By David E. Petzal

David E. Petzal teaches you how to use a rifle sling or carrying strap to increase your accuracy from the off-hand and kneeling positions.

By David E. Petzal

By David E. Petzal

Charles Portis’ novel, True Grit, appeared in 1968, and before a year had passed there was a movie of it starring John Wayne. The film, in which John Wayne played himself and got an Oscar for it, was a sort of comedy with gunfire, and had little to do with the novel, which was grim, sad, and filled with gallows humor.

The first True Grit had pretty scenery, Glen Campbell singing a dopey theme song, and sanitized violence. In TG II, there is no pretty scenery. Everyone is ragged, crazy, and homicidal. An unrecognizable Jeff Bridges plays U.S. Marshall Reuben Cogburn, and is so good that he makes you forget John Wayne. The rest of the major-league cast is equally terrific, and the 14-year-old actress Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Matty Ross, is a marvel. She is vengeful, humorless, and self-righteous. The Coen brothers have kept much of the book’s dialog, and more important, its downbeat ending. The gunplay is impeccable, and there is plenty of it.

But credit where credit is due: At the end, Bridges’ reading of Rooster Cogburn’s immortal line: “Then fill your hand, you son of a bitch,” does not come up to Wayne’s. That belongs to the Duke forever.

Even if you’re not a moviegoer, see this one.

By David E. Petzal

By David E. Petzal

On December 20 and 21, when normal people were watching their kids wet themselves in mall Santas’ laps, I was out in 20-degree weather (with winds gusting to 30 mph) testing a new range-compensating system from Leupold.

It’s called the CDS, and is just the ticket if you wish to join the ravening hordes who want to shoot at long range. CDS works with the Leupold VX-3 series scopes, and gives you these advantages:

- You get to use a normal-sized scope.
- Look ma, no batteries!
- It adjusts in 10-yard increments, unlike most systems, which adjust in 50-yard increments.
-The range compensation works at any power setting, not just one.
- It’s extremely simple.
- It works.

But here’s the catch: Leupold has a special offer in connection with the CDS that saves you $100, but it’s good only until December 31. So put down the eggnog, which you don’t like anyway, and click on VX-3 CDS Promotion.

By David E. Petzal

By David E. Petzal

If you are interested in the Indian Wars, and you are like me, your awareness of the Comanche tribe probably goes as far as what you learned from The Searchers. To cure this, S.C. Gwynne has written the only book that can stand beside Son of the Morning Star in originality, depth of research, and spellbinding writing. It’s entitled "Empire of the Summer Moon; Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History."

In case you didn’t know, the Comanches controlled an area the size of New England. A Comanche raiding party could travel 500 miles one way to have some fun, navigating, at night, country so featureless that white men were afraid to travel in it in the daylight. This meant that a settler in San Antonio was in mortal danger from a Comanche brave contemplating mayhem in what is now Oklahoma City. The Comanches were without equal as light cavalry; they were so ferocious that they had a good run at exterminating the Apaches. If short on water, they would drink the liquid from a dead horse’s stomach. They met their match in a West Point graduate who, like Custer, ended the Civil War as a boy general but who was, unlike Custer, ruthlessly competent. The Texas Rangers, who were the first to take them on successfully, were killed at such a rate that few lived through more than two years of campaigning.