of rifles
The rifle is a noble weapon. It brings pleasure that no scatter-gun ever can. A shotgun takes us into cultivated fields, or those narrow wastes within sight & sound of civilisation. But the rifle entices its bearer into primeval forests, into mountains & deserts untenanted by man. To those in whom the primitive virtues of courage, energy & love of nature have not been sapped, there is scarce a joy comparable to roaming at will through wild regions, viewing the glories of unspoiled earth, & feeling the inexpressible thrill of the hunter, sore tested by privation & hazard, but armed & undismayed.
Horace Kephart – Gunsite
Comments
Jeff Cooper, in The Art of the Rifle, writes: "There is an enchantment cast upon almost any man when he holds a rifle in his hands."
Cooper also points out that when a man holds a rifle, he becomes almost godlike: suddenly, he has the ability to deal death and injury to another over a considerable distance -- to send, as it were, a thunderbolt of Zeus.
Nothing -- NOTHING -- beats the feeling of holding a rifle.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | March 18, 2009 2:05 PM