Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation

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This is the centennial of the great Model 94 Winchester, one of the outstanding artifacts of modern times. It is unsound to make the claim that any one instrument “won the West,” but the 94 was the mainstay of the wilderness during the early years of the twentieth century, and in the days of my youth it was a rare household that did not contain one. This excellent weapon is still with us today, and rendering good service wherever it is found. It you do not own one, you should get one, and not only for the sake of sentiment. If the public scene turns nasty, as some say it may, you will be far better off with an M94 in 30-30 than you will be with an SKS, AK47, or an M16.

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.2 No.4 April 1994

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I recently had the pleasure of accompanying shooting master John Gannaway on a delightful morning’s walk at the Arizona Hunt Club, which is handily located exactly between Gunsite and Phoenix. We were harassing pheasants and chukars, with the aid of a pair of perfectly splendid …

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March 2026—-the Colonel’s March musings over the years

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Quality control in a slave society can be anything the commissars decide, and, of course, slave labor is a lot cheaper. If you have a Norinco that works well, be satisfied.

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.2 No.3  March 1994

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“Saving is a very fine thing, especially when your parents have done it for you.”

Winston Churchill

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.3 No.4  March 1995

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We recently ran across a statement attributed to an old Western sheriff which fills us with delight. He stated that he wished his deputies to respond to the threat of lethal violence with “disconcerting alacrity.” What a great phrase! For years I have taught mind set and defensive tactics to thousands of students when almost everything I sought to impart could have been included in exhortation to disconcerting alacrity.

Disconcerting alacrity. There you have it.

Ibid

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Personally, I see no need to upgrade the power of the 30-06 by increasing its speed. I have long held that if you want more power than is available in the 30-06, you do not want more velocity, you want more bullet. Three cartridges that might really use additional velocity are the 308, the 350 RM, and the 458, since each of these is hampered by a case capacity too small for optimum ballistics. (John Gannaway can indeed achieve full velocity in the 350 RM, but only by loading up to the point where the cases are not re-usable.)

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.2 No.2  Feb. 1994

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On the matter of Scouts, we are mildly annoyed to discover that the term has been picked up and run off with by all sorts of people who have never seen a true Scout and do not know what it is. Most of these people do not realize that a Scout must make weight, and it must use a general-purpose cartridge readily available worldwide and suitable for any target up to buffalo. This points towards 308, but options include 30-06, 303 British, and the 7-08 for jurisdictions where 30 calibers are prohibited. It does not include the 223. …

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“Most of our harmless and genuine joys in this life are those which find their source in primitive instincts. A man who follows his natural inclinations, with due deference to common sense and moderation, is usually on the right track. Thus the sport of hunting is one of the most honorable of the primeval instincts of man.”

Archibald Rutledge

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.1 No.3  July 1993

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We talked recently with Karin van Graan at Engonyameni in the Eastern Transvaal. She told us she couldn’t put Danie on the phone at the time because he was out with a party of pistol hunters. They had tagged a blue wildebeest (which is a very hard animal) four days previously with a 44 Magnum and they were still on his trail. Pistol hunting is certainly a worthy pastime, but obviously not for everyone. The fact that you can row across the Atlantic (with a certain amount of luck) doesn’t make rowing across the Atlantic a good idea.

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.1, No.3  July 1993

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In a recent paper, we listed a number of reasons for which men fight. One reader took exception to us in that we did not list liberty as a primary motive. As in all philosophic discussion, much depends upon semantics, so I suppose the first thing to do here is to define “liberty” so that we can examine our position. In my view, liberty is that condition which exists when men make their own laws, either directly or indirectly, and are protected from bureaucracy or despotism by unbreakable rules.

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Firepower

In studying into the background material for the forthcoming Babamkulu Enterprise in Africa next year, I have gone rather deeply into the two startling British reverses in 1881 at Laing’s Nek and Majuba Hill. (We plan to visit the sites next May.) These two incidents took place on adjoining terrain within three days of each other and point to lessons which should have been learned a century ago, but still have not got across to many people who should know about them.

Consider the “butcher’s bill.” At Laing’s Nek the British attacked a Boer defensive position at a crest of a saddle (nek is what we would call a saddle in the American West) with about 450 men, following a small but violent artillery preparation. They were repulsed with a loss of 150 dead – against 14 for the Boers. On the occasion immediately following, the British seized Majuba Hill by means of a night march involving something over 500 soldiers. In the morning, they were thrown off the hill by a Boer force of about the same size. In this action the British lost 280 dead, including their commanding general. The Boers lost one man, plus another who died some days later of his wounds.

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`Tis the season to be jolly, so let us make every effort – despite the disgusting situations we have got ourselves into. People get the government they deserve, and we Americans voted in the current administration back in November of last year. We hope we are satisfied.

However, it does no good to complain. The place to do our complaining is at the polls. At home now and among friends, we should all strive to develop the maximum amount of good cheer in the places where it will do the most good.

“Hark the Herald Angels Sing!”

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.1 No.10  December 1993

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Our recent comments about various battlegrounds in Southern Africa have been widely misunderstood, which is, of course, my fault in that I did not make the matter clear. Marksmanship had little or nothing to do with the outcome of the actions at Isandhlwana or Rorke’s Drift, and the astounding victory of the Boers at Blood River was not a matter of marksmanship, but rather one of gun handling and fire discipline. The places where marksmanship was indeed the issue were the parallel battles of Laing’s Nek and Majuba Hill. In those actions the farmers hit what they shot at, …

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Excerpts from the Writings of Jeff Cooper:

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In our adolescence we discovered the telescope sight as used on hunting rifles. It was not the norm then as it is now, and we were often jeered at when we showed up for deer or elk hunting. After some experience we concluded that the optical sight, as it is now termed, has various important advantages over iron. Today glass sights are pretty standard worldwide, though they are not the best solution to all of our problems – specifically including dangerous game. I do think, even today, that the novice should be introduced to rifle shooting by way of the aperture sight, in “ghost-ring” form. In recent years I have seen many situations in which the ghost-ring was preferable to any glass sight, but the market commands. It is unsound to draw conclusions from the limited experience available to one man, but in my own case I have killed as often with iron sights as with the telescope. (And I have logged one rather extravagant experience in which the telescopic sight was a distinct disadvantage.)

Today Jim West’s example of a “Co-pilot” illustrates the virtue of the ghost-ring carbine over other systems.

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.12 No.10  September 2004

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Proper rifle handling is covered in “The Art of the Rifle,” but not everybody has a copy of that and I see violations of good technique all the time. For example, how is a rifle to be carried in a situation anticipating violence? I have taught this material consistently over the years, but I see that some like it better than others. Rifle readiness is not complicated, but it should be understood. When standing erect, anticipating immediate contact, the rifle should be carried at “ready” – magazine full, cartridge in the chamber, index finger straight along side of the trigger-guard, and safety on. If the configuration of the weapon affords it, the thumb should be placed on the safety ready to acuate it, but with the index finger still outside the trigger-guard. In this condition the shooter …

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