By David E. Petzal

Amidst the horror of the recent Olympics, I noticed that a great many of the competitors were not extraordinary talents like Michael Phelps, but simply people of above-average ability whose dedication was extraordinary. There was an Irish gymnast who had sustained a catastrophic injury years before and had been told that he would never walk again, yet here he was. There was a member of the American women’s diving team who had once hit the water wrong, smashed her guts, and nearly died. Yet here she was, back on the platform.

When Vince Lombardi took over the Green Bay Packers, he told them that they were going to pursue perfection. They would not achieve it, he said, but in the process they would attain excellence. He worked them nearly to death, but they became the dominant football team of the 1960s and a good many of the men to whom he spoke went into the Hall of Fame.

Which brings us to my friend Tony M. whom, you may recall, turned in a zero (in a practice round) because he forgot to sight in his rifle. You may also recall my telling you that he was the hardest-working, most meticulous, and best-prepared rifle shooter I know. Just after the zero, this paid off.

By David E. Petzal

Once every four years it’s my duty to fight down my gag reflex and discuss the presidential election. But before I do so, I have to emphasize that what follows are my opinions and mine alone, not those of Field & Stream, or Phil Bourjaily, or anyone else.

So, let us begin. Basically, whoever wins, the country is still in deep trouble. Neither candidate has a clue about how to solve any of our major problems. Congress is so useless that it would be incapable of declaring war on the Empire of Japan the day after Pearl Harbor.

So, ignoring all our other dreadful problems, let’s turn to guns, and start with some general facts.

By David E. Petzal

Since the more intelligent among you have asked for more handloading posts, here’s one. One of the questions all beginners have is, how on earth do I select a powder, there being so many on the market? Here are a few tips on that and powders generally:

It makes sense to stick with families of powders, at least until you get to know the territory. For example, if you get RelodeR 15, 19, 22, and 25, you’ll find there are very few rifle cartridges you can’t stuff successfully. Or IMR 4320, 4350, 4831, and 7828.

Do not limit yourself to one type of primer, as they all burn differently, and they have a major impact on accuracy. For example, for large rifle cartridges I keep CCI 200, CCI 250, WLR, Federal 210, Federal 210M, and Federal 215 primers on my shelves. Federal 215 magnum primers, for example, burn longer than CCI 250s, which are also magnum primers, and in almost every case, one will work better than the other.

By Phil Bourjaily

Losing my hat convinced me to start bringing surveyor’s tape to the field. I have written before about the importance of marking the spot where gamebirds fall. Even when dogs are present I make the effort to see exactly where birds fall, but when I don’t have a dog along, it becomes very important to mark the spot where a bird hits the ground, stare right at and go straight to it immediately. Usually I will drop my cap at the site of my mark so I have a reference point to search around if I can’t find the bird right away. You start at the mark and make increasingly larger circles around it until you find the bird.

Back to my hat: it was an Avery cap in Buckbrush camo that I was rather fond of. Earlier this season I dropped a dove in some standing corn. I went straight to it and hung the hat on a cornstalk as a marker. Bad idea. While I eventually found the dove I never did find my hat again, which I guess is some kind of endorsement of the camo pattern.