I recently had the pleasure of reading, “Gunfighting and Other Thoughts about Doing Violence, Volume 3, The Counter-Offensive Rifle” by CR Williams.
This review is concerning the hard-copy edition, as I do not have a Kindle nor expect to have one in the future. Therefore, some of the review comments that I make may not apply to the Kindle version.
The book basics:
- Series: Gunfighting, and Other Thoughts about Doing Violence
- Paperback: 220 pages
- Publisher: In Shadow In Light; 1.0 edition (January 11, 2015)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0692367950
- ISBN-13: 978-0692367957
- Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
Front Cover – Gunfighting and Other Thoughts About Doing Violence, Volume 3, The Counter-Offensive Rifle – by CR Williams
First, this book is not about the fundamentals of shooting; it is about using the rifle/carbine as a counter-offensive tool. Toward the front of the book, CR clearly states as much. The book is geared specifically to the semi-automatic rifle/carbine – any semi-automatic rifle/carbine that you might already have or are considering having. And, it is in that sense that I move forward with the review.
I admit that I did not read the book from cover to cover. Instead, I selected sections and read them, then moved on to another section as my curiosity peaked. I read, “Running With Dots’ first because when I run I usually have dots in front of my eyes afterwards. The section; however, is not about physical exercise (well, maybe a little). I had just mounted an off-side dot-sight on the Ruger AR-556 and this was interesting topic to me at the time; I learned the importance of….well, you just have to read that for yourself. I then moved to, ‘Vehicular Considerations” since this topic had been on my mind lately. After all, we spend a lot of time in our vehicles and you may have to fight within, around, and without the vehicle and accessibility to your ‘truck gun’ is important while security and accessibility is a definite balancing act.
The book is set up for this ‘selective’ kind of reading; it is not a step-by-step guide that has to be read from chapter to chapter. I did; however, miss page numbers in the ‘Contents’ that would have made it easier to find my target (no pun intended) page.
Eventually, the book was read in its entirety. The section title, “Short Notice Rifle Support” was especially intriguing to me. I am an advocate of logistics and believe that any firearm, and the user of that firearm, requires logistical support. CR covers the basics of pockets, bags, and belts that the operator needs to consider in a counter-offensive situation. I am a firm believer of ‘possible bags’ and have since graduated to quick-access and portable ‘possible boxes’ to hold my ‘possible bag’ and other support items for specific ‘counter-offensive’ firearms. CR brings out some good points about support items.
In the section titled, “Configuration”, CR mentions several alternatives to the semi-automatic rifle; Lever, Pump, and Bolt. With the possible exception of the ‘pump’ rifle, the lever-action and bolt-action rifle is commonplace in a lot of homes. Although CR does expound on the virtues of a semi-automatic rifle/carbine, he does relinquish that some may not have a good semi-automatic rifle/carbine, and does state that, “If at all possible, seek out and acquire a semi-automatic magazine-fed, military-pattern rifle.” With that said, CR also states that should a semi-automatic rifle/carbine not be available, to “…get the best you can and you do the best with it that you can.”
For those of us who do understand the restrictions that firearms other than semi-automatics pose (and there are even restrictions with them), the reader might have been more informed if the pros and cons of each rifle/carbine type be available for comparison. For example; which is a better lever-action rifle/carbine, one that is loaded through a side loading gate (for example; Marlin, Winchester, Browning, or Rossi) or tube fed like a Henry? Note also that the book is not about shotguns so that firearm is out of the equation altogether. I had to shuck (no pun intended) thoughts about my bias toward the shotgun, but I did find numerous occasions in the tactics that CR discussed that I could transition to the shotgun. Some tactics with a rifle/carbine; however, would simply not work with a shotgun. In fact, due to the position of the body during some of the tactics, the shotgun would work against you – literally – and it would hurt. Use of the shotgun for counter-offensive work needs to be a book unto its own.
The section “Expanding Time and Range” is not about space travel. Well, actually it is, but in a difference sense. This section somewhat augments, “Short Notice Rifle Support” and “About the Pictures: What I’m Wearing and About the Pictures Themselves.” It provides a cognizant of the time for which you have to prepare and the distance that you may have to go to prepare for that time. For those of us who are prepared to fight in our shorts in the middle of the night, this might change our minds a bit about that. I once told the wifey that I was one garment short of going out of this world the way that I came in. She agreed that it was disconcerting seeing me in my underwear holding a .45 acp pistol and that the pistol wasn’t the problem. She could only hope that the bad guy would agree with her and would run away like a man possessed from a man who was, well, not so possessed (I had to think about that one; she has a way with words, my wifey).
Getting to the heart of the matter, this book is about survival; survival using a counter-offensive firearm and your own ‘natural’ weapons in conjunction with the firearm you have so chosen to survive with. It is complete with images that support the text, and the combination of the two is to make you think about various places that you may find yourself in and ways that you can use those places to your advantage. Movement, cover, concealment, field(s) of fire from distance to up-close-and-personal are well-mentioned and worked with in the book.
There is also information about fitness and conditioning (something you will need to perform some of CRs tactics and movements; I don’t bend like that any more).
In CR’s words, “Look at this, try some of it or all of it, decide for yourself if any or even all works for you. Keep that part. Consider the rest to be of academic interest or ignore it as you will.”
While I cannot cover the entire book in this brief review, the book is well-worth buying, well-worth reading, and well-worth the thinking that you will be doing after you read it. Besides, doesn’t the term ‘Hinge’ intrigue you? Just think about what you can do with that knowledge. Well, you can’t think about that unless you read the book. Buy it, read it, all good!
Source:
Obtain the hard-copy version @ http://www.amazon.com/Gunfighting-Other-Thoughts-about-Violence/dp/0692367950/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1423235237&sr=8-2&keywords=CR+Williams
Obtain the Kindle version @ http://www.amazon.com/Gunfighting-Other-Thoughts-about-Violence-ebook/dp/B00SNUZQ0I/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1423235237&sr=8-6&keywords=CR+Williams
