Rifles and Riflemen

I've done target shooting with handguns for quite a few years, and for the last year or so I've given serious thought to getting a rifle. This brought up the topic of just why I want to learn to shoot a rifle, so I thought I'd share my ruminations with the rest of the world (or at least that small portion that actually reads my blog!).

The unenlightened have an idea of your average shooter as a knuckle-dragging red-neck who thrives on destruction and lives for the day the UN invades the US so he can plug some blue helmets. I've known quite a few avid shooters and have yet to meet one that fits that description. Quite the opposite, the majority of shooters I've known have been intelligent, polite, and all-around decent people. The overall percentage of nutcases is, in my experience, considerably smaller than that of the general population.

If there's one trait common to the truly good shooters I've known it's been confidence. Not bravado, just quiet confidence that the world won't throw anything at them that they can't handle. They get this confidence thru self mastery. The Marine Corp's Rifleman's Creed states "I must master it (my rifle) as I must master my life". To a great extent the two go together, mastery of a rifle and mastery of yourself go hand-in-hand.

Shooting is conceptually very simple, line up the sights, hold still, squeeze the trigger. It sounds easy until you try it, then you realize that your body is a bag of fluid held up by a framework that has every connection lubricated. You realize that the slightest movement will affect your aim. Making the weapon fire at the appropriate time requires you to hold as still as possible AND squeeze the trigger only when the sights are on target.

Self control isn't popular these days. People assume that a competent shot is a risk to "go postal" and commit mayhem over the slightest annoyance. We have people talking of shoot-outs over traffic accidents. The truth is the exact opposite, the competent shooter knows he has live-or-death power over anything in range and has enough self control to know that he won't unleash that power except in the gravest extreme. The expert shooter when faced with petty annoyances is in the same situation as if he didn't have a weapon, he won't resort to violence because he knows it's inappropriate and immoral. He's in the same situation as the devoted husband when he comes in contact with another woman, he knows he won't do what he shouldn't, he doesn't WANT to.

The rifleman knows that just because he's capable of doing something, that doesn't mean he will do it. It doesn't even mean he WANTS to do it. Thinking that a rifleman, or any other gun owner, looks forward to the day he has to shoot someone is the same as thinking that a person who knows CPR looks forward to the day someone has a heart attack in his presence. If it happens he's prepared, if not so much the better.

Beyond the skills and self mastery required to move from the status of "owner of a rifle" to "rifleman", there's something about rifles that's interesting and intriguing. Some people would claim that's because I grew up in a gun-free home, but I've noticed the same interest among people who grew up around rifles, have shot rifles since childhood, and currently own dozens of rifles. There's something about a rifle that not even a handgun has. The only other inanimate object I can think of that excites such emotion in an owner is a car. Pick up a well-made rifle, hold it, feel its weight and balance. Look at the way metal and wood are fit together. Notice the way metal moves against metal, observe the way springs, cams, and levers all work together. Consider the intense heat and pressure the chamber and barrel are designed to contain, not once or twice, but thousands of times over the useful life of the weapon. Consider the barrel, accurately machined to within thousandths of an inch. All designed to send a tiny projectile a great distance into a target of the shooters choosing. All so well made that if the shot misses its intended target the most likely cause is shooter error.

When you think about it rifles are truly incredible machines. A rifle built over a hundred years ago is every bit as effective for the job it was designed for as one built this year. Compare a Mauser built in the last quarter of the 19th century with a brand-new, still in the box Remington offering. Assuming the Mauser has been properly maintained and not abused it will do anything you could ask the Remington to do, and if you notice any difference in performance it'll likely be the Mauser on top.

So Christmas is fast approaching and my wife has agreed that a rifle will be The Gift for me this year. That won't make me a rifleman, it'll merely mark the first step, I'll be a rifle owner. That whole mastery of my life thing is intimidating, but it's essential. I'll let you know how it goes.