant assumed a classic offhand firing position, right elbow high, left elbow under the piece, and with his weapon placed properly in the semi-automatic mode, he squeezed off his single round. At precisely that moment, the other tank, having noticed the same gook, touched off one round of 90 millimeter main battery ammunition, but there was so much going on at the time that the sergeant was not aware of the tank round. The gook was totally scrambled, and our marine looked wonderingly down at his little poodle shooter in amazement. "Jeez!" he said.
It may indeed be time to plan another scout conference - to be held this year. The YO Ranch in the Texas hill country has been suggested as a site, which can provide both conference facilities and a bit of shooting. If this activity indeed comes to pass, I propose the following agenda, which is fully tentative and open to all suggested corrections and additions:
  1. The history of the concept
  2. Dimensions
  3. Actions other than bolt
  4. Sighting systems
  5. The shooting sling
  6. Calibers
  7. Stocks
  8. Magazine capacity
  9. Bipods
  10. Pseudoscouts
I clearly have no copyright on the term "scout rifle," and a great many people have seized upon the term and put it to what I consider to be erroneous use. However, I am convinced by now that the scout concept has proved itself in the field, and that everyone who has taken this weapon into serious action is convinced that this, indeed, is the way a rifle should be.

Still, we do not have a perfected example, but its evolution is a truly worthwhile project.

From family member Don Davis we get George Contor's Law of Conservation of Ignorance, to wit:
"A false conclusion once arrived at and widely accepted is not easily dislodged, and the less it is understood the more tenaciously it is held."
Put in the vernacular, we might repeat the old saw, "My mind is made up. Don't confuse me with the facts!"
We read a notice from Canada to the effect that "The purpose of anti-gun legislation is to establish criminal supremacy over the citizen by awarding the goblins the status of being the sole armed caste of the population." The publisher has gone on to state that the time has come to ask ourselves what is behind all this.

Well, we know what motivates the hoplophobe. He simply envies the man who can cope where he, the hoplophobe, cannot. A skilled, armed man lives on a plane of security and contentment different from that of others. This is not egalitarian! The man who cannot cut it, envies, fears and sometimes hates the man who can. This is all very clear, it is just a pity that so many people choose to hide their perfidious motivation behind what they claim to be "crime control."

From England we hear of a lady on the way to attend a theater performance who was accosted with the snarl, "What innocent, helpless creature had to die so that you could wear that fur coat?" Answer, "My mother-in-law."
I find it curious that various people find time to write me to the effect that popularity equates to rectitude. This has to do with my expressed annoyance of the barbarism of using the word "decimate" to signify "devastate." It seems to me essentially presumptuous to publish a lexicon in the first place, and, of course, we find that lexicographers disagree amongst themselves. The notion that if enough people do things wrong that will make a wrong into a right is essentially immoral. To say that a good many people use the word decimate incorrectly, and that therefore it is all right, is to justify such other phenomena as lying, infidelity, and public indecency. A decimal is a decimal. See "decimal point."
I was wrong about that "decimation" in the Texas War, as a number of correspondents have hastened to tell me, but I am not wrong about the correct use of the word.
We note with some dismay in Bill Buckley's National Review that the consensus of observers is that South Africa is going to crash after Mandela dies. Nelson Mandela's effective beatification has led many to believe that he has succeeded in solving South Africa's serious social and racial problems. He is not immortal, however, and the people around and behind him do not give the impression that they are the proper crew to achieve "peace in our time."

I hope the Buckley paper is wrong, but I still advise friends who intend to make that African trip to go now, even if they have to borrow the money.

Anyone who studies the matter will reach the conclusion that good marksmanship, per se, is not the key to successful gunfighting. The marksmanship problem posed in a streetfight is ordinarily pretty elementary. What is necessary, however, is the absolute assurance on the part of the shooter that he can hit what he is shooting at - absolutely without fail. Being a good shot tends to build up this confidence in the individual. Additionally, the good shot knows what is necessary on his part to obtain hits, and when the red flag flies, the concentration which he knows is necessary pushes all extraneous thinking out of his mind. He cannot let side issues such as fitness reports, political rectitude, or legal liability enter his mind. Such considerations may be heeded before the decision to make the shot is taken, and reconsidered after the ball is over; but at the time, the imperative front sight, surprise break must prevail.

Thus we have the paradox that while you almost never need to be a good shot to win a gunfight, the fact that you are a good shot may be what is necessary for you to hold the right thoughts - to the exclusion of all others - and save your life. This may come as a shock to a good many marksmanship instructors, but I have studied the matter at length and in depth, and I am satisfied with my conclusions.

The SHOT Show is upon us now, and we hope to learn much that is new and interesting thereat. There should be discussion of new products, and beside that, the occasion will afford the opportunity to renew all sorts of pleasant contacts from both stateside and abroad. We will take notes and keep you informed.
Note that our old friend Jim Cirillo has just released his long awaited book entitled "Guns, Bullets and Gunfights." Jim's vast experience as a street cop is well expressed here, though his multicultural New York accents - of which he commands at least six - cannot be done full justice on the printed page. Jim Cirillo was the grandfather of the famed April Fool joke, which I have sometimes recounted myself, though with nothing like the expertise that ol' Jim can give it. "Guns, Bullets and Gunfights" is a welcome addition to the reference library of any fully qualified pistolero.
"A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all."

Anonymous F4 pilot in Stephen Coonts' book "War in the Air"

Well, there speaks an honest-to-God aviator!
Again we recommend to you "Unlimited Access" by Gary Aldrich. It is unhappy reading, but it is absolutely necessary for an understanding of the workings of the Clinton menagerie. The American people voted those sleazemasters in, by due process, and in so doing they committed a deadly insult to our forefathers who made this country great. It is too easy to shrug the matter off with the opinion that politicians are basically unsatisfactory people. This outfit we now have in the White House is much worse than that. According to Aldrich - and I take his word for it - the prevailing mood in the White House is fear - not fear of death, as with Stalin - but simply fear of losing one's job. And these White House staff jobs do not even pay very well. The staffing policy appears to be to bring in battalions of incompetent camp followers and then threaten to throw them out again.

Having digested Aldrich twice, I conclude that Lucrezia Borgia ran a considerably more respectable court than Hillary Clinton. At least no one ever asserted that Lucrezia was a garbage-mouth.

Not long ago an old friend from Southern California cut us a snippet from the Los Angeles Times which presented a list of "Good Things To Do," setting forth various experiences which the author deemed contributory to a happy and fulfilled life. We read it over and, not surprisingly, we did not agree. Just what constitutes the good life is obviously a matter of opinion and, fortunately, people have different opinions. However, the exercise is rather fun. So I sat down to tally up a list of my own, which turned out as follows:

Good Things To Do

What say we have a friendly little SchÅtzenfest on the 4th of July at Ravengard? I have a couple of artifacts for which I can foresee no possible use, but which might make jolly good prizes.
I suppose all sports fans are aware of the case in which some Texas stripper claimed that she was "raped at gunpoint" by a member of the Dallas football team. What a quaint notion! The technical procedures involved in rape at gunpoint would seem exotic, to say the least. How does one do that?

As it turns out the whole thing was a hoax, which is not unusual in the circles involved, but it is curious that nobody in the press thought to ask any questions about that.

The United Nations has always impressed us as a frivolous extravagance, but sometimes it can be dangerous. Note that now there is a move afoot in the U.N. to disarm all "civilians," who constitute an obstacle to good government. Naturally, none of the little two-bit principalities that make up the majority in the U.N. have any interest in political liberty. Your normal Third World bigshot regards his position mainly as a means of enriching himself, and naturally the notion of an armed peasantry upsets him. The thing is, those people are a majority, and they may be able to obtain decisive assistance from hoplophobes in major powers (such as Britain) and this could result in some very serious infringements - such as the total prohibition of international trade in smallarms. At this time I do not have any real notion of how powerful this foolishness is or may become, but it is there on the horizon. Take heed! Another such piece of oppressive regulation appears much closer to home - specifically in the Bureau of Land Management of the United States federal government. Some bureaucrat therein has suggested a total prohibition on the discharge of any firearm within 150 yards of any habitation or structure on BLM land. (Why 150? Who knows!)

Now why do these busybodies come up with foolishness like this? Is it that "civilians" (here's that dirty word again) have been doing things on BLM land which are endangering the republic and giving rise to various forms of health hazards? I cannot think of a single action which might be covered by this proposal that needs government restriction. We already have a plethora of laws forbidding murder, assault, criminal negligence, and property damage. (Interestingly enough we do not have laws against shooting other hunters by mistake.) Apparently the people at BLM do not have enough to occupy their time. Perhaps the bureau is ripe for "downsizing."

I have wondered a bit about the purpose behind the handheld laser range finder in the hunting field. I do not remember having the opportunity to take a range reading while I was getting ready for a shot, but if I had I do not know what difference it would have made. If you have a good rifle and a good zero, you hold right on out to the point where your group size is too large to be risked. However, we have now discovered an answer. These lasers are a great means of measuring the distance after your animal is down, which is frequently difficult or impossible in certain kinds of terrain. Also it obviates "short pacing" - not that any of us would ever be guilty of such a thing (!).

We are shipping the Bushnell offering off to Africa shortly, where it should prove most useful.

My professional correspondence includes a full measure of after-action reports, which I prize very highly, since only by continuous evaluation can I maintain the quality of my research. However, we do need an improved level of report writing. To the standard journalists' queries of who, what, when, where, how and why.

I need:

  1. What range?
  2. How many shots fired?
  3. How many hits achieved?
  4. With what effect?
  5. What cartridge?
  6. What bullet?
  7. What firing position?
  8. What mode of fire?
Please, amigos, keep the reports coming, and please fill in the details.
At least one major gun store in our big town has now instituted a procedure which radically increases its security. An unobtrusive but flashing blue light is turned on whenever Gunsite graduates (Orange Gunsite, of course) are present on the floor. The goblins may not know the significance of the signal, but staff and customers know that all is well.
We have discovered a marvelous use for the laser pistol sight. It is a nifty toy for pet dogs, who can spend many happy hours chasing that orange dot all over the living room.
We have been informed by our friends in the U.K. that it was not the Guinness Brewery in Dublin that was compelled to list as taxable income the two complimentary pints each worker rates per day. It was the Guinness Brewery in London that was required to commit this atrocity, which unfortunately tends to confirm the generally held opinion of the English by the Irish.
The awarding of military decorations is a subject open to considerable philosophical discussion. Different cultures in different nations have instituted various ways of honoring heros, by military medals in modern times. What it is that is honored differs conceptually from country to country - in the U.S. we put a premium on suffering, while the Germans primarily reward damage done to the enemy. The renowned French Croix de Guerre was issued in both world wars and one notable British-French heroine was awarded it twice. Mary Lindley, Comtesse de Millevilles, was a nurse in WWI and an escape agent in WWII, and she distinguished herself. But she refused both medals, on the grounds that the medals were rewards for bravery, and that she could not be brave since she did not know how to be afraid. Aristocracy has its points!
"Today's challenge is to raise a new generation of Americans who treat their fellow citizens with dignity and respect, a new generation that struggles for freedom - the very rock on which this nation was built. If that's the challenge, I have just the family for you. An American family committed to safety, responsibility and freedom. This American family - the NRA. When this American family wins, America wins."

Tanya K. Metaksa, Executive Director NRA-ILA

Please Note. These "Commentaries" are for personal use only. Not for publication.




Jeff Cooper's Commentaries

 Previously Gunsite Gossip 
Vol. 5, No. 2         February, 1997

Mid-Winter

Our November hunt in Montana was most enjoyable, and all our freezers are full. Rifle Master John Gannaway used his standard 350 Super Scout, I used the Lion Scout, and Lindy used her Springfield with the new hopped-up Federal ammunition. Clearly we were all somewhat overgunned, but no harm came of that. Two shots were taken from vertical post rest, one from offhand, and one from sitting. Ranges were 40 paces, 83 paces, cross-canyon estimated at 200, and one quite long. It was impractical to pace the distance on this one.

There was nothing extraordinary about the hunt, but we are certainly enjoying the venison. Our long-time favorite method is fondue - bite-sized pieces skewered on long forks and seared quickly in hot oil. The Countess experimented with tenderloin tips marinated in our favorite Roman dressing (one-third olive oil, one-third soy sauce, one-third sweet sherry) and sauteed quickly. Superb! The sausage was particularly well composed and we have been enjoying it for breakfast on all suitable occasions.

We have not heard from Don Mitchell for some time, and Mitchell Arms was not present at SHOT. I must assume that the Mitchell pistol, about which I had high hopes, is not in the cards.
The SHOT Show and SCI Shows were pretty fascinating, though it does take a tremendous amount of walking to see all the necessary sights, and even then there is much missed. The most interesting thing that I saw was the Czech 97, a single-stack, single-action 45 caliber derivative of the Czech 75. This piece is in prototype stage at present, but it shares the necessary characteristics of a sound defensive pistol with the notably comfortable handling characteristics of its Czech ancestors. I have been invited to visit the factory in March in an attempt to clean up the act.

The Czech 550 series of rifles seems to be a promising development of the Mauser, but at present displaying an unsatisfactory trigger-action. That can be fixed, of course.

It is certainly difficult to render a calm and compassionate view of our current system of justice. After a legal friend of ours had his car trashed on the street, apparently just for kicks, he suggested that the proper solution to our inner city problem might be the mass drowning of street punks. Every month in a different big city we should sew up a thousand of them in a huge sack and dump it into the Mississippi. Such ideas may appear fanciful, but the decent people of this country are increasingly driven against the wall. We have now made clear to the world that you should not cut the throat of the mother of your children - for fear of being heavily fined. While the federal ninja drive around in their black uniforms and face masks, we note that they never seem to bother the street gangs. Kids who have parents seem to have no fear of chastisement, and certainly those without do not even consider the possibility of retribution for their sins. It is a bad scene, but as Bill Buckley recently put it, "Exasperation must never edge over into despair."
At the SHOT show Smith & Wesson introduced a bitsy 22 revolver that packs eight rounds and weighs just 9 ounces. Its concept is delightful, but its execution is severely handicapped by its trigger-action. The double-action pull weighs 14 pounds. (The D.A. pull on the Countess' M-60 goes at 9.) We had three different girls try it and each insisted that the action was much too heavy for precise shooting. If a 22 is to be used for defensive purposes, precise shooting is absolutely essential, since the only successful target is the eye socket of the attacker.

When we complained about this trigger to the management, we were told that it could not be smoothed up or lightened in view of the unreliability of ignition in rimfire cartridges. I shoot 22 rimfire regularly - several times a week - and I had not run across this problem until now. It may be that the quality control in rimfire ammunition has been degenerating, like many other things, while I was not looking.

We heard the Feds recently insisting that those are not black helicopters, they are dark green. Sorry about that.
Our good friends the van Graans from Africa tell us of a splendid procedure that they have set up at their hunting lodge for the indoctrination of their growing daughters, Tanya and Liezl. When the girls need spending money, they are permitted to go out on the ground and harvest a medium-sized blue wildebeeste. (They are forbidden to take trophy wildebeeste, which are reserved for visiting clients). They use their mother's 308 and they are allowed to keep all the meat and sell it on the market at Nelspruit for cash. They are required to do all the necessary work except driving the meat to market.

What a nifty way to raise children! Danie and Karin are to be heartily congratulated.

It has been suggested that a handheld laser range finder may be obtained on request in the "gun writer mode." The yards it measures are 20 inches long.
The winter meeting of the NRA in Arlington produced exactly the amount of bitter squabbling that we expected. The leadership spent practically its entire time in infighting, to the delight of the Shumer/Schroeder/Feinstein/Brady crowd. The "palace coup," of which you may have heard, was not successful, but the vote was so close that the losers survived to fight another day - presumably at Seattle.

Please do not regard the reduction in our cash reserves from 80 million to 50 million as a disaster. Our cash is not simply to keep, but rather to spend judiciously, and our progress has been considerable. The periodic reports from headquarters serve to keep you informed of battles we have won, as well as those we have lost. The war continues but we remain ahead of our adversaries in altitude, airspeed and gunpower.

One of the curious legalisms we discover back in the Darkest East is the fact that while New York state has an open season on deer and permits its citizens to take the field with a rifle, the state policy on training insists that a student may not even be allowed to touch a rifle that is not his. Apparently they do not mind if you take to the woods, but they do object if you try to learn how.
My special interest over the past months has been the updating and rewriting of the NRA Personal Protection Manual. The committee assigned this task consisted of T.J. Johnston, Leroy Pyle and Jeff Cooper. We put together what I think is a good paper, but due to certain obstructive proposals, we almost did not get it approved in the time allotted. Due to the outstanding efforts of T.J., who stayed up all night clarifying the documents, we were able to place the program in the hands of the headquarters staff for editing in accordance with headquarters literary policy. There remained a couple of obstructionists lurking in the shadows, but with good luck and a tail wind, I think we can present a new personal protection program to our membership which will bring NRA doctrine in line with the modern technique. High time!
Additionally we discover that that Bureau of Land Management nastiness is temporarily on hold and may well be terminated without further discussion. These people keep trying to slip things over on us when we are not watching, but fortunately for us the NRA is watching, and almost all the time we are informed.
The Steyr Mannlicher display was interesting, though, as we had been told, the production scout was not yet in evidence. Several of the features recommended on the scout, however, were included on the "sporting rifle," such as the double magazine-detent, the trigger-guard adaptor, and hammerhead sling sockets to accommodate the Ching Sling. The factory people suggested that they might be able to put on a demonstration of the production scout in the states sometime in the fall, possibly in connection with the proposed Scout Conference. We will see.
The proliferation of right-to-carry laws throughout the states has drawn plaintive complaints from the criminal element. They feel that it makes their profession too dangerous when the streets are full of "civilians" who may or may not be armed. Poor babies!
When discussing rifles we must take care to watch our terminology. In the matter of sights, let us make sure that we know that iron sights may be either open sights or aperture sights. The ghost-ring is a certain type of aperture sight which provides speed, full observation and precision. It is properly mounted well to the rear on the receiver bridge, the cocking piece, or sometimes on the tang. The open sight, on the other hand, is a notch mounted well forward, with resulting reduced sight radius, and it demands a triple focus on rear sight, front sight and target, which is physiologically impossible. Contrary to widespread belief, while it is quicker to use than the ill-conceived aperture sight on the Springfield 1903, it is measurably slower than a ghost-ring, and it obscures the lower half of the shooter's field of view, which can be distinctly dangerous under some circumstances.

I am very much in favor of the ghost-ring but I do not favor any form of open sight. The so-called "express sight," which is a certain variety of open sight, has been favored for a century for use on heavy rifles and dangerous game. It will do for this purpose, but it is not as fast as a ghost-ring, and life and death situations with dangerous animals take place at ranges so short that small increments in accuracy are meaningless.

(Incidently, a telescope sight is a poor system for use on dangerous game. Anything that is big enough to kill you is easy to see, and even the best telescope is excessively fragile for crawling around in the underbrush.)

A correspondent sent us a clipping describing a recent occasion in Louisville in which a group of old poker-playing codgers had their game interrupted by three masked, shotgun-wielding goblins who beat in the door. The geriatric squad neatly repelled boarders, leaving one dead. ("You should have seen the two that got away.") As we have taught for decades, a properly organized defender has a distinct tactical edge over an armed robber. By the time the goblin has discovered that his proposed victim is not going to do what he is told, it may well be too late.

Curiously enough, a very similar situation occurred with some friends of my father's at the L.A. Country Club back in the Middle Ages. When the goblin lined up the sportsmen and proceeded to search them for valuables, one old gentleman took the situation in hand and shot the miscreant neatly through the head with his Colt 45 "Double-Action Army." The NRA motto now is "I refuse to be a victim." So be it.

We took some time to check out the "Kimber Clone" at the SHOT Show. It seems to be a well-made arm, but it does not include any of the minor, but important, modifications which might make the 1911 better. Specifically it is not slimlined, and it retains the annoying grip safety.
When I put out that list of Good Things To Do in a previous issue, I apparently did not get my point across. Several correspondents have written in to extol various acts of heroism, which are certainly good things to do, but which are not for just anyone. I intentionally excluded from my own list those acts which are beyond the reach of the ordinary citizen, such as quarterbacking the Super Bowl, climbing the north face of the Eiger, or killing a buffalo with a spear. Some of the items on my list do call for a certain amount of money - spending a weekend at the Connaught, for example - but it costs nothing to write a sonnet, or memorize Kipling's "If", or study Greek. The list that I prepared was one of pleasures; heroics are another matter.
When some time ago I opined that "The kindest words of tongue or pen are these: It has already been taken care of," I was taken to task by a correspondent for utilizing a terminal preposition. I was taught in sixth grade English a preposition is properly placed in front of something, rather than behind it. Understood. However, we should be careful not to confuse a preposition with a proposition. An example of a terminal preposition is "Where are you at?" For a terminal proposition we like daughter Lindy's suggestion: "Feeling lucky, punk?"
"The best thing that government can do is get out of the way."

Milton Friedman
Nobel Prizewinner in Economics

We do not know whether to be amused or annoyed by the repeatedly held injunction of the lawmen to the miscreant that "Somebody may get hurt." It has always seemed to me that was the idea. The bad guy ought to get hurt, and he should understand full well that he is the "one most likely." We would have a much better society if those who choose to prey upon us understood that the proper response to a homicidal threat is a bullet up the nose.
In observing our political scene, it is necessary to remember that in any democracy the absolute goal of the politician is power. Not money, power. This means that the only thing of any consequence to a politician is re-election. He will walk on eyeballs to be re-elected, and the only time that principle means anything to him is when it happens to coincide with what appears to him the best course towards his own re-election. Now the only way to get power is to take it from someone who already has it. Under our system, the theory is that the people at large are sovereign and have the power, but the only way the politician can achieve power is to take it from the people who already have it - or should have it. This makes for a permanent conflict in principle between the voter and his representative. This is not cheerful, but it is nonetheless a fact.

Of the three systems of government enunciated by Aristotle - monarchy (tyranny), aristocracy (oligarchy), and polity (democracy) - polity (democracy) is the best, not because of its inherent virtue, but because of its basic lack of efficiency. An inefficient government is best for the people, simply because it is inherently incapable of doing anything well, and the less it does the better.

The following nifty anecdote from our old friend Ian McFarlane, the professional hunter from Botswana:
"About 0:300 we received a radio message that a Bushman tracker had returned to one of the camps with a chest shot from an AK and was brought into Runtu Hospital by helicopter. On notification that the patient had arrived and was in theatre, we found him standing there smoking a cigarette. He had a wound on the left chest in front and in the back. We took x-rays and found indeed that it was through and through. We cleaned and closed the wound, and kept him for a week in case of infection. This did not happen, but during that time we found out that the Bushman had been wounded early in the morning of the previous day. He tracked his antagonist during the day for about twelve hours. He said he could have shot his man a few times during the day, but he wanted to shoot him in the abdomen so that he would die painfully and slowly. Just before sundown, he got his shot properly placed, and then walked another eight hours back to base."
The wound, of course, was delivered by the 30 caliber Russian Short cartridge of the AK47. Presumably the bullet had an iron core and a copper jacket, allowing no deformation. Still, getting shot through the chest with a 30 caliber Russian Short might be thought to be enough to spoil one's appetite, but these Bushmen are great little guys. I have associated with them just enough to appreciate their admirable qualities.
"Hunting inculcates patience, demands discipline and iron nerve, and develops serenity of spirit that makes for long love of life."

Archibald Rutledge

"The fear and hatred of crime and criminals by the right, and the fear and hatred of the right by the left, serve to enlist both sides of the conventional political spectrum in promoting the new police state. The avoidance of publicity about the abuses of federal police agencies tends over time to normalize such behavior in the minds of citizens; to legitimatize it and to render it a routine part of government functions."

Samuel Francis
in Chronicles

After sitting through three days of long winded and often acrimonious discussion in Arlington, we come back to the truth of the venerable aphorism, "The trouble with politics is people."
We repeat Colman's law to the effect that in any sidearm the probability of hits is inversely proportional to the number of rounds in the magazine. The more rounds you have available, the less likely you are to hit anything - unless, of course, you are an expert combatant. There are not many expert combatants, and so we see the increasing popularity of fully automatic handheld fire using pistol cartridges. I will not forget that the last time anyone tried to kill me (whom I could see trying to do it) he had a 30-round magazine in his machine pistol and he went dry and lost the fight. There is one important advantage to handheld automatic fire and that is intimidation. A great many people are seriously upset when anyone starts to hose them down with a "machinegun."

On the occasion when our son-in-law Bruce had the night watch up on the line with I CORPS, his first response when someone reported a penetration was to make sure that everybody in the command had his M16 set on the semi-auto mode. He got his medal for keeping his head when a lot of people around him might have been expected to do otherwise.

Our usually impeachable source from the Washington scene insists that there is no truth in the rumor that Hillary is pushing O.J. Simpson for Attorney General.
Please Note. These "Commentaries" are for personal use only. Not for publication.




Jeff Cooper's Commentaries

 Previously Gunsite Gossip 
Vol. 5, No. 3         March, 1997

Winterset

As the bulk of the cold weather drifts behind us, we are off to Bohemia to consult with the Ceska Sbrojovka about new designs. If my advice is worth the seeking, we should be able to promote a superior successor to the excellent Czech 75, in major caliber, and to launch a series of heavy, bolt-action, hunting rifles. The choice of calibers will be interesting. At present the 416s are all the rage, but I think of a 400-grain, 40-caliber bullet as something of a half-measure - rather like the 41 Magnum revolver.

My old favorite is the 460 G&A Special, which has served me with distinction for twenty years, but this remains a wildcat for which the shooter must fabricate his own ammunition. Therefore my present choice leans toward the 505 Gibbs, famed in song and story.

We expect to go from Czechia to the IWA at Nurnberg, a presentation I have long been told that I must not miss.

We will have interesting information for you upon our return.

You may have noted that Lyman is now re-issuing their folding aperture tang sight, which is great good news. By removing the target disk, this setup affords an instant ghost-ring at the flick of a screw driver. I believe the company decided upon this product because of the popularity of black power weapons, but it has found its best employment on the tang of a "Brooklyn Special" 30-30.
"The only things I regret in life are the things I did not do."

Hemingway's attribution to his grandmother

We are told that a literary poll taken in Britain has established "The Lord of the Rings," by J.R.R. Tolkien, as the greatest book of the 20th century. We are great admirers of Tolkien, but we must mention that school of readers which holds that "Meditations on Hunting," by Jose Ortega y Gasset, is the title to take the prize. Fortunately this need not be an either/or proposition. I re-read Tolkien and Ortega with equal pleasure, and quite regularly.
We have an interesting after-action report from Darkest Kentucky, in which a bank manager totaled a would-be robber with his 1911. This in itself is not surprising, but it does bring out a couple of points. The shooter planted only one shot in the upper chest area of the intruder. When asked why he did not shoot twice he said that by the time he hauled the barrel down out of recoil, the target was not there anymore. Now as we all know, the 45 auto does not recoil very much if you hold onto it - only if you shoot it one-handed with a limp wrist. The IPSC people have long sought to reduce recoil by gadgetry, when the answer, as Jack Weaver showed us, is in muzzle control. In a proper Weaver Stance, the muzzle of a 45 rises less than half an inch. This is why we see people shooting in competition from the isosceles position in which recoil is evident. If you insist on shooting with a straight left arm, you may indeed need a reduced charge and a muzzle-brake. That, however, is not the way to go.
This "kinder and gentler" age we live in has produced a crop of overcivilized urbanites of an innocence one can hardly believe. The state of Montana has been a mecca for timid and wealthy Californians who like the idea of a wilderness environment but lack all awareness of what a wilderness is about. It turns out that one such immigrant had her pet dog scarfed up by a bobcat. This is very sad, of course, but her response was quite unbelievable. She complained to the Department of Fish and Game about the incident, and requested that an armed patrol be placed around her ranch to shoo off bobcats. (Hard as that may be to believe, that is the way we heard it.)
"Power is nothing without control."

Pirelli (tires)

I did not put anything about buffalo sticks into the forthcoming "The Art of the Rifle," even though I see them advertised for sale in all the magazines. I whittled out a set of those for myself when I was a mere tad, and found out after some attempts in the field that they were much more trouble than they were worth. If you know how to shoot a rifle, you do not need any help in holding it up. A proper shooting sling takes care of the weight problem as long as there is support for the elbow, as in prone, sitting, kneeling or squatting. Any portable support for a rifle useful in the standing position would hardly be portable.

The buffalo hunters of the Great Plains actually did use buffalo sticks to a certain extent, but the conditions involved in that shooting were rather specialized. In the first place, the grass was too high to allow a prone position to be taken. Secondly, the buffalo men hunted from horseback, and portability was not an issue. Thirdly, the shooting sling had not been invented at that time. And fourth, the slaughter of the buffalo was a slow-fire proposition at medium to long range.

Buffalo sticks may indeed be an answer to a certain kind of problem, but that problem simply does not come up anymore.

"What we can say with confidence is that Rome fell gradually, and that Romans for many decades scarcely noticed what was happening."

Thomas Cahill

Does that not suggest a parallel?
After attending a recent training course for the machine pistol, family member Bob Shimizu declared his MP5 as "handy as a football bat." (So I have long held.)
When in a previous issue I listed some "Good Things To Do," I had no intention of speaking of heroics, I was speaking of pleasures. The heroic act may be pleasant, but usually it is not. Most people who have pulled off heroic acts have not enjoyed them. I must hasten to add that I have not personally enjoyed the 30 odd pleasures I listed, for among other things, I do not enjoy playing golf, or spending extravagantly in London's best hotel. Tastes differ, fortunately, and I was trying to cover the field.
We note a feature in the current American Rifleman about the Krag-Jorgensen rifle once issued to our armed forces. The article is historically interesting, but does little justice to the virtues of this excellent arm. I have been a Krag fancier since early childhood, when I used one to shoot goats on Catalina Island and sharks in the Catalina Channel. When fitted with a really good trigger, such as can be had on order from the Kongsberg Factory near Oslo, this is a really nifty gun. It has the smoothest bolt-action ever manufactured, and its charging system is so neat it can be operated eyes-off at a dead run in the dark. When you flip that gate open to the right, you have only to drop a cartridge in. You do not have to seat it or place it accurately - as long as you do not throw it in backwards, it will feed. This allows the shooter to top off his magazine without opening the bolt and taking the weapon out of action. The piece is generally found in caliber 30-40, at one time referred to as "30 Army," which is quite a respectable cartridge, though not quite up to the 30-06.

The principle drawback of the Krag action is that it is designed for a low pressure cartridge and uses only one locking lug. This single lug is quite strong enough, but it stresses the bolt asymmetrically, sometimes giving rise to a hairline crack at the rear of the extrusion.

If I were up in the bucks, I would engage a designer and manufacturer to produce a modern high-pressure version of the Krag. It would be necessarily expensive, since that feeding system calls for precise and delicate machining; however, when I see the prices charged for essentially obsolete double-express rifles, I can hardly view expense as a serious drawback.

(In case you are interested, the name is pronounced "crock," but do not tell anybody I said so.)

Riflemaster Larry Larsen plans to show us his new Christensen action at the April conclave at Whittington. As you know, the Christensen rifle features a paper-thin barrel wrapped in plastic thread, granting stiffness and bulk without weight. This may be a good idea, but Larry has got to be content with a model 700 action, which is one I would never choose for myself.
"Day-by-day, case-by-case, the Supreme Court is busy designing a Constitution for a country I do not recognize."

Justice Antonin Scalia

Did you happen to hear of that Chinese fire drill that took place in the mountains of southern Colombia? It appears that a private pilot made an emergency landing in the forest. Since his radio was working, he called for help, and a search-and-rescue team was sent to find him. This team did not find him, but after a short stay on the ground it called for additional help, claiming that they could not get back into their helicopter since they were beset by wild pigs. A second search-and-rescue team was sent to rescue the first, presumably armed with peccary repellant. This effort was successful and both choppers got into the air, eventually finding the downed pilot, who was injured.

But that does not end the tale. When sliding the rescued pilot into the helicopter, things were not managed very well and he slid overboard when the aircraft was well underway. At last report, the poor fellow was still unaccounted for.

The people who made that film called "The Gods Must Be Crazy" certainly ought look into this matter as a basis for a new movie.

Family member Tom Russell informs us that he was told by someone at the Gunsite Training Center that I am "absolutely retired." I find this pretty amusing in view of the fact that the only thing that I ever retired from was the Marine Corps, and that was a long time ago. Come to think of it, if working for wages is the antonym for "retired," I have been retired for most of my life.
It has been discovered by some safety committee or other that driving while phoning constitutes a distinct road hazard. If they had asked us, we could have told them that.
"The scoutscope doth not a scout rifle make." The first time I used what has been referred to as Scout I down in Central America, it had only the ghost-ring setup, and no telescope at all. The current notion that no rifle is of any consequence unless it has a glass sight on top probably does well for optical companies, but it ain't necessarily so. I started using telescope sights in my teens, way back in the Middle Ages. These caused considerable comment and astonishment when I showed up in the Rocky Mountains with that doodad on my Remington 30S. I have used telescope sights ever since, and they do make shooting a little easier, but they are only really necessary under specialized circumstances; and in some cases they are a positive hazard.

The scoutscope is indeed handy on a scout rifle, but the scout rifle is a conglomeration of characteristics of which its sighting system is just one. The principle virtues of the scout are compactness, light weight and handiness. The scoutscope is faster than a conventional glass in snapshooting, but I discover that a good many hunters go their entire career without ever having to attempt a snapshot.

The fact is that a properly designed and mounted scoutscope is handy, but tying one onto a conventional rifle does not give you a scout rifle. I wish people who do not understand the concept would quit trying to fabricate and sell pieces they do not understand - but that, of course, is too much to expect.

I spend a considerable amount of time scanning the reports of gunfights taking place all over the world, and I have come to the conclusion that if we speak generally, geezers are more deadly than young studs. I think this is because old geezers derive their sense of dignity from a different culture and are much less likely to submit to being pushed around by street punks. Young moderns are all too frequently apt to heed the advice of the social worker to give up so nobody will get hurt. (This despite the statistics which tend to indicate that one is more likely to get hurt if he gives up than if he fights back.) We seem to be living in an age of indignity - but not all of us.
In that connection let us rephrase the identity of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to bring them into step with the times. In my view the four horsemen of the modern apocalypse are:
With all this news about China on the front page, we must not overlook the ancient Chinese saying to the effect that "a bowl of rice is the noblest wok of God." (Sorry about that.)
It has been suggested to me that we are very fortunate that our adversaries have not discovered the combat efficiency of the scout rifle. I do not think we have a problem here, because a hoplophobe can never discover the good qualities of any firearm since he does not want to think about firearms at all. The hoplophobe worries about buzz words like "assault-rifle" and "automatic-weapon," and can never accept the fact that the weapon is the man and the firearm is just the instrument in his hands. With this in mind it is pertinent to observe that several recent army recruits have been told that the enemy they are preparing to fight is not the English, or the Spanish, or the Germans, or the Vietnamese, or the Chinese - but rather the good old boys in rural America who constitute an armed militia. The question arises, of course, as to how the unorganized militia, no matter what their politics or determination, can stand up for an instant against the United States Army. Well, let us hope it never comes to that, but if the army is teaching it, we had better realize that they are. The atrocities of the ninja are certainly beating us into an unpleasantly confrontational society, but if worse comes to worse, I think that we can assume that the private citizen who owns, cleans, loads and shoots his own personal weapon is a considerably more serious antagonist than the trooper who has to turn his weapon back in every time he uses it. This is probably the principle reason why socialists never cease their attempts to disarm the private citizen.
"Consumerism is a virulent form of materialism developed in the United States in which advertising ensures that demand is created for products for which there is no real need."

Michael Gardner

Hartmann had the highest air-to-air score, as anyone who follows aviation knows, but when he was asked by his Russian captors if he were not the greatest German flier, he denied it. They asked him if he did not in truth have the highest kill score. And he said, "Yes, but that does not make me the top gun. The best is Marseille." And they said, "But, you shot down twice as many aircraft as Marseille," and he answered, "I shot down Russians. Marseille shot down Englishmen. In the Luftwaffe we held that one English pilot was worth three Russian pilots."

This did not endear him to his Russian captors.

But about Marseille, there was a marksman. On one occasion in the western desert he shot down seven aircraft with less than twenty rounds of 20mm ammunition.

Marksmanship such as this must be coupled with that of Rudel, and it is obviously not something a man can be taught. Neither Marseille nor Rudel could teach anyone to fly and shoot the way they did. A man can be taught to use his weapons very well, but genius is in the genes.

We learn that Riflemaster John Pepper has been awarded a Swiss decoration for his help in qualifying Swiss citizens on their rifles when they are resident in Washington. Good show!
In thinking about heroic airmen, my mind turns to the pilots of the observation aircraft on America's war ships in World War II. These people flew the OS2U, which stands for Observation Scout Second Model from Chance-Vought. This aircraft was both low and slow, and was almost unarmed. It could carry a small bomb or depth charge if occasions demanded, and the rearseat man handled a pair of 30 caliber Brownings, but this certainly did not make it up into a formidable air-to-air vehicle. But the flying characteristics of the OS2U were only the beginning of the problem. The lads in those aircraft had to be fired off the ship whenever we cleared for action, and that was regardless of weather or time of day. On a full dark night in a spanking gale, those boys were shot off the quarter deck into the dark, whether they could perform their observation mission or not, and getting airborne was only part of the problem. They had to be plucked out of the ocean while taxiing alongside on their single float. This is about as hair-raising an operation as I can call to mind, but I regret to say that it did not arouse any particular adulation amongst the other members of the ship's crew. In a major war heroism is almost irrelevant in the mind of the hero. In a long war with a major power, the question is not whether you are going to get it, but when. "And he that dies this day is quit for the next."

I saw those observation pilots in operation quite a lot, and I can fully understand why one of them sought refuge with his violin in his cabin when he could. It would take something like violin virtuosity to get his mind off his truly awful predicament.

Any man who flew an observation plane off of a cruiser or battleship during World War II does not have to tell his tale, his job tells it for him. Putting a full cruise in on that duty in the Aleutians may not be worthy of a Medal of Honor on the face of it, but I cannot help thinking of it as "above and beyond the call of duty."

"The government is mainly an expensive organization to regulate evil doers, and tax those who behave. Government does little for fairly respectable people, except annoy them."

E.V. Howe via Bill O'Connor

This from Russ Orchard in Essex, England.
"I hope America is watching and learning from what is happening here. We were not strong enough nor united enough when the man came knocking. I must not bore you with our troubles any longer, so I wish you the best that life can bring and hang on to your guns."
We learn from our friends in law enforcement that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), which we frequently refer to as the "BATmen," is now commonly termed "F Troop," by other members of the federal service - presumably because of their astonishing predilection to foul things up. Could be.
That noisy shooting at Laurel Canyon in North Hollywood brings to mind the punchline from one of daughter Lindy's recent poems: "Ain't many troubles that a man can't fix, with seven-hundred dollars and a 30-06." Two shots from a 30-06 should have been enough to terminate that confrontation, and, of course, the $700 might serve to buy an extra rifle for the squad car.
Please Note. These "Commentaries" are for personal use only. Not for publication.




Jeff Cooper's Commentaries

 Previously Gunsite Gossip 
Vol. 5, No. 4         March, 1997

Peregrinations

So it came to pass that on very short notice the Countess and I took flight for Moravia, at the invitation of the Ceska Zbrojovka, which organization has pretty much preempted the Czech smallarms industry. The city of Brno is the cultural capital of Moravia (as Prague is the cultural capital of Bohemia), and most of the products offered by the Czechs have heretofore been referred to as "Brno" weapons (usually called "Bruno" by the Colonials). Now with free enterprise taking over in the Czech Republic, the newly organized factory is located in a place called Uhersky Brod, which is about the size of Chino Valley, Arizona, if you include the Ruger factory. Since Ceska Zbrojovka is practically impossible to pronounce, I have nicknamed the operation "Chessbro." I do not know if this nomenclature will catch on, but I do feel that referring to the corporation as "CZ" will prove clumsy, especially since the letter Z is pronounced Zee in America, but Zed throughout the Empire. So now we have a forthcoming line of "Chessbro" rifles and pistols, which will be distributed in the United States by CZ-USA, temporarily located in Oakhurst, California.

My business at the factory had to do with the design of an idealized service pistol - a 45-caliber, single-action, single-stack development of the renowned "Czech 75" 9mm service pistol. I preferred the single-stack configuration, since I believe only thus will it be possible to reduce the butt circumference of the weapon to make it suitable for small hands. The factory designer said he could shrink the butt and still retain a double-column magazine. I doubt that this is possible, but I am willing to be convinced. The outstanding thing about this whole arrangement is that it can be given a superb trigger "right out of the box." I know, because I have tested it. Your trigger is your contact with your target, and nearly all self-loading pistols today (with the exception of target 22s) are furnished with triggers which do not encourage good shooting. If this new Chessbro pistol can be offered with all the good features necessary, as it comes over the counter, a great leap forward will have been achieved.

As you might suppose, the "user-friendly" butt configuration of the Czech 75 has been retained.

I strongly recommended a spring-loaded thumb safety, but the idea was rejected.

Naturally, no one can promise any realistic production date.

Also on the agenda at Uhersky Brod was the replication of "Baby," my 460 heavy rifle, which has so distinguished itself in Africa, along with its five clones. While I felt that the 460 G&A Special cartridge, designed almost 30 years ago by Tom Siatos, would be awkward to provide, the consensus was that the weapon would have more glamour if it were offered in its original caliber, and that we could make up the ammunition on contract in both Europe and America. The 460 G&A Special seems to provide the best combination of features of any of the current heavy-caliber rifles for dangerous game. Starting a 500-grain, 45-caliber bullet at 2400 f/s from a 22-inch barrel is a truly splendid confidence-builder. It has taken many elephant and a score of buffalo with complete consistency, and on two occasions it has killed two buffalo with one shot - inadvertently, of course. Riflemaster John Gannaway once used it to knock an elephant out cold with a head shot that missed the brain. The bullet went clear through the skull to exit into open air, but the concussion of its passage was sufficient to turn off the beast like a light.

The 460 G&A Special cartridge was deemed to be the best choice in a replication of Baby, and the rifle itself will be very nearly identical. It will not employ the 602 action of the original, but rather the Magnum version of the new action designed by Chessbro, and the great good news is that it will feature a modern version of the aperture rear sight previously furnished on ZKK bolt-actions. To my mind, this was the best feature of the whole enterprise, since that rigid, serviceable ghost-ring rear sight was one of the best features to come out of Europe in the post-war era. Insofar as I have any influence, these great new rifles will not be fitted with telescope sights, as such provide not only no advantage on dangerous game, but can in some cases become a positive hazard.

The wood stock on the original Baby will be replaced by very high-impact-resistant composition. (All wood stock rifles so far built for this cartridge have shown a tendency to crack at the tang after extended use.)

Whether one is sensitive or not, the big cartridge kicks, so the Baby replicas will be fitted with integral muzzle-brakes. Sling attachments will be flush, and overall finish on the pilot models will be matt black. (Fancy presentation versions may be obtained on order at a later date.)

So our visit to the land of Good King Wenceslaus, at the behest of Kerby Smith, president of CZ-USA, seems to have been an entire success. We will not know for sure until the guns are fabricated, tested and produced for sale. My experience with these matters in the past has not been successful, but I have high hopes for these two items.
The nation that used to be known as Czechoslovakia is know composed of the Czech Republic on the west and Slovakia on the east. The two cultural elements of what is now known as the Czech Republic are Bohemia and Moravia, wherein people speak the same language, with slight dialectic variations, and take cultural pride in the music of Smetana and Dvorzak. For the most part, the Bohemians drink beer and the Moravians drink wine. There is excellent hunting in both regions. Halfway between Prague and the German border lies Plzen - where the beer comes from. Naturally, we stopped in at the brewery and were not surprised to discover that the product was really excellent. For those who favor a cleanly-flavored blonde beer, Pilsner stands as the standard of the world.
Our next stop was at NÅrnberg, where we attended IWA, the primary European arms trade fair. IWA resembles the American SHOT Show, in a rather slicked-up guise. Among other things, the food and beer available are outstanding.
We visited all sorts of the people at the show, including Steyr Mannlicher, Beretta, Sig Sauer and Blaser.

The latest information on the production scout rifle from Steyr Mannlicher is that a kick-off ceremony is scheduled for somewhere in the U.S. along about September, probably at the Black Canyon Range just north of Phoenix. They have pared the "all up" weight, including the telescope, down to 3.1 kgs. The new SBS action, basically designed by Ulrich Zedrosser, will be used in its short version taking the 308 cartridge. It has been about seven years that I have waited for the production of a true scout rifle, and in that time all sorts of glassy-eyed approximations have taken off in all directions. Nonetheless, I think this one is going to go. I just hope I live long enough to see it.

We were much pleased by our stop at the Blaser display, where we enjoyed the courtly hospitality of Gerhard Blenk (the High Blenk of Blaser). It is always a pleasure to deal with a Czar, because what he says goes. Gert does not have to get approval from a board of directors or from any stockholders' committee or marketing manager. The way he wants it to be is the way it is going to be - and right now.

He showed us one of his "cliffhangers," a feather-weight, top-break, single-shot rifle designed for people who hunt in vertical landscapes. A pretty thing it was, and I admired it so much that Gert immediately took down my specifications and sent them to the shop. I do not intend ever to hunt sheep or goats again, but I will have the perfect instrument for the task for those who wish to do so.

We learn from a correspondent in Milan that the Italian government has now "declassified" the 45 ACP cartridge. This means that Italian citizens may now buy, own and shoot 45s. Whether they will or not is another matter entirely.
We have received a flurry of exasperated comment from people all over the country complaining about the shooting at Laurel Canyon in California. The wrathful question is "Why can't these people shoot better?" I believe the answer is that they can but they don't. They certainly receive enough basic training to enable them to hit a man-sized target at short range. The point is, however, that winning a gunfight is not so much a matter of marksmanship as of mindset, a point we have been emphasizing for lo these many years. All that was necessary to stop that action as it started was concentration on the command "front sight, surprise." To maintain control under conditions of lethal stress calls for a warrior mentality, and that is something that cannot be simply inserted into a police officer in the course of a training session.

Of course, it is obvious that one rifle of even modest power in one of the police squad cars would have brought that action to a conclusion immediately, but the media keep insisting that what the cops need is more ammunition. Some of these journalistic types are even insisting that the cops should have 45s in place of 9s, even though a 45 normally has less penetration in body armor than a 9. It would be nice if people who do not understand the subject would stop popping off about it. That Laurel Canyon incident exemplifies a great many things about gunfighting, but caliber and action-type are not among them.

Remember the classic statement attributed to General Merritt Edson, U.S. Marine Corps -
"One hundred rounds do not constitute fire power. One hit constitutes fire power."
While the production scout is due to be over-the-counter before the year's end, we must remember that the proper sight and mount system is still to be designed and produced. I am in communication with the Nickel Optic Company in Germany on the subject of building a compact, high quality scoutscope with no moving parts - adjustments to be obtained in the mounts. Dan Bechtel of B-Square now makes mounts which are adjustable both fore and aft, and could accommodate such an instrument. And if the production scout rifle picks up steam and begins to sell, we may be able to demonstrate enough of a market there to go ahead with the production of a proper telescope. Let us hope that that does not take another seven years!
I went over to the Czech Republic determined to find out why a Czech is not a Bohemian. After all, Prague has always been the ancient capital of Bohemia. As it turns out, all Bohemians are Czechs, but so are all Moravians. I attempted to straighten out the historical narrative of Central Europe some years ago when I was thinking of doing a job in Hungary. After several nights of intensive reading, I gave the whole subject up as a bad job. Questions revealed that these people do not know their own history any better than I do, and what I know is almost non-existent. Consider that the world famous title for the beer is Pilsner Urquell. I asked and asked at the brewery and nobody knew what Urquell means. The best answer I got was "It's just a name." Well, no matter what you call it, it is truly an excellent beer.
It was painfully apparent at Nurnberg that gunhandling is no better in Europe than in the United States. The customers and spectators fingering those excellent Czech pistols at the counter were enough to give one the horrors. I guess if nobody anywhere in the world teaches gunhandling, we cannot expect anybody to learn it.
These big gun shows are entertaining in many ways, but they are populated almost entirely by "business men." Clearly the world needs business men, who probably do improve the quality of life for most people, but the inclusive company of business men over a period of several days is enough to deaden one's spirit. Preoccupation with money, to the exclusion of the more elegant side of life, can develop a pretty poisonous personality (PPP). We gun lovers go to the gun shows because we love fine guns, and enjoy the chance to examine them in detail. These business men care nothing about fine guns - what they care about is money, and total preoccupation with bucks truly makes Jack a dull boy.
When discussing the desirable characteristics of the idealized buffalo rifle, I was hit with the question "What do you do with the buffalo after you have downed him?" After a short pause to organize my thoughts, I treated the assembly to the nature of protein deficiency, or kwashiorkor, amongst the Bantu. I bet that gentleman wished he had not asked me that question.
Some years back, when sociological rot had set in on the campus of Stanford University, our alma mater, the academic punks were given to chanting "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go." Well, it is on its way, and I hope they are satisfied. As of this year, Hong Kong, a lapidary outpost of Western civilization in the darkest Orient, will be given back to the natives. In our lifetime we have noted the lights going out all over the world, and in the gathering gloom the tidal wave of ignorance continues to advance. In a specialized society no one appears to be interested in anything but his own little specialty, and that is just not what civilization is about - Western or otherwise.
We mention it now again, and we do not feel like ceasing to do so, even if the news is old fashioned. It remains true that the murderers of Nicole Simpson, Vickie Weaver and Vince Foster are walking free, and as far as I know, bragging about it. Those are things we should not forget.
Our good friend Ulrich Zedrosser, who was the chief design engineer for Steyr Mannlicher for many years, has separated himself from the company, and is now maintaining an office as an independent design contractor in Steyr. His handiwork may be seen today in the new SM bolt-action (SBS), as well as in the production scout. He is the only "outsider" ever to use a true scout in the field, and his enthusiasm for the concept was principally responsible for its fruition. We hope to visit with him again later in this year in connection with the Matterhorn expedition being explored by son-in-law Bruce and grandson Tyler. We hope that he does not find his new working arrangement too exhausting. There is nothing like "retirement" to overload one's circuits.
In considering the recent biography of Butch O'Hare, just released by Naval Institute Press, we discover once again that the great aerial marksmen all got their shooting foundation while tramping farm and field with the family 22. O'Hare, and Joe Foss, and Chuck Yaeger, and Sailor Malan - not to mention Manfred von Richthofen, Eric Hartmann, and Ulrich Rudel - all got their start with a little 22 rimfire cartridge. Long may it crackle!
Please note that the weapon now being advertised as the CZ97 is not our pistol. I want the idealized service pistol under design consideration to be termed the "CZ XXI," in hope that it may do for the 21st century what the 1911 Colt did for the 20th. I do not know if I can make that stick, but I am going to try.
The Czech language is simply awful! I have a modest amount of Spanish and I can knock around in German. I can order a meal or read headlines or watch movie subtitles in French, Italian and Portuguese. I can give range commands in Thai and military Mandarin, but this Czech speech is simply off the scale. It is of the Slavic family, but to the unpracticed ear it sounds even more unintelligible than Russian. (The Czech word for beer is pivo. Now, really!) Holding a design conference through interpreters, Czech to English and back again, is a weird experience. Several times we had to repeat the dialogue on the same topic at a later hour just to try to make sure that specific points were agreed upon. I will be pretty fascinated to see how the decisions I thought we reached will eventually turn out.
The hammerhead sling sockets, long featured by Pachmayr of Los Angeles, are so much better than any other system that I find it hard to believe that they are not universal. By sheerest coincidence we discovered that they were designed and built originally by Dan Bechtel of B-Square. Now that both Steyr Mannlicher and Chessbro are featuring them as a standard item, perhaps someone else will get the word.
It appears that the street punks are so fond of tucking away their pistols in the front waist band that the "castration shot" is ready for a code number in police reports. When they bring them in on a stretcher the call can simply be, "Oh sure, it's just another 609."
The general drift of our discussions with Chessbro established the dichotomy of principle that the manufacturer must face. Should he follow the trend of the times and produce instruments which are essentially the same as those already on the market, hoping to become economically successful through a program of low pricing; or, on the other hand, should he move radically in the direction of innovative design, seeking to corner the market regardless of price by offering the customer something he cannot get anywhere else? If you build a basic product reasonably well and undersell your competition, you may succeed, but inevitably there will be short-cuts in production, resulting in a generally inferior product. On the other hand, if you go for innovation you may frighten the market with features not previously understood. Naturally I endeavored to present my case for the second option. Since it is not my money that is involved, I will always push for excellence rather than economy. I am convinced that a better mouse trap should be its own reward - but then, I am not a "business man."
We found the food in Bohemia/Moravia to be hearty, bland and uninteresting. In Nurnberg, however, we were regaled again with the world-famous Nurnberger bratwurst. I have not been able to discover why Nurnberger bratwurst is so much tastier than what is passed off as bratwurst in this country. It is extravagant to say that Nurnberger bratwurst is worth a trip to Nurnberg, but it certainly is an encouragement in that direction.
Further experimentation with the ghost-ring principle on the pistol suggests that this arrangement fosters focus on the target rather than the front sight. I am not sure that this is true, but I have heard it from three independent sources, all of whom know a good bit about pistolcraft. I must look into this further.
You have doubtless heard about the founding of the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA). This organization is currently headed by Bill Wilson, of Berryville, Arkansas, and it is an attempt to correct the errors into which IPSC has fallen. I guess we all know that IPSC has long ago gone astray after strange gods, but whether IDPA can bring truth back to competitive pistol shooting remains to be seen. The motivation and dedication are certainly there - the execution is the tricky part.
Our April rifle class at Whittington is filled. Whether we will have space to run another rifle school later on in the summer is uncertain. On this first occasion, we will see what kind of progress has been made on the proposed field rifle course. A modest piece of change has been amassed by this time, so at least we can get started. A field reaction range is not something you find on everybody's back lot, and Whittington certainly should have one.
The enemies of liberty in this country have been vastly encouraged by the re-election of the Billary Administration. They are sleepless and they never let facts get in their way. The fight is always there, and it is up to us, the shooters of America, to keep the pressure on. The National Rifle Association of America remains liberty's teeth. The organization is not perfect, but it is still the most powerful and articulate champion of personal and political liberty left in the world. If you do not like the way it is conducting its affairs - and I must say that there is an unpleasant amount of internal bickering apparent at this time - get in there and move to change it, but whatever you do, do not give up the ship!
Please Note. These "Commentaries" are for personal use only. Not for publication.




Jeff Cooper's Commentaries

Previously Gunsite Gossip 
Vol. 5, No. 5         April, 1997

The Sowers of April

Our working schedule for the immediate future has become so crowded that it is going to be difficult for us to keep up the production of this paper on any regular basis. Right now we seem to be booked up practically back-to-back until late July. We will do our best, however, to keep the material coming as best we may.
Note down September 24, 25 and 26 on your calendar. On these days we have reserved the Ben Avery Shooting Range just north of Phoenix for the kick-off party for the production scout rifle from Steyr Mannlicher. If obstacles do not intervene, Steyr Mannlicher, with their U.S. distributor Gun South, will present an exhibit of the production prototype of the piece intended for commercial availability at the SHOT Show in '98.

This operation makes it convenient for us to announce the next Scout Conference, to be held at the same time and place. Plans are still tentative at this time, but insofar as we can predict it, all systems are go.

Naturally this news fills me with delight. I have messed around with firearms design for much of my adult life - without conspicuous success. This time, however, I may be able to leave a "footprint in the sands of time." I praise the management of the venerable Steyr Mannlicher organization with total sincerity. Unlike most industrialists, they are prepared to take a bold, innovative, forward step and hope that the market will respond. The action of the production scout is mainly the work of Ulrich Zedrosser, long-time chief design engineer for the organization. The rest of the piece, in both major and minor aspects, is my own brainchild. Riflemen are a conservative lot and mistrustful of new departures, but it is my earnest hope that the radical nature of the scout rifle really does constitute "a better mouse trap."

Whether it will succeed on the market or not remains to be seen, but the important thing is that it is there, and at last those who understand riflecraft will be able to buy this unique and excellent exemplification right over the counter. Sound the trumpets and beat the drums!

In addition to the foregoing good news, we can report that the development of a really new and excellent service pistol is underway at Uhersky Brod in Moravia. If past experience is any guide, this item will take some time to perfect, but if all goes well, it will combine my own design concepts with the proven excellence of the Czech tradition of weaponry. That should really be a distinct forward step available for the next breed of pistoleros.
Over and above that, we can now look forward to the "Chessbro Baby," which, while in no sense a large-volume item, ought to develop into the prestige piece for the coming generations of hunters of dangerous game. Naturally I can say nothing about production dates or prices, but bear in mind that price must always be a secondary consideration in the purchase of a personal firearm. A good gun lasts forever, which is a lot more than you can say about a car, an airplane, a steak dinner, or a house. A cheap gun, like a cheap wife, is not likely to enhance one's living standard.
Our nomination for the 1997 Waffenposselhaft award goes to the police carbine utilizing the 9mm pistol cartridge. Large numbers of people - especially those in public office - seem to have lost track of the idea that any firearm must strike a blow sufficient for the task. They seem to feel that as long as a hit is achieved the results of that hit are unimportant. Thus we were all wryly amused watching minor-power pistol bullets bouncing off the body armor of those two clowns in the Laurel Canyon shooting. The "V" in DVC stands for vis, which is power. If you do not strike with sufficient power, neither speed nor precision will do you any good.
There is a Marine Corps slogan to the effect that the purpose of a Marine is to do whatever needs to be done, to do it right, and to do it now. This notion can be extended to a much wider range of experience. If there is something you think needs to be done, get on with it now. No one has promised us tomorrow.
And that notion brings up the subject of the 22 pocket pistol. Obviously the 22 rimfire cartridge does not dispose of any considerable power; however, it will penetrate the skull of a human being (most of the time), and if it is properly placed, it may render good service. A pocket 22 pistol in the hands of a delicately constructed lady with slender wrists and modest musculature may indeed suffice as a personal defense weapon, especially when one considers that a defensive pistol serves its purpose more than half the time by its mere presence, regardless of whether it is fired or not. The 22 rimfire cartridge offers a much larger opportunity for practice than any centerfire round. When the ladies and children of your household discover how much fun it is to plink with a 22 pistol, they may well practice enough to develop the sort of skill necessary to render the little gun quite serviceable for personal protection.

The leaders in this category for much of the 20th century have been the Walther PPK and PP - in caliber 22 long rifle. I now discover, to my dismay, that these little pieces are almost impossible to locate for sale in this country. Their clones, manufactured in Hungary and Turkey, are equally hard to come by. Many years ago when we were living in California I purchased four PPKs for distribution to various ladies in our immediate circle. Would that I had bought fifty! For that reason, I put forth at this time to the recipients of this paper a request that if they can locate a Walther PP or PPK in 22 LR, they grab it at once and let me know.

The new Smith & Wesson development in this line, which is a 9 oz., eight-shot, double-action revolver, has great possibilities, but not until its trigger action is extensively modified. If the 22 is to be used in a defensive mode, a high degree of precision is necessary in its bullet placement, and the trigger that comes on that piece now works against that. If some member of the Gunsite family locates a smith who can do a good trigger job on that little gun, I hope he will let me know immediately.

Family member Jack Buchmiller sends us an article from the Wall Street Journal pointing out that our current reliance upon gadgetry seems to be decreasing human competence. People are now taking to the woods with one of these satellite position locators under the impression that that is all that is needed for their safety and safe return. They do not know terrain. They do not understand topography. They rarely have a map but they often do have a cellular phone, believing that if they get in trouble in the woods they may simply ring up somebody and produce a helicopter. The article even mentions a bizarre case in which a hiker was found in dire straights in the wilderness without any sort of competence and no canteen. What he did have in his pack was a laptop computer. Now where do people like that come from!
We are invited by the faithful to boycott the Jack-in-the-Box food chain because of their policy on personal weapons.
I find it most curious that there are still people - even people of some cultivation - who object to the metric system. I discovered as far back as grade school that the metric system of measure makes sense, whereas the English system does not. In case it was not explained to you in your childhood, a meter constitutes one ten-millionth of the distance from the pole to the equator, measured along the curve. With that as a base, we proceed to convenient measurements such as a kilometer (1000 meters), a millimeter (one thousandth of a meter), and so on. Measuring distances in feet, inches and miles seems to be just silly. (I do remember from my Basic School days that there are 63,360 inches in a mile. Pretty fascinating?)
Do you know what the "Big Twenty" is? The Big Twenty is the placement of 20 shots in a 20-inch circle in 20 seconds at a 1000 yards. Old time target shots claim that this is impossible, but then for most of the 20th century it was held that it was impossible to run a mile in 4 minutes.
We have been enjoying a delightful response to our comments about our encounters with the weird Czech language. One correspondent wrote to tell us that the Czech language has three genders, five plurals, seven cases and very few vowels. It appears that it is possible to write a complete sentence in Czech without using any vowels at all.

And on the matter of the famous brew "Pilsner Urquell," we discover the reason why nobody in Pilsen knows what Urquell means is that it is not a Czech word, but rather German. Quell in German signifies spring or fountain. And Ur, as a prefix, indicates venerability. (The word for grandfather in German is Grosvater. The word for great grandfather is Urgrosvater.) Thus Pilsner signifies origin in Pilsen, and Urquell signifies, approximately, "venerable fountain." The suggestion is that it's the water that makes the beer so good.

We were recently treated to a bizarre exchange between a hapless Englishman and some BATchick in some front office in Washington. Our English friend was inquiring about bringing his arms into the United States, and was told that he could not import a Peacemaker (Colt Single-action Army) because it had no "legitimate sporting purpose!" Now, apart from the fact that "legitimate sporting purpose" is a blatantly unconstitutional interpretation of the Second Amendment, it is apparent that these poor souls who are confined to the District of Columbia cannot keep up with the times. Clearly the girl involved had not heard of the proliferation of "Cowboy Action Shooting." I stuck my oar in to tell her that this sort of bureaucratic behavior gives ignorance a bad name. I guess I can expect the black helicopters any night now.
In regard to daughter Lindy's book, "The Soul and the Spirit," I must point out again that this book was not my idea. I did not write it. I did not edit it. I did not proofread it, and I do not have any copies for sale. Lindy tells me that the book is selling very well, which is comforting to both of us, but I cannot get one for you. For your copy contact
Wisdom Publishing, Inc., 1840 E Warner Rd., Box 238, Tempe, AZ 85284.
Examples of evil judicial behavior continue to grow. Here in Arizona, a group of innocents who were endeavoring to prepare for Der Tag were busted by the BATF and their head man was sentenced to nine years in the slammer, with others receiving lesser sentences. Now what these people did was apparently against the law, but they did no harm. They threatened no one. They damaged no property. They deprived no one of liberty. They did not march nor demonstrate, but they were treated by this particular judge as atrocious felons, evidently for what they were thinking, rather than what they did. I can see how a citizen might justifiably be fined or even given a short jail sentence for messing around with firearms against the regulations of the BATmen, but nine years is more than a lot of people get for murder! The judge in this case obviously lost his marbles, and I fear that there is nothing we can do about it.
Colonel Bob Young, our neighbor to our immediate west, appears to have located a cougar in his close vicinity. This is the best news we have heard since the appearance of the desert bighorn sheep in the Bradshaw Mountains near Prescott.
As we understand it, it was the aim of Karl Marx to achieve a classless society. What the Clintons have achieved, however, is a classless White House.
Sport hunting is unquestionably the preeminent recreation of man, but sport hunting comes in so many forms and in over such a tremendous period of time that it defies classification. Some years ago the good old boys on the Hunter Assistance Committee of the NRA sat around and quizzed each other as to what was the finest hunt they knew. The discussion covered a lot of ground, and while I was not at all surprised to learn that the bighorn of the American Rockies stands among the highest on everyone's list, another hunt that I knew nothing about claimed almost equal eminence. This was the southern plantation bobwhite. We all admit that the hunt is a ceremony as notable for its atmosphere as for its results, and apparently a Sunday morning on a southern plantation, complete with grits and red eye gravy, handcrafted corn whiskey, the mule wagon, the dogs, and the traditional hunting staff must build up into a very enjoyable occasion. To go farther afield, many opine that Syncerus caffer (the "joined-horned infidel") is the top experience. Others may choose the canvasback duck, the favorite of Diamond Jim Brady, and a good many Europeans would place the Auerhahn at the top of the list. And then there is Panthera leo, the king of beasts. To my mind it is all good, and the more different ways I have enjoyed it, the richer my life has been. If any readers would like to put forth their particular choices in this matter, we would be glad to discuss them further.
It seems that our military forces are well aware of the nature of the enemy. The enemy is not Russia, nor Iran, nor Algeria, nor China - it is Bubba. Bubba is the good old boy who knows his way around the countryside, packs grandpa's 30-30 in his pick-up truck, and will not be pushed around. The Army at Fort Bragg recently conducted an anti-Bubba operation against a small town in North Carolina. They told the mayor they were coming, but asked him please not to tell the townspeople, which seems a very foolish request to me. In due course the ninja swept in, properly airborne, and landed all over the place. The amazing thing was that nobody was killed. Perhaps Bubba is not really as dangerous as the ninja think.
Family members who have completed the rifle course with credit should remember that if they intend to hunt buffalo and are somewhat intimidated by the cost of buying a buffalo rifle they only intend to shoot a few times, I have down in the Armory an excellent heavy gun on the Kimber action taking the 460 G&A cartridge. This piece is available as a loaner on demand.
Remember the axiom that you are only "outgunned" if you miss. Only the old-timers among us remember the deserved adulation heaped upon Butch O'Hare, after whom the Chicago airport is now named. In his magnificent exploit he was the only Navy fighter plane available in the air when nine Japanese Betty's were observed in attack formation heading for the Lexington battle group. These Betty's were twin-engined medium bombers with rifle caliber machineguns forward and sideward, plus a 20mm automatic cannon as a tail stinger. The Nip formation was a V of V's flying very close together and protecting each other with their own guns. O'Hare was flying an F4F-3 armed with four 50-caliber Brownings and packing 200 rounds per gun. In plain sight he tore into that Jap formation and destroyed five bombers before he ran out of ammunition and the fight broke up.

Let our current handwringing journalists observe that he was not "outgunned."

I regret to report that the revised personal protection program of the NRA has run upon shoal water. I previously reported that we on the Education and Training Committee would have the staff work finished by the forthcoming meeting in Seattle, and that certain National Rifle Association policies would be brought up abreast of the times. I reckoned without the obstructionism which is the essence of life in Washington. If you live and work in the District of Columbia or environs, you discover that the only way to succeed is never to give a straight answer to anything. Back in our younger days in the military, "yes" meant "yes," and "no" meant "no." That is no longer clear.
Question for your next philosophy class: "Does competition automatically destroy ethics?" This would have been easier to answer one hundred years ago when we had a full allowance of gentlemen. Today it is somewhat more complicated.
Principle: Competition is the most valid evaluator of technique, but only if it is relevant to the goals the technique seeks to achieve.
The United Nations Organization proceeds to evolve from the silly to the sinister. As long as it just met and paid exorbitant salaries to flakey delegates from graustarkian countries, it was little more than wasteful, but now various of its members propose serious attempts to transfer national sovereignty incrementally to this bizarre agglomeration of ineptitude.

What hits us squarely between the eyes is the proposal that the U.N. step in and mandate the production, trade and transfer of smallarms by its members. Now this is a line on which we must stand firm. When such nations as Japan, Britain, Australia and Canada presume to tell the United States that we should abrogate the God-given rights of our citizens the way they do, it is time to cry Halt! The evil thing is that these international destroyers of liberty have a full share of advance-men in our own camp - and unfortunately in some positions of power. The ultimate definition of political liberty is the right to keep and bear arms - the right of the individual to keep and bear his own personal arms. Without that right all other rights are meaningless. We must make that point clear to everybody on both sides of the argument - only thus will we make our enemies aware that we are very serious about what we preach.

Among the other terms it would be nice to see disappear is "plains game." I do not know who thought that one up, but I wish he had not. In truth some game lives on the plains, but a good amount does not. Certainly the Tragelaphus people (bushbuck, nyala, kudu, situtunga, and bongo) are furtive forest dwellers, not to be found on plains. Today, however, if you are not hunting elephant or buffalo, some people like to say you are hunting "plains game." I guess terminology should never be taken seriously.
As to that, it might be suggested that we replace the vulgar barbarism "hiorshi" with "it."
We have discovered a proper use for this communication system newly termed "ebonics." We discovered that when we asked the question, "What is Windows 95?," it sounded wrong; and when we changed that to, "What are Windows 95?," that also sounded wrong. By using ebonics we can say, "What be Windows 95?," and now we are all right. (We asked someone who knows about such things just exactly, "What be Windows 95?," and his answer was, "Windows 95 be cooool.")
We have had recent occasion to mix with the bright young people on a university campus. We discover that now everyone is supposed to be entitled to a "college education," the term has lost its meaning. Today college can be regarded as "remedial high school." The four high school years are apparently spent doing something, but being educated does not seem to be it. This makes the position of the visiting professor pretty entertaining. These bright young people in your class appear to be astonished when confronted by even an elementary awareness of what used to be called "common knowledge." Out in the corridor one overhears variations on, "Well, I never thought about that before," all the way to the parking lot.
Note that "The Art of the Rifle," my latest effort, is now being serialized in Guns & Ammo magazine, starting with the May issue. The book itself ought to be available by early summer.
Now we learn of a new pistol cartridge formed by necking the 45 ACP down to 40 caliber and calling it the 400. Just what is to be gained by this is unclear, but when you ask people "What is it good for?" you often make yourself unpopular.
From darkest New England we learn of what may be called "punk repellant," which is, quite simply, good music. When these grubby types assemble on street corners or in parking lots, they can be quickly dispersed by a solid dose of Bach, Beethoven or Brahms. Real music is unbearable to people conditioned to rock. Thus we now have what may be called "the defensive boombox."
At Nurnberg I had occasion to examine the new Heym straight-pull rifle. This incorporates an innovative "ball lock," which is very smooth to operate, but which calls for a rather obtrusive bolt handle. The Heym people have a good reputation and we must assume that their bolt system is thoroughly tested. At this point I have no grounds for critical opinion.
I am encouraging daughter Lindy, "the publisher," to undertake a hypothetical autobiography of the wife of Sir Samuel Baker, who accompanied him on the discovery of the source of the Nile - among numerous other adventures. She derived from the Hapsburg aristocracy, but was abducted by brigands during a revolution and put upon the slave block in Constantinople, where by sheerest accident she was discovered by Baker, who purchased and subsequently married her. She was a remarkable person who led a wildly romantic and adventurous life, but to our great dismay she never put pen to paper. The story needs to be told, and from a woman's viewpoint in the first person. I do hope that Lindy will give it the full blast. Her name was Florence von Sass, but she was always referred to by Baker as "Flossy," and that should be the title of the book.
The news may be too late to reach you, but Saturday the 19th of April has been designated "Patriots' Day," on which all patriots are invited to display their right to keep and bear arms just as far as the law allows. Carry your piece openly and exult in the knowledge that you remain a citizen of "The Land of the Brave and the Free" - the last best hope of Earth.
Please Note. These "Commentaries" are for personal use only. Not for publication.




Jeff Cooper's Commentaries

 Previously Gunsite Gossip 
Vol. 5, No. 6         May, 1997

The Rites of Spring

So much has been happening in the first half of 1997 that it becomes very difficult to sort things out. At the head of the list of new goodies in weaponry, we still have the Blaser R93 rifle, the "Wild West" Co-pilot carbine, the various "pocket rockets" giving us major caliber in miniature pistols, and, of course, the forthcoming production scout rifle from Steyr Mannlicher. We should also include the souped up 30-caliber ammunition from Federal and the tiny 22 revolver from Smith and Wesson. We can expect at least one major innovation from the Czechs later on in the year, but we will have to wait and see how that comes out.
In addition to new equipment, there is now an infusion of new blood at the NRA, which may be an excellent thing. The appearance at the head table of Holy Moses (Charlton Heston) may be startling to some, but it should turn out to be a major forward step in the long run. Heston's "gun politics" may not be entirely above reproach in the eyes of the pure, but his public image is very powerful and may serve to impress numbers of those in the middle to whom we need to appeal.
At this point I wish to thank those who voted for me as a director of the NRA. I have not been able to accomplish as much in that capacity as I had hoped, but I intend to keep up the pressure for at least another term of office.
Certainly any hunter should be an active member of the National Rifle Association. Without the efforts of the NRA, he would no longer be a hunter. There is some difficulty in getting this message across, since it is estimated that there are 20 million hunters in the United States and only 3 million members of the NRA. In exploring this odd situation we run across the attitude held by a great many outdoorsmen that the NRA is in there fighting for American shooters and is doing a good enough job on its own. Well, the NRA is doing a good job, but think how much better the job would be if we recruited even half of those 20 million hunters. There must be a way to attack this problem. As a member of the Public Affairs Committee of the Association, I promise to give it my full attention.
In my continued search for the design of a general-purpose rifle, I have been attacked by a couple of correspondents who feel that the ideal is to have a whole lot of cheap guns - one for every separate occasion. The idea is that any well-made firearm is too expensive, and that the answer is to explode into diversification. Well, everyone has a right to his own opinion, but I am surprised to hear the matter of price brought up in this connection. One of my critics in this regard is a coal miner whose communications suggest that coal miners command a good deal more ready cash than stock brokers. Personally I deplore the idea of specialization - in either people or firearms. I remember Heinlein's dictum that "specialization is for insects."
Recent vote tallies at the National Rifle Association suggest that I am esteemed by the troops, but disdained by the officers. This does not bother me. I have more than enough to do with business as it is than to look for additional special committees or executive assignments.
The AK47 has long been the weapon of choice by the bad guys of the world, and especially by those in South Africa. The supply is not inexhaustible, however, and now the violent felons in South Africa have begun to show a distinct preference for the baseball bat. In recent attacks on rural homesteads, the baseball bat has proven ubiquitous. The goblins usually go straight for the face, leaving the victims, if they survive, permanently disfigured. Clearly if the farmer can put his hand on his gun, nobody with a baseball bat is going to get to him, but farmers do not always display the warrior mentality necessary for survival in a troubled world.
After reading an unconscionable number of windy organizational reports recently, we have propounded the dictum:
"If it won't go on one page, it needs a synopsis."
The Laurel Canyon shoot in Los Angeles recently has brought forth a torrent of commentary - most of which demonstrates an almost unbelievable level of technical ignorance.

To begin with, a whole platoon of journalists insists that the L.A. police were "undergunned." Now, as we all know, one is undergunned only if he misses. It may be suggested that the standard 9mm pistol cartridge is not sufficient to penetrate body armor and that, as a result, the police should go to a major caliber, such as 45 ACP. Anyone who is qualified to have an opinion on the subject knows that a 45 ACP provides less, not more, penetration than a 9mm. For years we have pointed out that if your first two hits to the body do not suffice, you shift your aim to the head. This is, of course, the renowned Mozambique Drill, taught by that name at all reputable schools of pistolcraft.

Another body of journalistic opinion has held that the L.A.P.D. needs more and better training in marksmanship. I know something about the level of marksmanship training in the Los Angeles Police Department and I do not think that the technical ability to hit a target is the issue here. What wins in a gunfight is "mindset." Here in Arizona we have access to a ludicrous camcorder tape which shows the minions of the law kicking up dirt around the target at short range, when, of course, they can all hit a beer can reliably at such distances.

One man armed with a Model 1894 30-30 deer rifle could have stopped that Laurel Canyon shooting within seconds after its start, but he would have had to display the proper mindset called for by the circumstances. I am convinced that it can be taught, since I have taught it successfully for about twenty years. Why it is not taught is a sociological rather than a technical question.

"In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans."

Theodore Roosevelt

At the Whittington Shooting Center we are in the process of laying out a field rifle range to be called a "game walk." John Gannaway and Larry Larsen have collaborated in laying out the trails and target positions involving a right-side walk and a left-side walk, which will enable shooters to return to base down a defiladed trail between the two arcs, allowing continuous operation on steel targets.

The facility will include a range house for shelter and storage, a couple of portable rest rooms, and ample parking.

I blush to admit that it is tentatively to be termed the J&J Game Walk, and that family members who wish to have their names displayed in the range house may achieve this for return of a tax deductible contribution of $1,000 or more. At this time we have accrued two fivers and a handful of oners. We are at work on the design of reactive steel targets and should have a nearly complete facility in time for the Gunsite Reunion and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial in October.

"If you can get closer, get closer." Indeed, yes, but a couple of years ago I discovered that when optical sights are used it is quite possible to get too close. The Lion Scout carries a scoutscope, and when I mounted the rifle at a range of eleven paces, all I could see was an indefinite expanse of yellow hair. I had to switch back to my tracking eye in order to discover an aiming point. Now in a recent account of the Yom Kippur War on the Golan Heights, I read of an Israeli tank commander who ran into exactly the same problem on a much larger scale. He encountered a Syrian tank at range so close that through his sight he could not tell what part of the tank he was looking at.

It is my considered opinion that a telescope sight has no place on a rifle intended for dangerous game. Just what kind of sighting system is appropriate for arms-length tank combat is an interesting question.

In this age of political correctness, it begins to appear that believing is seeing. The truth is irrelevant to those who operate on "gut feeling." If it is true, as the saying goes, that the truth will make you free, what may we expect when we no longer seek the truth nor care about it?

However, we must not give up the fight. To sigh that that is just the way things are is cowardice, which is, of course, the most repulsive of the Four Horsemen of the Modern Apocalypse.

Note that the "Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip" is available, for the time being, at the Rutgers Book Center for $40.00.
Growing up back in the Middle Ages, we young people were taught to dress in a manner appropriate to the circumstances appertaining. Our mothers insisted that we appear neat, clean and moderately dignified in public. On today's streets there seems to be a strong movement on the part of young people to dress to disgust. Such oafishness is apparently accepted in certain levels of society. Fortunately this trend is not entirely universal. We just attended the graduation ceremonies at the University of Mississippi, deep in the Heart of Dixie, where the student body was making a conscious effort to tidy up. It may be that the Deep South is the last locus of gentility.
You have doubtless heard of the grim command, "Kill them all. Let God sort them out!" This has been attributed to a number of military situations over the years, up to and including Vietnam, but I have run it down, and it looks like this:

The Albigensian Crusade in the south of France in the early part of the 14th century was conducted jointly by the French King and the Pope, with the intent of stamping out the Donatist heresy. Among the various "heretical" towns and cities beset by the royal troops was Beziers. When this walled city refused to surrender, the chief of the besiegers - one Amal Ulric - gave orders that the town should be sacked and all survivors put to death. One of his henchman remonstrated, saying that there was an appreciable number of "good Catholics" inside the city. The chief of the besiegers was reported to have responded, "Kill them all. God will know his own." Now, he could not have said this because he could not speak English (the English language not having been invented at that time). We do not know exactly what he said, because no one was taking notes, but several months later a German monk reporting on the incident put the equivalent down in Latin, Necreis omnis. Deus suis agnoscet.

Horrible as that sounds today, it made quite good sense in the Middle Ages, at which time most Christians felt that life on earth was simply a brief interlude in preparation for the hereafter. If one led a Godly life, God would know of it, and the reward would be eternal paradise. Thus Amal Ulric was making good sense according to his concepts of righteousness. If all those in Beziers were killed, the good would go to Heaven and the bad would go to Hell, and thus he was doing God's work.

I regret to report that no progress was made with the NRA's Personal Protection Plan, by which we on the Education and Training Committee had set much store. In my opinion, the prescribed chain of command has been temporarily circumvented. We on the committee will not give up on this matter, but we can expect a delay to continue as long as anyone can be found to delay it.
New parliamentary rules laid down by the Guru:
No speech over ten minutes,
No comment over three minutes,
No question over one minute.
This is easy to enforce since the microphone can simply be timed to shut off as appropriate.
I might take this opportunity to point out that I as a director never considered Neal Knox to be "too radical." As the man said, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." The media would have you believe that Neal lost his vice presidency because he was too much of an activist. Such is not my view of the case.
Rule: Never shoot your rifle from the offhand position unless you have absolutely no other choice.
In this age of ostentatious ignorance we hear continually of the reprehensible nature of "antigovernment" propaganda. We repeat the wisdom of the Father of Our Country:
"Government, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it."

Abraham Lincoln
4 April 1861

We would appreciate any detailed reports available on the Davis Mountains shoot. As we understand it, one of the rebels took off into the hills, but was killed by police action without any effective resistance. We have no opinions about the morals of this case, but it would seem that an armed fugitive in wild country should be able to score at least once before he gets it. Perhaps the subject was simply incompetent, since he seems to have a record as a fairly unsatisfactory citizen. But still, we would like to know details as to calibers, ranges, number of shots fired, and such like. Family members are invited to fill us in on this.
A liberated society. As of now you may keep the guns you have, but you will never be able to acquire any more. Let freedom die of old age.
And now that the Brits have gone down the tube, our publishing houses discover that no periodical displayed in Britain may show a handgun on the cover. Guns & Ammo, for example, is now producing two different covers for at least half of its issues.
In the last issue we asked for suggestions about particularly fine sorts of hunts. What we have received up til now is from family member Walt Mansell in California, who tells us that the "jacksnipe" is his very favorite. A jacksnipe is evidently a sort of woodcock, and I have always heard that woodcock constitute an extremely demanding target for the wingshooter. I do not know any place where either woodcock or jacksnipe are plentiful enough to hunt at this time, but the idea is worth putting on the list for further consideration.
If Lon Horiuchi has killed himself, the press has done a marvelous job covering it up. Certainly he has a much better reason than did Admiral Boorda, the ex-Chief of Naval Operations, but maybe he just does not have the viscera to handle the job. Speaking of viscera, Horiuchi's Japanese ancestors have long had a proper solution to this difficulty.
Though it is not yet June, we must still start thinking about next year in Africa. Providing we are still here and Africa is still there, this may be set up for the month of May. I confess that my own blood lust is somewhat slaked by now, and I have no special targets in mind, but all hunting is good hunting and I particularly enjoy showing friends the African scene.

You do not need a special gun. Your 30-06 will do just fine - with the right bullets. Of course, if you want buffalo, you will need a buffalo gun, but it just happens that I have one available for loan to distinguished Orange Gunsite graduates. But the buffalo adventure is expensive and probably should not be attempted on one's first visit. You can have a fine hunt without buffalo, and you can always reserve that beast for your next time around.

If you hold with the Founding Fathers, you know that rights can neither be granted nor repealed by the State. Neither can rights be abrogated by those to whom they are granted. If we were to repeal the Bill of Rights in legal fashion, the God-given rights of man would not be negated. What God has granted, let not man deny!
In our recent rifle class at Whittington, a student showed up whose right arm had been amputated about 8 inches down from the shoulder. I certainly could not have shown him how to operate his rifle with that handicap, since I simply do not know how it is done - but he did it. He used an extendable bipod without a sling, but worked the bolt with his stump. It was an inspiring performance, and renewed our faith in the human spirit.
We continue to hold the notion that recoil effect on the shooter is about 85 percent mental. Actual recoil can be measured, of course, but what the shooter feels is more what he thinks he will feel than the actual weight of the blow. From my youth I remember that Osa, the diminutive wife of the photographer Martin Johnson, steadily backed up her husband with a 470 Double Holland. She was about the size of Marion Hammer yet she never complained about recoil. Stock fit has a lot to do with this, of course, but the actual cartridge involved is less important than a lot of people think.
Now we hear of a mature lady of 70 years in Moldavia who carried a hand grenade in her purse "for self defense." Nobody told her those things shoot both ways.
The consensus of the masters at the last Whittington class was that stainless steel does not rub well against stainless steel. There are various sorts of stainless steels and some do better than others, but generally speaking, while both black-on-black and black-on-white will do fine, the galling of white-on-white promotes premature wear.
"Liberals don't care what you volunteer for, as long as it is compulsory."

National Review

Now that we have a production scout nearly in our hands, several people have suggested that a production version of the Lion Scout might be a good idea. Right now my Lion Scout is strictly a one-off proposition, with no means of replication. However, our new friends in the Czech Republic may very well be prevailed upon to produce what may be called a field carbine for the "350 Short Magnum, Improved," which could give us excellent medium-power performance in a very compact weapon. It would not be a true scout, of course, because it would take a peculiar cartridge, but that problem might well be handled by the proximity of the Selliers & Bellot organization up in Prague. When the ammunition factory and the arms factory are in close proximity, marrying the cartridge to the chamber is no great problem.

Just what the medium "Fireplug" cartridge is good for is moot. It is too much gun for deer, but it works splendidly on moose, elk, bear, and all African game short of buffalo. We could probably get its overall weight down to 8½ pounds - "all up." If you like this idea, let us know.

We have now discovered why we let Saddam Hussein get away. We ran out of batteries.
As the hoplophobes in public office continue to rant and rave, I should point out that three places I know of still have excellent gun laws - Switzerland, Bolivia, and Czechia. Here in the U.S. we still have some nifty state laws, most particularly those of Vermont. If you mention Vermont to the gun grabbers in Congress, they will not argue with you. They simply change the subject.
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."

John Adams

Please Note. These "Commentaries" are for personal use only. Not for publication.




Jeff Cooper's Commentaries

 Previously Gunsite Gossip 
Vol. 5, No. 7         June, 1997

Summer Solstice

So now June is busting out all over, as it says in the song. The hot weather has already hit us here in the Southwest. School is out, and the African hunting season is at its best. Householders are comparing the progress of their tomato crops throughout the land, we are still enjoying last year's venison, and doing what we can about the delights of fresh mountain trout - despite the heckling of the catch-and-release fishermen.
As to this matter of "catch-and-release", it seems to have permeated all sorts of our social activities - sometimes to the good, and sometimes not so. Catch-and-release fishing is probably OK, albeit puzzling to the non-fishermen. We have heard that it upsets the fish, but that is a rather hard point to establish.

Personally I am rather fond of a form of hunting which has some similar aspects. In this game one stalks and squeezes with maximum care, but with chamber empty. When the striker goes forward in the rifle of a good rifleman, the point has been established, whether or not the piece was loaded. If you can shoot, you know where that bullet went - or would have gone. I rather like this game, though certainly not to the exclusion of the real thing.

I suppose we could call alcohol-free beer an aid to catch-and-release drinking. Now it remains to produce alcohol-free whiskey.

On the bad side is this current custom of catch-and-release law enforcement. The cops catch'em and the courts release'em.

Being an old codger, I tend to disdain these half-baked procedures, in most cases, as a form of social anemia.

As we approach the Glorious Fourth, we are increasingly distressed to learn that large numbers of our young people in school simply do not want to hear about it. They seem to have been taught that war is so bad that even victory is to be deplored. Such people are slave-minded, and they will not survive as a race through the 21st century.
The first after-action reports from this year's African adventures have begun to trickle in. One correspondent, Bob Dickerson from Ohio, did all his proper reading and preparation, and then went down there to get the full blast. He says that his adventure started out great, progressed to fantastic - and then got better. In our experience the only really bad thing about the African adventure is the trip home.

Bob's outfitter opines that the 35 Whelen is definitely the best all around choice for an African cartridge. He had not heard about the 350 Remington Short Magnum, which provides the same ballistics in a more compact package.

We hear good reports about the new Kimber clone of the 1911 pistol. It appears to include a number of good features, if not all those most desirable. Additionally, the length of the front end of the frame prevents the press check. This is not an important point, but one wonders why the designers would introduce an unnecessary backward step.

We will doubtless see a number of the Kimbers at our forthcoming pistol session at Whittington in July.

The Scout Rifle Session, to include both the 4th Conference and the introduction of the Steyr Mannlicher production scout, remains on the schedule for late September. We will keep you posted.

Department of Absolutely Essential Information

The Czech word for beer is pivo. More than one beer is piva. Five or more beers is piv. Fancy that!

The question "What is a good shot?", which I address in "The Art of the Rifle", has been producing various interesting responses. There is an association of descendants and admirers of Alvin York who have informed me that I need look no further than their ancestor, who is established in their minds as the ultimate good shot. Certainly Sergeant York could shoot, and he put his rifle skill to proper use as the occasion demanded, but marksmanship skill is a talent with such varied aspects that I cannot consider the matter closed. We stand in awe of the demonstrated marksmanship of Alvin York and Sam Woodfill and Billy Dixon and Marseilles and Rudel and Bell, not to mention Jack Weaver, Elden Carl, Thell Reed, and Ray Chapman; or Harry Reeves and Bill Blankenship. Our admiration does not settle the case. I suppose all that can be said with certainty is that the man who can do everything with his weapon that his weapon is capable of doing - every time - is truly a good shot.

Department of Bureaucracy Amok

Part 1

"The National Marine Fisheries Service has recommended that Congress allow the shooting of protected sea lions off the Pacific coast in order to protect the endangered salmon, which is a favorite meal of sea lions. The problem is the sea lions are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but the salmon are protected under the Endangered Species Act."

Part 2

Seems this girl wanted to go out for baseball in the capacity of pitcher. Current rules require that any youngster playing as pitcher must wear a codpiece - a tin cup protecting the testicles. Trouble is, this girl does not have any testicles to protect. No matter. Rules are rules. Wear it on your ankle, dear.

We hear continuously of shooting failures by the police because these items make news, whereas victories do not. Thus it is refreshing to read of a neat tactical achievement on the part of the Phoenix Police Department, who stalked a professional bank robber for several months, finally catching him in a traffic jam through full and accurate communications, and neatly settling his hash when he chose to shoot it out. It is nice to be able to cheer for the winners now and again rather than sneering at the losers.
Doubtless you know that Swarovski can now provide you with a telescope sight for your rifle which includes a built-in laser range finder. The item is huge and expensive, and its utility is highly specialized. You do not have to know the exact range in any form of hunting that I know of, except for the prairie dogs of the High Plains. This activity does not require any hiking, since you conduct it from your car, so bulk and weight are not important. On the other hand, the target is very small and the range is whatever the shooter wants to make it. It does seem problematical for that laser to range in on the head of a prairie dog out there a third of a mile away, but perhaps it works. Here we have a nifty birthday present for the kid who has everything.
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggy' until you can find a rock."

Will Rogers

We hear of a contest now