Thanks for the answer back.Originally Posted by Wooosh
OK, offer's now open to anybody who wants some classic pieces of history.
Thanks for the answer back.
OK, offer's now open to anybody who wants some classic pieces of history.
A plug for Mark Moritz — the Claude Werner of the 1980s.
In the late 70’s the only two writing consistently and well about the use of firearms as weapons were Cooper and Ayoob. Generalizing, Cooper gave you the way it should be, and Mas gave you the way it was. Most of the good stuff since then has been derivative of these two standouts.
Yesterday, I perused the magazine rack at the local Barnes & Noble. The gun section was a sea of “tactical” publications but I didn’t see anything I thought worth buying, even at the 40 percent discount on everything in stock. It is sad to witness the death of a bookstore. On the bright side, they still had a copy of Yunger’s Storm of Steel.
The old books will likely be available well into the future, but there was a lot of useful info published in the periodicals that may be lost because, increasingly, it just becomes effectively inaccessible.
I went 'round and 'round with Mark Moritz in his time at AH. (Didn't he move on to be a lawyer?)
He had a column in which he would frequently make fun of errors and exaggerations in other periodicals.
So just for fun, I started sending in the errors and exaggerations I found in AH.
He said I didn't understand.
Code Name: JET STREAM
I had forgotten about that column. I was thinking of his stuff in CH.
As a Gunsite guy he wanted to carry his Commander, but as a lawyer living in the desert he was often reduced to a J-frame. The eternal see-saw of concealed carry. Many are similarly conflicted.
As an impressionable kid growing up in the 70's and 80's, I was heavily exposed to the writings of Col. Cooper and the rest of the Guns and Ammo masthead of that era, as well as the American Rifleman.
I read these at the local library, as my parents weren't really gun nuts back then.
Later, my horizons expanded with publications like SWAT, Guns and Weapons for Law Enforcement, Soldier of Fortune, and Fighting Firearms. I eagerly read stuff by Peter Kokalis, Ken Hackathorn, Massad Ayoob, Chuck Karwan, Gary Paul Johnston, Jim Wilson, and a whole host of others.
This pretty much spoiled any of my chances at leading a "normal life"...
George Nonte may have been the most prolific writer. I studied his writings on hand loading as a young man and occasionally corresponded with him. The American Hand Gunner magazine originated an "Outstanding Hand Gunner Award" in Nonte's name. @Mas was its first recipient.
I love reading older stuff, and some stuff that's technically not all that old...
I guess @Mas will get tickled by this older blog post...
Recently at McKay's, I picked up a copy of Law Enforcement Handgun Digest, 3rd Edition, circa 1980, and that soundtrack practically wafts up off every page.
Wow, Massad Ayoob looks young!
Jeff Cooper, on the other hand, was already old, but as far as I can remember, he always was.
As someone who has a pretty good selection of periodicals from the last forty-plus years for reference material, I gotta say that the rose-tinted glasses of memory seem to cause people to forget that Sturgeon's Law, like the poor, will always be with us.
That is a pretty old reference all by itself.
Code Name: JET STREAM
Not as old as Matthew 26:11.
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