1st edition

[ken98k]

A friend gave this book to me yesterday.  

 

[Dr.Hess]

That looks like a good one.

Some time ago, a friend gave me this one:

 

Very expensive today, if you can find one.

 

[ken98k]

1 hour ago, Dr.Hess said:

That looks like a good one.

Some time ago, a friend gave me this one:

 

Very expensive today, if you can find one.

 

That's cool!

 

[Dr.Hess]

Yeah, it's an excellent read.  I got it from my friend that was Presidents 100 2 or 3 times, taught Olympic pistol shooting, etc.  The book was written when some Russian authority went around asking top competition shooters to write an article on what made them top shooters, planning on compiling the short articles and distributing them.  The author of the book said he couldn't write an article on it and wrote the book instead.  It is extremely thorough and was unobtainium until some Russian shooter presented it to an American shooter as a gesture of good will.  The NRA got a hold of it and translated it to English.  Last I saw, a used copy was over $300.  I would say that if you were shooting at that level (think Olympics,) then the book would still be well worth $300.

[Horsefly]

Both books look great. I’ll try to find the Cartridge book. I’m a reading MoFo but never read a 300.00 book. Bet it’s a good’un. My Russian is a little rusty. 

[Dr.Hess]

Found one for $75:

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31122012189

It's in English.  Some of his neurological pathways are not quite up to modern science, but the theories are still sound from a higher level.  Very good read.  Here's my number 1 takeaway:

When you get on target and get ready to pull the trigger, pull it slightly like 3 times, not tripping it.  It sort of "sets" the pathway going to your brain, then you can pull the trigger exactly when you want it.  It was his observation that top shooters did that.  He published time v. force graphs of the top shooters triggers and that's what they did. 

When the book was published (there,) the Russians were kicking our ass in top international shooting competition, and this is why.  Over here, the book was rumored to be in existence, but no one ever saw a copy of it.

[AzRednek]

I followed Barnes’ Cartridges of the World for years. He provided loading data from long obsolete cartridges. I used Barnes’ loading data for 308 Norma Mag as it was a bit more generous than I had in loading manuals. I read on the net so it has to be true. There were some lawsuits dealing with COW misprinted loading data. I personally found one in the 41 Mag data. To be fair, I found out the hard way loading data in a Speer manual for 38 Super was way to high and corrected in the next edition. Cost me a magazine and a factory grip. Unfortunately the loading data was removed from later COW editions. I’ve also read Barnes was used as an ammunition expert witness in court trials. When I toured the FBI building in Wash DC I noticed as we passed the lab area all the COW books sitting on a shelf. 
 

One of my favorite stories in Barnes’ COW books. He was taking a college coarse in metallurgy. The prof claimed it was impossible to drive a softer metal through a harder metal. Days following Barnes showed the prof a frying pan he shot pure lead bullets clean through to prove him wrong. I believe it was Barnes that challenged known to be impossible to alloy certain metals. During the early USA nuclear testing some metals were alloyed that were thought to be impossible to do. It’s been a lot of years going all the way to the 70s I read one of his earlier editions cove to cover. Barnes is one man I would have loved to met. The last edition I only partially read was authored by Barnes’ replacement after his death. I wasn’t to impressed with it.