The Art of the Rifle by Jeff Cooper

We might like to think that all Americans are born riflemen, but we must admit that this is not the case now—and possibly it never was. As our society becomes more urbanized with each passing year, riflecraft becomes increasingly rare even among outdoorsmen. Although it would be nice to think that American soldiers are all good shots, it is easy to find out that this is not the case. Of course, this depends on what is meant by "a good shot," but while this opens much room for argument, shooting skill, however defined, is not a universal attribute of the American male—or female. There is nothing that is gender specific about marksmanship, but males just seem to be more generally attracted to it than females. When I finished the first edition of The Art of the Rifle some years ago, I did not realize how useful, or even necessary, a work of this sort might be. Having lived with firearms of all sorts since childhood, I felt that everybody knew how to shoot and that some sort of technical reference on technique would simply serve to augment what most people already knew. I was wrong.