What "Combat" books to read?

"Combat" books

All the books mentioned have 'something' in them. Be aware of this, though:

All authors have their own perspective. The late Jeff Cooper served as an infantry officer in the Korean War and never quite lost the perspective of defending against a human wave attack.

Elmer Keith was more of a hunter than a soldier, so his perspective is that of wanting deep and straight penetration. Some of his .44 Special loads would shoot end to end through a car of the era.

Bill Jordan was a life-long lawman - except when he served in WWII. He perspective was looking for trouble.

Skeeter Skelton was a lawman, an undercover lawman, a hunter and I think he served on active duty. He was probably the most well-rounded of all.

Fairbairn and Sykes ran the Shanghai constabulary in an era where shooting criminals was routine.

I don't know as much about the 'modern' writers, but they have to have some perspective if not axe to grind. Try to spot that perspective and allow for it.

What I'm saying is all these points of view have to be altered for a person defending themselves, their family or home in modern society and criminal justice atmosphere. Read a number of viewpoints and fuse them with the overview of protecting yourself both immediately and long term.

Not that you should dither if you ever have to use deadly force, but you need to plan ahead of time how to do it and not be liable for all sorts of extraneous nonsense.
 
Skeeter Skelton was a lawman, an undercover lawman, a hunter and I think he served on active duty. He was probably the most well-rounded of all.
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From what I remember from one of his articles, he served a very short enlistment, around one year, in the USMC.

What I'm saying is all these points of view have to be altered for a person defending themselves, their family or home in modern society and criminal justice atmosphere. Read a number of viewpoints and fuse them with the overview of protecting yourself both immediately and long term.
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Excellent advice. You can take a little from all.
 
One I'm reading now.

I forgot to add this in my post. I'm currently reading The Modern Day Gunslinger by Don Mann, U. S. Navy SEAL. I'm just short of half way through the book and it seems to be accurate and useful.

There's nothing really outrageous or ground breaking, but that's to be expected. He sometimes words concepts other than the way I would state them, but not to the point of disqualifying the concept.

As I said, I'm not done with the book yet; so I can't give it a full measure of confidence, but from I have read, it seems good. But like all the others, this man's viewpoint must be considered in evaluating the ideas he espouses.
 
TheActualLiz said:
Dave K.

Which translation of the Book of Five Rings did you use?

I just finished the Jon Han-Sun translation and I thought it was pretty good but wondered how it compared to other translations.


Liz C.
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I'm not DaveK but I've read a couple different versions, my favourite has been Thomas Clearys translation. William Scott Wilson wrote a biography on Miyamoto that also looks into parallels of the Book of Five Rings as well as a deeper insight into his understandings.

I've not read much into classical gunfighting, but if you're into one handed: Eric Sykes, Shooting to Live with the One-Hand Gun, co-authored with W. E. Fairbairn.
 
I forgot to add this in my post. I'm currently reading The Modern Day Gunslinger by Don Mann, U. S. Navy SEAL. I'm just short of half way through the book and it seems to be accurate and useful.
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Another thing to keep in mind is that when the author comes from a military SPECOPS background, offensive operations in a team environment are the norm. The civilian's tactical problem is normally defensive and individual. When the author is military, I pay the most attention to the counter-ambush techniques he is trying to teach.
 
Fairbairn and Sykes in their book recognized that their methods were a little controversial even then. But they had their own reasons for the way they did things, which they explained very thoroughly. They even admitted the possibility of an interested individual being able to work out solutions to their own problems entirely on their own.

They were particularly safety oriented, which was the reason for some of their standardized procedures. They also worked in an environment in which individual policemen really only had basic firearms training and were not continually on the range. But that's pretty much the way soldiers go off to war. What you don't find in the book, however, are very many of the little details essential to pistol shooting, even their way, but that's pretty much a limitation of any book.

Read all the books you can find on the subject but don't mention it to anyone who is giving you instruction.
 
Back in the early 90's I was sent to a 3 day Street Survival seminar put on by a company called Calibre Press of Northbrook Ill phone 1-800-323-0037 or 312-498-5680. They had 2 books that were only available to Law Enforcement at the time the first book was called Street Survival "Tacatics for armed encounters" by Special Agent Ronald J Adams, and LT's Thomas M McTernan and Charles Remsberg. The second book was The Tactical Edge "Surviving High Risk Patrol by Charles Remsberg. I'm not sure of either book is still in print or the company still in business but I'm sure you could find them on the used market. Both books are excellent reads. I prefered Street Survival and seems to be what you are asking for. The 2nd book deals more with the patrol aspect of Police work. I hope this helps you out.
 
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