Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper literally wrote the book on modern handguns in combat. In fact, you're probably already acquainted with a number of concepts he introduced to the world of pistols, even though you might not know his name. Some of them are so common sense and simple that it's hard to believe anyone had to invent them.
This was the genius of Jeff Cooper.
*****
The author could've done a better job describing the Carry Conditions - it's kinda hard to engage the safety on a 1911 with the hammer down unless you've got a BFH - Big Fucking Hammer.
Other than that, it's a pretty good article.
I don't think it's possible to engage the safety on the older 1911's with the hammer down unless you break them.
ReplyDeleteMy newer one will, but you need to flip the safety off in order to cock it.
My Colt Defender has to cocked before you can engage the safety and it's only 3 years old.
DeleteI just tried to be sure.
I have owned 1911s from most non custom manufacturers ranging in price from $300 to $1400. 22LR,22Mag, 9mm, 45ACP, and 38Super. American made, German (the 22lr), Filipino, and Turkish. On all of them it was/is impossible to engage the thumb safety with the hammer down.
DeleteI do miss reading Col. Cooper. Like NVB below, Cooper's column was always the first thing I would turn to in G&A.
My new EDC is a Sig. You can engage the safety. I just checked my Rock, nope, won't go. Neither of my Springfield's allow it. I have not checked everything out there.
DeleteWhen I got the Sig, that was something the dealer pointed out. It is the one feature I hate.
He was a wordsmith of the highest order, who had a way with saying much in a couple of sentences. His comments generally would be the first thing I turned to when reading Guns and Ammo magazine.
ReplyDeleteSame here. Here is an archive--
Deletehttp://dvc.org.uk/jeff/
More here--
https://www.frfrogspad.com/cooperma.htm
I couldn't find a printed volume of the Jeff Cooper Commentaries, so I downloaded them and printed my own hardcopy. It fills a three inch ring binder.
ReplyDeleteGood read. There was a copy in the Safe House I lived in in Kabul in 2012.
ReplyDeleteI can't do a 1911 as a carry piece. I was trained to carry in Condition 3/Israeli carry. Given the choice I would rather carry my S&W model 65 .357Mag. I have a 1911 as a range gun and another that is the nightstand gun. My carry piece is either a Glock 10mm or 45GAP, both in full size and capable of a lot of damage. Glocks are ugly guns but they work.
Love my 65 so much so that it's my winter gun. It doesn't have a thing to do with concealability, it's just that I carry a 1911 in the summer but in the winter I want something that will punch through heavy winter clothing.
DeleteI have a 65-2 in stainless with the 4" barrel. I have a 5.7gr of CFEpistol load for 158gr Coated lead SWC and 158gr Hydroshok that is very accurate and running about the same speed. It's 1128 fps for the SWC and 1144 fps for the Hydroshok.
DeleteCooper has been probably the single biggest influence on who I am today, aside from my parents. When I went to re-imagine my Rifleman Savant presence a few years ago now, one of the goals I had specifically was to write up the most important bits of what I teach and lean on for reference, that I originally got from Cooper. I'm an opinionated cuss, and wanted to address a few of the bits that so many people get wrong, plus to modernize a few of the ideas that have truly gotten dated, even if the principles remain just the same.
ReplyDeleteWC's comment on the article made me go back and review the most obviously "updated" of my Cooper-centric pages, the one about Conditions of Readiness. It seemed to me that the whole point of that scale was to define what it would take to put something into action--the required ergonomic strokes rather than just to define a status limited by the mechanical design of the gun in question. The update is of course not perfect, but I think it worked out pretty well, allowing me to incorporate fire-control systems that simply didn't exist when Cooper came up with the Conditions in the first place (e.g., most striker-fired designs), and extend the metaphor beyond pistolcraft to rifles and shotguns.
https://riflemansavant.wordpress.com/students/conditions-of-readiness/
I was a little puzzled at the Ammo.com article's comment about the Thumper concept, which really had nothing to do with hunting game; Thumper was Cooper's idea of what we might today call a fighting carbine, and is laid out pretty explicitly in To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth. Also puzzling was the comment about his being "the father of a number of rifle calibers"; I'll absolutely grant him the .376 Steyr developed for the "Dragoon" variant of the Steyr Scout, but the only other new cartridges I'm aware he did any development on were the 10mm Auto and .41AE pistol cartridges. For the most part, his writing about rifle calibers wasn't that we somehow needed more, but that we already had too many and spent a lot of time re-inventing the wheel. (That concept made a big impression on me, and my present rifle battery is essentially based on it. Methinks the Ammo.com article writer knows a lot more about Cooper's pistol work than his contributions to riflery.)
Anyway, I do think it bears saying that it is truly not possible to summarize Jeff Cooper in such a small space, but I appreciate someone trying to do it anyway. :-)
I first discovered Cooper at the same time I got into handguns, back in the early '80s and turned into an instant fan. I'd have loved to have met him.
DeleteIt wasn't just his gun knowledge but also the way he projected and conducted himself, a true Gentleman.
Thanks for the link and comments on ergonomics. Very informative, and makes all kinds of sense.
DeleteFinding a copy of "To Ride,..." is not easy, and they're not cheap. Mine occupies a prize position in my library.
For anyone who likes To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth, see if you can find a copy of Another Country. Any of Cooper's written works are worth reading (and I'd always give the business to his daughter Lindy at Wisdom Publishing first), but Another Country really is something else, for the stories.
Delete(Also, for anyone who doesn't know it, The Art of the Rifle is every bit as important to riflecraft as the Modern Technique was and is for pistolcraft.)
One time I wrote Jeff Cooper to draw his attention to an article about something and he wrote me back. A personal letter from Jeff Cooper is among my prize possesions.
ReplyDeleteI can relate. One of the high points of my own life was being invited to breakfast with him and The Countess before his day's duties at the NRA annual meeting, in Denver probably 1994 or 1995. That invitation arose entirely because of several years' worth of letter correspondence (which of course I have in my personal treasury), which to this day still amazes me. I think he wrote back to as many of us as he could, and at least in my case the impact of this simple gesture was...immense.
DeleteMan, was I young and stupid at the time--needing to be disabused of all kinds of little ignorances of pure enthusiasm, which he patiently did with each letter--and when the time came to meet him in person, lemme tell ya I sweated out The Mother Of All Lists Of Questions To Ask The Guru. And the funny part about that is, at the very instant I walked up to their table that morning, all of that fell away like water, and for some reason I still do not entirely understand, some inner part of me really came through and delivered on recognizing the need to just shut up and go with it; I don't think we talked about guns at all the entire time.
He was magnificent in person, and getting to experience him with The Countess (who impressed me even more than I had been expecting; there is a reason my younger daughter's middle name is Janelle) is a treasure I will never forget.
"To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth" J. Cooper
ReplyDeleteMan, that says it all!