Fireworks

Just finished reading Fireworks, by Jeff Cooper.

It's a collection of stories. Like short-stories, but not fiction. His light, breezy style is always a joy to read. There is history bits, hunting stories, shooting of course, even a Tequila-making story. And it is a book worth every penny I paid.

I mentioned I was reading a new book to MBtGE and he has never read any Cooper. He mentioned he HAD read some stuff by a guy named Mel Tappan. Serendipity then stepped in... The foreward to Fireworks was written by Mr. Tappan. Now I have ANOTHER gun author to check out.

I've noticed, overtly, that every piece something I've known for a while about Cooper, and is probably what drew me to his writing. He is a guru. A teacher. Deep down, he may have been more teacher than anything else. And in EVERY piece of writing of his, even stuff that just seems like a bull-session or anecdote, has a lesson to teach the reader. You absorb these lessons organically. And if you retain a story (which isn't hard) you retain those lessons. If you don't retain anything, it is easy to go back and re-read. Practice makes perfect, after all.

I'd like to have met him. I have a feeling, in person, he may have dismissed me, politely, as beneath his notice. In one of his classes he might have used me as an example of "how not to do it." Unless I was very fortunate and a topic came up that I had some knowlege in, and something to offer, 'in trade'. From what I can tell of Jeff Cooper, he was HUNGRY for knowlege in topics he had an interest in. Not baloney, REAL information. Confirmed theories with lots of empirical supporting data. If I happened to know something in that way, Colonel Cooper's estimation of me would rise quickly.

I think you have to prove yourself to a man like Jeff Cooper. And show you are not a fool or a coward. And not try his patience with nonsense. Not that any of that is a negative trait in a man, and how he treats his fellow men, and others.

One of my favorite stories in the book is how he selected Baby, one of his favorite personal rifles. Baby is his "Heavy". The hunting rifle he decided he needed/wanted when hunting large, dangerous game in Africa. He runs, step by step, through what features he chose, where he compromised (very little was a compromise) and how he arrived at what, to him, was the ideal mating of form anf function. His attitude, decision making process, and philosophy influenced and reinforced my own. It makes me feel I am not too far off if my selection of any individual gun type sorta matches his criteria, as well as what I came up with independently. I am toying with what would be the perfect bolt action rifle, for ME, in North America, and the story of Africa's Baby, plus his stories of developing the Scout concept, help me out quite a bit. I'm not nearly as knowledgeable on ballistics and don't have near enough experience with manufacturers and actions to KNOW as much as Cooper, so I rely on him to help me along. I haven't made a decision on what to get partly because of my lack of knowledge. I was going to wait until I knew more and could do more. Futzing with a $500 Garand, for instance, teaches me a lot before I pull the trigger on a purchase of a nice $2000 Sport Utility Rifle like a M1A. I'll need to futz a LOT more, and practice a LOT more, to decide on the perfect bolt-action for me. In the meantime, I pick up nuggets of information. And Jeff Cooper has left plenty of nuggets around for me to collect.