{"id":77853,"date":"2024-09-05T01:15:36","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T07:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=77853"},"modified":"2024-09-05T01:15:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T07:15:36","slug":"handgun-corner-jeff-coopers-first-article-from-1946","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/05\/handgun-corner-jeff-coopers-first-article-from-1946\/","title":{"rendered":"Handgun Corner: Jeff Cooper’s First Article from 1946"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

Jeff Cooper\u2019s First Article<\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here is a scanned copy<\/a>\u00a0of Jeff Cooper\u2019s first published article, from the Marine Corps Gazette, in Sept 1946. Titled \u201cWhat Good Is A Pistol?\u201d, it discusses pistol training and caliber selection.<\/h2>\n

Highlights: Cooper comments that the semiauto pistol be redesigned to have more slant and a slight curve \u2014 essentially describing the difference between the 1911\u2019s grip and the Glock frame\u2019s design.<\/h2>\n

More pistol design concepts from Cooper\u2019s article: Ease of field stripping (finally achieved with the Glock and other striker fired designs in the 1980\u2019s and beyond), a capacity of 12 or more rounds, a crisp single action trigger, and a magazine with stronger feed lips. Cooper also advocates for the shoulder holster \u2013 an idea that fell out of favor after he started the Leatherslap matches and hip holsters proved to be the fastest way to get to a quick first shot.<\/h2>\n

Cooper defines some shooting proficiency standards:<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. \n

    From cocked and locked, holstered, draw and fire one center mass hit at 25 feet (8.3 yards) in 0.6 to 0.8 seconds. (This likely assumes a military holster, open carry, and shooting from some kind of hip or point shoulder position as was commonly taught in 1946.)<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n

    Draw, fire and hit 3 targets twice each (2-2-2) in 4 seconds. Today this drill often called the \u201cBlake drill<\/a>\u201c. In Cooper\u2019s article the target distance is 15 yards.\u00a0(This would be likely be done shooting one handed, aimed fire, if commonly used techniques of the era were employed.)<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n
  3. \n

    Draw and hit 4 targets, spread at varying distances from 5-20 yards, in 4 seconds.\u00a0(Cooper doesn\u2019t specify but my assumption is he means one shot each target, and this would be one handed as well.)<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n
  4. \n

    FBI Practical Pistol Course<\/a>, 48 shots out of 60 to pass.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These drills could be combined in this way to make a 100 round practice session, using the B21 or B21M target (commonly used in that era).<\/h2>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \n

      Draw and fire one shot, 8 yards, one handed, from hip or point shoulder position, 0.8 seconds. Six runs, total of 6 rounds. Score is number of hits in \u201cbottle\u201d part of target.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n
    2. \n

      Three targets, side targets spread apart so they are at \u201c10 and 2\u201d, 15 yards. Draw and fire two on each, one handed, 4.0 second par time. Three runs, for total of 18 rounds. Score is number of hits in bottle on each target.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n
    3. \n

      Four targets, one each at 5, 10, 15 and 20 yards. Draw and fire one on each, one handed, 4.0 second par time. Three runs, total of 18 rounds. Score is number of hits in bottle on each target.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n
    4. \n

      FBI 1945 PPC course.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      This article is a great example of Cooper\u2019s vision, as many of the ideas and recommendations in this article eventually found their way into hardware and changes in shooting qualification courses decades later.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Jeff Cooper\u2019s First Article   Here is a scanned copy\u00a0of Jeff Cooper\u2019s first published article, from the Marine Corps Gazette, in Sept 1946. Titled \u201cWhat Good Is A Pistol?\u201d, it discusses pistol training and caliber selection. Highlights: Cooper comments that the semiauto pistol be redesigned to have more slant and a slight curve \u2014 essentially…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3786,5445,1307,6199,981,475,478,479,5754,10,404,405,7357,24,1309],"tags":[658,4551,16222,8798,14,14806],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77856,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77853\/revisions\/77856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}