An Austrian April in Arizona

An Austrian April in Arizona

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Last month the Cooper family hosted 13 Austrian shooters for almost two weeks of fun in the Arizona highlands around Prescott.
The group included Andreas Rippel, the president of IWO (the Austrian equivalent to the NRA) and two of his associates from Vienna.  The group from Salzburg numbered 9, all members of the largest shooting club in the country, the Schutzenverein Neun Millimeter in Hallein (home of the Cooper Range).
We managed two guided museum tours (in German), a tour of Gunsite, two days of shooting at Jeff’s private range adjacent to Gunsite, day trips to Jerome and the Grand Canyon, shopping, eating, drinking and lots of camraderie.  It was a great time with great friends.  Shooters are the BEST!

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COLUMBIA CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS – May 24-29, 1976

COLUMBIA CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS – May 24-29, 1976

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COLUMBIA CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
COLUMBIA INTERNATIONAL COMBAT PISTOL CONFERENCE
May 24—29, 1976
Columbia, Missouri
To: All delegates to the Columbia Conference
All persons and groups interested in the promulgation of practical pistol shooting throughout the world
From: Jeff Cooper, Chairman of the Conference
Date: July, 1976
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the Columbia Conference was to bring together people who represent the viewpoint of the practical shooter in all parts of the free world, so that some sort of organization and direction could be given to the sport of practical pistol shooting. The previously established organizations which support shooting competition have not shown interest in marksmanship which can be called practical. International target shooting, such as organized by the I.S.U. and the N.R.A., has become an uninteresting exercise for the person who wishes to use his pistol in a serviceable manner. Organized target shooting, as now recognized both in civilian and police circles throughout the world, has failed to satisfy the needs of those persons who wish to use a handgun in a serious manner. On the other hand, there are enthusiastic shooters everywhere who wish to perfect their skills with the sidearm and who wish to compete against each other with weapons which make sense to them in a manner which seems realistic. Such people cannot find satisfaction in competition as it is currently organized, and therefore, wish to form their own organization.

Practical pistol competition started In Southern California in the late 50’s, and has now spread as far as Australia, Central America, Europe, and Southern Africa. We feel that it is time that we organized ourselves into a practical competition program. This was the purpose, of the Columbia International Combat Pistol Conference.

Plans for the Columbia Conference were laid in the summer of 1975. All interested groups that we knew of were contacted and invited to attend. Membership was held to 40, for reasons of manageability. By April of 1976 – subscription was filled. We realize that not everyone came who should have, and we also realize that some came who should not. However, we did gather a strong representation from all interested parties throughout the free world and we felt justified in taking steps to begin our organization, remembering that the interested parties could vary, change, increase or decrease with the coming years. We do not assure overweening authority in this matter, and are willing to take advice from competent people. However, we did make a beginning and we hope that people who are genuinely interested in a sport will take it from here. …

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Big Bear Gunslingers and Jeff Cooper Newspaper Articles

Big Bear Gunslingers and Jeff Cooper Newspaper Articles

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The following has been gratefully contributed by Karl Rehn of KR Training.

Hugh Carpenter 4th from right. Elden talks about all the young guys who had adopted Jeff as a father figure.  Hugh Carpenter was one.  In the day where the SAA and a buscadero rig was the cool thing, Hugh shot a 1911 out of a shoulder holster because Jeff did.  Jeff was the only person using a 1911 until Hugh came along.  Eldern was third.

Another find from my historical handgun research team: a collection of newspaper articles from the newspaper “The Grizzly”, published in the Big Bear Lake area. The articles are text-only, scraped from Newspapers.com archives. They provide useful information about the early days of the Leather Slap matches, which eventually led to the development of the Modern Technique and the associated dramatic changes in every aspect of handgun shooting, training and competition that occurred 1960-2000.

KR notes: back in the 1950’s “gun ownership was normal and normal people owned guns”, to paraphrase David Yamane, and it was not controversial for a newspaper to promote or write about a competition or exhibition shooting event. Note that the 1956 event drew 500 spectators.

KR notes: There are grammar and punctuation errors in the text of the scanned OCR’ed articles. I have corrected the most noticeable but not all of them.

The Grizzly, Big Bear Lake, California, 12 Jul 1956, Thu  •  Page 1

QUICK DRAW SHOOT EVENT OF INTEREST

Great interest has been shown concerning the leather slapping contest to be held as a special feature of Old Miners Days at Snow Summit on Saturday Aug 4 beginning at 4 pm.

A long distance telephone call was received at the Grizzly office Saturday from Dee Woolen of Knotts Berry Farm who wanted more information concerning the event. Mr Woolen said that he and five friends from Knotts plan to attend and would bring with them a special timing device constructed especially for such contests.

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OUR LATEST SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS 5/2/2025

OUR LATEST SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS 5/2/2025

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Our latest scholarship recipients at the Sconce on May 2, 2025.

(L-R) Tim Gradzinski, Lindy, Matt Jamison & Marcie McClure

Comments from Matt Jamison:
Thank you so much for providing me with the opportunity to attend and complete the 250 class last week. Any expectations that I had going into the class were exceeded by the professionalism of the instructors, and the quality of the training. It truly was an honor to be able to come and be a part of the legacy that your father left behind at Gunsite.
I feel that the training I received will help me to be a better Deputy, and it is my hope that other Deputies will see the improvements that I made while training and will pursue opportunities to better themselves as well. As one of the Rangemasters for the Sheriff’s Office where I work, I intend to incorporate some of the drills that we used into some of our training, and I will encourage the Deputies to pursue additional training on their own time as well.
I don’t know that I can fully articulate the benefit of this experience to me, as I am sure that there are many things that I have not yet considered. I hope that I will never have to use these skills, but I know that if I am forced into a situation where it is necessary that I have been provided with all of the skills that are required.
-Matt Jamison
EXCERPTS FROM JEFF COOPER’S WRITINGS 4/28/2025

EXCERPTS FROM JEFF COOPER’S WRITINGS 4/28/2025

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The Countess and our daughters recently spent a delightful week in Bermuda. While there they were treated to an opinion by the Chief of Police that while violent crime is rapidly increasing, there is nothing for the citizen to worry about because there are no guns on the island. Fancy that! We might point out that there were no guns in ancient Rome either, but when I was there (I was much younger then), I always went abroad at night with an armed guard. It is all a matter of what you consider to be important.

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.8, No.6  June 2000

I find it wearisome to hear people describe the attack on the USS Cole as one of “terrorism.” We are free to use whatever words we wish to describe whatever we wish, but the attack on the Cole was not a piece of terrorism, it was an act of war. Terrorism may be described as homicidal coercion – an attempt to change national or political behavior by threat of force. The men who attacked the Cole were not attempting to coerce the United States, they were attempting simply to kill Americans – for theological, rather than political, reasons. It may be true that no recognized nation has declared war upon the United States, but Islam has officially described us as The Great Satan, and thus made us military adversaries in a Jihad or Holy War. …

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