Jeff Cooper – The Godfather Of Gun Training

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 5/10/2018 | T Lynch

[w1n1]

I have never met Jeff Cooper. I have never taken a class at the Gunsite Academy and I don’t claim to know much about the man. I do know that he saved my life, and if you carry a gun for a living, at some point he is going to save yours too.

Jeff Cooper taught us how to think. I spent eight years in Afghanistan, all of it outside the wire embedded in various Afghan communities. During that time I was given the opportunity to design reconstruction projects in the contested provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar, Nimroz and the Hellmand.
We did not take the normal approach used by traditional security contractors. We did not have armored SUVs or heavily reinforced compounds. We moved in local vehicles, wearing local clothes and were responsible for our own security, a position advocated by Cooper repeatedly in his insightful lessons.

Look at photos of Marines or soldiers fighting in Vietnam and compare them with photographs from Afghanistan or Iraq today and you can see for yourself that the way grunts used to handle their weapons is completely different from how they handle them now.

Jeff Cooper single handedly did that, and without fanfare or self promotion. Read the rest of the Jeff Cooper story here.

[rlmorel]

Great article, thanks for posting.

The top enlisted man in Beirut was in charge of the Marine Detachment on the USS JFK when I was on it before he deployed to Beirut.

He was killed in the bombing. RIP.

[circlecity]

I know Cooper was a big advocate of the “scout” rifle. A light, 16” bolt action rifle chambered in 308. It is often touted as the perfect survival rifle. I’ve been looking at them but don’t have any experience with one. Anyone have one and what do you think about it?

[Jack Hammer]

“I have never met Jeff Cooper.”

Missed yr. chance. Colonel C has travelled on.

[Glennb51]

I enjoyed mine, before the boating accident. Light and agile. I liked being able to adjust the length of pull. I did not care for the two power scope. I put a trijicon 3X9 on it.

Heck of a muzzle blast for those standing next to you.

[Paal Gulli]

"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

-- Col. Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)

[Vinnie]

Used to read his columns religiously when he wrote for Guns and Ammo.
Big proponent of the .45ACP .
Had a drill called El Presidente
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2017/3/24/skills-check-el-presidente-drill/