Guns: A Blast from the Past

I had a chance to read "No Second Place Winner" by Bill Jordan. It's one of the seminal works of marksmanship and firearms handling, written by a man who could drop a ping pong ball from the top of his head, draw from his holster, and shoot the ball before it hit the ground. Bill Jordan served in WWII and Korea, and was on the Border Patrol for decades before he retired, so this is one cat who has "been there and done that."

What's most interesting, though, is how old-fashioned most of the advice in the book is. The book was written forty years ago, and it shows in some parts. For example, Jordan advocates a plain old 4" .357 as the best choice for a duty sidearm - mostly because .45 and 9mm JHPs didn't exist back then, nor were there reliable autoloaders to field those calibers in.

The one-handed point shooting on display will also be very controversial; I personally shy away from point shooting unless the target is so close you can literally touch it with your arm. Jordan also devotes a whole chapter to using wax bullets for practice, which I think is silly since drawing and shooting a .22 revolver pretty much practices the same skill - first round hits.

Not to say the book is useless. Far from it, in fact - all the tips, techniques, and equipment choices outlined in the book still work fine today. The advice on a fighting mindset (there are no second place winners in a gunfight - the loser will never get to see his or her loved ones again, so fight accordingly) is invaluable. Here's my favorite quote from the book:

"Almost invariably a man, provided he does not have too much time to think, will automatically do what he has been trained to do."