OUR LATEST SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS 5/30/2025
Our latest scholarship recipients at the Sconce on May 30, 2025.
(L-R) Michael Alvis, Brian Hester, Lindy, Gregory Hesselman, & Sean Kurtz
An Austrian April in Arizona
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!
OUR LATEST SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS 5/2/2025
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
OUR LATEST SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT 4/18/2025
Our latest scholarship recipients, Sarah Danklefsen, & Lindy at the Sconce April 18, 2025
OUR LATEST SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS 4/4/2025
Our latest scholarship recipients at Friday’s Open House at the Sconce on April 4, 2025
L to R: Chris McAllister, Chelsi Remme, Judi Long, Lindy, Brooke Robbins, Robert Robbins.
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE MAY 1981 – SHARPSHOOTING WITH CHAIRMAN JEFF column
Jeff Cooper is the Honorary Lifetime Chairman of the International Practical Shooting Confederation, and thus combines official authority with his vast background and experience. In this column Jeff with alternate his own observations with those of other experts of his personal selection.
“Gunsite Rifle Course”
(November 1980)
The American Pistol Institute (API) at Gunsite, Ariz., is widely known (and widely misrepresented) for its courses in defensive pistolcraft. Consequently, a new dimension has been added to the curriculum at Gunsite Ranch.
Cooper’s infatuation with rifles preceded his military service in World War II. He hunted North American trophy animals between terms at Stanford, and learned the ’03 Springfield in ROTC. He still considers the Garand the finest battle rifle of all time. (Now, however, he is inclined to favor the Italian BM-59 version in 7.62mm NATO).
Having grown up with bolt actions, Cooper retains a fondness for the breed—and not merely from sentiment. He maintains that, in most circumstances, a skilled person—male or female—can do as well with a boltgun as with a semiauto. Cooper’s favorite “riflechick” is his daughter Parry, who’s won open matches with a Remington .308. She confidently asserts, “If I can see it, I can hit it.”
Therefore, API’s basic rifle course begins with the assumption that a prospective student will bring the weapon that best suits his needs, and that doesn’t always mean a semiauto with a 20-round magazine. Indeed, Cooper’s hands-down favorite general-purpose rifle is the .308 Remington 600 with an extended eye relief two-power scope.
Hefting his pet, he says, “If the bad guys were pounding on the front door, thus is what I’d grab as I ran out the back.” He’s speaking figurately, of course as an armed opponent is unlikely to get within 300 yards of the ranch house. But the point is well made, and is often reinforced during the six-day course.
Guns & Ammo Throwback (From 1975): Jeff Cooper vs. Terrorism
January 04, 2025
So here we are in the “Age of Extortion!” Our local friendly felons have finally discovered what has long been taken for granted in what we used to call “more backward countries” — that crime does pay, in millions. All you need to do is threaten to do something terrible and people will throw money at you. You don’t need any particular talent or skill to get rich this way, and you don’t need education or training. The only requisite is nastiness, and that is no rare quality.
We can speculate at length upon why this foulness has come upon us so strikingly at this point in our history, but I doubt that any incontrovertible conclusion will result. My own suggestion is simply overpopulation. Like rats, we get testier as we get crowded. By simple arithmetic, if the proportion of goblins to people in our society remains constant, doubling our population doubles the number of goblins. And they reinforce each other as their numbers rise.