Observe your cat

Posted: December 5, 2023 | Author: Bernie Russell | Filed under: Philosophy, Shooting | Tags: cat, cat-eyed-boy, fip, lapc, lens-artists, manga, photo-challenge | 1 Comment

Observe your cat. It is difficult to surprise him. Why?
Naturally his superior hearing is part of the answer, but not all of it.
He moves well, using his senses fully.
He is not preoccupied with irrelevancies.
He’s not thinking about his job or his image or his income tax.
He is putting first things first, principally his physical security.
Do likewise.

Jeff Cooper, 2006. Principles of Personal Defense Paladin Press

10 Proven Sniper Shooting Tips for the Range

Posted: December 31, 2019 | Author: Bernie Russell | Filed under: Practice, Shooting | Leave a comment

Tips by USAF sniper Staff Sergeant George Reinas.
Taken from an article on Outdoor Life by James Hall, and Alex Robinson

How to shoot

Posted: September 29, 2019 | Author: Bernie Russell | Filed under: Practice, Shooting | Leave a comment

The following guidance was taken from an article on long-range shooting in in Field and Stream. (Field and Stream is by some distance the best shooting and hunting magazine currently published.)
The article is based around a training session with Gary Smith, a precision-rifle instructor at Gunsite Academy.

For our defence

Posted: December 14, 2016 | Author: Bernie Russell | Filed under: Shooting | Leave a comment

Whereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of diverse evill Councellors Judges and Ministers imployed by him did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome (list of grievances including) … by causing severall good Subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law, (Recital regarding the change of monarch) … thereupon the said Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now assembled in a full and free Representative of this Nation takeing into their most serious Consideration the best meanes for attaining the Ends aforesaid Doe in the first place (as their Auncestors in like Case have usually done) for the Vindicating and Asserting their ancient Rights and Liberties, Declare (list of rights including) … That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law.

English Bill of Rights, 1689

Live fire: a mere validation of your dry practice

Posted: June 2, 2015 | Author: Bernie Russell | Filed under: Shooting | Leave a comment

There is a way to develop a high level of skill without firing a single shot.
It is called dry practice.
Dry practice is the effort a student puts forth off the range at home, with an unloaded firearm.
Dry practice allows you to execute perfect repetitions of all gun handling manipulations without the distracting muzzle blast or recoil.
Live fire is an important but minor part of the training.
Look at live fire as a mere validation of your dry practice.
The daily dry practice is the training; the occasional live-firing drill is the final exam.

Gabriel Suarez, 1999. The Tactical Rifle; USA, Paladin Press

The rifle – it’s personal

Posted: May 26, 2015 | Author: Bernie Russell | Filed under: Shooting | Leave a comment

Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons. The possession of a good rifle, as well as the skill to use it well, truly makes a man the monarch of all he surveys. It realizes the ancient dream of the Jovian thunderbolt, and as such it is the embodiment of personal power. For this reason it exercises a curious influence over the minds of most men, and in its best examples it constitutes an object of affection unmatched by any other inanimate object.

Jeff Cooper, 1997. The Art of the Rifle; USA, Paladin Press

Good men with rifles

Posted: August 6, 2013 | Author: Bernie Russell | Filed under: Shooting | Leave a comment

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and, while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.