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Ed McGivern's Book of Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting Paperback – October 17, 2007
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length496 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSkyhorse
- Publication dateOctober 17, 2007
- Dimensions6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
- ISBN-10160239086X
- ISBN-13978-1602390867
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About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Skyhorse (October 17, 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 496 pages
- ISBN-10 : 160239086X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1602390867
- Item Weight : 1.35 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #554,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #135 in Firearm Collecting
- #380 in Shooting in Hunting
- #604 in Hunting
- Customer Reviews:
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers say the book has great info and old six-gun lore. They also find the combat feats of speed and marksmanship. Opinions are mixed on the writing style, with some finding it typical of the period and descriptive, while others say it's hard to read and uses very long sentences with many parenthetical clauses.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book has lots of great information, fascinating gun history, and relevant laws. They also say it's an extremely useful instructional manual.
"...Some of sections, gun control laws for example, are very relevant today and give you the sense that not much has changed in the last 70 years." Read more
"...a few chapters I realized that between the lines there is invaluable information about how to train for and how to think about this skill...." Read more
"...There is a real wealth of information here and I don't mean to disparage it, sure he was a little crusty, but his knowledge is worth a little..." Read more
"This is history without political correctness. Full of old six-gun lore and the little fat man's unbelievable achievements,are well documented...." Read more
Customers find the book's combat to be fast and accurate. They also appreciate the instructional manual.
"...It contains some great information on fast shooting, but is written in the prose of the 1930's, which in Ed's style, were overly verbose...." Read more
"Facinating feats of speed and marksmanship but also an extremely useful instructional manual. A real classic." Read more
"fast and fancy revolver shooting by Mcgivern..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the writing style. Some find it typical of the period, while others say it's hard to read, with long sentences and parenthetical clauses.
"...He uses very long sentences with many parenthetical clauses, a sort of faux Victorian style. Some of his sentences constitute a whole paragraph!..." Read more
"...It is worth it for the insights offered though.The author is a bit flowery and old fashioned in his language...." Read more
"...The writing style is typical of the period - very descriptive.Not just a book for revolver shooters...." Read more
"It's a very verbose and tedious reading. If this were rewritten in a more modern way, it would probably take less than half of words...." Read more
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McGivern spent a lifetime training, experimenting and demonstrating the possibilities with a sidearm. He was an extraordinary exhibition shooter but much of this book focuses on training law enforcement officers.
The writing style is typical of the period - very descriptive.
Not just a book for revolver shooters. McGivern covers a wide range of topics and most are not related to the type of firearm - i.e. gun control laws, law enforcement training, sight picture, trigger control, modifying firearms, carry positions, etc...
There are "pearls of wisdom" in every chapter, if not every few pages. Some of sections, gun control laws for example, are very relevant today and give you the sense that not much has changed in the last 70 years.
The bad:
He is a total windbag and not a gifted writer. His approach to writing seems to be "why use one word when five will do the job?". He uses very long sentences with many parenthetical clauses, a sort of faux Victorian style. Some of his sentences constitute a whole paragraph! It is something of an effort to chew through his prose.
He spends a lot of time crowing about how he showed the pundits of the day to be wrong in their opinions.
There is a whole chapter devoted to the psychology of competition which didnt reveal anything that is not common knowledge.
The book is exclusively about revolvers and quite a bit of space is devoted to arguing for double action revolvers in accurate speed shooting. I guess DA was fairly new in his day and there was lot of skepticism it. Today there is no controversy, SA revolvers are confined to recreational shooting.
Some of his tricks were damn scary, like shooting targets out of an assistant's hand or a coin held between a lady's fingers! Today this would be considered recklessly dangerous and probably illegal. Those were different times.
These are quibbles really.
He was an implacable enemy of dogma and tradition "the rule of dead men" as he call it. He shoots down the pundits of his day using hard facts for bullets. He had total contempt for any opinion not based on facts. And he had the facts. Every claim he makes about shooting, he supports with facts. Either he would show data that others had generated, or if that was lacking (and mostly it was) he would construct careful meticulous experiments to test ideas himself. My impression is that he had little formal education yet his methods are a textbook application of the Scientific Method - test your ideas against the data. He devotes a whole chapter to the electronic timers that were constructed specially for his experiments. These kinds of instruments are abundantly and cheaply available today but it shows the lengths he went to to gather accurate information.
His central claim is that anyone can shoot 'fancy'. He insists that he had no special talent. All it takes is methodical practice. To learn DA shooting, first master SA. To master SA dry fire thousands of times. Practice slow deliberate fire. Analyze every shot. To shoot long range, start a few feet away from the target and slowly work back! For one aerial shooting stunt he mentions that he fired 30,000 rounds in practice! More than most shooters fire in their whole lives. One talent that he could not have denied was his enormous capacity for hard work.
He dismisses dogmatic rules about stance too. Everybody is made differently, why should one stance suit all? Find the position that is comfortable for your body, one that can be assumed quickly and held with out strain, and refine it as needed.
He was very involved in developing training programs for law enforcement officers, insisting that they learn to shoot competently in all situations: while running, lying on one's back, on the right shoulder, the left shoulder etc. He describes some of these training schedules and it couldn't hurt to follow his advice. This was a pressing problem in his time, the days of Prohibition, when police officers were being killed at the rate of 2 or 3 per day!
I read somewhere that Ed McGivern was a sign painter. It sort of fits. In those days, painting signs by hand required meticulous yet deft hands. Yes he was a pompous windbag, but I came away enormously impressed with the quality of this man, his integrity, his unyielding commitment to honesty and common sense in his work and his mind boggling capacity for hard work. He was a special guy. You don't often meet people like him and it was a privilege to do so.
The instructional advice could be condensed down to 10 or so pages. It is worth it for the insights offered though.
The author is a bit flowery and old fashioned in his language. McGivern also states his opinion about the value of highly trained LE officers in our society. All in all a nice read.



