From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MID-WINTER
And by that we certainly do not mean 'the winter of
our discontent.' The new regime in Washington may not
be perfect in every respect, but when one is plucked out of
the sea by a life boat he is not likely to complain that it
leaks a little.
The mood at the NRA winter board meeting was notably
cheerful. We started out by extending Charlton Heston's
reign for one more year, and this is an occasion for great
joy. There are those who claim that he was selected by
somewhat irregular means, but he is such a tremendous asset
to the Association that we are not likely to find fault with
procedural technicalities. In his position as president, Mr.
Heston supplies a persona of dignity and charisma unmatched
by anyone in public life since Ronald Reagan.
We learn that NRA membership is now up to 4.3 million. We
learn that Dr. Ugo Beretta of Gardone has donated the sum
of one million dollars (that is dollars, not lire) to the
Association. He may not make the world's best service
pistol, but he does run the world's best executive lunch
room, as I can attest personally.
At the winter meeting I was elevated to the peerage, so
to speak, by being elected to the Executive Council of
the National Rifle Association. This is a life-time
appointment during good behavior (I may be flung out if
I would be discovered to have voted for a Democrat), which
relieves me from the need to run for office again, unless
I choose to do so. A council member does not have voting
authority, but this is hardly a bother when we note that
really close votes on policy matters are nearly unheard
of. I intend to remain on the board until my present term
runs out. At that time, circumstances will decide whether
I should run again.
""""
We all noted that the Attorney General of South Carolina
has announced that the season is now open in that state on
burglars. Now there is an example to follow!
""""
After a preliminary but penetrating study, we have concluded
that the best of the pocket 45s is the Kimber. Family member
Clint Smith, however, deems that it is God's will that any
pistol for the 45 ACP cartridge must have a 5-inch barrel.
Customizers take note.
""""
We learn that Saddam Hussein has announced (in Arabic) that
he won the Gulf War. Well he did get away, a historical
mistake for which we are inclined to hold George Bush, Sr.,
responsible. It would appear that that small, black cloud on
the horizon is the specter of a general Moslem war against
the West-something which should be put off as long as possible,
but is probably going to be with us in due course.
""""
Someone has observed that if you find yourself in San Francisco,
be careful upon leaving not to look back, lest you be turned
into a pillar of salt.
""""
Let it be decreed that there may be no elections in the future
during hunting season.
""""
Apparently Hillary has suggested that we reform our electoral
system by modifying or doing away with the Electoral College.
If she is serious about this (or about anything), we suggest
she consider restructuring the Electoral College on the basis
of counties, rather than states. That should certainly take
care of that argument.
""""
Despite the factory's curious decision to discontinue
production of the 376 Scout, which I like to call the Steyr
Dragoon, the piece was a distinct sensation at the Safari
Club meeting in Vegas. Family member and master instructor
Rich Wyatt sold ten of them to people going to Africa. This
piece is a great success in both Africa and Alaska, and why
it should be taken off the market at a time when new products
seem to be the rage is hard to explain. What it offers is
solid, medium-class power in Scout configuration, and Scout
configuration is the most significant forward step in the
design of sporting rifles since World War II. There seems to
be a mysterious sort of emotional block here, possibly do to
lack of shooting experience on the part of gun salesmen as a
class. There is also the 'magnum myth,'; which has
served to convince a couple of generations of hunters that
excess power can make up for lack of marksmanship. One
correspondent claimed, for example, that some people in his
party opined that 'the 308 simply would not suffice for
open-country mule deer hunting.' Those who are familiar with
open-country mule deer hunting are well aware that the 308
will do everything that a 300 Ultra will, and with considerably
less bother. When that mule deer gets so far away that you
cannot deck him with your Scout, you are not going to be able
to take him with your 'super thunder-stick' either. Remember
that a hunter's skill is measured not in how far away his
target was, but how close he was able to get to it. Of course
a good many hunters are not very skilled, but that does not
excuse taking shots beyond one's useful range.
""""
The trashing of the White House by the punk staff on departure
is certainly an indication of the general character of 'those
other people.' Is this a function of the failure of our schools,
or simply evidence of lack of moral teaching in the home? Is
this a matter of television, or of two working parents, or
something else? Whatever it is, it is certainly novel and
certainly unpleasant.
""""
Being of the old school, I rather assumed that everybody knew
the words to the old Steven Foster songs-such as 'The Old
Kentucky Home.'; The opening line runs:
'The sun shines bright on my Old Kentucky home 'Tis summer,
the darkies are gay' Clearly we had to restructure this
because we cannot longer use the term 'darky,' and 'gay' has
been rerouted, so we put our revision into a previous
Commentary, and various people wrote in about it in
puzzlement. Sorry about that.
""""
We had a recent case here in Prescott which showed again
the inadequacy of the Parabellum cartridge. The creep in
this case was shot once dead center and once again in the
arm, but was able to recover and drive off at high speed
resulting in a lethal crash some miles away. We cannot prove
that a major caliber hit similarly placed would have stopped
the fight on the spot, but the odds are certainly in favor
of it.
""""
Those of you who are diet conscious will take note of one
Miss Lucy Walker who, in 1864, was the first woman to
surmount the Matterhorn. She was also the first woman to
reach the top of the Eiger, though she did not go up the
infamous north wall. During her adventures in the alps, she
subsisted entirely on a diet of sponge cake and champagne.
When I read of the champagne consumption of those old
Victorians, I sometimes regret that I never acquired a
taste for it.
""""
In discussing whether a sidearm should be comfortable to
carry, Clint Smith observes that a handgun should be
comforting, rather than comfortable. Well put.
""""
Our granddaughter Amy Heath in New York has now gone aboard
the staff of the History Channel as an assistant producer.
We sincerely hope that she acquires enough influence there
to reach some sort of policy-making level, since the History
Channel, while being unusually good television, is as a rule
badly in need of editing in matters involving firearms.
Among other things, they do not seem to be able to tell the
difference between a bullet and a cartridge. It is possible
that nobody in New York knows the difference between a
bullet and a cartridge, so we stand ready to help.
""""
We note that the Marlin people keep right on trying to
upstage Jim West of Anchorage by promoting slightly inferior
versions of his 'Co-pilot' concept. The Co-pilot, as we have
said, is one of the three really interesting rifles now
available. It is essentially a pocket-sized, takedown 45-70
Marlin with an efficient muzzle brake and excellent
ghost-ring sights. It also is available in stainless, which
makes it particularly choice along the Alaska coastline. The
Co-pilot is quite perfect for the lion guide. (Of course
there are not many lion guides, and firearms are not easy to
acquire in Africa, now that the revolutionary government has
made it practically impossible for you to leave your rifle
with your guide on departure.)
""""
It was once explained to us by Elden Carl (The Great) that
the proper procedure when attacked by a savage dog is to ram
your pistol right down his throat. You haven't got a pistol?
Well, shucks! I guess you will just have to call 911.
""""
While we frequently comment upon the bad performance of the
law enforcement establishment in matters of weaponcraft, we
must hang a gold star on the Secret Service and the National
Park Service people at the White House on the occasion of
that recent shooting incident. Whichever officer was in
charge, he did exactly the right thing by shooting the
goonie in the leg with one neat round, in total defiance of
the spray-and-pray principle. One shot, one hit, hospitalization.
Very well done indeed!
""""
As I understand it, slavery was abolished in this country in
1865. The issue is closed. Buying those people from their
friends in Africa and bringing them over here was a great
mistake and we have suffered for it for a long time. Perhaps
we should let the matter drop.
""""
For those of you who choose to write in, I plead that you
put your complete name and address on your copy. A half page
of electronically-activated gibberish does not suffice. I am
very grateful for the kind words you sometimes wish to
supply, and I do enjoy engaging in argument, but I cannot
respond unless you tell me how.
""""
It has been suggested that the NRA's voice in the
election (EE2) was enough to bring victory to our side.
Certainly we had an influence there, and a strong one, but
it might be just as soundly stated that Ralph Nader did the
trick, just as Perot put Clinton in the White House for his
second tour. However it was, in an election this close every
possible influence was involved, so let us all thank
everybody and now make sure that we do not let our success
produce complacency. Those other people are really mad, and
they have already demonstrated that no sort of disreputable
act is beyond them. History is full of examples of disasters
which resulted from the dropping of the guard. Let it not
happen to us!
""""
Mugging is up 28 percent in England since the British have
been deprived of the right to defend themselves. So who is
surprised?
""""
'Dogs have masters, cats have staff.' -Curt Rich
""""
These two new short, fat magnum cartridges from Winchester
have a certain charm in that they can be packed into a
shorter action, if that is important to you. On the other
hand, their dimensions make it necessary for them to reduce
the cartridge capacity of the magazine. This may or may not
be significant. I knew of a PH once who ran out of
ammunition when chasing a kudu, but that was long ago, and
one more round in his magazine would not have changed that
situation. Right now the Steyr Scout carries five rounds
in the first mag and five more in the second. In the 376
version, the numbers are four and four. It would seem if
you attack the problem right from the original design, you
do not need secondary solutions.
""""
The 'Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip, Vol. 2" has now been
sent to the print shop. I do not know when it will be on
sale and I do not know how much it will cost, but I will
keep you informed.
""""
And now we have the 480 Ruger, which appears to be a very
slick item, though I have not personally fired one. I do
not see what you can do with a 480 Ruger that you cannot
do with a 44 Magnum, but then I tend to be old fashioned
about such things. The aim of the industry, of course, is
to sell stuff, which is fine, but in general what we need
is to offer better launchers rather than better cartridges.
The cartridges we have, and have had for a long time, will
do just fine. The goal of marketing is to induce in the
customer the idea that he needs something new, rather than
something better. Of course to a certain kind of mind,
'new' and 'better' are the same word, and to such people
anything old fashioned is inferior. Thinking about the
matter, however, is out of style.
""""
Hard as it is to believe, the animal crackers in England
have now designated fish & chip shops as legitimate targets
for lethal vandalism. People who eat fish should be killed,
according to this view. We suppose salmon fishermen should
now go about their sport in gunboats. Sometimes one wonders
if people should be allowed to run around loose!
""""
At the SHOT Show we noted that the ineffable Perazzi
quadruplet is still for sale. This is a set of four over/under
double shotguns in 12, 16, 20 and 410. The asking price for
the set is $316,000, and it has been around for several years
without purchase. I find this a charming business, for here
we have a manufacturer who is driven by a search for perfection,
regardless of marketability. Some rich kid will eventually buy
that set, and I will be sorry to see it go, because every time
I go to the SHOT Show I am delighted to know that there are
people who will make such things, and eventually people who
will buy them. It is a wonderful life!
""""
For those who came in late, a 'ghost-ring' is that form of
aperture sight which features a large aperture and a thin rim.
The idea is that when the aperture is placed reasonably close
to the eye and the shooter looks at the front sight, the rim
disappears, as with a ghost. This does not impair aiming
precision, but it vastly improves speed of acquisition. The
older form of aperture sight, which featured a pinhole,
presumably for increased precision, was terribly slow to
use. The rear sight we had on the 03 Springfield was wrong
in practically every respect, and while the A3 version of
the rifle was proletarianized in some respects, its sight
was much better.
The first man to extol the ghost-ring, as far as I can read,
was Karamojo Bell of Africa, though Townsend Whelen acquired
the idea about the same time. I certainly did not invent the
idea, but I believe that I did invent the term, and I find it
amazing that for 60 odd years no manufacturer sought to put
a good metallic sight on his rifle, assuming evidently that
no one would use iron sights anyway and telescopes would be
the only thing of interest. It is true today that the optical
or telescope sight is practically universal, but this is not
entirely a good thing. In the first place, telescopic sights
are not necessary for about 90 percent of sport shooting. I
took Scout One with me to Central America in 1968 and used
the ghost-ring exclusively on that occasion-with total
success. The glass sight is inappropriate for use on rifles
intended for dangerous game. One should not regard one
incident as definitive, but I once got into a rather tricky
situation on a lion, because all I had on that rifle at the time
was a telescope and I could not pick out a proper aiming
point at short range in a hurry, due to a limited field of
view. My experience on buffalo, while not extensive in the
classic sense, is enough to convince me that a good ghost-ring
is what is needed, and a telescope is out of place. Regardless
of how well made they may be, telescope sights break. Also
they are vulnerable to dust, mud and snow in a way that the
ghost-ring is not.
The ghost-ring is not quicker than the telescopic sight, when
the latter is properly used, but it is distinctly quicker
than any open sight, even the Express Sight from Africa. It
is a Good Thing, and should be more widely appreciated, but
considering the general nature of firearms design progress
over the last half century, I do not expect much in this
regard. We have awfully good firearms, cartridges and sights
today, but we do not do any better with them in the field
than our grandfathers did. It is always the shooter, not the
weapon that makes a difference.
""""
In my opinion, neither money nor greed (cupiditas) is the
root of all evil. The root of all evil is envy. The
non-coper hates the coper, and thus the non-shooter hates
the shooter. I see no other explanation for the pointless
and irrational activism of the gun grabbers on the political
scene. They know that their machinations can have no effect
upon crime. Guns have no effect upon crime, but they do make
all men equal, as the saying goes. This puts the coper on
top, and infuriates the non-coper.
""""
We note that the polypragmatoi are not backing off. Turns
out that in Massachusetts, sushi is now illegal. The
socialists hate to think that any one of their subjects
might risk himself by taking a small bite of raw fish. Well,
we do not spend much time in Massachusetts, and it is a small
state anyway with easily accessible borders.
""""
In view of all these gadgets we see for sale in ads and at
the shows, may we suggest that 'invention is the mother
of necessity?'
""""
Does recoil bother you much? This clearly is a personal
matter, and some people are affected far more than others.
When I was a lad we used to think the 03 was a jaw
breaker-but it was not. Then we started going to larger
and larger cartridges, which kicked more and more, and
this bothered some people far more than others. It has a
lot to do with how much you shoot. Those of us who shoot a
good deal hardly notice recoil, and yet a lot of people
complained about the recoil of the 350 Short Magnum when it
first appeared. For a long time the 375 Holland cartridge
was generally held to be a bruiser, but it certainly is
not today-note that we now even have an 'Ultra 375' When
the 458 Winchester came out, it scared a lot of people
until they discovered that recoil effect upon a shooter
is about 85 percent mental. If you convince yourself that
recoil is nothing to worry about, it will not be. I have
a lot of experience along this line, having taught people
rifle marksmanship for most of my adult life.
It is not a matter of how big or strong you are, it is a
matter of what you think you should think about rifle kick.
I have had great success with adolescents of both sexes in
this regard, and while I certainly do not assert that
recoil effect does not exist, I do insist that it is highly
overrated. Any boy who plays touch football seriously will
be beaten around far more in a quarter than he ever will
be by the butt of his rifle. What is more, he will enjoy it.
""""
Let us hear it for the counterattack! In Vermont the
legislature has introduced a bill proposing a $500 annual
tax on unarmed households. Way to go, Green Mountaineers!
""""
It has been fashionable all my life to think highly of the
principle of majority rule, and yet when this is analyzed,
it becomes short of ideal. What are you going to do, for
example, when a very large population is divided right
down the middle on irreconcilable principles. In our last
EE2, the margin for error was greater than the margin for
victory. Democracy is all very well in its way, but it
does not resolve today's political problems in the
major powers. It works better in small populations wherein
people are apt to know each other better and less likely
to crystallize their political preferences. Plato pointed
out, for example, that the largest political entity in
which democracy is feasible should include no more than
four thousand souls.
Certainly we have a massive political challenge today in
the U.S., and given the viciousness of the left, it is
hard to foresee a satisfactory solution. Surrender of moral
principle will not suffice, but the country is more
completely divided on moral principles than at anytime
since its founding-not excepting the Civil War. This is a
bad scene, and we pray that the new administration confronts
it better than the old.
""""
We are off now to Italy for festive doings in Rome. Thus
there may be a hiatus in the issuance of this paper. I am
grateful to San Gabriel Possenti for the medal, and I will
endeavor to publish all relevant details upon return.
""""
Meanwhile, stay cool. After all, it is February.
Please Note: These "Commentaries" are for personal use
only. Not for publication.
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