From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
JEFF COOPER'S COMMENTARIES Vol. 8, No. 7
Previously Gunsite Gossip
THE BIG BANG
We were unable to get this issue to you in time for the Uproarious
Fourth, but we trust you all celebrated the occasion appropriately with
martial music, gunfire and patriotic exclamations. Here at Gunsite we
featured barbequed buffalo, beans and beer, and toasted our friends from far
and near. The republic has fallen upon evil days, but this must not
dis-courage us. To the contrary, we must fire up our political awareness and
set to work to re-institute the virtues of self-control, personal
responsibility, chastity, decency, and good manners. The task is difficult,
but not impossible.
""""
Several people have remarked that the only place that one can find
instruction in how to use a shooting sling is in "The Art of the Rifle."
This is probably true, but the art of the rifle is becoming a lost art, and
that is the reason I wrote the book.
""""
Here at Gunsite we are making every effort to spruce up the place for the
new era. Our Masters' program has started out well, and in the last class we
achieved a triumph in the person of a young man of 18 who had never touched a
firearm before coming to school, but who aced the class for an E ticket.
This makes the trouble worth the trouble.
""""
Family member Tom Flowers of Waco relays the report that somebody managed
to drive a Bradley fighting vehicle off a cliff at Fort Hood. This is very
difficult, there being no cliffs in the vicinity, but journalists keep
writing about things they do not understand, which annoys us gunmen more than
somewhat. It would be nice if writers of both commentary and fiction would
lay off topics in which they have no competence, but that appears to be a
futile hope.
""""
For the man who has everything, we now report the offering in Germany of
a museum piece version of the double 700 Nitro. This gorgeous item sells for
$120,000 DM (plus or minus $80,000) and weighs eighteen and a half pounds.
Impor-tant components are gold plated "to avoid corrosion." I guess this is
evidence that in truth "the economy is on a roll."
""""
Just last Sunday, the second of June, a new guided missile destroyer was
commissioned and christened the U.S.S. McCampbell. This is a piece of good
news, for at a time when we often name our ships after politicians rather
than heros, Captain David McCampbell was a true example of the heroic breed.
Naturally we shooters prefer to extol heros who are conspicuously good
marksmen-York, Woodfill, Hanneken for ex-ample. Captain David McCampbell is
thus particularly gratifying to us, being probably the best shot in the naval
air arm. He won his 34 victories by a lethal combination of outstanding
flying skill and superb marksmanship. He won all sorts of prizes for aerial
gunnery prior to World War II, and then put his skill to use as he rose in
rank. It was as a four-stripe naval captain (the equivalent of a full
colonel in the ground services) that he earned the Medal of Honor by shooting
down nine Japanese aircraft on one mission. This was not a fluke, since on
another occasion he splashed seven between takeoff and landing. Historian
and family member Barrett Tillman computes that Captain McCampbell averaged
out to one four-second burst per kill. Despite a fairly riotous personal
life, he lived to the ripe old age of 86 and died just four years ago. I
have frequently posed the question about how to define a really good shot.
David McCampbell was a really good shot.
""""
The psychological castration of little boys proceeds apace in the
education establishment. We hope and believe that school cannot replace the
home as a source of values, but this is true only of the better homes.
Perhaps that is just as well.
""""
We now learn that a series of courts has fully absolved Lon Horiuchi of
the murder of Vicki Weaver, on the grounds that he was "only doing his job."
A number of German war criminals offered that argument at the N�rnberg
trials, but they were hanged anyway.
So now Horiuchi walks free under no legal cloud. One wonders how
carefully he watches his back.
""" "
Gunsite is now featuring the Number 80 Party Pistol, which is a
short-coupled 1911 mildly embellished and-get this-slim-lined. As far as I
know, this is the only 1911 clone which is slim-lined out of the box. About
time! Only 80 of these instruments will be produced, in cognizance of my
80th birthday just past. The piece is expensive, but so is a Porsche. You
get what you pay for.
""""
There seems to be a certain amount of debate about the velocities
obtained with the 376 Steyr cartridge in factory form. Steve Hornady claims
2600 feet for the 270-grain bullet, but he does not specify barrel length.
The barrel of the Dragoon is short, at nineteen inches, and we suspect that
Steve ran his tests with something longer than that. Hearing rumors about
under-loading, John Gannaway just re-tested the factory load with his
carefully calibrated chronograph and came up with an average of 2581.
The people at Steyr continue to push the cartridge in the conventional
SBS rifle, which puzzles me. The virtue of the 376 Steyr cartridge is that
it can be had in Scout configuration. Anyone who wants a conventional rifle
of this category may go to the 375 Holland & Holland, which is not only
slightly more powerful than the 376 Steyr, but also widely avail-able.
Ammunition for that 376 is going to continue to be hard to get for some time.
For reasons unknown to me Steve has issued a 225-grain load for the 376
cartridge which is loaded back down to a tested 2430 f/s. This is 30-06
performance (220 at 2400). I vastly admire the 30-06, but I can see no
reason to construct an entirely new and potentially more powerful round and
then load it back down again. Clearly there are things about marketing that
I do not understand.
""""
It has been suggested that a significant difference between Americans and
other people is that Americans admire suc-cess, whereas others envy it.
That, of course, is an outrageously broad generalization, but it does give
one to think.
""""
Over the portals of our service academies there are inscribed the three
words: Duty, Honor, Country. Those words used to be more easily defined than
today when we tend to elect conspicuously dishonorable people to the highest
offices in the land.
I thought that we had reached the low point in our history of dishonor at
Ruby Ridge, but then came Waco, and now we have decided to throw the Gonzales
boy back over the wall which his mother died trying to climb. There are
still plenty of honorable Americans, but the federal government is making it
difficult for them to pay it proper respect.
""""
We are now planning the Safari Prep course for next year, scheduled for
late March in order to give prospects a chance to catch a rifle class before
coming to Safari Prep. As now planned, people in this course should know how
to shoot a rifle before they come, and the best way to do this is to catch a
rifle class here at Gunsite. (Just saying that you already know how to shoot
a rifle is not convincing.)
There will be shooting in this class, and it will be conducted with the
rifle the student intends to take to Africa. We plan three days, split about
evenly between class work and field work. I have long looked forward to this
effort, the more so because of the tales I get from my African friends about
the astonishing na�vet� and incompetence of American hunters who wander
afield with the notion that money is enough and competence is insignificant.
You can do an African hunt at about any level you choose, varying from
sleep-on-the-ground-and-wash-your-own- socks to Indian Maharaja-style, but
the important thing is to get a proper amount of pleasure for your money.
You will not get this if you enter the scene blind. We can help. Please let
us know here at Gunsite as soon as possible so that we can plan for the size
of the class.
""""
"When death comes, as it must, the worthy man should be able to say that he
left no drop in the bowl."
- Alcibiades (pp)
""""
I continue to read my share of history, both fictional and presumably
factual, and I discover a sad decline in literary skill amongst current
writers. Too often they not only get their facts wrong, but they raddle the
language. For example, who-ever invented the term "gunned down" should flunk
the course, as should those who maintain that shell fragments consti-tute
"shrapnel." Additionally, a man who has never been in a fight should not
write about it, since he has no firsthand knowledge of how a man reacts to
violence. Unfortunately this decline is equally true, or even more so, in
film than in print.
""""
Do we know for a fact that the Smith & Wesson sell-out was
British-inspired? I have no spies on station in this league.
""""
As the Brits continue their downward trend towards full realization of
Orwell's "1984", they are now recommending that people overhearing "racist"
remarks in pubs or restaurants make haste to report this transgression to the
cops. Britain was once the "Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free," but
that was in the 19th century.
""""
As you doubtless know it is now assumed that the "Ancients"
(Neanderthals) were displaced and/or exterminated by the "Moderns"
(Cro-Magnons). Since the Ancients were stronger than the Moderns and had an
equivalent or slightly lar-ger brain capacity, the Moderns must have had an
asset which gave them victory. In my opinion, this asset was missilery. As
far as we can tell the Moderns had bows and javelins, where the Ancients did
not, and that may have done it.
Incidentally, the two races lived side-by-side in Europe for quite some
time, and this probably gave rise to the warning that "the goblins will get
you if you don't watch out." Ancient middens have been found containing the
bones of immature Moderns. Better stay out of the deep woods, kids.
""""
Had you noticed that the new headman in Russia is pushing for a twelve
percent flat tax? We have always been rather plus on the idea of a flat tax,
and look where it turned up!
""""
The pig (Sus scrofa) seems to be taking over as the world's prime game
animal, at least the most popular and acces-sible. Wild pigs are all over
the place, and they can turn into a very considerable nuisance if their
numbers are not con-trolled. So pig hunting may well be the wave of the
future, which is okay because pigs are plentiful, active, intelligent,
tasty-and can be dangerous.
""""
Prerequisite reading for the Safari Prep course stands as follows:
"Meditations on Hunting" by Jos� Ortega y Gasset, "The Perfect Shot" by
Kevin Robertson, "The Art of the Rifle" by Jeff Cooper. These books are now
available from the Gunsite Trading Post.
""""
In enlarging the facility here we have named three new ranges after Alvin
York, Sam Woodfill, and Herman Hanneken. We did not use Hathcock because his
name has already appeared on half-a-dozen other installations.
""""
In recent testing John Gannaway and a partner discovered that their 376
Dragoon printed to exactly the same place on paper regardless of how it was
held, and it shot to the same point for both shooters. This is pretty
unusual. It may be the result of mounting the sight on that extended
receiver, which does not touch the barrel. However, whatever causes it, it
works.
""""
Feinstein, Lautenberg and Waxman-there is a choice crew-have now decided
that "the 50 BMG cartridge presents a serious and substantial threat to
national security." Er, howzat? Sometimes our adversaries are so silly that
we forget how dangerous they are.
""""
Leopards. Shortly before his death I was very pleased to learn that the
late, great Finn Aagaard and I had the same view on the subject of leopard
hunting. That is, the leopard is just too beautiful to shoot. Finn told me,
"I have never pressed trigger on a leopard, and I never intend to." That
does not mean that either of us sought to restrict or eliminate leopard
hunting. Leopards are pretty fierce people and are quite partial to eating
domestic pets and children. In some places they lean towards the dismal
practice of snatching infants out of the mother's arms, and when they get
into a goat pen they usually kill all the goats, over and above what they can
eat. No, they are not nice people, but neither are they endangered. They
blend well into civilization, both in India and Africa, under conditions
where lions and tigers perish, but I do not want to shoot one. Let George do
it!
""""
A recent paper we saw discussed some training information from Alcatraz,
and we discovered that the guards on that island were carrying their 1911s in
Condition One long before that system was accepted by law enforcement in
general. Of course, it is not now absolutely accepted, but we are getting
there at last.
""""
In a previous issue we reported how that girl from Kileen, Texas, laid
into Bill Clinton in a television confrontation. What we did not realize was
that Susan Howard, the charming chairman of the NRA Public Affairs Committee,
was swing-ing the hatchet with her usual efficiency on that same occasion.
It is easy to make Bill Clinton look silly in debate, but Susan does it with
such style that it hardly hurts. (Of course, it is impossible to embarrass
Clinton anyway, since he is without shame.)
""""
Frankie Lou Nicholson, "our man in Nebraska," tells of a turkey hunter
who used his turkey call so expertly that he called up a bobcat. The beasty
was practically in spitting distance before he discovered the error in his
target identifica-tion system. He was dreadfully surprised, but no harm was
done. Cat, hunter and turkey all survived to wait for next sea-son.
""""
Possibly a really good product does not need to advertise. I do not
recall ever seeing an ad for a Ferrari. However, as a great admirer of this
Steyr Scout, I do not think it has been drawn adequately to the attention of
the shooters. Part of the problem is that you have to shoot it on a series
of extensive field courses to realize just how much better it is than
any-thing else available. Most critics base their criticism on initial
impression and possibly on the size of bench groups. Con-sider that the very
superior Remington 600s and 660s were largely rejected because their bolt
handle swept forward rather than rearward. This was an advanced idea and
based upon the notion that the bolt handle should be quickly avail-able to
the trigger finger. The idea was right, but the result was funny looking in
many people's eyes. It does not seem to us that looks have anything to do
with riflery.
""""
This proliferation of gutter language is not only bad taste, but also the
confession of an inadequate vocabulary. It is coarse in a man, but any woman
who uses it automatically places herself in Category 3.
""""
Schumer maintains that a Hillary victory in New York will destroy the
National Rifle Association. I fail to see any con-nection here, but then
Schumer has never been noted for rational thought.
""""
"Wisdom is knowing what to do next.
Skill is knowing how to do it.
Virtue is doing it."
- David Starr Jordan
""""
Speaking of language, where did this first-name business come from? In
my own case I have an automatic termina-tion system, since people who know me
well enough to use my first name always use Jeff, whereas those who do not,
address me as John. I like to respond to such people with, "My name is not
John, it is Sir," but I rarely do that.
""""
As you know, Pygmalion was a sculptor in Greek mythology who created a
marble effigy of a woman so beautiful that he fell in love with the cold
stone. Aphrodite took pity on him and brought the statue to life. She was
named Galatea. That theme has reappeared often in world literature, and was
the basis for the movie "My Fair Lady" in which Audrey Hepburn did the
transformation, not from stone to flesh but from guttersnipe to lady.
Now that I have in my possession Steyr Scout number 08124, it spends much
of the time beside me at the breakfast table. The Countess has referred to
it as my "Linus blanket," but I call it Galatea.
""""
In the African bush your outfitter may be expected to pack antivenom
inoculations suitable for most snake-bite, but we recently heard of a PH who
claimed that he carried no treatment for the bite of the Gaboon viper. His
position was that if you get bitten by one of those, there will be no need
for first aid.
""""
Piracy has been prospering continuously in the waters of Southeast Asia,
but now it has reappeared in the Caribbean on the coasts of Honduras and
Nicaragua. It would seem that piracy, like most lethal transgression, is
fairly easy to counter if you are equipped and prepared. The trouble is that
most governments forbid you to be either equipped or pre-pared.
""""
Our latest bear fatality comes from the Great Smokies. Remember the
basic Gunsite bear rules:
1. Be alert.
2. Don't regard bears as cute, they are distinctly dangerous.
3. Don't enter bear country without being properly armed and
adept.
4. Do not sleep out on bear runways.
5. Be alert.
""""
If one hunts a lot he may wind up with too many trophies, many of which
are too big for his house. My suggestion at this point is that a fine set of
hippo ivory taken on dry land is probably the premier trophy now available.
""""
Note: Eli�n's father was divorced from his mother in May of '91. Eli�n
was born in December of '93. So much for fam-ily values.
""""
We reflect, in this period of racist agitation, that slavery has been the
normal condition of mankind for most of history. What do you do with the
losers? You either kill them outright or put them to work. If you pen them
up you have to feed them, and you have enough trouble feeding yourself.
Despite this a large number of semi-literate types in the States seem to
think of slavery as a unique invention of the southern states of the U.S.
over a period of a few generations.
""""
We learn that in Ulm, which is in Germany, an apartment dweller suffered
a negligent discharge in his living room and the bullet went through the
overhead to total a burglar in action on the floor above. This story may be
too good to be true, but that is what it said in the paper. I guess you can
say he really hit the ceiling.
""""
In perusing the excellent new book "Blackhawk Down" about the war in
Somalia, we are depressed at the level of mili-tary marksmanship that seems
to be normal today. No one fires a round anymore, he fires a burst.
Spray-and-pray is the rule of the day.
""""
One Richard Cohen, writing in the Washington Post, declaims that Charlton
Heston is "nuts. What a curious state-ment! I suppose those
anti-libertarians, if that's the word, believe that anyone who disagrees with
them is "nuts." Opin-ions are free but hysterical accusations really ought
to provide examples. We might simply say that anyone who thinks Charlton
Heston is nuts is nuts, but that is not a rational argument. If this Cohen
does not value liberty he should admit it rather than calling people
senseless names.
""""
"If you're going to blow up, wait until after you have straightened the
situation out."
- Frankie Lou Nicholson
""""
With all this current discussion about capital punishment, we must wonder
again just what is wrong with hanging. This ancient and very standard method
of execution is simple, uncomplicated, cheap, and comparatively humane-if
killing a prisoner is a subject for that adjective. I know it does not hurt,
because I have been chocked out personally and I know what it feels like.
""""
The Brazilian company Taurus now announces its "Raging Hornet" revolver,
a large, eight-shot piece carrying the 22 Hornet cartridge. When hornets
rage they do so in swarms, so I suppose the company feels that it can sell
swarms of these pistols. I see no suitable niche for the item. It might do
well on some kinds of small game, probably up to forty pounds in weight, but
it is not adequate for feral domestic goats, as I have personally discovered
on Catalina Island. As a trail gun, the Raging Hornet might serve to put
various minor beasties in the pot, but is far to big and heavy to be
conven-ient for a back packer or a trout fisherman. But there are always
people who will want something simply because some-body else has one.
""""
We are informed that shooting sticks are becoming practically universal
in Africa. This may be because of the
conspicuously inept marksmanship manifest by so many of the hunters heading
out for "safaris." I am not taken with the idea, since it implies that the
hunter will always have a slave following him around carrying the equipment.
But if this sys-tem really does insure more systematic kills, I can hardly
decry it. Daughter Lindy used shooting sticks on a rather distant tsessebe
up in the Delta two years ago when she was confronted with chest-high grass.
Okay, but I am not going to use shooting sticks myself.
Please Note: These "Commentaries" are for personal use only. Not for
publication.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
___________________________________________________________
T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
