“And while certain varieties of missilery have taken great strides, little of importance has been done to improve the rifles with which we greeted the turn of the century.

            Well hold on now!  We have semi-automatic actions and telescope sights, haven’t we?

            Of course we have, and these improvements do deserve consideration, but the first matters only in the military mode and the second is still only partially understood.  Rapid repeat shots do little for the individual rifleman, whose primary object is to hit with his first shot…

                                                                                    -Jeff Cooper, The General Purpose Rifle

            That quote is from an article written by the late Col. Jeff Cooper in the early ‘80s.  It hits on a number of things, some of which can be fixed, some of which will not be fixed any time soon, given the nature of the military review and acquisition process.

Read the rest at Breach-Bang-Clear: www.breachbangclear.com/site/10-blog/329-infantry-science-and-the-lowly-rifle-are-we-riflemen.html

Are We Riflemen?

Peter Nealen

Peter Nealen is a former Reconnaissance Marine and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. He deployed to Iraq in 2005-2006, and again in 2007, with 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Recon Bn. After two years of schools and workups, including Scout/Sniper Basic and Team Leader's Courses, he deployed to Afghanistan with 4th Platoon, Force Reconnaissance Company, I MEF. Since he got out, he's been writing, authoring many articles and 24 books, mostly Action/Adventure and Military Thrillers, with some excursions into Paranormal Fantasy and Science Fiction.

One thought on “Are We Riflemen?

  • February 23, 2013 at 10:51 pm
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    I’ve just been thinking, for the last week or so, that once I find time to start reviewing again that I want to do one of Jeff Cooper’s books. I’ll take this reference as an omen

    Reply

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