Basically, it's just a skimpy pamphlet for beginners that was blown up to book size by using huge text and giant margins on each page. To make matters worse, the subjects covered in the book are addressed in a very simpleminded manner, similar to a very short magazine article. There is very little of substance in the book.

The book has 20 chapters. Each chapter covers a separate topic such as "Trajectory" or "Breathing". There are 97 pages, so that makes about 5 pages per chapter. But there are only about half as many words on each page as a normal book. So basically, you are looking at around 2.5 pages per chapter. Needless to say, you can't put across too much information in 2.5 pages, especially when there are also photographs taking up space.

For example, the chapter called "Wind" is only 4 short paragraphs. You can read it in less than 1 minute. One paragraph is about how windy it is at the Bisley shooting range. Then the author says that heavy bullets are better than light bullets. Then you're pretty much done. (I hope the publisher doesn't mind me revealing all the fascinating information in the "Wind" chapter.)

Another chapter is "Moving Targets". Again, the chapter is four paragraphs long. It basically says you have to lead a moving target. Then the author tells about how his granddaughter made a nice shot on a pig. Then you're done. That's it.

Some of the longer chapters are a little better. The chapter titled "The Shooting Sling" has fifteen paragraphs. So it takes maybe four minutes to read. Again, the text is basically for beginners and has no real useful information. You would do a lot better to look around on the internet at the many websites devoted to rifle shooting.

There are no diagrams or illustrations at all. Just a number of black-and-white snapshots.

As a final gripe, I must say that the author uses a lot of space to gripe about stuff. The chapter on "Trajectory" has no diagram of a bullet trajectory. There is however, a two-paragraph complaint from the author that physics is no longer taught in high schools. (Why do people constantly harp about "the good old days"? I know a lot of people who went to school in "the good old days" and not one of them knows anything about physics.) This sort of commentary is not enjoyable to read and doesn't serve any useful purpose in the book.


A no-nonsense book - with some flaws   December 4, 2003
 14 out of 15 found this review helpful

Jeff Cooper is undoubtedly a giant within the field of gunwriting and this book is a clear reflection of that fact. It contains a wealth of information valuable to every wannabe rifleman, and it is therefore a must on every shooters bookshelf.

There are however some minor - but very irritating -flaws.
First of all: It seems that no other qualified gunexpert - or a professional writer for that matter - read the manuscript before the book was released, since there is a lot of undocumentet claims and some unclear passages in the text. For instance: It is stated, that in order to be "friendly", a rifle must not be longer than 39 inches in lenght. This might be true, but it would be nice to know, why the colonel feels this way. Another example: Throughout the book the colonel refers a lot to the condition a rifle is carried in, but he fails to clearly define these conditions (condition 1, 2 and 3), so the reader has to do some guesswork on what the author actually means - and thats a shame!
And the worst: In the chapter on trajectory, the colonel concludes in a sligthly arrogant manner, that elementary physics is "a course that a good many rifle shooters never seem to have encontered". This may be true, but the colonel could have paid better attention in that class as well, since he demonstrates in that very chapter, that he haven't understood the physical principles concerning ballistic coefficients, the trajectory of angled shots and the recoil of rifles versus smoothbore guns. Three factual errors are to much in one page!

Another real disapointment is the quality of the illustrations - they are really, really bad in black and white, not very clear and not very professionally made.

This books deserves a second edition, for the contents are very authorative, and as I stated in the beginning of this review - it belongs in any riflemans bookcase!