Colonel Cooper

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Glenn R. McMannly

Glenn R. McMannly

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Colonel Jeff Cooper is one of the finest men to have ever lived.

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I have been reading him for years and years, and love what he taught. The “Four Rules of Gun Safety”, the “Color Code” of personal defensive readiness, the popularization of the Weaver stance, are but a few of his countless contributions that revolutionized combat shooting during the 20th century.

Some of you may know about the scout rifle concept he created and popularized, with the firm of Steyr Mannlicher out of Austria producing an example designed and endorsed by the Colonel himself:

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I am the proud owner of one of these fine little rifles. This is the Jeff Cooper edition variant and is about the handiest packing rifle yet made, capable of man or beast. An absolutely fabulous rifle that does a great many things well. You can see Cooper’s initials on the stock escutcheon.

Colonel Cooper was also a very big proponent of the iconic U.S. pistol, caliber .45 automatic, model of 1911, as so many of us are. It is the finest fighting pistol in history.

The example shown is a Colt’s 70 Series Government Model and is of a type and style common during Cooper’s time as founder and head instructor at Gunsite Academy, the finest self defense and marksmanship school on Earth.

The holster and magazine pouch pictured are both the exact same model Cooper could be seen carrying at Gunsite and at his home. The holster is a Davis Leather Yaqui slide, the pouch is also made by Davis and is their fantastic AMP-45 pouch.

I consider this a nice homage to Colonel Jeff Cooper, one of the finest firearms writers and instructors to ever walk this planet, and a God-fearing red blooded American Warrior.

Happy 4th everyone. May GOD bless the USA and all of our Soldier, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines.

-Glenn
 
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While Cooper is undeniably influential and important to the use of firearms in the cause of personal defense he was also a flawed man. Like all of us he had feet of clay.

We owe him a great deal…but let’s not make something he wasn’t.
 
SnidelyWhiplash said:
While Cooper is undeniably influential and important to the use of firearms in the cause of personal defense he was also a flawed man. Like all of us he had feet of clay.

We owe him a great deal…but let’s not make something he wasn’t.
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Yes, and a regular thread with the same respondents whose comments are the same from one Cooper thread to the next Cooper thread. Certainly not the only repetitious thread with nothing new.
 
Glenn R. McMannly said:
The “Four Rules of Gun Safety”,
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Cooper never taught "the four rules of gun safety". Not as people use them now.

The first rule of the "four rules of gun safety" is TREAT EVERY GUN AS IF IT WERE LOADED.

That may or may not be a good rule, but that is not what Cooper taught. Cooper had rules for his range. Gunsite. It was a hot range. You get up in the morning and you strap on your loaded gun. You go to the range and stand there waiting your turn, wearing your loaded gun. You go shoot. Your gun is now unloaded. Reload it. At the end of the day you go back to your room and you take off your loaded gun, you unload it and clean it, and then you load it again. Cooper's rule number one -GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED. Notice, there is no mention of "treating as if". It is a simple statement of fact. Guns are always loaded.

0 0 Cooper's Rules, Gunsite.webp

I wonder how many people obey that first of "Cooper's four rules of gun safety"?
 
I ran military ranges for 14 years, we processed right at 15,000 military students (all of who served a combat tour) and several hundred L.E. students. We ran a hot range, we had no one injured while the two military bases in KY ran cold ranges and had three soldiers that I knew of killed in training.

We used Cooper's Four rules (the Army finally adopted 5 but they were not verbatim - IIRC they made the acronym THINK).

I did add some wording but the Col.'s really suffice. I added words to rule 1 so nit pickers would understand: " (Assume) All guns are always loaded (until you prove differently)".

"treat all guns as if they are loaded" is far too weak for a rule (alas that is what most people do focusing on "if")

I left rule 2 as is because "never point a gun at something you don't want to destroy" is inadequate - you must always be aware of what your muzzle is covering even when not proactively pointing it at something.

We did add to rule 3 ("and on something solid" as in not just beside the trigger guard)

For rule 4 I added ("and what is beyond").

(lt.) Col. Cooper did not invent any of the rules, he organized them into a cogent system which was not too complex to understand. "Rule Three" appears almost verbatim in the 1912 Military Manual though it did not have a number.

Just ramblin'

Riposte
 
Did Cooper have any “on the ground” combat experience? I am aware he was assigned as part of the security detail on a battleship in WWII but did he ever land? During Korea he was involved in irregular warfare but I don’t know what that entailed.
 
I never met Jeff Cooper, and the only time I shot an IPSC course was in Zimbabwe, many years ago on the famous Cleveland Pistol Club range out on Arcturus Road. I hold no opinions of the man one way or the other.

But during my time in Zimbabwe, I met a number of men he influenced, and who in turn influenced me. These included Dave Westerhout, Nigel Wentworth-Brown, Charlie Haley, Ira LaRivers, and Tony Weeks.

Dave Westerhout needs no introduction -- soldier, Olympian, world champion with a Browning. I can only add that he is a very great gentleman. Although less well known, Nigel, Charlie and Ira also were former combatants, competitors and fellow firearms enthusiasts, as well as my guides to all things Rhodesia. Each of them left a positive and lasting impression on me.

I was especially fond of Tony Weeks, a retired Air Rhodesia pilot and then the somewhat dour chief instructor at the range. He taught me humility. During the required safety course for club membership, Tony handed me his Browning and invited me to engage a 3m silhouette. I produced a rather tight centered grouping and so I expected a modicum of praise. Instead, Tony asked point blank about my training program: 'Do you dry fire?'

'No,' I said, somewhat smugly. 'I do not.'

'If you dry fired, you would be a better shot.' Harrumph.

When Colonel Cooper visited Rhodesia, he would stay with Tony and his wife at their house out by the Salisbury/Harare Airport, a shrine I chanced to visit. It was a rather modest property, with a couple of story-high boulders in the front garden. I noted he had no security wall, and wondered how he managed with all the crime. Tony said the local criminal element knew he didn't need one. That's the way Tony was: direct, matter-of-fact, the assurance that comes with having been there and done that in hard times. He then led me into the house and took me directly down the hall to show me the guest room. Pointing to the wooden plaque on the door he gushed quite uncharacteristically, like a school boy: 'Jeff Cooper Slept Here.'

Cooper's connections with Rhodesian shooters is well known. What often is left out is the context of those times, the Bush War and the acts of terrorism that permeated the country. Practical pistol was not just a sport. It was survival. Cooper was like minded. He inspired preparedness through better training, honed in friendly competition. And for this he was remembered kindly by those who lived in a small violent patch of the world.

I don't know what kind of a man Jeff Cooper was. I can say that I am happy to have rubbed elbows with some of the people who rubbed his. Cheers
 
When asked about women serving in combat he replied, " It isn't that some may not be capable. It is beneath their dignity".
He was a renaissance man, old school in every way.
I loved what he said when asked about Seecamp's double action conversion of a 1911. "It is a brilliant solution to a nonexistent problem!" I still use that line after having read it back in the 70's!
 
Cooper had the attitude that he was always right on every subject. It gave a lot of us a good laugh.

Cooper was obsessed with bad mouthing the 9mm yet failed to comprehend the fact or admit the fact that the 9mm predated the .45 acp and became the dominate military and police caliber and preferred civilian caliber despite Coopers demented rantings against it. He failed to realize that there was a reason for the 9mm's success and the .45 acp caliber's failure to achieve success in either the military or police or civilian market yet he never acknowledged that he was wrong. Cooper never spoke of the times the .45 acp failed in a gun fight but only harped on the 9mm when it failed.

Cooper like to throw around $10 words even though many times they did not fit in very well with his attempt to use them in conversation. He made me laugh many times with his antics.

Cooper's scout rifle was a massive marketing failure. Mounting a scope that far forward limited its field of view, something that would get you killed in combat or when trying to stop an enraged beast, especially if more than one of them was coming at you. Gun writers who were born way before Cooper was born mounted low power scopes in the traditional way that had a much wider field of view and later in time the variable 1-4 shotgun scopes like Leopold would make had a field of view so wide you could shoot an enraged animal off the end of your gun barrel outclassing the scout rifle concept like comparing a hypersonic missile to a Katusha rocket. Coopers scout rifle was not ahead of its time it was so bad that it was "obsolete before" its time.

Cooper's declared that the then new 10mm pistol caliber was the new ultimate fighting pistol caliber that would take the place of the 45 acp but history proved otherwise.

Cooper's brain child the Bren 10 pistol was another massive marketing failure, again for a variety of reasons.

Cooper was loved by the crowd that believed in the 45acp myth and who had been beating the big bore drums for years and laughed at by the crowd who realized how badly the .45 acp fared against the 9mm in the marketplace.

The only thing Cooper ever said I agreed with was that taking a pistol to a gun fight when your opponent had a rifle was tantamount to committing suicide. I would have loved to have been there when he said it and saw the look on his face when I would have countered with "Well then that certainly proves your 1911 .45acp is not the miracle weapon you claim it is".
 
DixieRanger said:
Bought book "Jeff Cooper-The Soul and the Sprit: My Father's Story" written by his daughter while at SHOT show years back. He signed it. Looked frail then. He was just a man...had some opinions on firearms, just like us.
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I was at that show also, although I didn't buy the book...My little roll-around cart was already full of manufacturer's catalogs and brochures...He did not look well at all, and didn't want to talk, although he shook my hand...His daughter was a nice lady, but had a look of deep concern on her face...

I've heard this quote attributed to him: "One hit with a .45 is worth a thousand misses with a 9"...:)...Ben
 
guntha45 said:
When asked about women serving in combat he replied, " It isn't that some may not be capable. It is beneath their dignity".
He was a renaissance man, old school in every way.
I loved what he said when asked about Seecamp's double action conversion of a 1911. "It is a brilliant solution to a nonexistent problem!" I still use that line after having read it back in the 70's!
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quote----------------I loved what he said when asked about Seecamp's double action conversion of a 1911. "It is a brilliant solution to a nonexistent problem!---------quote

Except as usual Cooper was wrong, very wrong.

Cooper did not take into consideration the human psychological factor that sees danger when carrying a cocked and locked 1911 so in reality everyone knows that the majority of people who carry a 1911 carry it with the hammer down which is an inferior way to carry it and the double action mode in the Seecamp conversion is at least another option for people who will not carry the 1911 with the hammer cocked.

In fact Cooper's actual words were berating all double action pistols not particularly just the Seecamp Conversion when he said "The double action pistol is a solution to a problem that never existed". Again Cooper ignored how wildly popular the double action pistol became when Walther first brought out its PP pistol and later their P38.

It was yet another example how Cooper often failed to see the forest for the trees. He almost always failed to realize that "there was a reason" why technology moved forward even if he did like the new technology.

Whenever Cooper could find a shootout when the 9mm did not perform as he thought it should he would say "Ah ha! See I told you so! But he never spoke of gunfights where the 45 acp failed nor did he ever speak of when 9mm firepower saved the day or when the Mauser Broom Handle in .30 cal Mauser actually wiped out Chiang Kai-shek machine gun nests at the "Bridge Incident" by Mao Zedong's troops during WWII. I am sure Cooper would have totally lost it if that example of a .30 cal pistol would have thrown in his face. He would have turned bright purple and never ever mentioned that one in his rants against pistols less in caliber than .45 acp.

I would also say the psychological factor is also interesting when speaking of how people actually believe that the striker fired gun "without" a manual safety is safe to carry with a round in the chamber simply because since they "cannot see" or even "understand" that their pistol is actually cocked internally they do not believe carrying it with a round in the chamber is dangerous as hell because they wrongly believe that the trigger safety will prevent it from accidentally firing if the trigger is snagged which happens all the time to people who carry such weapons or even sleep with them under their pillow like the Lady Cop did. She got woke up suddenly in the most unpleasant way one night.
 
bph9 said:
quote----------------I loved what he said when asked about Seecamp's double action conversion of a 1911. "It is a brilliant solution to a nonexistent problem!---------quote

Except as usual Cooper was wrong, very wrong.

Cooper did not take into consideration the human psychological factor that sees danger when carrying a cocked and locked 1911 so in reality everyone knows that the majority of people who carry a 1911 carry it with the hammer down which is an inferior way to carry it and the double action mode in the Seecamp conversion is at least another option for people who will not carry the 1911 with the hammer cocked.

In fact Cooper's actual words were berating all double action pistols not particularly just the Seecamp Conversion when he said "The double action pistol is a solution to a problem that never existed". Again Cooper ignored how wildly popular the double action pistol became when Walther first brought out its PP pistol and later their P38.

It was yet another example how Cooper often failed to see the forest for the trees. He almost always failed to realize that "there was a reason" why technology moved forward even if he did like the new technology.

Whenever Cooper could find a shootout when the 9mm did not perform as he thought it should he would say "Ah ha! See I told you so! But he never spoke of gunfights where the 45 acp failed nor did he ever speak of when 9mm firepower saved the day or when the Mauser Broom Handle in .30 cal Mauser actually wiped out Chiang Kai-shek machine gun nests at the "Bridge Incident" by Mao Zedong's troops during WWII. I am sure Cooper would have totally lost it if that example of a .30 cal pistol would have thrown in his face. He would have turned bright purple and never ever mentioned that one in his rants against pistols less in caliber than .45 acp.

I would also say the psychological factor is also interesting when speaking of how people actually believe that the striker fired gun "without" a manual safety is safe to carry with a round in the chamber simply because since they "cannot see" or even "understand" that their pistol is actually cocked internally they do not believe carrying it with a round in the chamber is dangerous as hell because they wrongly believe that the trigger safety will prevent it from accidentally firing if the trigger is snagged which happens all the time to people who carry such weapons or even sleep with them under their pillow like the Lady Cop did. She got woke up suddenly in the most unpleasant way one night.
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That is your opinion, and we all know what opinions are like.... I have found yours to be more so than others.
 
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Alpo said:
Cooper never taught "the four rules of gun safety". Not as people use them now.

The first rule of the "four rules of gun safety" is TREAT EVERY GUN AS IF IT WERE LOADED.

That may or may not be a good rule, but that is not what Cooper taught. Cooper had rules for his range. Gunsite. It was a hot range. You get up in the morning and you strap on your loaded gun. You go to the range and stand there waiting your turn, wearing your loaded gun. You go shoot. Your gun is now unloaded. Reload it. At the end of the day you go back to your room and you take off your loaded gun, you unload it and clean it, and then you load it again. Cooper's rule number one -GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED. Notice, there is no mention of "treating as if". It is a simple statement of fact. Guns are always loaded.

View attachment 891409

I wonder how many people obey that first of "Cooper's four rules of gun safety"?
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He got that one right. The agency I’m retired from (& I was a Firearms Instructor in) went to a hot range in the early ‘80’s and I totally agreed with that decision.

When you’re a LEO, you’re paid to protect & serve and doing so is backed up with force, sometimes lethal. LE is not a game and there is no excuse for ever being unarmed. It’s an attitude that must be lived daily. (I spent a lot of my own money on practice ammo over the years but I never doubted I could hit what I was looking at, and I never questioned whether my pistol was loaded.)
 
I took all three basic classes (pistol, rifle & shotgun) when Colonel Cooper still owned, operated and taught there. I also own several of his books. He was that rare individual who could speak well, write well and teach effectively. There are not a whole of of them out there. Yeah, he was more than a tad doctrinaire but then again he had some level of reason to be so.
 
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