It is now 47 years since Patsy Cline’s short, sad life ended in a plane crash, and no country singer has come along to equal her. Ted Williams batted .406 in 1941, and not even the past decade’s crop of steroid-bloated imbeciles has come close to matching that record. Joe Louis hung up his gloves in 1949, having held the heavyweight title for 12 years, setting a mark that will never fall. And since 1966, when Robert Ruark’s liver disintegrated in a London hospital, no one has written half as well about Africa.

And this is why we should welcome Safari Press’ release of Robert Ruark’s Africa, which was compiled and annotated by Michael McIntosh, and originally published by Countrysport Press, in 1991. The book’s 20 chapters are collected from magazine pieces Ruark did (all sorts of magazines; not just Field & Stream), and I doubt you’ve seen any of them before. McIntosh, who is a fine writer himself, provides a little gem of an introduction to Ruark, his life and times, and comments on the chapters, which are organized into three parts: first hunts, Mau Mau years, and final years.

This book is the best writing you can find on the greatest big-game hunting in the world, and if something like that is not worth reading, my name is Peter Hathaway Capstick.
256 pps; illustrated. $35 from safaripress.com.

While at SHOT Show and SCI last month, I saw a great deal of New Stuff that we will not  be able to live without. The downside to New Stuff is that it comes at the cost of Old Stuff, and sometimes, the Old Stuff is a lot better than the New Stuff that replaces it. And that is why Peter Barrett, Field & Stream’s late Executive Editor, would take a puff on his pipe and say “Kid, if you find something real good buy two, because as true as God they’ll stop making it.”

A case in point is the Leupold M-8 3X rifle scope which was made from 1965 to 1979. It was light, simple, strong, took in 43 feet at 100 yards, and was one of the best scopes ever made for short range shooting, or for use on a dangerous game rifle. I don’t know of anything comparable made today.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Danner made a boot called the Elk Hunter, not to be confused with the present boot of that name. It was 5 inches high, lace-to-toe, no Gore-Tex or Thinsulate, and came with a heavy Vibram sole and a high “logger” heel. Elk Hunters weighed a ton, but you could walk straight up a mountain or straight down and never slip. If you were to make it today it would probably cost $400.

In the 50s and 60s L.L. Bean sold a parka that was two layers of olive-drab poplin of a quality seldom seen on this earth. It was pretty much wind- and waterproof, and would not roast you if you wore it as a top layer while snowshoeing.

And on, and on. Buy two. Hell, buy three.

This year the Boys Scouts of America celebrate their 100th anniversary. As they do, we should celebrate them for their continuing commitment to the shooting sports. Countless thousands of boys received their introduction to riflery, shotgunning and archery at Scout camp and the BSA still offers merit badges for all three.

The Boy Scouts could not ask for a better shooting sports ambassador than skeet shooter Jon Michael McGrath II (above), with whom I had lunch at SHOT. A 17-year-old high school senior from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jon Michael is a strong contender for spot on the 2012 Oylmpic team. He is also an Eagle Scout. For his Eagle project he worked with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife to introduce newcomers to shotgun shooting.

Here is the best part of the story: Jon Michael fired a shotgun for the first time in his life at Boy Scout summer camp when he was 11 years old. Blessed with excellent eye-hand coordination, he took to shotgunning immediately. When his parents came to pick him up at the end of the week, the shooting sports instructor took them aside. “We need to talk about your son,” he said.  Jon Michael went into training, won his first medal four months later, and has been winning ever since. We may well see him on a medal stand in London in 2012. And, it all started at scout camp.

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Somewhere in the day three SHOT gallery there’s a picture of me looking extremely dazed (it was day three after all), standing next to a giant gun safe, the Champion Colossus. The Colossus is 10 feet tall, 6 feet wide and holds 300 long guns in a two-tiered rack. The amazing thing about the huge safe, though, is that was originally built as a one-of-a-kind display model to attract people to the Champion booth at shows.  And, it did attract people. What Champion didn’t expect was that customers didn’t think it was a display model. They started ordering them. You can have one, too, for the $12,000, delivered.

Trijicon Company of Wixom, MI, has been noted for years for its red dot sights, and for its scopes with non-battery-required illuminated reticles. They make terrific sights and are nice people. Because the company was founded by a devout Christian, they have also, for many years, stamped references to New Testament verses on their scope tubes. This, it seems, is in violation of the U.S. Constitution, and is distressing to the American soldiers and Marines who use Trijicons, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, American senior commanders including General David Petraeus, and probably Osama Bin Laden, although he cannot be reached for comment

Under intense pressure from all of the preceding, Trijicon announced on January 21st that it will cease the practice, and will supply 100 kits to the military to remove the politically incorrect references. Well, fine, as a card-carrying American I believe in the separation of church and state, and it’s obvious that the Constitution cannot survive a series of small letters and numbers on 300,000 Trijicon sights.

However, let us not do things by half measures. The U.S. military still stamps your religion on your dogtags, and it must be intolerable to many to be shot by people who are clearly labeled Methodist or Catholic or Jewish. So no more religions on the dogtags. And while we’re at it, no more Christian or Jewish chaplins. And no more crosses at Arlington.

In these politically correct times, making these adjustments is no less than our sacred duty. Ooops, sorry about that “sacred” sneaking in there.