Thanks for the replies.
The reason I'm asking is that I want to write and publish one myself, covering the basics of general-purpose rifle and pistol shooting. I've seen too many folks at the range who had no clue what they were doing, and who would be greatly helped by exposure to correct fundamentals via a reference work they can pull off their shelf whenever they felt the need. I have seen a couple here and there on the rack, but not had a chance to do more than leaf through them yet.
I have read Col. Cooper's "The Art of the Rifle" and Tubb's "Highpower Rifle". Great books, but I find the former a bit too high level (lacking in certain specifics) for a rank beginner and the latter a bit too specialized for a rank beginner and possibly even for someone at 'intermediate' level.
Much of what else I have read so far also seems lacking in specific fundamentals to me, or not covering a broad enough base of information, or is overly specialized in application. My intended market is the rifle/pistol owner who has no formal training by schooling or competition, has not yet done much serious book reading (I completely discount gun magazines as being not only worthless but misleading for the most part), and has no shooting buddies capable of providing high quality training.
My intent is to provide a well-rounded foundation for the general-purpose rifle hunter and the self-defense pistol shooter, covering all the necessary facets of fundamental marksmanship, practical usage, and associated information for both firearm types, with a bit more basic and limited approach for the pistol and a bit more involved for the rifle.
For rifle, I would be covering physical indexing (grip, stock in the pocket, cheek weld), detailed sight usage for various types, concept of MOA, trigger management, thought process and mindset for the rifle hunter, comparative rifle cartridge power and range, realistic hunting rifle accuracy requirements, exterior (trajectory and zeroing) and terminal (different bullet types) ballistics, principles of rifle position shooting, the loop sling, each shooting position & rests, reading the wind, the Cooper Modern Technique of the handgun (marksmanship, gunhandling, and mindset), practice regimes & competition for rifle & pistol, and a few other odds and ends. In short, everything I can think of for the beginner and/or untrained/uneducated shooter to get them off on the right foot.
I got started writing some tutorials for friends to whom I was teaching highpower rifle bullseye and fundamental pistol shooting. The writings just kept on growing all by themselves whenever I wasn't looking, so I decided to go ahead and take the next logical step.
I consider myself qualified to at least make the attempt due to: going almost all the way through the NRA smallbore rifle qualification schedule (didn't earn the very last patch); three years on the high school smallbore rifle team culminating in earning individual state champion; about seven years experience NRA highpower rifle bullseye, making expert class (service rifle, M1); about seven years IPSC handgun competition making "B" class, (L10, single-stack 1911); graduating both General Rifle and General Pistol under Jeff Cooper with an expert rating in each; having spent a lot of time analyzing and dissecting what works and why; training people to shoot rifle/pistol and getting uniformly good results; and being able to explain things and write reasonably well (or if not well, a lot, as you can see).
I am not a high-end competitor, but as a mid-level competitor I know where I stand in relation to the top guys, what I don't know, and what I do know, and I realize that even as a mid-level competitor I can impart a great deal of useful information to non-competitive experienced shooters as well as beginners, as much of what competitors know and do doesn't make it very far outside their circle. The average gun owner who does not get high-end professional training, or does not compete, or does not rub shoulders with buddies who do, is missing out on a lot of good stuff.
Don't know if my bona fides will be convincing to a publisher, or if the market will bear another book, or who will care enough to buy it, but based on what I've seen at the range, plenty of folks sure would benefit! And that is what I want to help them accomplish. What I have written so far is being proofed by a shooting buddy who has made High Master in highpower rifle and B in IPSC, and I have a couple other high-end friends in mind for their opinion, one being a fellow Cooper graduate and the other an IPSC pistol Master, so I hope to not go too far wrong.
In your opinion, would pursuing a book be worth it, or does nobody interested in shooting really read much out there? Seems to me I can fill a useful niche.
